We've been fans of Katia Winter for many roles including Nadia on Dexter, Katrina on Sleepy Hollow, and most recently, her association with Beebo as Freydis Eriksdottir on Legends of Tomorrow.

Winter has been very busy with many movies in various stages of production, but beginning tonight you catch her on CBS' thrilling summer series, Blood & Treasure on CBS.

She was kind enough to spend some time with us, and portions of our interview follow. If you wonder what didn't make the cut, well, I got things a little sidetracked while we gushed about Scandinavian television. The best parts remain, so enjoy!

What can you tell me about Blood and Treasure, and your part in it?

Blood and Treasure is sort of a treasure hunting show, with a touch of terrorism. Yeah, that's what I would say about it.

My character is Gwen Karlsson, who is an Interpol agent who is following a blood antiquity trail into terrorism. Yeah.

What kind of terrorism?

Sorry. That was probably terrible. Probably terrible description. What kind of terrorism? Well, they're using ... Well I'm not actually sure how much I can say about it. There might be a plot spoiling thing.

Is it political? Like a political type terrorism or is it more like an activist type?

You know they're using blood antiquities to fund their terrorism, essentially.

Sexy, Escapist Blood & Treasure is the Perfect Summer Show

Oh, okay. That makes sense. If you had to compare your character to any of the others you've played in the past, who would it be?

I don't think I've ever played a character like this before. I've always wanted to. She's very unapologetic and holds her own. She's not a damsel in distress and she really kicks ass.

When I first sat down with the showrunner and he asked me what I wanted to do this season, I said, because I'd just come out of filming quite a heavy drama, and I said, "I want to kick some ass and shoot some guns and not be saved."

That's what I got to do basically because I love doing my own stunts and I love fight choreography and stuff like that. It was fun also, because the female characters on the show are, especially Gwen, she's sort of the muscle.

Usually there's a guy and there's a girl, and he does all the fighting and saves her out of a difficult situation, but for both the female characters in this show, that's not the case.

Which, is fun and it's become kind of funny, you know, especially when you have a 6'3" massive arms dealer next to you who doesn't want to get involved at all. But, yeah.

What drew you to the script when you first read it? What were your first thoughts?

I thought that this would be a really fun show to do. It's travel the world and go on a big treasure hunt, essentially. Yeah and also I've always wanted to play a cop.

This has been a dream of mine since I was a kid, and I nearly went to the Police Academy before I started acting. I've always dreamt, "Maybe I can do it on screen one day," and when I read the script, 1) she was an Interpol agent and 2) she was Swedish.

Being from Sweden, I never played Swedish, and I never see Swedish characters, especially written like that, in their shows. That was fun. They also played a lot on the Swedish stereotype which is that they're kind of cold and don't have a lot of social skills.

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They're very efficient, very dramatic in a way and that was really fun to play with as well. Obviously, her being an Interpol agent was like the number one. I was like, "Oh that's really cool. I've never played that before."

You said it's an international setting? Does it film on location in different places or how does that work?

Yeah, it's filmed in, I mean it's set in Europe and in Egypt, but we were filming in Montreal for a big chunk of it because it looks very European up there and in Rome and in Morocco.

Oh, those are nice locations.

Yeah. I probably would have enjoyed Morocco more had I not gotten sick like a lot of people do when they travel there. But it was really good.

What did you enjoy the most about filming the show?

The crew and cast for sure. It's very rare, I think, especially over in Europe, big production.

There's so many characters and people involved, but there was no drama, no big egos. Everyone was really fun, and especially Sofia and Matt being the two lead actors.

They really set the tone of the show, and they were so amazing to work with, so that really makes a huge difference, especially when you need to travel and you need to work so closely, and you're far away from home and you know.

That was a pleasant surprise, actually. I gained many, many friends on the shoot.

Oh, that's nice. Can you describe the show in three words?

Fun, exciting, and surprising.

What about your character? Three words.

Efficient, stoic, and badass.

When you have down time, what kind of TV do you like to watch?

Oh God, I watch so much TV. 

Yay!

There are so many good TV shows. I prefer watching TV shows these days to movies because it gives you a lot of time to get to know the characters. Succession was one of my last favorite shows that I watched on HBO.

Did you see they just announced today when it's coming back, so it's not too long.

Yeah, I can't wait. That was so good. God there's so many. I can't think of any right now. I try to watch a lot of Scandi shows, actually. I'm very pleased to see that Netflix now buys in a lot of foreign shows so I can access it from here.

Right. What's your favorite Scandinavian show that's played in the US on any platform?

I recently saw a great one on Netflix called, oh God, Quicksand.

Quicksand, okay.

Quicksand, yeah. It was the first production I think that was made particularly for Netflix, but it's all in Swedish. Great. That was really, really good. That's the only one I think that I've been able to access from here, TV show wise, but there's a lot of TV shows, well apart from The Bridge, obviously.

Right.

But it's quite old now. The Bridge was great.

If you could be in any TV show that's on right now, what would it be other than your own?

Oh my God, probably Game of Thrones. Sure.

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Well get in line for that, huh?

Yeah, I know, like everyone else on this planet. Yeah, Game of Thrones or yeah. I'm a sucker for period pieces altogether, and I mean that's fantasy period, but mine is the dragons and all that. I can't imagine what it was like back then, way back when. Oh, Vikings! God I want to play a Viking one day. 

Oh, that would be great.

Yeah. So, one of those two please.

What's your sales pitch to get people to watch Blood and Treasure?

Okay, well I think it's a fun show for the whole family to watch. It fits men, women, children. What I like about it the most is the humor. It doesn't take itself too seriously because it's kind of an absurd show. The characters are really fun and they're so different from one another and goes against the stereotype, which is also fun.

We have an arms dealer and a priest and a really stoic Interpol agent, and then an art thief and an ex-FBI agent and you throw them in the mix, you know, it becomes kind of funny. They all pair out and we all do different things, obviously, along the way on the journey, but it's a fun, entertaining show. It's perfect for summer.

Yeah, because summer shows tend to be a lot more fun.

Yeah.

It's more, "Let's get in there and just enjoy ourselves." I'm looking forward to Blood & Treasure.

Yep. Yeah, I think there's less pressure, also, in summer shows, so I think that gives us a little bit more freedom to do things. Everyone isn't as involved or have too much to say The showrunner would always be like, "I can't believe we get to do this. Let's just try and do this," and CBS just goes, "Sure. Okay, cool. Go for it."

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If you're ready to "go for it," you can watch the two-hour premiere of Blood & Treasure on CBS tonight beginning at 9/8c only on CBS and CBS All Access!!

It comes highly recommended, so don't miss it!

Carissa Pavlica is the managing editor and a staff writer and critic for TV Fanatic. She's a member of the Critic's Choice Association, enjoys mentoring writers, conversing with cats, and passionately discussing the nuances of television and film with anyone who will listen. Follow her on X and email her here at TV Fanatic.