Exclusive Interview: Catherine Lough Haggquist Talks Motherland: Fort Salem, the Switch Community, and More

Catherine Lough Haggquist is one of the industry’s most prolific storytellers. With over a hundred credits to her name, Catherine has brought rich and layered characters to life in projects including Once Upon a Time, Iron Man: Armored Adventures, The 100, and Continuum. But she’s probably best known for her standout performance in Motherland: Fort Salem.

Set in an alternate America where witches ended their persecution three hundred years ago by cutting an agreement to fight for their government, Motherland: Fort Salem follows three recruits who go from basic training in combat magic to early deployment.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Catherine about Motherland: Fort Salem, her character’s journey throughout the three seasons, and more!

PC: One of the central themes of Motherland: Fort Salem is finding strength in one’s voice. Tell us about your journey as a storyteller and discovering your own voice.
Catherine: As a kid, I watched my dad deliver services at Renfrew United Church. He was a minister. He’s retired now. I remember seeing how he was able to keep the congregation invested and intrigued by the stories that he was telling. I found that to be a very powerful force for education, information, evolution, and inspiration. It was storytelling more than acting that caught my attention at first.

I started reading when I was around three. Being able to tell a story made me feel like my dad. I found it interesting when people wanted to hear what I had to say and wanted to hear what was going to happen next. That’s where it started for me. It was the combination of learning how to read and knowing what it was like to tell a story and watching my dad as he gave services.

PC: That might be the answer to this next question! Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Catherine: Wow. My dad was an inspiration for sure. My mom’s command of language is also amazing and that always leveled up my communication skills, trying to match hers, so definitely my parents.

My husband has been an amazing support in terms of the day-to-day of doing this—because this is such a hard job to do solo. He’s been both a support and my inspiration for how to do better.

Then other actors at different points in my career. There have always been actors who have led with empathy and education and said, “Here’s the next piece you need. All I ask of you is that when your time comes, you’re ready to pay it forward.” That’s everyone from Blu Mankuma to Freda Perry to Brenda Crichlow who were there at the beginning of my career all the way through to Amanda Tapping, who’s now in an executive producer/director role. Different actors have always shown up along the way to share with me and to help elevate my work.

PC: You’ve had so much success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Catherine: A couple and for different reasons. My perspective on my work has changed. I was very, very fortunate to be given a role on Once Upon a Time as Cinderella’s fairy godmother. Through that role, I was given the opportunity to go to a fan convention. That was a transformative experience for me. Because as actors we’re always concerned about what our contribution to the story is going to be, how many days we’ll be working, what size project it is, and what the story is. That reframed things for me. It became more about who was receiving the stories and what they mean to them.

Being embraced by the fans of Once Upon a Time for what I would consider to be an important but small role, really changed how I approach my work. It refocused it properly to be about who is receiving it at the end of the process. It’s made it so much more joyful for me because no matter what size your role it’s about whether this will make the audience happy. Will this make them have fun and be entertained, and will it give them something to think about? That’s made the work so much more satisfying for me no matter what I’m doing because I’ve changed the focus from it being about me to being what I have to offer and what this experience will be for someone else. That was really huge for me.

PC: You’re one of the stars of Motherland: Fort Salem. Like so many of the characters in this series, Petra has had a beautiful evolution, especially in Season 3 where the writers throw so much at her and you’ve handled that with so much nuance. As an actress, how do you create the space for yourself to dive into that arc?
Catherine: Getting clarity on the why. Why is she doing this? Then why is she doing that? Being really clear that none of this is happening in an ad hoc way in terms of storytelling and scriptwriting but also in terms of who Petra is. It’s really leaning into knowing what’s come before, knowing what happens next, knowing what her framework for making a decision would be in terms of what she holds important, and knowing her personal code. I’m so grateful for how Petra was written.

She has so much thrown at her, but she stays true to her core. But she’s still allowed to evolve. That’s a really tough balance for a writer where you don’t suddenly evolve into something else. You keep things that were her strengths and challenges at the beginning, but you let her grow over time. I’m so grateful that she ended up as the same Petra but better—evolved and grown without losing all the wisdom she came into the story with. It was a really, really wonderful acting challenge. I’m so grateful that Petra existed and grateful to the writers for giving me so much fun with her.

