Katrina Law is excited for her fans to meet Karen Beach, the character she plays on her new show, The Oath, which can be streamed beginning this Thursday, March 8 on Crackle. Karen is a complex member of an uncompromising gang of police officers known as the Ravens. The Oath, an original, 10-episode series from Crackle and executive produced by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson and G-Unit Film and Television, takes us into a world of gangs made up of those that have sworn to uphold the law yet operate as corrupt and secret societies. Only a select few become members and once you're in you do what's necessary to protect each other from your enemies, both on the outside and from within. It's a family, but one you do not turn your back on.
Recently, Katrina spent time on a phone interview with Spoiler TV to talk about
The Oath, escaping hurricanes and her unique experiences helping to build schools in Nepal as one of the many charitable works she's involved in. The complexity of "family" and of this character is what drew her to
The Oath. Officer Karen Beach, bursts onto the screen in the opening moments of the premiere episode, leaping out of her squad car, gun drawn and doesn't back down from that moment on.
"The main thing is I love the body of work that I get to do. It's so dark and it's so gritty and I've never been offered this caliber of work before, this much, this depth of actor or character before, so I was so excited and when I got the scenes for the audition, I remember looking at the sides and just saying to my husband, 'Wow, this is, like, this is a man scene. This is a scene that they would have a man play.' And I thought it was wonderful and I really got to sink my teeth into something amazing and I think that was just the thing that drew me most to it. It was just the caliber of work that I was allowed to do on the show."
She attributes shooting on location in Puerto Rico for the cast becoming close rather quickly, calling it almost like a "summer camp" for actors, because they spent so much time together and hanging out with each other. She has nothing but praise for her co-stars.
"It's a really dynamic group that we have together. First of all, the actors that we put together, working with Ryan Kwanten (
True Blood) is a Godsend. He's such a good team leader and I think his work on the show is standout. J.J. (J.J. Soria-
Animal Kingdom, The Fosters) has been amazing. Corey's (Corey Hardrict -
East Bound and Down, NCIS) been amazing. It's just the group gets along like a family and I think it, for me personally, I think it really comes across on the screen."
The close bond of both cast and crew was tested during the three-month shoot last September when they had to be evacuated from the island because of Hurricane Maria. It was a unique experience for Law, but one she believes only brought the cast closer together.
"So, we were definitely, already in a very close-knit situation in the first place. But then you go through these hurricanes and not necessarily for us because we ... other than J.J. who got stuck on the island with his family during Hurricane Maria, but then immediately we were all evacuated. So, for us, it was more about survivor's guilt and looking back at everybody on the island just trying to text for as long as our text messages were, would go through to be, like, 'Hey, how are you? How's your house? Are you safe? Do you have water? Do you have electricity? Do you have power?' And then all of a sudden, it went silent for a long time. So, it was a lot of worry for the people who were left on the island because that's where our crew comes from, the - ... the majority of our producers and our casting director, who are our Puerto Rican casting director and everybody who's down there and I think the number one thing that we wanted to do was go back to the island and finish."
Eventually, the cast did return to the island, not only to film but to help.
"It was beautiful too because the cast just basically got together. A lot of people did a lot of volunteer work on the island, either through Red Cross or through an organization of their own, but everybody gave back somehow because this is our family now and season two is coming up and hopefully, we can work it out that we get to back to Puerto Rico, because I would love to see my Puerto Rican family again. They're so resilient, so strong and they really are what made the show as special as it, as it is because they were just as much a part of that summer camp as the cast."
And she is hopeful that second season will occur because she feels there's so much more of Karen's story to be told beyond the show's first 10-episode season.
"I have no idea what's gonna happen with Karen. I was so interested in the way the writers took the Karen Beach, what her storyline was in season one. I just thought it was so unique and so brilliantly written.They've basically said, 'Well, you know, maybe you could have some input on season two.' And I'm, like, ‘Actually, I think it's more fun to see what you guys come up with.'"
The 10-episode format offered by formats like Crackle is another aspect that drew her to
The Oath.
"I personally love 10 episodes. Right now, at this point in my career, I love the opportunity to be able to spend three or four months on a project and then jump on to another one and potentially go back and recur on another show, that's just where I am right now. Now, you know, some people love the 23 episodes of just kind of, you know, being able to sink their teeth into that and have the steady work coming through,but then also, it just, with the workload, there's something beautiful about the kind of work that's being allowed on Netflix and Hulu and Crackle and all these different, new streaming series.They're allowed to go outside of the box a little more than, than some network shows. And again, I still watch network shows and I love them and I love being a part of them so it's not a knock on that. It's just saying it's just something different so you get to really kind of choose what you want now."
