Everything about Wynonna Earp, eh?

SurrealEstate’s Tim Rozon: “The magic of the show is that group”

There’s a certain amount of scrutiny that comes with making the jump from one landmark TV show to another. For Tim Rozon, you can’t help but wonder if that scrutiny was even more intense.

After all, the Montreal native most recently starred on Schitt’s Creek, Vagrant Queen and a little show you may have heard of called Wynonna Earp. I’m happy to say that he’s hit a home run with SurrealEstate.

Airing Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV Sci-Fi Channel, George Olson’s creation is a perfect vehicle for Rozon, an opportunity to stay in the genre space while playing a very different character. His Luke Roman runs The Roman Agency, a real estate company whose team helps sell homes that are haunted and therefore tend to stay on the market. Along for the ride are co-stars Sarah Levy, Adam Korson, Maurice Dean Wint, Savannah Basley and Tennille Read.

We spoke to Tim Rozon about SurrealEstate, which films in St. John’s, haunted houses and his co-stars.

Was this a career path that you expected, that you’d follow one show with demons on it to a show with other demons on it?
Tim Rozon: In a way, yes, because I remember the moment I had this conversation with my wife and I said, ‘My dream is to be on a show that goes to Comic-Con, like one of these supernatural shows, I would just love that. And fast forward a year later, there we were, Wynonna Earp, at San Diego Comic-Con, and since then I’ve got to be on Vagrant Queen, and now SurrealEstate, so surreal is the feeling.

Had you considered at any point maybe taking a break after being on several seasons of Wynonna, or was the thinking the opposite, ‘I got to strike while the iron is hot’?
TR: A hundred percent. At the end of the day, we’re actors, actors want work. To be honest, I can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. It’s pretty difficult, I’ll tell you, there’s so much competition and so many great actors, and I feel very fortunate and I don’t take it for granted, that’s for sure. And then, especially on great shows that you really want to be a part of, I’m very fortunate in that sense, I’ve got to work a lot, but I’ve also got to work on shows that I really loved being on, and that’s from Instant Star to Schitt’s Creek, Wynonna Earp, Vagrant Queen, right into SurrealEstate, so I’ve been very fortunate.

I really like the humour George has established in the world of SurrealEstate.
TR: Yeah, we really lean into it as we start going. I think we really figured out what George’s vision was around Episode 3. We get it right off the bat, but I don’t think we really leaned into it until after, because he’s such a good writer, sometimes it’s so subtle, and at first we just showed up, we don’t know… You don’t know what show we’re making right off the bat. How do you not lean into the humour when you have someone like Sarah Levy there?

You couldn’t have picked a better location for your next project. Had you been to St. John’s before? What was it like shooting there?
TR: It was incredible. I’m lucky that I had been there before, when I was much younger, filming a movie called Screamers: The Hunting, and we filmed that all over St John’s and across the island down in the mines on Bell Island. So I was all over, and also I was Screeched In at that time, which is great because I don’t think I could have handled it now. Before we started [filming SurrealEstate], I was in no way a believer in ghosts at all. After filming in St. John’s, so many guest stars experienced something with ghosts at the hotel that production had them staying at. It was this old Victorian house where they brought in all the guest stars, and they would do their quarantine there and start filming.

But, supposedly, this house was haunted, and the crew and everybody are just like, ‘Yeah, all Newfoundland… all things are haunted, we all know that. I’ve got a ghost in my house. I got a ghost over here. My mom’s house has a ghost.’ It’s like the norm.

And I’m a non-believer, but after hearing the experience of so many guest stars, Sarah and I are like, ‘I don’t know, there’s got to be something, I don’t think anybody’s lying to us.’ Some guest stars actually left that house, they wouldn’t stay there. They had negative experiences with ghosts, and some of the people that I talked to had said they had had experiences before, and other people were kind of like me, it was their first experience. Now, saying all that, I didn’t have an experience while I was in there for mine. I personally didn’t, but it’s tough to call everybody a liar.

