The fourth and final season of Burden of Truth sees its U.S. premiere tonight (July 30) on The CW, and to promote it, we have had the privilege of interviewing the series star — and a longtime favorite around these parts — Kristin Kreuk who plays Joanna Chang. For four seasons the drama has followed Joanna and her partner Billy (Peter Mooney) through their challenges both in career and in life, and Season 4 will be no different.
KRISTIN KREUK: Billy and Joanna have a baby. They’re a family unit, and they’re struggling. Neither Billy nor Joanna has had great parental relationships in their lives, and neither of them have had role models to really show them how to be parents, and they both have slightly different kind of ways of attacking parenthood.
Joanna is feeling really insecure. She’s not been able to breastfeed, which she’s taken as a real personal failure. She’s not as easily nurturing as she wishes she could be, and her place to find refuge is work. Billy would prefer if she wasn’t taking on crazy, dangerous cases that were taking up all of her time.
They’re just really struggling to make sense of their new lives with this new human being.
I think that kind of seen illustrates how Joanna doesn’t even consider things dangerous, that are dangerous. The average person is able to acknowledge when something is really out of the norm and threatening, and Joanna is more likely to write it off as “tactics that people take to scare you. They don’t ever intend to actually do anything about it.” I think she sees that kind of behavior as meaning that she’s onto something, or winning. The other moms don’t really like her do that.
[Kristin notes that a representative of the “mom group” seen in the season premiere is played by Sarah Power, the real-life wife of Peter Mooney (Billy).]
Millwood is again a factor behind the drama of Season 4. Can you talk about the mine?
There’s a mine proposal in town. What’s happening is that they’re buying off land and Joanna’s client has a long family legacy on the land that she’s on, and she doesn’t want to leave. She would hold out except for there have been subtle threats and some unsubtle threats and pressure from the company. The mine kind of comes into Millwood at a time when Millwood has really been struggling, since Joanna and Billy caused the mill to shut down. The people arehungry for this income to help them. Understandably so. So, Joanna is again against the tide of people, but she’s very focused on this one woman. and this one woman’s struggle… a woman who she’s sort of taken on as like a mother figure in her life.
Can you talk about the beautiful locations you got to work at when filming Burden of Truth?
It’s all Winnipeg and Selkirk. I feel like we’ve been so lucky to be able to shoot all of these gorgeous spots. That river walk is in Selkirk, Manitoba. We shoot down there all the time. It’s got this gorgeous blue bridge that’s become the icon of Millwood in my mind.
And, we get to shoot in the legislative buildings. They play a big role toward the end of the season. There’s a big stone building, which has a great history. Winnipeg has got all of this interesting.
Can you talk about how someone that once looked up to Joanna as a mentor is now a huge obstacle on the side of the miners?
I really like this storyline. Elise is a lawyer that Joanna mentored and helped back when she worked with her father, and they did cases like this all the time, with big companies. It’ll come to the fore that the way that Joanna was with Elise wasn’t necessarily the best way to be. She taught Elise to be like her, just like Joanna’s father taught Joanna to be like him. What we kind of get to explore is the damage that did, and the resentment and anger that built up within this other human being that Joanna didn’t even know existed. Their conflict is both professional and personal, and that becomes really emotional and intense as the season goes by.
Elise really knows how to get to Joanna, doesn’t she?
Elise knows so much about Joanna. She knows her deepest insecurities, and she loves poking at her, because the Joanna that she knew would never have reacted. She would have had all of her stuff together. But the Joanna that she sees now, it’s so easy to poke at, and so easy to get reactions out of. So she kind of goes for the jugular, the things that make Joanna feel the most insecure and the most uncertain.
What do you think you’ll take away after playing Joanna for four years?
On an actor-y level, just being able to shape the character so deeply and to work so closely with writers has been a real joy. I think I’ve been able to do my best work because I’ve been so deeply invested and been challenged and pushed in ways that I haven’t really before. And then, I feel like I’ve been able to explore a lot through Joanna about trauma, and pain, and change, and what it takes to change. And forgive yourself.
Are you happy with how her story ends?
