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NEW YORK, April 9 (UPI) -- Melanie Scrofano said she hopes her supernatural western, Wynonna Earp, is remembered as a TV show that inspired people to be authentically themselves and accepting of others. "However you present yourself to the world is OK. You don't need to tick other people's boxes. You just need to be whoever you are, and that's good enough," the Canadian actress, who plays the titular heroine, said in a recent Zoom interview with reporters.
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While the comic book adaptation celebrates female strength and teamwork, Scrofano thinks it also sends a powerful message about redemption and forgiveness.
"Wynonna's not perfect. She's done some bad things, but she's still a good person. She's made mistakes, but she still has good things to offer the world," Scrofano said.
Wynonna is the fierce, whiskey-chugging, trash-talking great-great-granddaughter of legendary lawman Wyatt Earp. The show followed her as she dispatched the revenants (reanimated villains) Wyatt killed more than a century earlier.
Tim Rozon plays her on-off beau Doc Holliday, Wyatt's best friend who suffered from tuberculosis until a witch gave him eternal life and threw him down a well.
Doc escaped as Wynonna inherited her mystical powers on her 27th birthday. He also fathered Wynonna's daughter and fought as part of her demon-hunting team, which included her half-angel sister, Waverly (Dominique Provost-Chalkley), and Waverly's sheriff fiancee, Nicole (Katherine Barrell.)
Season 3 aired in 2018 and the fourth and final season, which was greenlit after a passionate fan campaign, is set to wrap on Syfy Friday.
Scrofano promises the show's many twists and turns will pay off in the final episode.
"All of these characters and relationships that have been building and building, and the struggles that each character has been dealing with, have all been for a purpose. They are leading to something," she teased.
The role of Wynonna allowed Scrofano to explore action, horror, comedy, drama, mythology and romance -- a rare combination for a single screen project.
"She's ruined me for other roles, for sure. Wynonna has been such a specific gift. She's just spoken to me on so many levels and I didn't have to reach far to play her. Everything else kind of feels like the ease is not there," Scrofano said.
Showrunner Emily Andras said at New York Comic Con 2019 -- before the coronavirus pandemic upended the entertainment industry and delayed productions around the world -- that she would have been heartbroken if Wynonna Earp didn't get her hard-won fourth season.
"I would have felt awful and I think I would have fought to do any kind of closure -- a movie, a puppet show. It's not the same, but I probably would have tried to tell you what our plans were and how we would want it to end," Andras told the crowd.
She went on to say she filled Season 4 with all the over-the-top elements viewers loved while also reflecting some of what was going on in the real world.
"Those themes of fighting and resistance and rebellion and speaking truth to power and fighting for what matters to you are very much in the zeitgeist," Andras said, noting that Season 4 is about this "incredible, dysfunctional family fighting each other and fighting for each other."
Scrofano -- sitting beside Andras, Provost-Chalkley and Barrell, said she was excited to see what Wynonna would do when she wasn't bound by a curse to battle evil and Waverly was trapped in another dimension.
"The whole premise of the show is that Wynonna is the heir, but now that she is not, what is she?" Scrofano said. "It's going to be really interesting to see her navigate that."
Turning to Provost-Chalkley, she added: "It's good for you. I'll tell you why."
"Because now Wynonna has nothing," Scrofano said, to which Provost-Chalkley replied, "Waverly is going to help you find that purpose."
"And Wynonna is going to find Waverly," Scrofano said as she fist-bumped her co-star.
"In all seriousness, now Wynonna has nothing to fight for but you. It's not like Wynonna has to save the world. Wynonna has nothing going on. Wynonna's got to go find her baby sister."
Andras said she has loved writing for female characters with "completely different voices and different energy," and praised the actresses who played them.
"It's such a testament to the skill of the women on this stage and their range and their willingness to change and push themselves," she said.
"They are three of the most extraordinary women in my life, truly inside and out, and I think that chimes through in their performances, and it has just been such a joy to write for you all and push you and see you grow and see you be loved by everybody."