You already mentioned Sarah, and the great cast for this show. I haven’t seen Adam Korson in a while, so it was great to see him onscreen. Maurice Dean Wint, a legend in Canadian television and in film. Talk a little bit about this cast of characters that you got to play with.
TR: Yeah, I’m so happy you brought it up, because this truly is an ensemble piece, and the magic of the show is that group. Each episode we go into a new house, which means we get into a new ghost, which is super fun, but it’s the relationships between that group of people and how they deal with it that I think is the real magic of the show. Starting with Sarah Levy, I found out she was cast right away, and that was it, then I knew, ‘OK, I need to do this project because, A) she’s a great actor and B) she’s a great person.’ So I just couldn’t wait to work with her again. You just knew, both of us were like, ‘OK, this is going to be so good and chill.’

And so, you got to spend five months together, you want it to be with someone you really like. And then, as far as everybody else, I literally asked George and [director and executive producer] Danishka [Esterhazy] after, ‘How did you manage to do this?’ Because this was during COVID, and we didn’t have screen tests and chemistry tests. We didn’t get to meet because of COVID, there were no read-throughs or anything, so we met on set and our first scene was in the big room, the Roman Agency with everybody meeting Susan for the first time, and right there and then it felt like magic. It really did it, just immediately you could sense everybody’s character, and we all could connect and figure each other out, and it was great.

And then, for 10 episodes, we got to create that bond and chemistry. I can’t say enough about the cast, as people and actors.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t talk about a couple of guest stars, Art Hindle and Jennifer Dale, playing Luke’s parents.
TR: Yeah, they knew each other, which was great, and I knew Art because I used to watch his show, E.N.G., when I was a kid. I knew that show, trust me, I only had two channels, we didn’t miss E.N.G., that was on in my house. So I knew exactly who he was, he was great. And Jennifer… I won’t get into too much, because of what I’m allowed to say or not say, but of course I knew who that was too, so incredible. And they obviously know each other, which was very nice.

Surreal Estate airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET on CTV Sci-Fi Channel.

Images courtesy of Bell Media.

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Links: SurrealEstate, Season 1

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: George R. Olson and Tim Rozon talk SurrealEstate director and guest star Melanie Scrofano
“She had a feel for that goofy, weird, elusive tone that we had kind of created. She just stepped into it with such grace and such confidence.” Continue reading.

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: SurrealEstate creator George R. Olson talks world-building, characters, and more
“This felt like something that really had some legs because your only limitations are the number of houses and properties. [For each of those], there are hauntings with entities and demons and everything that you could think of.” Continue reading.

From Heather M. of TV Goodness:

Link: Tim Rozon talks characters and found family in SurrealEstate
“It’s been almost a decade since I’ve played a role without facial hair. I went to my first wardrobe fitting and they gave me Luke’s suit and I just started feeling the character immediately.” Continue reading.

From Victoria Ahearn of the Canadian Press:

Link: ‘Schitt’s Creek’ actors Tim Rozon, Sarah Levy reunite as co-stars on ‘SurrealEstate’
When the CBC sitcom “Schitt’s Creek” finished its run in April of last year just as the pandemic ramped up, cast member Sarah Levy anticipated a dry spell on the work front. Continue reading.

From CBC:

Link: New supernatural TV show shot in N.L. continuing to push production in province
The housing market in St. John’s has seen a boom over the past year and a half, but what if the houses for sale were haunted? That’s the premise of the latest TV show to be filmed in Newfoundland and Labrador, which will hit the airwaves later this month. Continue reading.

From Stephanie Webber of Us Weekly:

Link: Sarah Levy Reunites With ‘Schitt’s Creek’ Costar Tim Rozon in ‘SurrealEstate’: He’s a ‘Great Actor and Human Being’
Twyla and Mutt together again! Sarah Levy couldn’t put the “pilot script down” for SYFY’s SurrealEstate — and wanted to join the show even more once she learned her former Schitt’s Creek costar Tim Rozon was already attached as the star. Continue reading.

