GN

Season 4 of Tracker brings production back to Los Angeles after three years in Vancouver. What does being back in LA mean to you personally and creatively?

Oh, it’s glorious! Look, I loved Vancouver, and those three years were incredibly important for me, but I missed my life! My people and partnerships, my home, my community, and my seventeen thousand unfinished creative projects. Haha. Being back means I don’t have to choose between the different parts of myself anymore. I get to be Reenie AND Fiona in the same city. What a concept!

GN

Reenie Greene has become such a fan-favorite character. What do you think audiences connect with most about her?

I think people love that she’s incredibly capable but also a little bit of a mess. Haha. She’s intelligent, fiercely loyal, outspoken, and has absolutely no problem telling Colter when he’s being an idiot. But... underneath all that confidence is someone who feels things very deeply. She’s strong without being invulnerable, and I think people recognize themselves in that.

GN

Reenie is smart, confident and often the person helping Colter out of trouble. What part of her personality is the most fun for you to play?

Her audacity! For sure... Reenie has this incredible ability to walk into a room, assess the situation, and immediately decide she’s in charge. I love it. Especially because underneath that confidence is a woman who’s still figuring things out, just like the rest of us. She just does it in better shoes.

GN

After four seasons with Tracker, how has your relationship with Reenie changed? Do you feel like you know her differently now?

Absolutely. I think in the beginning I was really drawn to her strength, but now I’m even more interested in what’s underneath it. Her tenderness, her fears, her development relationships, the things she doesn’t say. I know her well enough now to recognize when she’s putting on armor.... And honestly, sometimes I think she’s teaching me things about myself that I didn’t particularly ask to learn, like our similar issues with perfectionism for instance.

GN

You’ve said your time away from Los Angeles taught you a lot about independence, confidence and what you’re capable of. What surprised you most about yourself during those years?

That, although I truly rely on my community to keep me connected and sane... I actually really enjoy my own company! Which is great news because I’m with me ALL the time. Haha. I learned that I can build a life anywhere, that I’m far more capable than I sometimes give myself credit for, and that being alone doesn’t have to mean being lonely. There’s something really powerful about realizing you can be your own safe place.

GN

You directed, produced and starred in your short film Penelope. What made you decide it was time to stop waiting for permission and create something of your own?

I think eventually the pain of waiting becomes greater than the fear of doing. And I got there! Haha. I’ve always been a creator, whether it was theatre, pottery, painting, whatever. But filmmaking felt like this giant terrifying mountain. Eventually I realized I didn’t need someone to give me permission to climb it. I could just start scrambling up the side and figure things out along the way. Which is pretty much what we did.

GN

Now that you’ve worked on both sides of the camera, has directing changed the way you approach acting?

Oh, absolutely. I’m much more aware of the entire machine now. As an actor, you’re living inside one piece of the puzzle, but as a director, you’re responsible for the whole beautiful, chaotic thing. It’s made me more collaborative, more curious, and probably a little more annoying because now I want to know what every department is doing. But most importantly, I think I have more empathy and patience for everyone else on set.

GN

Horror and comedy seem to be two genres you’re especially drawn to. What do you love about bringing fear and humor together?

Because they’re basically cousins with wildly different coping mechanisms! The ratio between set up and punchline parallels the ratio between suspense and scare . A scream and a laugh are both the release after tension. I love that you can have an audience laughing one second and genuinely terrified the next. And then, if you’re really clever, you can sneak in something that breaks their heart. That’s my favorite kind of emotional manipulation. The consensual kind, obviously.

GN

One of the projects you’re developing explores your Chinese heritage and Oklahoma upbringing. How have those two parts of your identity influenced the storyteller you are today?

I grew up with these two worlds that, on paper, don’t necessarily belong together. But they belong together in me. There’s something really beautiful and sometimes absurd about that. I’m fascinated by the collision of cultures, mythology, family, survival, and the strange ways people learn to belong. I think I’m drawn to stories about people who don’t fit neatly into one box. Probably because I’ve never particularly enjoyed being put in one myself. 

GN

You’re also developing Method for Being, using some of the tools actors use to build characters as tools for understanding ourselves. What first made you realize acting techniques could be useful in everyday life?

I realized that as actors, we spend all this time asking incredibly useful questions about imaginary people. What do they want? What are they afraid of? What are they protecting? Why are they behaving this way? And then we go home and don’t ask ourselves any of those questions! Haha. Method for Being came from wanting to bridge that gap. If we can consciously build a character, maybe we can become more conscious about how we’re building and creating ourselves. To have more choice in who we already are, and how we FEEL in the scenes of our lives.

GN

Between acting, directing, producing, writing and your nonprofit work, what are you most excited to explore in this next chapter of your life?

Honestly? Learning to balance All of it. Which is both exciting and deeply inconvenient for my calendar. Haha. For a long time I thought I needed to choose one thing to be successful, and now I’m realizing that all these different parts of me actually feed each other. I’m most excited about creating work and spaces where those worlds can intersect. I don’t want a smaller life just because it’s easier to explain. I want to make TIME and SPACE for all the things that MATTER.

GN

At the end of a long day on set, what does your ideal night at home look like?

A very glamorous evening of sweatpants, cats, delicious food, and absolutely zero expectations of me. Maybe a bath, a movie, journalling, maybe I convince myself I’m going to read and then fall asleep three pages in. The real luxury is having nowhere else I need to be and nobody else I need to become for the night.

GN

Do you have a nightly ritual or routine that helps you switch off from work and prepare for sleep?

I try to take my MEDS every day: meditation, exercise, diet, and sleep. Unfortunately, I am also a deeply curious person whose brain likes to start seventeen new projects at 10 p.m. Haha. So evenings are really about transitioning out of doing and back into being. Sometimes that’s a bath, some stretching, a little gratitude practice, or just putting my phone down and remembering that the world will survive if I don’t answer one more email.

GN

Finally, what does the word “Goodnight” mean to you?

Ooh, I love this question. I think goodnight is a little act of surrender. It’s permission to stop trying to fix, accomplish, or figure everything out. To trust that whatever isn’t finished today can wait until tomorrow. There’s something really beautiful about ending the day without needing to have conquered it all. Just saying, “That was enough. I was enough. Goodnight.” And then hopefully getting eight hours of sleep. Haha.