“Get Ready; There’s Going to Be Sparks Everywhere” — Kim Coates Teases Anna Pigeon, Frenemies & Jeremiah’s Epic Return

It’s not hyperbolic on our part to say that Kim Coates is probably one of the greatest character actors of our time.

Personally, I just feel it’s honest, but what can I say? I’m a fan.

It’s why the news that he’d be playing Jeremiah Paulson on Anna Pigeon was met with genuine delight, and naturally, that carried over when hopping on Zoom for a lovely chat about the series and what’s coming up for Jeremiah.

Coates is also a masterclass in not spilling nearly as much tea as you request but still giving you a full course meal in the conversation department, and somehow that ends up being infinitely better.

It’s also why I’ll be breaking our chat into two parts. I had a blast chatting with him, something that has become a common occurrence when speaking to all the fabulous, passionate, and fun people behind Anna Pigeon.

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It only feels right to share the wealth with you guys, too. So dive into our interview below for some teases of what’s to come, and stay tuned for more!

I love your body of work, so I was excited to see you on Anna Pigeon!

Thank you.

Jeremiah is not a surprising role, given you play antagonists and complicated characters so well. So what was it about Jeremiah that attracted you to this one, and how is it different from previous ones?

Yeah, thanks for those compliments. Much appreciated. Couple of things, I guess, Jasmine, I mean, it was going to be shot in Canada, right? I’m Canadian and American, but Canadian first.

And to think about filming in Cananaskas or Bragg Creek just outside of Calgary, which is so beautiful, that was great. And then Lea Thompson — have you met Lea, Jasmine, ever?

I have not.

You will. And when you do, you’re going to love her. If you don’t love Lea Thompson, you don’t have a heartbeat. She’s unbelievably talented, smart, gives it all. Morwyn Brebner, the showrunner, brilliant writer, creator — all these plays that she’s written, and her resume just speaks for itself.

So that was a really good entrance for me to think about playing this guy. And then they couldn’t send me all 10 episodes, but they had four or five done. So they sent me all of those, and I’m not in it much early. I’m a little bit of a surprise coming up.

But seriously, episodes 6 through 10, I think Jeremiah’s in four of the last five. And the shit’s about to hit the fan, Jasmine. This is like, I take no prisoners. And I mean, Tracy Spiridakos, our valiant lead who plays Anna Pigeon.

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She’s amazing.

She’s amazing and an incredible actor.

She’s a listener, which makes her so good. The greatest actors are the ones who listen.

So I said yes right away, and I’m so glad I did because I wasn’t there a lot, but the few times I was there filming this really exciting series was just nothing but dynamic outside, and the mountains and the weather and the eagles and the wranglers and the animals.

Just great. It was just so much fun.

I was going to ask you about that. We know Jeremiah is ambitious; he’s power-hungry; it’s all about land and money. So how does being in the elements and seeing them, all that beauty, help inform the character a bit? Because I mean, it’s gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous.

Great question. I mean, who wouldn’t want to own a national park? Who wouldn’t want to own all that land? Who? [Laughs]

No one thinks about it. We don’t think about it because we’re really good human beings, but these multi, multi, multimillionaires — men or women who think they can just buy whatever they want and do whatever they want — it’s quite horrifying.

But you have to find the core of: who is this guy? What makes him tick? He can’t just be a bad guy. That’s boring. What’s his past? Where’d he come from? Is he into minerals? Is he an oil guy? What kind of truck does he drive?

So all those things came together very, very quickly. And Jayna at Mansbridge, my wardrobe designer, and I spoke ad nauseam. How does he dress? He doesn’t want to reek of money, but you got to know that his cashmere jacket cost 800 bucks, and it’s Holt Renfrew.

You have to wear boots, but are they big, clunky boots, or Western? What kind of boots are they? Where he’s comfortable, he can dress however he wants. He doesn’t radiate money, but you know he’s an absolute force, certainly in Montana, a massive force.

I love that. All the little details inform a story and character.

Now, I absolutely love the adversarial dynamic between Jeremiah and Anna. It seems like she’s the only one who’s not intimidated by him, and he’s both threatened by that, but also impressed by that. Can you talk a bit about that dynamic?

Wait until you see the last five episodes. Tracy and I did an interview when we were filming, and she goes, “Coates, what are we? Are we like frenemies? We’re friends, but we’re enemies, but we need to be this cat-and-mouse dance, this circle dance with each other.”

And we are. It would be a huge mistake for Jeremiah Paulson to not have respect for this strong woman who’s five foot five standing in front of him, who has absolutely no fear, but respect.

There’s some real respect for her strength. And I think that’s the reason why she’s such a good force ranger, and she actually fails at that too, as we’ve seen, but her heart is in the right place.

She’s got all these demons she’s dealing with all the time, with her past husband, and what actually happened to him. She’s an alcoholic.

Tracy, what a great part for her. What a full kettle of fish to play and a pigeon, right? It’s very complicated. Those are my kind of parts.

So Jeremiah, even though he hasn’t been written much in the first five, here we go, and we don’t fool around. Anna and I, get ready. There’s going to be sparks everywhere.

I got the jump on the episode, and I’m really excited for everyone to see it. Oh my goodness, that’s going to be amazing.

What was your reaction when you read the script for that one? Because there’s so much Paulson content to unpack. Can you tease anything for us?

Yeah, I can’t tell you, Jasmine, otherwise I’d have to kill you. So there’s no point in me telling you some little secrets!

There’s some stuff that people — they’re going to be blown away to where the storyline and family and rangers, where this stuff goes now.

No one’s going to see it coming. No one. I guarantee you, no one.

Kurt Sutter, for Sons of Anarchy, he had that in spades, Jasmine.

Just when you thought you knew what was going to happen, oh, it’s going to be about the Russians. Actually, we killed them all, and then we’re onto something.

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You don’t see any of it happening, and Morwyn’s done a great job, and I think she’s going to surprise the heck out of the viewers as to what’s happening coming up in this story.

Jasmine, didn’t you love the fifth episode? It’s been my favorite episode!

It’s been my favorite episode of the season so far, too. It feels like the turning point episode where everything kicks into overdrive. Tracy was so good in it. That was such a great episode.

Tracy was so—she killed it. She just killed it. And Morwyn, to use those flashbacks to show us viewers, how did she get in this cave? Oh, we want to know. No, let’s just play it out. And you saw Northcott, like Jeff, pounding the desk, going, “Where’d that come from?”

She intertwined and showed us on a string from reverse to forward during the whole episode, and it was different. It was a different kind of episode. So I think, as you just said, this is a beautiful setup to see who’s coming back in episode six, real quick. Jeremiah Paulson, get ready!

You should, indeed, “Get ready,” because there’s an all-new Anna Pigeon tonight at 10/9c on USA Network, and it’s a MUST-SEE!

We’ll have you covered with a full review, and stay tuned for more great Anna Pigeon content!

The post “Get Ready; There’s Going to Be Sparks Everywhere” — Kim Coates Teases Anna Pigeon, Frenemies & Jeremiah’s Epic Return appeared first on TV Fanatic.