Blood and Treasure star Katia Winter talks the inner life of Gwen

Blood and Treasure has been an adventure for Katia Winter, who told Hidden Remote why she was so excited to play Interpol agent Gwen Karlsson.

TV fans aren’t the only ones enjoying Blood and Treasure. Katia Winter, who portrays the tough as nails Interpol operative Gwen Karlsson on the CBS series, was thrilled when the character came her way.

Katia spoke to Hidden Remote about what she loves most about Gwen, the training she put in for the role, and how the wild plot twists of this show compare to the craziness of her previous series regular part as Katrina Crane on FOX‘s Sleepy Hollow.

Get to know more about Katia Winter in our interview below, then don’t miss the next thrilling chapter of Blood and Treasure when it airs at 10 p.m. tonight on CBS!

Hidden Remote: Your role in Blood and Treasure stood out to you for a specific reason?

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Katia Winter: I’ve been wanting to do something a little more physical for along time—I’ve been training martial arts [for] seven years—and I’ve always wanted to play a detective. Interpol would be in the same realm.

There’s a lot of fight scenes, so that was the initial [appeal], and also traveling the world. We went to Morocco and Italy and Montreal.

HR: Did you do any specific training, or need to know anything about Gwen’s story in advance to develop her character?

KW: I learn what I need to know about my character so I know what’s going on. I think it helps me to focus on what I’m doing, and also keep the character sort of surprised at times, or in the dark. So I felt good [focusing] mainly on my story. Also, I did a lot of physical training to stay in shape.

HR: You’re no stranger to shows where a lot of big things happen; your work on Sleepy Hollow is an example. How does Blood and Treasure compare to your past experiences?

KW: Every job is so different, When you finish one job, you gravitate to doing something completely different or opposite of what you came from, and I’ve been doing a lot of heavy drama. I did a couple indie movies that required a lot of emotional drain on me, so then I was like I just want to do something fun. What’s fun about my character is, she has rage but she’s very contained. That was quite refreshing actually, to not have to be so emotional all the time.

HR: Because Gwen doesn’t let a lot show, how did you figure out her inner life? Did you have to make decisions about things we don’t see on-screen?

KW: I wasn’t sure if I was doing the right thing, because we were already filming. We block shot it so I was only in like a few scenes here and there in the beginning. I was like, am I doing this right? Is this working? Because everyone is so animated all the time, lots of things are happening, and I’m just taking it really straight.

That was kind of the point of her—she’s the only one in the story that has no personal agenda and she just wants to get her job done. What was interesting to understand [was] how people stereotype Swedish people. They’re very organized, very by the book, which I guess is true, so it was fun to see it from the outside and sort of exaggerate it a little bit. I did a lot of study on my own people.

Katia Winter stars as Gwen Karlsson in CBS’ Blood & Treasure. Photo Credit: JSQUARED/Courtesy of Persona PR. /

HR: Do you think there’s ever a chance her walls will break?

KW: Yeah, definitely, I think her exterior is going to crack at some point. There’s going to be some shifts in the dynamics through the characters.

HR: You mentioned your martial arts training. So outside of Blood and Treasure, do you have other action-oriented interests?

KW: I’m hugely into training and stuff. I got into martial arts seven years ago, and I’ve been wanting to become something like Tom Cruise. I’d love to do more action; I love doing my own stunts. I went skydiving and I’ve taken my motorcycle license. I like building things—I love working with wood and I have my power tools and I like working with my hands.

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Blood and Treasure airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on CBS. For more on Blood and Treasure and other CBS shows, follow the CBS category at Hidden Remote.

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