PC: Your fellow castmates have talked about how collaborative Eliot [Laurence] has been throughout this entire process. How did that openness and trust allow you to take agency over your character’s arc through the three seasons?
Catherine: I felt from Eliot that he was reinforcing the choices that I was making and the way that I was interpreting his words. After the first season, I told him how grateful I was to be a part of this world and how much I appreciated the allegorical style of his storytelling. That only got elevated further in Seasons 2 and 3. I don’t know how it tracked so perfectly with what was happening in the world and how it addressed the global challenges we were facing. I found it really inspiring and meaningful. In the end, I’m so glad that we got to wrap things up in Season 3 because I think those lessons live on as we continue in our current challenges and people find this story through streaming. It’s not an ephemeral thing where only those who were of that moment received it.

Hopefully, people will see approaches to dealing with challenges and solutions that are possible through exploring this story in the future. I’m really grateful to Eliot for reinforcing that we were reading the tea leaves correctly and also for giving us a sense of what might lie ahead so that we could wrap our heads around it. It was an amazing ride, and he assembled such a great team of folks like Brian Studler and Amanda Tapping, whom I mentioned earlier, and so many of the writers who were able to craft this world in a way that resonated with people because they could identify with it. That’s sometimes a challenge with sci-fi and fantasy where these characters seem otherworldly, and while we appreciate the entertainment value of watching them, we don’t necessarily identify with them. I think that the power of the Switch community of fans has been that they see themselves reflected in these characters.

PC: Like you were saying, I think one of the reasons why this show has resonated with audiences is it’s bringing much-needed representation to the screen. Having been a part of this industry for so long, why do you think it’s taken us so long to get to this point? When did you notice that shift?
Catherine: It’s the economics. With the democratization of technology, people are able to pick up cameras and tell their stories, having those stories catch the public’s imagination and interest and therefore dollars as well. That’s had an effect on the broader industry realizing that representation matters and that people want to see these stories and will go to where these stories are. So lead, follow, or get out of the way because the time has come for us to see ourselves represented, and either be a part of it or don’t complain when you’re left out. They’re very smart to know how their dollars are amassed. That’s important for actors to know too. It’s important for actors and writers to know that they can find their audience by telling authentic stories and creating characters who reflect the world they want to create. There are people waiting for it. There are people who are hungry for it.

PC: One of the benefits of television as a medium is the length in which you get to tell these stories. This is the longest that you’ve lived with a character. Has anything surprised you about the experience? What’s been the biggest takeaway?
Catherine: The biggest takeaway has been the gratitude I have for the people I got to collaborate with. I’ve been on so many things that have gone only one season and to have the opportunity to be on something that’s so well received for three seasons with people who I looked forward to working with every day was such a joy. You would look at the call sheet to see what was going to be filmed. It wasn’t about what was being executed. It was the excitement of, “Oh, so and so is coming in!” There were so many interesting, passionate, creative people who got to play in this world.

That was something that I’ve tried to make sure is part of my future projects. The ones that I’ve had since Motherland have allowed me to have the agency to set that tone and to create those conversations. Sometimes as actors, especially when we’re visiting a set that’s already established, we don’t necessarily feel we can change the chemistry or we don’t want to interfere. But sometimes we forget that we add to that, we bring things to that, and we add fresh takes to that. All of the people who joined us week after week for specific episodes added to that delight, energy, and creativity. I want to make sure that I’m doing that for other shows I get to be a part of.

PC: This show is so grounded in the relationships between all the characters. Which of Petra’s was your favorite to explore? Did that change from Season 1 to Season 3?
Catherine: Yes! From the beginning, there’s this sort of tension with Raelle around her mother that leads to her becoming like an additional daughter. That is a beautiful arc. Seeing her daughter Abigail grow in so many meaningful ways, and it’s so well tracked with Ashley [Nicole Williams] coming into her own from the beginning when we first met. So many times Petra tells Abigail that she’s proud of her, but it’s also Cat telling Ashley that she’s so proud of her. It’s really fun and meaningful to play those scenes. Then the arc with Alder and going from rivals to earnest respect for one another. Then playing the dynamics between Petra and Anacostia where they’re rivals for Alder’s attention in the beginning and now they’re sisters in the fight together. I refer to Demetria McKinney as my little sister. That was definitely one of the wonderful relationships that I took away from this adventure.

