After more than four decades onscreen, Robertson is still acting, writing, producing — and preparing to direct her first feature.
When Kathleen Robertson was growing up in Hamilton, Ontario, becoming an actor didn’t exactly sound like a realistic career plan. Nobody in her family worked in the industry, she wasn’t especially outgoing and she wasn’t a theatre kid. Dance was her first introduction to performing, with classes four nights a week after school.
At age 10, she went to an open call for a National Film Board project and got the part. An agent followed, then more work, including the Canadian series Maniac Mansion. By 19, she had moved to Los Angeles.
“I remember kids making fun of me when I would be like, ‘I’m going to be an actor,’” she says. “They would be like, ‘Yeah, right. Good luck with that.’”
Even now, Robertson seems a little surprised by the path her life took. “I sometimes wonder myself,” she says. “It is kind of insane when I look at where I grew up and nobody in my family was in the industry.”
Depending on when you first encountered Robertson’s work, you may know her as Clare Arnold from Beverly Hills, 90210, Theo from Scary Movie 2, Kitty O’Neill from Boss, Hildy Mulligan from Murder in the First or from her work with Gregg Araki in Nowhere and Splendor. She later pursued writing and producing as well, creating Swimming with Sharks, and now balances acting with a growing slate of projects she’s developing herself.
One of those acting jobs is Reacher, a show Robertson knew was popular before joining, but maybe not quite as popular as it actually was.
“I don’t think I maybe understood the level of how popular it was,” she says. “It’s been really cool to sort of see people’s responses.”
In Season 4, Robertson plays Elspeth Sampson, the wife of a congressman in the early stages of a presidential run. Elspeth had political ambitions of her own, but ultimately stepped back to support him.
“She’s a force,” Robertson says. “We really wanted to make sure that their marriage felt real and rooted and based in love. They kind of have no secrets from each other.”
The timing worked, too. Robertson had been spending a lot of time writing, developing and producing, so there was something nice about taking a job where she could simply act and let someone else worry about running the show.
She also has nothing but good things to say about Alan Ritchson, whom she credits with setting the tone on set. She describes him as funny, kind, hardworking and “an amazing joy to work with.”
Robertson has also been appearing on Tracker as lawyer Maxine whenever her schedule allows. There’s no real formula for what she chooses next, and there never seems to have been one. Back in the late ’90s, after becoming known to millions as Clare on Beverly Hills, 90210, she took a sharp turn into Gregg Araki’s world with Nowhere and later Splendor.
“I think everyone was a bit like, ‘Huh. OK. This is interesting. This is a very strong choice,’” she says.
Robertson didn’t see it that way. For her, working with Araki felt much more natural.
“I’ve always said, to me, that’s much more my sensibility of who I am artistically than 90210 ever was,” she says. “If anything, I felt like I was always kind of the oddball on that show and a bit of the black sheep.”
She and Araki are still close, and Robertson has enjoyed watching a new generation discover his work. And yes, she still has the iconic purple wig from Nowhere.
By 2001, Robertson was doing something completely different again with Scary Movie 2. More than two decades later, it’s still one of the projects people bring up to her.
Robertson played Theo, a gorgeous, aggressively early-2000s version of the “hot girl.” Robertson is obviously a striking woman, but Theo was meant to be something much more exaggerated.
“I had never really played that girl,” she says. “And I really wanted to almost make fun of it.”
The hair was fake, the nails were fake and padding helped create Theo’s figure. The whole thing was intentionally over the top.
“It was all a creation,” Robertson says. “I almost approached it a bit like commenting on that kind of aesthetic in a way.”
The movie also brought her together with the late Tim Curry, who became a good friend. Robertson has been working on a documentary about Curry and, when we spoke, she remembered the many conversations they had over the years about making Scary Movie 2.
“Tim and I have had many funny conversations about that movie,” she says.
Some roles disappear almost as soon as they’re over. Others somehow stick around for decades, and Robertson admits she can never predict which ones will.
“There’s so many things that I did when I was starting out that nobody ever saw,” she says. “And then there’s other things where it’s just like they won’t go.”
She’s also been writing more openly about what it was actually like to grow up in the industry. In February, Robertson contributed a guest essay, Why I’m Not More F*cked, to the Substack of her friend and Reacher producer Mick Betancourt. In it, she looked back at being a child actor and why she believes starting her career in Canada protected her from some of the harsher realities of Hollywood.
“I think because I was in Canada, I was really protected from that extreme level of fame,” she says.
She remembers avoiding some of the scrutiny young actors can face as they grow up in public: comments about weight, skin, teeth or simply not looking the way people thought they should anymore.
The fact that Robertson can write probably won’t surprise anyone familiar with the television work she’s created. What stands out on Substack is how little interest she seems to have in polishing herself for the reader. She’s funny, blunt and willing to say the thing that sounds a little uncomfortable.
In September, she started writing on her own Substack, where one of her first pieces, S*X SCENES BEFORE ANYONE GAVE A SH*T, looked back at filming intimate scenes long before intimacy coordinators became a standard part of the process.
That may be why the format suits her so well.
“Nobody’s editing me. Nobody’s giving me notes. Nobody’s telling me what they like or don’t like,” she says.
She wants to keep writing. Robertson has other television projects in development, wants to write a book and has already started outlining a thriller. She’s also pretty clear about why writing for herself appeals to her in the first place.
“There’s so much stuff that’s put out there that’s such bullsh*t,” she says. “We’re all struggling. We all have our things.”
Next up is Blessed Sacrament, a 10-episode CBC series Robertson created and will also star in, write, produce and showrun. It’s set in a hospital, but Robertson says it’s really more of a family drama, pointing to The Bear and Nurse Jackie as comparisons.
She’s also getting ready to direct her first feature. Robertson didn’t share a title during our conversation, but when the subject came up, her reaction pretty much said everything.
“God, it’s like time,” she says. “It’s time for me to do it.”
Reacher Season 4 is streaming now on Prime Video. Robertson also appears in Season 4 of Tracker, airing Sundays on CBS and streaming on Paramount+. Blessed Sacrament is slated to premiere on CBC in 2027.
Photo Credits:
Photographer – Mollie Pie
Producer & Creative Director – Eric Tam
Hair & Makeup – Racquelle Nembhard
