The Way Home: Bianca Melchior Teases What Fern Landry Knows, and How Fun It Is to Walk in Her Shoes

Fern Landry was already an established, if highly mysterious, character on The Way Home when Bianca Melchior joined the cast.

By stepping into Younger Fern Landry’s playful shoes, viewers see an entirely different side of the enigmatic character.

Bianca spoke with TV Fanatic to share her insights into the character and what it’s like to bring her to life.

You stepped into the shoes of one of TV’s most enigmatic characters. Before you got here, Fern was pretty much just a mystery to everybody. She speaks in riddles.

We didn’t really know what was happening. And now you’re giving her some much-needed depth. How did the prior seasons and what you learned about Fern influence your performance as a younger Fern?

Well, Jill Frappier’s work in The Way Home Season 3 is super helpful. And she’s just so amazing. I love her as a person. She’s just so bold and funny.

She just brought such an interesting, mysterious energy to the show with Fern. And I think in Season 3, she’s kind of chalked up to being a little kooky; maybe she’s losing it a little bit.

So it’s really exciting that through Season 4, we’re really getting a sense of who Fern is. And that she’s actually really quite wise and intelligent. All the things we’re thinking are a little kooky aren’t actually.

But she just loves the fun of it all. And she loves to speak in riddles. So yeah, I really, I really paid attention to her. A lot of it for me was like physicality, and the cadence, the way she speaks, and whatnot.

Like the way she says “Kitty Kat” was really important. You know, she established technical things like that. But I’m just really excited for people to understand these riddles now and understand really who Fern is as a person.

You mentioned that everybody thinks she’s kooky. And they do. And I think that even Kat still thinks that young Fern is a little kooky.

But in both, to be fair, she is.

But she never thinks of herself that way.

Yeah.

So how do you play that, knowing that she’s not the kooky person that everybody sees her as, and being wise and having knowledge about things, and teasing them about it? What was your approach to making that happen?

I think it’s just really leaning into curiosity. Fern is a very curious person. She’s a society columnist by day; she loves to know what’s going on in her community and in the wider world.

So to me, it was just leaning into that part of her. And I think that sort of brings it out.

You know, she’s always sort of studying people and questioning what’s going on and deciding, you know, what cards to hold close to her chest and what not to, so that the leaning into curiosity is really where the playfulness comes from for me.

Is there a certain mystery that you really enjoy the most about Fern?

That’s a good question. A mystery that I enjoy the most about Fern. There are so many. But on The Way Home Season 4 Episode 3, we have a scene outside of the Coffee Spoon speakeasy where we’re chatting after Fern’s performed “I Love My Baby.”

It’s one of the first times we really get to see Fern consciously opening up to Kat about her life, experiences, and feelings. And I think one of those things is about her family.

And we have this line where she says Kat is proof that she’s not the only one; the Landry family doesn’t end with her. I think the heart underneath that, that mystery of who she is right now. Who are her living relatives or non-living relatives?

I think that’s a really important part of Fern. And one of the parts of her that I fall in love with the most.

And I know you come from a background in stage, and I would assume that costumes and cadence and the way that you speak are really important. And then you step into this 1926 role. How does that help transport you in time as Fern?

Oh, immediately. I mean, our wardrobe department is incredible. Tricia Baker, Donna, and everyone there.

They’re just so wonderful. And so many of the pieces that we wore? Some of them were made, but some of them were actually vintage pieces.

And you put them on, and you’re just thinking like, “Oh my god, how many lives have these clothes lived? Where have they been? Whose bodies have they been on?” It’s just so cool.

And you really feel that energy when you put them on and all the jewelry and accessories, like hats and beautiful coats and things like that. It really does do something to your physicality when you put them on. That’s definitely an important part of it for me.

It’s like the last piece of the puzzle, you know, when you’ve done all your homework, and you’ve done all the research, and you’ve done all the prep, and then you get to come to set and put the thing on. It’s just kind of like, I can exhale, and I’m her now, you know?

Did it feel weird singing “Tainted Love” in a vintage setting?

I have a dance background, so I grew up dancing competitively as a preteen and teenager. And “Tainted Love” was such a popular jazz song — jazz solos, jazz small groups, all that.

So I’ve known and loved “Tainted Love” and its versions all my life. But it was just so fun to put our own spin on it and hear a ’20s rendition. It’s a really raw moment for Fern in the episode.

It felt really good and cathartic. And I’m really happy with the way “Tainted Love” turned out.

The very first moment that Kat mentioned Tessa, we saw the flicker on your face of recognition that she wasn’t willing to admit. How do you portray those moments when you know there’s more to tease, but you can’t tease it?

As an actress, how do you put yourself in that spot?

Less is more, I feel like. When I was looking at that scene and studying it, I kept thinking it really just needed to be a breath, you know? And the interesting thing, too, about this show is that the past is always asking just as many questions as the present is.

So there’s also so much intertwined in that, like everyone sort of assumes in that moment that Fern knows something that she’s hiding. And maybe she does, but maybe there are also pieces that she’s putting together.

And she’s not exactly sure whether to move forward, move back, or move to the side. I think she’s sitting in uncertainty and discovery, as well, and she’s trying to learn things and figure things out, too.

She’s got her own puzzles. So that’s kind of what was going on in my brain when it came to that scene.

And what do you think that Fern understands about time and family and the predicament that her particular family finds themselves in, compared to all the other characters, that they haven’t figured out yet?

Well, I think it’s interesting because Fern is catching up. Her whole life, she’s been told the secrets of the pond, and until Fern’s generation, it’s not been a secret within their family, like in the wider world.

It’s not something that she had to discover on her own. Like the way Alice fell in the pond and was like, “Oh my God, this is a real thing.” You know?

So there’s a lot that Fern does understand. Fern is also someone who, sort of like Evie, I think, has this part of her that really believes in magic. So none of that is really hard for her to digest.

It’s more about the timeline and what’s happening that, to be honest, I think Kat is unlocking for her by coming back in time. Maybe these are questions she didn’t even have until Kat arrived, you know?

What’s in store for people as the series concludes?

Oh, a wild ride. Buckle up.

Well, there you go, folks!

Does hearing from Bianca help your understanding of Young Fern? What do you think the near future has in store for her?

Don’t forget to follow our coverage of The Way Home Season 4 as we continue towards the series finale.