From Meredith Jacobs of TV Insider:

Link: ‘SurrealEstate’ Stars Tim Rozon & Sarah Levy on Why Their Characters Work Well Together
If you’re having problems selling your house because it’s haunted or possessed, you need look no further than the Roman Agency on SurrealEstate. Real estate agent Luke Roman (Tim Rozon) and his team of specialists handle the problem houses, the ones that scare would-be buyers (and sellers). Continue reading.

From Jeff Pfeiffer of Main Street Nashvile:

Link: Tim Rozon and Sarah Levy reteam for Syfy’s fun and frightening ‘SurrealEstate’
It’s been said to be a “seller’s market” for real estate lately. But even under such favorable conditions, the owners of the places featured in Syfy’s fun and frightening new scripted series SurrealEstate, premiering Friday, would find it impossible to unload their properties. A leaky roof or a crack in a foundation may not be deal breakers for motivated home buyers; poltergeists, demon dogs and portals to hell in a cellar, on the other hand, certainly are. Continue reading.

From Debra Yeo of the Toronto Star:

Link: From gunslinger on ‘Wynonna Earp’ to paranormal real estate agent in new series, it’s all surreal
Doc Holliday’s moustache almost came between Tim Rozon and Luke Roman. Rozon, the Montreal-born actor who played immortal gunslinger Doc for four seasons on supernatural dramedy “Wynonna Earp,” was on the phone earlier this week describing how he got the part of Luke, a realtor who specializes in haunted houses in “SurrealEstate,” which debuts Friday on Syfy and CTV Sci-Fi Channel. Continue reading.

From Alix Kingray of Horror Buzz:

Link: Interview with composer Spencer Creaghan
“SurrealEstate is what one might call a dream gig. George and Danishka were collaborators in the very nature of the word.” Continue reading.

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SurrealEstate haunts CTV Sci-Fi Channel, July 16

From a media release:

When there’s something strange in the neighbourhood, CTV Sci-Fi Channel calls in The Roman Agency from the all-new original series SURREALESTATE, to face down the paranormal. The 10-episode, one-hour spectral series hits the market Friday, July 16 at 10 p.m. ET.

Produced by Blue Ice Pictures, and shot last summer in St. John’s, Newfoundland, SURREALESTATE depicts real estate agent Luke Roman (Tim Rozon, WYNONNA EARP and SCHITTS CREEK) and his eclectic team of associates who correct unconventional problems in “metaphysically engaged properties” – aka haunted houses. New episodes will be available to stream weekly, on-demand at CTV.ca and CTV app.

What makes the team at The Roman Agency unique and in demand, is their uncanny ability to investigate and explain the truly inexplicable. The agency services include solving mysteries, closing portals, expelling demons, putting tortured souls to rest, and achieving the ultimate end: a sale.

Joining Rozon on this supernatural venture is his SCHITT’S CREEK co-star Sarah Levy as Susan Ireland, the neurotic real estate agent with a secret; Adam Korson (TEACHERS) as research specialist and former Catholic priest Father Phil Orley; Savannah Basley (WYNONNA EARP) as the no-nonsense office manager, Zooey L’Enfant; Maurice Dean Wint (DIGGSTOWN) as the resident “MacGyver” technology specialist; and Tennille Read (WORKIN’ MOMS) as client Megan Donovan. WYNONNA EARP star Melanie Scrofano also directs two episodes of the series and guest-stars in one. Check out a sneak peek.

In the premiere episode of SURREALESTATE (Friday, July 16 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CTV Sci-Fi), Luke Roman (Rozon), president of The Roman Agency, a boutique real estate residential brokerage with a whispered reputation for their ability to sell properties no one else can, checks in on a big, scary house in which he has a personal interest. New hire Susan Ireland (Levy) is thrown into the deep end on her first day.

SURREALESTATE is produced by Blue Ice Pictures in association with Bell Media and SYFY. George Olson developed the series for television and serves as showrunner and executive producer. Lance Samuels, Daniel Iron, Armand Leo, and Danishka Esterhazy also serve as executive producers.