I am. I am happy with how her story ends. I mean, there there are some things I think that if we have this conversation at the end of the season, we could talk about, but I think that between Billy and Joanna, I feel like there is an equilibrium that is found, and I think that with Joanna and her career, there is some semblance of justice found, and even with her relationship with herself, I think with being able to accept who she is, she comes to that place in a way that she hasn’t before, by the end of the season.
About coming to a certain place: What is taking so long for Joanna to settle on a name for the baby?
[Laughs] I think it’s obviously an irrational manifestation of her anxiety and uncertainty. There is no logical reason; I think she just doesn’t feel right yet. I think she’s just waiting for the name that will feel right. It is a story that continues to exist as the season goes on, and once Joanna feels settled, the name will feel settled.
Could there be wedding bells in the future for Joanna and Billy?
I will say that normally the way these stories go, people, get married and live happily ever after, [but] that is not the story I have ever wanted to tell.
I think that there are ways to explore the fact that “happily ever after” doesn’t exist in the way that we have thought it does, and that, if we’re lucky, we get great moments of joy, and love, and all these wonderful things. There are always going to be things that come up that are painful, and that’s kind of the way that life goes. I hope that through that part of the story, we’ll find a conclusion that doesn’t fully just perpetuate that myth, but also it looks at what it means to be in a committed, loving relationship.
Can you can you talk about Luna’s storyline this season?
Luna’s story was fascinating to me this season. She is a smart young woman, and at this point in the story, when we first see her, she’s focused on she’s helping out Joanna with cases and stuff, but she’s also working in legal aid and enacting change on the ground.
She’s doing work where she can see the results of what she’s doing immediately, and she can help people right away, which is what Luna wants to do. She wants to help people. This season is currently challenging her view of her sister, so as things come up, she starts to be like, “maybe my sister isn’t the person to try and mimic” and she starts to question if she wants to make change on the level of legal aid, or if she wants to go into corporate law or another form of law where she can create changes on a different scale. It’s a real struggle for her to assess what direction she wants to go in and as an adult, and how she wants to define herself.
How responsible does Joanna feel for that horrible thing that happens in the premiere?
I think she feels quite responsible. But she’s also convinced it’s the mining company, and that anger will be palpable, along with her guilt. I think it becomes much more externalized, and in Episode 3 that really comes out. She really goes after people.
What will you miss the most about doing Burden of Truth every year?
Gosh, I’ll miss so much. From the writers’ room, to the producers on the show, to Winnipeg, to the crew, to the cast… it’s been a joy to work on this show. I feel like we’ve been able to do some meaningful work, and beyond that, we’ve had a really good experience. I want to go back to Winnipeg. Me and Peter and Eric who is a writer came up with a show because of Winnipeg. We developed this idea, and I hope that we can find someone who wants to make it, so we can go back and and shoot in the city and have some of the same people, and try and create a another version of the wonderful experience that we had on Burden.
Is there anything else you want to say to the people who will be reading this about the new season of Burden of Truth?
Mostly, I hope that they enjoy it, and that it’s challenging, and makes them think about stuff. I would love to get in a discussion with people as we go through the episodes, and I guess the best way to do that is on good old social media. I just really want them to engage in it, and and think about the complexities of the issues that we that we bring up.
Photos from tonight’s Burden of Truth season premiere “River City” can be found below.
Burden Of Truth
SEASON PREMIERE – The Oro North mining project has divided opinion in Millwood, but Joanna Chang (Kristin Kreuk) has firmly chosen a side. She’s taken on the case of Helen Graham (guest star Pamela Matthews), a local farm owner whose land is standing firmly in the way of the mine’s opening. With the tide of opinion turning against them, Joanna arranges for an improved offer, but – after many sleepless nights with her new baby – Joanna makes a crucial error that changes the case, leading to shocking consequences. Billy Crawford (Peter Mooney) is torn between his support for Helen’s case and for Millwood’s future, but after a tumultuous start to their lives as parents, he is mostly concerned with Joanna. Doug Marshall directed the episode written by Brad Simpson (#401). The CW original airdate 7/30/2021.
