“Tracker”'s Fiona Rene Weighs In on Reenie and Colter's Future: He 'May or May Not Fit into Those Goals' (Exclusive)
The actress, who also stars on Netflix's 'The Lincoln Lawyer,' also opens up about stopping to "smell the dang roses" during this exciting time in her career
The will-they-or-won't-they — or the have-they-or-haven't-they — between Reenie Greene (Fiona Rene) and Colter Shaw (Justin Hartley) on Tracker isn't about to end anytime soon.
"Fans can expect to get more of those stories, but I don't think that the writers room is going to stuff it down your throat in one episode," says Rene, 36, speaking to PEOPLE just after completing 11 escape rooms in a single day. (Is that a record? Someone call Guinness!) "We're going to learn over the long run."
On the CBS hit, now in its second season, Colter is a "rewardist" who uses his survival and tracking skills to help find missing people for whom someone is offering a reward. Along the way, he often has scrapes with the law, and that's where Reenie, a lawyer, swoops in to save the day. Very little has been revealed about Colter and Reenie's history, though their chemistry is undeniable.
"There have been driplets thus far," Rene says of Reenie's backstory. "In episode 4, we got a good old chunk of Reenie's goals and where Colter may or may not fit into those goals."
In episode 4, Reenie was in Napa at a leadership summit with a date, former coworker Elliott Rush (Michael Rady), when she called Colter to come and help locate a software company partner who'd gone missing. Colter gave her a hard time, but ultimately told her he hopes Elliott knows how lucky he is.
The episode also contained an update on Reenie and Colter's brother Russell (Jensen Ackles), who's made no secret of his interest in the lawyer. Their much-discussed dinner date happened, but Reenie's clearly not into it. "It's not like that between us," she told Colter.
"I mean, we can’t argue that he’s charming and attractive, but Reenie has some intense standards," Rene says of Russell. "Too intense, I think. Like I don’t know if Reenie would even live up to her own standards. I think he would have to work very hard to get to a place where she would give into that."
Rene laughs as she adds, "Unless it was a night of debauchery and she, you know…"
Asked if she thinks Reenie might have that kind of night in her, Rene concludes, "Workaholic women, there’s gotta be a moment where they let loose. I would love to see it."
Read on for more from Rene on Tracker as well as her other hit show, The Lincoln Lawyer, on Netflix.
PEOPLE: You have been so busy between Lincoln Lawyer and Fire Country and Tracker. Looking back at the last two years, what does that feel like?
FIONA RENE: Honestly, I’ve never run a marathon, but I feel like I spent all this time preparing for this marathon and now I’m in the middle of running it, and I haven’t had time to celebrate anything. I think even emotionally. And I think as humans we should probably slow down and do that, and I should take my own advice right now and just high-five my 14-year-old self and be like, “Hey girl, we’re doin’ it!" It’s so fun and I’m so grateful, but it moves so quickly that sometimes it’s hard to stop and smell the dang roses.
So that 14-year-old Fiona, who was she? What did she want that she would be so excited about today?
I think to just get to say that I can pay my bills by being an actor. That on its own is such a hard feat. But then there’s a part of me that is human and we always want more, we always want to keep raising the bar on ourselves. So it’s like, "OK, what other roles?" I mean, I did binge the first four episodes of Lincoln Lawyer whenever it dropped because I had not seen anything, and episode 4 we see my character get a little, well, she’s a mess. And it was really cool to look at the two characters I’m playing right now: one character who is so far from a mess to another character who is at the bottom of the barrel, and to kind of relate to both of those characters. That’s the one thing that I’ve been doing the most recently is going, "Man, you’re both of those things, and that’s okay." We are boss bitch and we are also bottom of the barrel mess, and that is okay.
What's one of the coolest things that's happened since you've reached this era in your career?
I had my second grade teacher Mrs. Brown from Shawnee, Oklahoma, send me a message on Facebook and say, "Hey, I would really love it if we could get like a signed picture or something that we can put in the classroom to show kids in Shawnee, Oklahoma, that their dreams can come true.” She messaged me that last week and I messaged her back like, "Give me an address right now. Like, of course!" Growing up, there were barely any Asian females, let alone an Asian female that had an aspiration to do something that was against all odds. I honestly still can’t believe it.
Are you like Reenie at all?
I’m a lot like Reenie in the sense that I push myself too hard and I’m a little mean to myself because of my expectations of myself. I think women in general are all like that.
Totally. Imposter syndrome is real.
Oh my god, it’s real! I’m like, "What can I be doing more?" instead of sitting down and being like, "Damn girl, good job." My mom passed away eight years ago and our favorite show was Law & Order, we used to watch it all the time. I just rewatched the pilot of Law & Order and was like, "Oh my god Tracker would’ve been her show. She would’ve watched that all day." So it's really cool.
You've got the hot mess character and the totally buttoned-up character under your belt. What haven't you gotten to play yet that's on your wish list?
There’s so many. There’s the character where she’s like a power mafia gang leader. There’s the character that’s like Matrix oracle that can see into the future. There’s the character that’s like, "I am part robot, part alien, part human." There’s so many. But child me — since we’ve been talking about kid us — I think child me, I’m a horror girl, so I want full possession. I want innocent, kind, good-hearted human that gets fully demonically possessed and has to find her way back from hell.
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Tracker airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. The Lincoln Lawyer is streaming on Netflix.