When Wynonna Earp‘s Melanie Scrofano sat down for roundtable interviews at the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Syfy had not confirmed the popular series would return for a second season. Of course, it was assumed the show would be back or else there really wouldn’t have been any reason to bring the entire main cast to Comic Con to talk about the show and participate in interviews. And in fact following the interviews, Syfy did confirm Wynonna Earp earned a second season that will premiere in 2017. Commenting on the renewal, the series’ showrunner Emily Andras said, “I’m absolutely thrilled we have the opportunity to deliver more of our witty, female-led, kickass, diverse supernatural series to our passionate fan base around the world.”
Melanie Scrofano, the woman who leads the kickass cast, told us that she hopes Wynonna doesn’t get over all of the devastating events that took place in season one too quickly.
Melanie Scrofano Interview:
Are you ready to throw back on the leather pants and go kick ass?
Melanie Scrofano: “So your thought is I should wear leather and not ripped jeans? You think I’ve evolved? I should tell you I love the ripped jeans. The costume designer Jennier (Haffenden) and I really think that the ripped jeans is really symbolic. She’s probably had those jeans for way too many years and it just feels right when I put them on. It’s like all of a sudden, ‘I don’t give a f**k!’ So, yeah, I’m so ready. I’m so ready not to give a f**k.”
How does Wynonna move forward from the season one finale?
Melanie Scrofano: “I don’t know. I don’t want to know before we start shooting. But, like I’m a fan of not knowing things. Emily (Andras) wanted to meet at the end of the season. She’s like, ‘If we come back, what do you want to do?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t know. You tell me,’ but I know I would like to – in my perfect world – be even obviously more messed up. As you think she’s getting her sh*t together, she would be irreparably damaged from shooting her sister. She’s another loss that’s her fault. And, yes, it’s different. Yes, it’s like she had to do it this time. But she still shot her family. It’s like the numbers of people she has left to count on are dwindling. I think that she’s damaged enough that she wouldn’t go, ‘I had to do it. It’s okay.’ I think she would just self-sabotage and just go dark places. I hope that’s where it goes.”
She’s going to have to recover at some point though, right, to move forward at all?
Melanie Scrofano: “Yeah. I don’t want that to happen too fast. Of course her journey…if she’s always just going to be a mess, that’s going to get old. But, what I want to see is that she would move forward. I think she would stuff it all down, you know, and as we do in life, ‘I’ll think about it later. I’ll think about it tomorrow.’ Very Scarlett O’Hara, like, ‘I’ll think about it when I have time to deal with this.’ I think that will hopefully come back and bite her in the butt. Just one of those epic…maybe she starts to drink even more. Just things that happen in real life where we just stuff things away and just all of a sudden it just turns around and all of a sudden we’re an alcoholic.”
Is she ready for the fact her sister might be her nemesis next season?
Melanie Scrofano: “I don’t think…I mean clearly she doesn’t know. I hope we draw that out. I hope that’s a slow burn.”
She had to confront Willow in the first season but to have to confront Waverly in season two seems like it could be too much for her.
Melanie Scrofano: “That’s right. It’s that whole thing of how many family members do I have to lose? Already she probably has abandonment issues from where’s her mom? And I don’t have the answer to that. I actually don’t know. I know I’d love to explore that. But then to lose Waverly… I mean, it’s Waverly, she’s her younger sister but in a way she’s a bit of a mom in a sense of even in episode 12 and 13 she’s like, ‘I’ve got something I have to do.’ She’s taking care of everything. But for Wynonna to lose that, I don’t think Wynonna knows that Waverly’s such a strength for her.”
Why do you think there’s been such a passionate response from fans, particularly on social media?
Melanie Scrofano: “Honestly, I don’t know why it is. I know why I think it’s that way; I feel like when we’re shooting and we’re in our little bubble, we were like, ‘This is an awesome show.’ Doesn’t mean people are going to get it. Doesn’t mean it’s going to translate. We can only do our part as actors. We’re not going to edit it; I don’t know what it’s going to look like. So, as an actor you just go, ‘I hope people get it because I do.’
I do think people respond a lot to the humor and not taking itself too seriously. I know before we started somebody posted to me, ‘I can’t wait for your show to air because I’m so sick of how serious things are.’ Things are serious in our show but we’re not precious about it. It’s just like, ‘The world is going to end. Gotta do something about that!’ I think that’s refreshing. I do think it comes across and our chemistry is great.”
Wynonna is such an inspiration. What were some of your female character inspirations growing up?
Melanie Scrofano: “Nobody jumps out at me, to be honest, in terms of famous people or characters. I read a lot so I guess I absorbed inspiration that way. A lot of the people who inspired me were like girls…I was not a cool person. Well, I was but nobody knew it and so I would draw inspiration from people at school that I looked up to. There were older girls who, maybe because I was bullied and things, girls who took me under their wings. They were my heroes.”
What is it that draws Wynonna to Dolls and Doc Holliday?
Melanie Scrofano: “I think Dolls is a strength that she doesn’t have. He’s so together. I love that about him. Even Shamier (Anderson) as a person on set you’re just like, ‘Shamier, I need help with this.’ [Shamier leans in to hear what Melanie’s saying about him.] And he’s there. He has that strength of character. I think Doc has the wisdom of the years and gives her that perspective that she needs. He knew Wyatt so he’s able to remind her who she is in a way that nobody else can do. I’ve never thought about that actually; I just thought about that right now, which is pretty great. And, they’re both hot.”
Watch the full Melanie Scrofano interview:
