Kathleen Robertson Talks Playing Complex Women on Reacher & Tracker — And Creating Her Own with Blessed Sacrament

Kathleen Robertson has spent years playing complex, powerful women onscreen, and now, once again, she’s creating them, too.

From Reacher to Tracker, Robertson is gracing our screens everywhere you look, stealing scenes in some of the most successful, buzziest series currently airing.

Her staying booked is undeniable, but she’s also staying busy by tackling her next big venture: creating, producing, writing, and starring in Blessed Sacrament.

We were fortunate enough to catch up with Robertson for a chat — after bonding over being border neighbors, the relief and comfort of chatting in our PJs, and our mutual appreciation for complex female characters, we dove into her recent projects and what’s to come.

So, check it out!

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You’ve been very busy, with some of the biggest hit series on air right now. What has that been like, staying so active and aligning with such great gigs?

When it rains, it pours, right? So it’s been amazing. And it’s always so incredibly fun as an actor to work on projects that people love and are really, really passionate about.

We work on so many things as actors that people never see. Or you do a movie that you’re like, “Oh my God, this is the best thing I’ve ever done.” And you go and premiere it at a film festival and then like 250 people see it. And you’re like, “Oh, that’s disappointing.”

So it’s fun to work on stuff that millions and millions of people are watching.

You also have a knack for playing these really ambiguous characters that people are always trying to figure out and sometimes never really can. What is it about those types of roles that intrigues you so much?

It’s funny, yeah. Like, I definitely always — with Reacher, it was very funny. All along everybody was like, “Oh my gosh, we think you’re the bad guy. You’re the villain. Like you’re the one.” And I was like, God, why? What is it about me that people think that about? I don’t know.

Admittedly, I was one of those people. I think you do well playing those intense, ambiguous roles, and you also serve great Resting Villain Face.

I know. It must — it’s the little upturned nose, I suppose. I don’t know. But yeah, no, I definitely always seem to get cast in roles that are inherently kind of very strong women, which is great, which of course I love, and very complicated, kind of nuanced women.

It was one of the things that stood out about Elspeth. I absolutely loved that she was so hard to read, but what I loved most was that she always felt like the most powerful and respected person in any room she stepped into. Even with Reacher, we saw that these men still looked to her.

Thank you. That’s so nice. It’s been really nice to hear people say that.

Yeah, that’s cool. I know Nick Santora, the showrunner; he really wanted that as well. He just wanted it to be kind of an undeniable thing that when she’s in the room, she doesn’t have to do much. She can just be there and be physically present. And everybody kind of knows that she’s the boss, you know?

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Yes. I absolutely love that! So then, of course, with the ending, it’s open-ended. Would you like to see her pop up again in the Reacherverse? Because now, with Neagley, it’s Reacherverse.

I know. I know. Yeah, Neagley just got picked up for a second season, which is awesome. Yeah, I would love to see her continue on and find her place.

A lot of people have said that to me and been like, “Oh, my gosh, is she coming back? And how is she coming back? And what’s the trajectory?” So you have to ask Nick Santora. I don’t know the answer. But I would obviously love to.

I hope so. The Sampsons were such a power couple. They reminded me of the My Big Fat Greek Wedding quote about the man being the head, but the woman being the neck who turns him in the right direction.

You could tell she was almost running things. Now it feels like her duty to pick up the mantle.

Yeah, we had talked about sort of the backstory of her and John being a little bit like Barack and Michelle and how, like, Michelle could have also very easily run for president. They were both these political figures. They never had kids. Their life was their work and their career.

And that they probably came to a point where they made a decision. Okay. Like, which one of us is going to go for it? Is it going to be you, or is it going to be me? And we’ll put all of our resources into you or me.

And the decision was probably like, I’m a woman, and the odds are it’s not going to happen for me because I’m a woman, and we see that in the landscape.

So let’s put all our eggs in your basket, and I’m going to be your fiercest advocate and make it happen for you. So yeah, now that he’s gone, you would think naturally that now she will be like, okay, well, it’s my turn now.

You’re also on Tracker, which is also huge, and playing Maxine. So what can you tease about that recurring role this season?

Tracker has been really fun, and the show’s now moved to LA. It was filmed in Vancouver the last few seasons, and now it’s in LA.

It’s a show that people are obsessed with and love. And it’s a very different show. It’s a little bit lighter and a little bit more fun in terms of my stuff with Fiona [Rene]. We have a lighter character specific stuff.

Maxine’s a really fun character for me to play. She’s a very powerful woman, recently split from her husband, and she and Reenie have this great chemistry and relationship.

They do have such a great dynamic that everyone speculates so much about it. Are they friends, frenemies, is Maxine plotting? It is Tracker, after all.

I know. It’s so funny. Or people are like, “Are they going to be a couple? Is this going to be like a new love interest?”

I’m like, I don’t think so. But yeah, I like hearing other people’s perceptions of things, you know? When you work on stuff, you’re just kind of working in a vacuum, and then you learn like, “oh, that’s so interesting that people see that or think that.” You don’t really know what people are going to connect to or not connect to.

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I love medical dramas. Blessed Sacrament sounds so good because it combines so many different things into a really great series. You have a medical drama, a familial component, which seems to be disappearing offscreen, and sisterhood, which I love.

What inspired you to create this series and move forward with it?

I’m from a family of three girls. I’m the youngest of three, and my sisters both work at the same hospital where we were all born. So my one sister is a nurse, and my other sister is an administrator.

Six Feet Under is one of my favorite shows of all time.

I really wanted to write a family drama sort of similar in that tone, very character-driven, very specific, about a very complicated family with a mother who’s the matriarch. It was kind of a bunch of things that all dropped into place. I thought it’d be interesting to write a show about three sisters that all work at the same hospital.

And then I thought it’d be really interesting if it was a family-run hospital and the mother was the matriarch who was sort of their boss. And a lot of little things dropped into place in terms of where the idea came from.

I also just think it’s a really fascinating thing that we all are raised by the same parents, but we all turn out so different. You can have kids that have the same classes and the same teachers and the same parents and the same house and the same everything, but they’re all- we’re all so different.

And so I wanted to explore that a little bit. And I wanted to create something that was also kind of fun and a little bit escapist, but also kind of really nuanced and character-driven. It’s got a little bit of a Succession vibe to it too. So it’s kind of like fucked up, and yeah, it’s fun.

That sounds really exciting. I love that you mentioned Succession because that had such a complex family dynamic, but this sounds great because it’s so female-centered.

It’s very female. I mean, of course, guys will, hopefully, but for me, I love writing complicated, flawed women. So, yeah.

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In that vein, you’re playing Brie in Blessed Sacrament, and I can imagine she’s likely a complicated force to be reckoned with.

She’s definitely, yeah, she’s different though than anything I’ve played before. Obviously, because I wrote it for myself, I really wanted to write a role for myself. That was a little bit — I always tend to be cast as these very polished, very educated, very successful women.

And I was like, “Oh, I really never get the chance to play women that don’t really have their shit together.” Brie, she’s the single mom, and she’s very messy, and she’s very, like, broken.

And she’s got a lot of secrets and a lot of shit from her past. Like, she’s a really fun character. Yeah, she’s a really fun kind of train wreck of a character, and I don’t get to play those characters a lot. So that was why I wrote it for myself.

It does sound fun that you get to write yourself in a different light than the put-together, poised, polished type you play often.

I’m going totally opposite for this, like Brie’s got chipped blue nail polish, and she’s got four-inch roots, and she’s totally covered in tattoos and pierced. Like she’s totally opposite from Elspeth and all those characters that I’ve played in the past.

So that’ll be fun for me. And it’s kind of more like me in real life. I’m not really like my characters. I am a person in real life who is happiest when I’m in no makeup, hair pulled back, sweatpants, a baseball hat. I’m not like a girly girl at all.

So it’s much more my vibe. I’m literally sitting in my pajamas right now. No four-inch stilettos, no pencil skirts, no Spanx, girdles, and push-up bras, so it’ll be great.

You’re juggling so many hats with this: showrunner, writer, star, and producer. First of all, how? But also, how has being an actor prepared you for stepping into these other roles? I imagine it gives you more of an advantage.

Did you see my show that I did, Swimming with Sharks?

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I don’t believe I have.

You have to watch it. That’s your homework! I feel like you’re going to love it. It’s like my favorite. I mean, I love it. Obviously, I’m biased. I wrote it, but it’s really juicy.

I’m going to. I will! [Spoiler Alert: I absolutely did and loved it! Definitely check it out on Roku]

So the first show that I wrote and created and showrun, I wrote every episode. I think it’s on Roku, but you should totally watch it.

I’m super proud of it. It’s the first show I ever created. It stars Kiernan Shipka, Diane Kruger, and Donald Sutherland. It’s a thriller. And I’m in it as well, but I have a very small part. And I did that intentionally because it was my first time showrunning and writing everything.

And I was like, I don’t really want to also be on camera and acting a lot. So I just have a very small part in it. But I wanted to kind of do it once first, so I knew how to do this. And now with Blessed Sacrament, I feel like I know what I’m doing now. I’ve done this before.

I can have a little bit bigger of a part, and like I’ll be able to navigate it, knowing kind of what I’m getting into. It is a real balancing act.

And it’s just being really surgical about your time and your energy, and preserving your energy, and trying to just check off the boxes of like, “Okay, today my focus is I need to rewrite this scene. And today my focus is to act in this scene. And I have to, you know, hire a director.”

Or I have to look at casting tapes. Or I have to look at wardrobe. It’s just about being really insanely organized and not getting sidetracked.

Speaking to actors who have transitioned into other areas of the industry is always so interesting to me because I feel like they have a real grasp of how everything works better.

Having that background definitely changes their approach to how they write or how they create or how they direct or produce.

Yeah, it really does. And it’s always fascinating to me when I work on shows how much time is spent on almost every department except performance. You know, like you go on to these shows and it’s like it’s all about the lighting and the set.

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And it’s like the blocking and the background and rehearsing the camera moves. And it’s all about the visual sort of language of that. And then the actors are almost an afterthought.

And so, you know, it’s almost like, “OK, bring the actors in. All right, let’s just shoot it.” And it’s like, “Wait, wait, wait, wait, we haven’t even talked about what we’re…”

Being a showrunner now, it’s very important for me. I always lead with the most important thing is what happens between action and cut.

In terms of, like, if we don’t care about the characters and we’re not really connecting to the characters, it doesn’t matter how beautifully lit it is or how amazing the background is crossing over, or how fabulous the camera moves, if nobody gives a shit other than.

That’s a huge thing for me. Having spent my life as an actor, it’s always at the top of mind for me when I work as a showrunner. That has to be number one.

Absolutely. I can totally agree with that. I love characters; they’re probably what compels me to a show more than anything ever.

Speaking of, since this is TV Fanatic, what shows outside of your own have you been drawn to?

Well, I was obsessed with season one and season two of Beef. So that was my favorite.

I’m obsessed with documentaries. I love documentaries. I will watch basically any documentary that comes out. I am actually doing a documentary right now about Tim Curry that I’m producing.

It’s my first time producing a documentary. So I’m working on that right now, which is really cool. Yeah, we actually just sold it. So we’re super excited about that.

Oh, I just watched Furious, the Emmy Rossum show, that Liz Meriwether show, which I thought was absolutely amazing.

Oh, it truly was amazing!

I love Liz Meriwether. I loved The Dropout, the Amanda Seyfried limited that she did. I just think she’s brilliant. I love her.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

You can catch Kathleen Robertson in Reacher Season 4 on Prime Video, recurring in Tracker, Sundays on CBS at 9/8c, and you can stream Swimming with Sharks on Roku.

Blessed Sacrament will likely debut on CBC sometime in 2027, so keep an eye out for news.

The post Kathleen Robertson Talks Playing Complex Women on Reacher & Tracker — And Creating Her Own with Blessed Sacrament appeared first on TV Fanatic.