The following is a special SpoilerTV report from Dragon Con, with a special thank you to the Media Relations staff of Dragon Con and a shout out to my fellow reporters who participated in this session.
I think the argument could easily be made that no cast had more fun at this year’s Dragon Con than the cast of SyFy Channel’s Wynonna Earp. It was obvious they were clearly enjoying and getting into the spirit of Dragon Con, from answering questions in packed panels, spending countless hours signing autographs, posing for selfies and talking to fans at the Walk of Fame, having fun in photo ops, and Katherine Barrell’s mother even got into the cosplay spirit cosplaying her daughter’s Earp character. (Barrell dubbed her #HaughtMama and keen-eyed fans sought her out for pictures!)
Q – So how much trouble have you gotten into at Dragon Con?
ME – At Dragon Con? That’s the first question?
TR – You should start with me because our answers will probably be different. I haven’t yet. So, I’ve been pretty tame from what I’ve heard (at which one of the reporters points to the sign on his chest and he laughs) I mean yeah, this is just to distract you.
Q – You can’t help but look there.
TR – I’m pretty much the nun and Michael’s the anti-nun.
ME – I used to be a nun.
TR – I used to be like you and now I’m a nun.
ME – We’re enjoying Dragon Con very much. This is my first convention, ever. I’d never been to a convention. This is my first, so…
TR – But we were at San Diego Comic Con last year, together.
ME – I wasn’t invited, I just crashed it. This is my first time to be invited to a proper convention without crashing it and not being wanted.
TR – You’re wanted all the time. You are by me.
Q- So, what do you think of it?
ME – Love it! My god, it’s so fun! I just like walking around and talking to everyone and looked at the costumes and the energy. I think me and Tim said yesterday in our panel, that our show has the most loyal fans that I’ve ever experienced in my career and I just can’t believe the excitement and the dedication that these fans have for us and it’s really meant a lot to me to put a face to it all.
TR – A lot and it’s pretty awesome! The actual first cosplay I saw was a Bobo (Eklund’s character) and that was an amazing thing to see when you finally start seeing the cosplay because it’s such a surreal thing. This whole thing has just been super surreal because to get to play Doc Holiday on anything was something that I never thought I would get the opportunity to do so that’s like dream check mark! Then all of a sudden, through playing the character Doc Holiday I got to write a comic book or then I got to be in the comic book, just my face in a comic book, it was like a dream check mark! Then I got to write the comic book, dream check mark, and then I was invited to San Diego Comic Con, my whole life, I just wanted to get to the mecca of that and then I was signing the comic book that my face was in while people in line were dressed like me on TV!
ME – Check mark, check mark, check mark.
TR – And I’m like, “I’m good!” You know what I mean. The other day, I don’t want to be morbid, we’re all going to turn to dust, whatever happens, someone will go up on my thing when you talk and say, “That kid was good!”
ME – Turn to dust, that’s such a Doc Holiday thing to say.
TR – But it’s true. Like you know, I’ve reached it. It’s like the best and like also I love Bobo! So, when I started seeing the Bobo’s it was pretty awesome! It’s that coat! If I was going to cosplay anybody you want that coat, you want to be Bobo!
ME – I’ve seen two of three. It’s been really fun to see.
Q – As Bobo, how fun is it to go from playing like completely in love with Waverly essentially, and next like wanting to rip her heart out essentially?
ME – How fun is it?
Q – How do you change it up to get into character that quickly?
ME – First of all, it’s all in the writing. The scripts that we have are written so well and then you put an amazing scene partner across from you like Dominque (Dominique Provost-Chalkley- Waverly Earp) and then they just kind of take the leashes off and let us fly. And working with her, we just kind of look into each other’s eyes and we just know what to do.
So, one moment you know, I’m taking care of her and the next I want to rip her throat out and it’s just so much fun because you can play the dual sides of your own character and her character as well. There’s so much change too. There’s been a lot of speculation as to who her father is and now we kind of know it’s not mine.
TR – Don’t say that. That never means it’s never you. I’m still not convinced just because one person said it on the show, that doesn’t mean anything. We know for now.
ME – Yeah, but it’s been great. Working with him (Tim) and Dominque are so fun.
Q – Are we going to see more of, I think Bobo Del Rey, he’s been considered the villain for a while but are we going to see him become more of an anti-hero?
ME – You never know what you’re going to get with Bobo, right? Sometimes he’s in a good mood and sometimes he’s not, but yeah, they’ve been taking that character on a roller-coaster ride and I’ve just been enjoying going along with it as much as you guys have.
I thought they were going one direction with it and the next thing you know they’ve flipped it upside down and they’re making him even more insane than he used to be, so now he’s got the straight jacket on and he’s just lost his mind. So, Season 3 we’ll see.
TR – I remember the first convention that we did, we did a roundtable interview, we just went from table to table…
TR – I think it was Wonder Con. I think like it was the very first one I ever did. I was very new to that process and Michael had obviously done this more of that type of interview style and at the time Doc was still at that sort of gray area too. We didn’t know if he was good or bad, so it was the two of us and they asked Mike, “What’s it like to play a bad guy?”
And he said the best thing I’ve ever heard. He said, “A bad guy doesn’t know he’s bad. Bobo doesn’t think what he’s doing is bad. He thinks that what Wynonna is doing is bad, you know like Bobo’s got his own reasons. And we literally switched tables and someone asked me what it’s like playing a bad guy. And I stole his answer, I was shameless because it was such a good answer. I just raided it, I said it word for word, “Doc doesn’t know he’s bad.” I stole it straight up because it’s the right answer.