That freedom gave her the opportunity to go back for a return visit to Arrow as fan favorite Nyssa Al Ghul.
When not filming Katrina spends a lot of time giving back, to the fans and to others. She's actively involved in a number of groups, Kitt Crusaders, SheThority, and last year spent time in Nepal, helping to build schools with a group called, buildOn. At fan events, the lines at her tables are some of the longest and she takes the time to make everyone who has come to see her feel special. But the fans are not the only ones who get something from these events.
"One of my favorite things about Comic-Con or any kind of convention is you get to see the people who are supporting you and you get to say thank you to them personally. It's just a wonderful exchange of energy. I don't ... I'm not really sure how to describe it but it, you know ... I don't wanna say that I'm ... How would you describe it? It's getting to see their faces up close and getting to meet some of these people, these people who have a massive influence on my life who provide me with continued work, essentially, by just watching the show, by being a fan of mine. They've provided this life for me. To be able to, like, say hi, say thank you, get to know their names, to see their life for a second, it's, it's a really wonderful thing and it makes me remember on, on time when I start to get cynical, when I start to get a little too much into the business side of it, or even the times where I'm, like, ‘Oh, I'm gonna start being a diva.' It's good to remember who this is actually for, for myself to be able to express ideas and for the people who are actually taking these ideas and watching on television and going, ‘Ah, somebody's telling me that I'm not alone out there. Somebody's telling me that this is ... this ... my life is understood by somebody.'"
And she is well aware of being a role model for the younger fans.
"Especially on something like a superhero show where people feel helpless in life a lot of times, they feel like they're bullied or they feel like they don't know how to make an impact, you're watching superheroes and these are the people that they're relating to, going, ‘I wanna be the Green Arrow. I wanna be Nyssa. I wanna be the Black Canary.' I wanna be these people and that's, I think that's so beautiful that these, this is what they're looking up to versus, like, ‘I wanna be a serial killer." You know what I mean? So, I think it's just so cool and especially when you see these kids and little girls, the little girls just kill me, especially when they walk up in their Batman outfits and now they're coming up in Black Canary costumes. And I'm, like, 'Yes!' You should finally have female superheroes, finally have these, these women that you can look up to and it's a wonderful thing to see. It's nice to be a part of this progress and this change and to kind of know that you're making an impact on somebody's life in a positive way and to see it firsthand."
Through a series of photographs and videos on her Instagram account, she shared the experience she and husband, actor Keith Andreen had, traveling to Nepal, living with villagers and working with buildOn, an organization whose mission is to break the cycle of poverty, illiteracy and low expectations through service and education, to build schools in the area. The experience had a profound effect on her.
"Nepal was humbling, it was completely exhausting and so spiritually fulfilling. Like, by the end of it, I was emotionally exhausted, but coming away my heart was just aching with just love and pride and, hope for this village and to see how well this community came together to say, ‘This is what we want for our children, what we want for our women.' How supportive they were, how hard everybody worked when they came out to the community site. They were all volunteers other than a couple of actual foremen who were on site but they, everybody there was volunteering and the kids were kind of walking around and you'd be, like, ‘Hey, you wanna do something?' And immediately, they're, like, ‘Yes!' And they would be so excited to be able to contribute. And the pride that they had in it, knowing that this is gonna be our school, this is what we're fighting for, it's just amazing. Normally when I do these things, I keep them private because, you know, like, you donate to the Red Cross, and you don't normally, post, like, ‘Oh, I just donated blah, blah, blah,' but I feel like there is a small responsibility being a public figure, knowing that the majority of my fan base is younger. So, I'm hoping that by sharing these experiences that it makes other people want to do the same thing and also, I was just, like ... let me a be a little more truthful about it because it was a really hard experience going and living in somebody else's house and, and not speaking the language and not knowing what the food is and just being immersed into a different culture so I was like, let me just be honest so somebody's not going into this thing with rose-colored glasses and getting smacked in the face with reality."
In addition to her hands-on work with buildOn, she set up a GoFundMe page and raised enough money not only for the schools in Nepal, Malawi, and Haiti, but also to sponsor 10 kids from an inner-city school in New York to go to build their own school in one of these countries. The funds basically paid for their passports, their vaccinations, their flight, anything that they needed and then they were sent them down with their host family to Haiti and built their own school or helped break ground on their own school down there.
Katrina Law always seems to be working. She's either creating intriguing, interesting characters, interacting with fans, or setting an example by always giving back, she lives life to the fullest.
SpoilerTV thanks Katrina Law for taking time for this interview. Also, thank you to Keith Andreen for providing the photo from Nepal.
The Oath premieres on Crackle, Thursday, March 8, 2018. Watch for a series review here next week.
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