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Links: Wynonna Earp Season 4 finale

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Old Souls”
“I think it’ll always make me cry. I feel bittersweet about it, but mostly so relieved and happy that Earpers seem to like it and find it satisfying. I always said, ‘I want you to find it satisfying.’” Continue reading.

From Radheyan Alexandra Del Rosario of Deadline:

Link: ‘Wynonna Earp’ finale: Creator Emily Andras on unexplored Season 5 stories, how Syfy series made her “Braver In Every Way”
“What was important to me on Wynonna Earp with the finale is to give everybody some version of happiness. It didn’t have to be perfect because Wynonna Earp, both the show and the heroine, have never been perfect.” Continue reading.

From Tracy Brown of the Los Angeles Times:

Link: Commentary: ‘Wynonna Earp’ came at a dark time for queer women on TV. Then it changed the game
But it’s the show’s treatment of another relationship that has made it so groundbreaking and meaningful, particularly to LGBTQ viewers: Waverly’s romance with town sheriff Nicole Haught (Katherine Barrell). Continue reading.

From Chancellor Agard of Entertainment Weekly:

Link: Wynonna Earp creator and cast unpack the ‘perfect’ finale, tease cut scene
“I personally couldn’t have loved it more. I was so happy. The arc of Doc over the four seasons and the way it came together, I was just so overwhelmed.” Continue reading.

From Lisa Weidenfeld of The AV Club:

Link: Freed from the curse that started it, Wynonna Earp became a meditation on heroism
When Wynonna Earp returned for a fourth season following a bewildering 18-month odyssey of funding difficulties, near-cancellation, and miraculous recovery just as dramatic as anything happening onscreen, it felt like a very different beast. Continue reading.

From Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Line:

Link: Wynonna Earp boss hopes Syfy finale made you feel ‘All the Things’ — Plus, scoop on one happy wedding accident
“But those two characters have certainly earned the chance to try to be happy, whatever that means to them.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp’s Katherine Barrell on Nicole’s growth this season
“We’ve seen Nicole in a way we’ve never seen her before. She was out of control, really broken, not trusting herself, not particularly strong, but I think it’s important from a storytelling perspective to see her not at her best.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp stars on Wynonna and Doc’s happy ending
“I thought that Waverly and Nicole would get a happy ending. I thought that Wynonna and Doc would just never get it together.” Continue reading.

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Links: Wynonna Earp, Season 4B

From Meredith Jacobs of TV Insider:

Link: ‘Wynonna Earp’ Stars on Nicole’s Pledge to Waverly, That Twist for Doc and More
“In many ways, he became a vampire for a beautiful reason: to protect [his daughter] Alice in case something happened to Wynonna. At least Doc would have some sort of power to protect her.” Continue reading.

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: Worldwide fans unite for town’s billboard campaign to save Alberta-shot Wynonna Earp
Hundreds of fans of the Alberta-shot supernatural western Wynonna Earp will be showing their support next week for the embattled series and its home base of Didsbury as part of a worldwide #BringWynonnaHome campaign. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Better Dig Two”
“We knew we had to finish a lot of the long-standing arcs of the season. We obviously have a very important event, hopefully, to get to in the next episode.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp’s Dani Kind on what makes Mercedes so resourceful
“She’s clearly smart, but also just a little ‘Whatever’ about everything. Ignorance really is bliss. There’s a reason why when a nuclear bomb goes off the only one to survive is the dum-dum who fell in the hole. That’s Mercedes and she just looks good doing it.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Zoie Palmer on Jolene’s return to Purgatory
“The place I have to go to get access to her is a challenge, for sure. I think it’s a challenge for Dom as well.” Continue reading.

From Nora Dominick of BuzzFeed:

Link: Melanie Scrofano reflects on “Wynonna Earp” and how much personal growth she owes to the show
“What I love is that Emily doesn’t take things like that lightly. At first, Wynonna’s drinking starts out as a fun quirk, like “Oh, she’s just a heavy drinker,” but I’m gratefully we got to dig into what is the reason for that.” Continue reading.