I wish I’d had more time to play with Amalia [Holm] because she’s such a wonderful human being. Also, Emilie Leclerc, who plays Izadora, was a delight every time we got to work together. Again, it was so fun. Also, Jessica Sutton as Tally. It’s such a testament to the writing that it wasn’t like, “We’ll deal with the Abigail relationship and then everything is superfluous.” Petra interacts with these individuals as individuals, and so they all had their own tracking that wasn’t dependent on the Abigail/Petra relationship. There’s incredible craftsmanship in the writing.

PC: As you get ready to close this chapter in your career, what legacy do you hope this show has created? If you could share parting words with Petra and the fans, what would they be?
Catherine: My parting words to the fans would be, “Thank you for watching. Thank you all for all you brought to this experience.” The embrace of the Switch community is like nothing that I’ve ever experienced in terms of support. Even when they were mad at Petra, they were still nice to Cat. That was really meaningful and showed the level of appreciation for the story, even with the twists and turns for each of the characters. The Switch community enhanced this experience for me, and that’s what I’m thankful for.

With Petra, I aspire to be more and more like her—her clarity and her willingness to change, grow, adapt, and lay claim to new knowledge and wisdom and put that into action without fear. We meet each new day, challenge, and choice in terms of what they are and do the best we can. There’s a clarity and confidence in her that I aspire to have in my own life and that I hope I brought to Petra. But I hope to bring some of that back from Petra as well so that that becomes more of how Cat does things.

PC: In addition to the incredible work that you’ve done on screen, you’re also a founder and educator. Can you tell us a little bit about Biz Books and the mission behind the endeavor and paying it forward, like you were saying earlier, through your teaching?
Catherine: We started Biz Books in 1996 as a brick-and-mortar bookstore. It was started with the philosophy that to grow an industry, people have to know what that means, what the craft requires, and how it works. Vancouver was very intent on growing the industry here. I had become involved in the actors’ union. I was on the first board of the Union of BC Performers as a teenager and stayed involved with them for a number of years. Through that experience, I had the opportunity to travel to other production centers in Toronto, New York, and Los Angeles. They all had resources available to people who wanted to learn about acting, writing, directing, camera crews, etc. I felt that Vancouver needed those resources too if we were truly going to grow, so we started Biz Books.

We had a second location that we moved to in 2001, and then in 2010, we evolved to what we call our online and on-location format at BizBooks.net. We still try to supply the resources to help people fulfill their creative dreams in the entertainment industry. We have a wide range of books that we ship all over the world now. That’s how that started.

I also have been teaching acting for a number of years. I focus on audition and business skills and believe that while more actors deal with the first two Cs, which are creativity and craft, they don’t deal with the second two Cs that make a career, which are commerce (understanding how the money is made) and communication, which is how to talk with their agents, directors, camera departments, wardrobe departments, and all these other areas that we need to talk to. How do we communicate effectively? So I was teaching those in person. But then when 2020 hit, one of the studios that I was working for moved all their classes online. The founder of the drama class decided that the online format wasn’t what gave her joy in terms of interactions with people. So she thought that was her opportunity to move on. I found that the opportunities in the online world expanded what was possible in terms of instruction for storytellers, so we took over dramaclass.com, my husband Nell and I. Now we offer a lot of online-based workshops to supplement actor, writer, teacher, and corporation communication instruction. We do everything from how to write a screenplay and screenwriting for actors to tax preparations and how to maximize the money that you do make by having it go further and by knowing how to file an appropriate tax return, and media training for actors and a number of skills that will enhance and make them more effective in the craft by knowing how to effectively navigate it as a career.

PC: What’s next for you?
Catherine: I just love continuing to explore and tell stories. I just finished an independent feature called Borderline, so I’m looking forward to seeing where and how that gets received. It was a wonderful, fun experience. When you finish something that’s been as consistent and long-running as Motherland has been for me, you wonder what the next thing is going to be. Even when you’re working between seasons, you’re like, “It’s been fun because I’m going back to Motherland…this will be fun and it is what it is.” But you don’t have that investment of what the reality of the other side is because you were always going back to that safe space. I’ve been really fortunate. I’ve worked on three projects since finishing Motherland. Each of them was welcoming and fun. Now that Borderline has been announced, I’m allowed to tell you that I was a part of that, but the others I’m still under NDA for.

To keep up with Catherine, follow her on Twitter and Instagram.