You know, what makes Bobo bad. And when you started learning, like the history and from the beginning, I’m kind of bad, Wyatt’s kind of bad, I mean bad things happen and that’s how they feel. I think Bobo’s such a great character.
I love anti-heroes and it would be great to see more Bobo all the time.
ME – I still don’t think he’s bad. If you watch the show, can you think of one person he actually has killed?
TR – Yeah, well he stuck me in that well for 150 years! I think everybody underplays the 150 years of solitude. I really believe that we’re not giving enough credit for how much I’ve suffered.
ME – It was Doc’s choice. Wasn’t it Doc’s choice?
TR – It’s tough to say that.
ME – The ring or die.
TR – Die in the well. I think pretty much most of us that that situation, I don’t want to speak for anybody, we’d probably hold onto that ring for a bit. So, you kind of left me with an impossible choice, a Sophie’s choice.
ME – That’s the best part of the show, all the characters are flawed.
TR – Wynonna’s the most flawed, vulnerable hero on TV, that’s what makes her amazing, she’s one of us. She’s not perfect, she’s just as selfish as us half the time. She just took my immortality! I’m going to die now! And you were at the dinner, she was hitting me, baby bumping me, “give me the ring!”. It’s over, she had zero pity. She has her own agenda. That’s the best part of the show, none of us are perfect. You don’t want to be perfect, you want to be interesting. None of us are perfect, I’m not again, you know so that’s the best part.
ME – Not even Waverly is perfect.
TR – No.
ME – Sweet little Waverly.
TR – The most perfect is not perfect.
TR – I don’t think he’s going to handle it well. I think there are actually two sides to that coin. Either, one, I think it’s been so long he hasn’t had death he might chase it and I don’t want that then I’m done. I mean that’s one of those deaths I don’t think I can come back from.
But, what I personally think is, Doc can kind of be chicken sometimes. As strong as he is, he’s kind of a baby about some things and I think losing his immortality, he’s going to be a bit of a baby about it. Wynonna’s got the big magic gun, he (Bobo) can move metal, I mean I can shoot pretty good now but my bullets are kind of useless if you haven’t noticed.
But, honestly, I might be able to shoot things quick but most of those you need a magic bullet to kill that thing that’s coming at me so I think I’ll go on the hunt for some sort of super weapon, something to try to even the odds. I don’t think I can handle just being a plain mortal.
Q – You’ve done it, that’s why.
TR – Yeah, of course. Or, of course, I’ll just go grow barley on a farm by myself and do nothing. Again, kind of a boring character choice, but….
Q – What’s the character that you want your character to interact more with next season?
TR – Always Bobo Del Rey. Working with Mikey is exceptional from day one. You get different actors right away, that you know what kind of actor they’re going to be. With Mikey, you never know what you’re going to get. You know that he’s always going to be engaged. You look into his eyes, you’re connected. You can’t pretend, you can’t half-ass it in a scene, you can’t not be in the scene, you can’t be thinking about anything other than what is happening right in that moment and be lost in it because if not, he’s there. If you’re not in the moment then it’s not going to work, you’ll get eaten up by what is Bobo Del Rey, by what is Michael Eklund.
ME – Vice Versa. I love working with Tim. When we pop a script open and we have scenes together we get excited, then we text each other.
TR – Yeah.
ME – The first day working with him, I came on late. I wasn’t in the pilot, so joining a show one episode in, you’re the new guy, so it’s a bit awkward. I had to be introduced and invited into “the group”. Tim made me feel welcome on day one then I stepped on his head.
TR – He stepped on my literal head, day one. Then his choice was either put a cigarette out in the gun or spit in the gun. So, he spits on me a bunch of times, then he decided to put a cigarette out on me, it was multiple choices.
ME – With an actor like Tim, you have to try things and find out yeah, ok, “I can push this guy pretty far” and I keep pushing him and he keeps pushing me.
TR – Yeah.
ME – That’s why we love working together. I trust him to push me as far as he needs to go and he trusts me to push him as far as I need to go and at the end of the scene we shake hands and…
TR – Of course it would be great if we did this as a play and were able to switch characters because I would love-equally love to play Bobo and would equally love to see Michael Ecklund’s Doc Holiday also.
ME – There’s a tape out there, I did audition for Doc.
TR – I want to see this tape.
ME – I auditioned for Doc Holiday and he got it and then I got the call and was asked if I wanted to play Bobo. That’s the perfect story when they say the right actor plays the right role and Tim IS Doc Holiday and I can’t imagine playing anything other than Bobo Del Rey.
Q – Are there any shows that you would like to see Wynonna Earp crossover into? Deandra and I have been talking about a crossover with like Midnight, TX or something where we’d see one of the characters show up in Midnight, TX or they show up in Purgatory. Is that something you guys thought about or see?
TR – That I don’t know, though I know Emily (Show creator Emily Andras) would kill me if I didn’t say Buffy at some point. I think there is a Buffy/Earper meet up group – I think there was even a panel here. I know there’s a lot of people going for that. I think I’d like to see something like you know, Roseanne.
ME – So you’re going to go back in time.
TR – No, they’re back here, Roseanne’s coming back.
ME- Really?
TR – Yeah, and Dan never died.
ME – They’ve officially run out of ideas.
TR- I mean you KNOW we’ve got Bobo at the table.
ME – I would like to crossover, the IDW makes Earp and they make Dirk Gently, I’d like to see a crossover there.
TR – That’s a possible one.
ME – I’d like to see Bobo and Martin, my character on Dirk, duke it out, that would be fun.
TR – And I’ll play Bobo!
Thank you, Tim Rozon and Michael Eklund for taking time out of your busy Dragon Con schedule for this Q&A and thanks again to all the hard work from the Dragon Con Interviews Team.