From Sadie Gennis of Vulture:

Link: Melanie Scrofano on facing Wynonna Earp’s demons and saying good-bye
“In that scene, it’s another person making her feel like who she is is flawed — and not just flawed, but deeply dysfunctional. I think anybody can relate to being compared to somebody that you have no respect for or that you know has done horrible things.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Life Turned Her That Way”
“We actually toyed with the idea of a couple of different characters. We all discussed who the best character to take Waverly on this journey would be. Who would help her understand herself? Whenever you have a chance to work with Zoie Palmer you just leap at it.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp writer Noelle Carbone previews “Life Turned Her That Way”
“So the job with 410 was to give Wynonna a really primal dilemma, and then a slew of impossible decisions to make along the way to resolving her dilemma.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp’s Savannah Basley provides inside into the Clanton heir
“There was something else to her that I really wanted to show. People aren’t just evil to be evil. Bad guys never think they are the bad guy. They think they’re doing the good thing.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Crazy”
“The genie is inherently manipulative in what she says, and her interpretation of what Wynonna is going through was self-serving and an attempt at self-preservation, but the curse is over, too.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp writer Matt Doyle previews “Crazy”
“Because we’ve been telling a story of people dealing with trauma and the after-effects of being separated for over a year, we wanted to give us, our characters, and the viewers, a breather.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Andrew Phung on the joy of returning home to film Wynonna Earp
“It’s been such a fun journey to get to the show, but it’s so rewarding because this character means the most of all the ones I’ve been in play for. I’m a Calgary kid coming home to play in his backyard and it’s the best. I have history, too, with so many crew members. It was great.” Continue reading.

From Meredith Jacobs of TV Insider:

Link: Wynonna Earp star Tim Rozon explains how Doc’s past informs his move against Amon
“We never really talked about it, but he never got the closure of the revenge. He understands how important it is for the demons to get their own vengeance, so he let them [have it].” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Hell Raisin’ Good Time”
“We sort of tested the waters with a Christmas episode, and everyone seemed to enjoy it, so Halloween just felt like a hilarious and well-matched event to pair with a demon-hunting cowgirl show.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Director Paolo Barzman on being part of the Wynonna magic
“I created an environment of safety and warmth where we could try something. I wanted to give them freedom.” Continue reading.

From Lesley Goldberg and Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter:

Link: How ‘Wynonna Earp’ Is Fighting for Its Future
“The reality of Wynonna Earp, for better, for worse, speaks to where we are in the general landscape of television. It is a cult show with a passionate audience from all over the world. It speaks to people in particular who maybe don’t see themselves represented on television and certainly not in genre very often.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp production designer Trevor Smith on bringing the garden to life
“We knew early on that the Garden wasn’t going to be this lush, tropical, and botanical image that we all have in our heads from a Biblical standpoint.” Continue reading.

From Meredith Jacobs of TV Insider:

Link: ‘Wynonna Earp’ Star Tim Rozon Teases an Ending That Will Make Earpers Happy
“I tried to enjoy every second I possibly could with that character. It’s difficult, now that it’s more real than ever that the show most likely isn’t coming back, to say goodbye. … It’s one of my most favourite characters I ever played. He just has a special place in my heart, the ol’ cowboy.” Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp writer Shelley Scarrow previews “Love’s All Over”
“Thinking of it as a premiere, it’s definitely different. After the dramatic and emotional two-parter that was “Holy War”, it felt to the story team like there was a little emotional reset required.” Continue reading.

From Eric Volmers of the Calgary Herald:

Link: Never say die: Melanie Scrofano remains hopeful about Wynonna Earp’s future
Much like the character she plays, Melanie Scrofano is not one to bow to authority. Continue reading.

From Chancellor Agard of Entertainment Weekly:

Link: Wynonna Earp boss teases heroine’s dangerous ‘cockiness’ in final episodes
The return of Peacemaker may not be completely a good thing for Wynonna Earp. Continue reading.

From Bridget Liszewski of The TV Junkies:

Link: Wynonna Earp: Emily Andras talks “Love’s All Over”
“The finale of 4A was so serious so it did feel nice, and this did feel like a different season because time had passed and it was summer.” Continue reading.

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