SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for Anna Pigeon Season 1, Episode 1.

The Anna Pigeon series premiere made a big impression, and not just because of its title character. Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Paulina Alexis co-star as FBI agent Frederick Stanton and Anna’s fellow ranger Zoey Bear Child, and they bring their own doses of personality to the USA show. So what do they love about their characters?

In an interview with TVBrittanyF.com, Paulina and Ronnie spoke about what appeals to them about Zoey and Stanton. They also talked about working with Tracy Spiridakos, and each of their characters’ different relationships with Anna. Plus, find out about the significant influence executive producer and director Lea Thompson had on their work.

Brittany Frederick: Ronnie, you had a fantastic first scene in Anna Pigeon with Stanton foiling that robbery. What was it like to have that as your starting point?

Ronnie Rowe, Jr: It was pretty badass, I’ve got to admit. [Laughs.] Lea [Thompson] said, she’s like, I want your entrance to be pretty epic, and I think she nailed it. I think she nailed it. I was super-happy when I saw it, and they made Frederick look like a cool dude. So I’m happy.

Paulina, viewers haven’t seen a whole lot of Zoey yet. What was your first impression of the character?

Paulina Alexis: When Lea asked me to be in this [TV show], she was like yes, I know you’re funny, but you’ve got to be serious too. And I’m like okay, yes, I could be serious. I specialize in comedy, but I can be serious when I need to be.

I read the script; I play a park ranger, so that’s kind of out of my comfort zone, but I found it to be very fun. Zoe was very fun… If I was to ever be a park ranger, it’s probably along the lines of how I would be—serious, but I could still crack jokes and stuff like that. You don’t see me that much in the beginning, but I swear I get in there more. We have some pretty cool scenes coming up.

Did either of you learn anything about your characters as the season went on that was particularly fun?

Rowe: That he rides a horse.

Alexis: I never got to ride a horse on any of my shows. I always wanted to, so that’s the first opportunity I had to ride a horse.

Both of your characters have close relationships with Anna, but the dynamics are very different, so how would you describe working with Tracy Spiridakos and building those rapports?

Rowe: Frederick and Anna’s relationship is very similar to mine and Tracy’s relationship. Our banter—we like to poke fun at each other. It starts off camera, and I think because we have such a great rapport off-camera, it kind of leaks into on-screen. It really makes for [an] easy transition. Tracy’s so easy to work with. She’s super-talented and dedicated to what she does and how she does it… Even in the chemistry read, we had so much fun. So it makes it really easy to connect with her, and just have a rapport and a friendship and a relationship with her.

Alexis: I would say the same thing. I really look up to Tracy. She’s so super nice; she’s an awesome person, and she’s very easy to work with… She’s so good at her job. She can almost like do anything you ask her to do. And she’s very easy to work with. She’s very nice, and I would say my connection with Tracy is almost similar to Zoey and Anna.

Zoey really looks up to Anna and she wants to be this badass park ranger someday, and I think Tracy’s a pretty cool actress. I want to be so cool like her someday. She was very helpful whenever I needed to know something more; she was always there to lay it down for me and help me understand more of what’s going on. She’s great.

Ronnie, we just saw you in the Lifetime movie When I Said I Do, where you were doing search and rescue scenes in the woods with Eric Johnson. Did any of that movie help you in the wilderness of Anna Pigeon?

Rowe: I did it after AP, so Anna Pigeon helped me for When I Said I Do. But but that was so much fun, working with Eric and Sarah Drew. They’re a hoot, and their chemistry was so amazing, and they were so fun to work with. Again, that was an example of the rapport that we had off-camera just poured into the rapport that we had on camera. That was a ton of fun.

Paulina, along those lines, as you mentioned you’re known for comedy in past shows like Reservation Dogs. But there’s still comedy in Anna Pigeon, so what has it been like for you to sort of be the comic relief here?

Alexis: It was cool. I was really happy when Lea was like, you’re the youngest [character], so you get to be yourself more and stuff like that. I was like okay, I could do that… I could be dramatic. I could be funny. Could be serious. Whatever Lea wanted.

Your characters get to flourish on their own, not just as foils to Anna. So do you have any favorite moments specifically for Zoey and Stanton?

Alexis: I like the fact that I get to ride a horse. I ride horses myself every day, and I race—but I ride bareback, and on this show I had to ride in a saddle, which I had to kind of learn. I don’t know if you can notice it in the first couple episodes, but I’m like bouncing on my saddle. I’m learning how to ride [in] a saddle at the same time. But that was pretty fun.

Rowe: A few episodes in, there’s some things that happen that Frederick kind of has to do on his own, and I look forward to that. I wish I could say more, but when you guys tune in, you’ll understand what I’m talking about. But there’s definitely stuff that we got to do without Anna, and it was a lot of fun.

We’ve used that word “fun” a lot in this, because there is that sense of fun in the show. What have you been taking away off-camera in your Anna Pigeon journey?

Alexis: I just like meeting new people, making new friends, and going on this big adventure. Being in the bush and the mountains with all these people for this long, you really get to know all of them, and everyone’s just amazing. All the crew and all the cast—everyone’s all really good people.

Rowe: I would say patience. Wanting to know the outcome but not knowing the outcome, and really just enjoying the moment… We don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m just so proud of what we did and I’m elated that I got to connect with the people that I got to connect with. So I think it’s being patient, but also just being in the moment and letting it happen the way that it happens.

Any last words or hints that you want to drop to the audience as they venture into the rest of the Anna Pigeon season?

Rowe: Stay tuned and expect the unexpected. There’s a lot of red herrings, and you think you know, but you don’t. It’s a fun ride, and I just think the series is such a well-balanced representation of people and of the human experience. I think Tracy does a really good job of just being such a well-rounded character herself, but then we have so many other characters that are just so colorful as well. So stay tuned, and I think you’re going to be pleasantly surprised.

Anna Pigeon airs Fridays at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on USA. Photo Credit: Michelle Faye/Courtesy of Versant Media.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.