Kristin Kreuk carries ‘Burden of Truth’ in CW summer drama
For Kristin Kreuk, it’s no burden to return to the network that has been her home for most of her career. The former “Beauty and the Beast” and “Smallville” star is back on The CW this summer in “Burden of Truth,” which starts its U.S. run Wednesday, July 25 (having already aired its first season in Kreuk’s native Canada). Also an executive producer of the drama, Kreuk plays Joanna Hanley, an attorney in her father’s (Alex Carter) firm who returns to her hometown to defend a pharmaceutical company against charges of causing locals to become ill ... and uncovers what actually is felling those young women. “It’s really wonderful to have people be so supportive,” the pleasant Kreuk says of her ongoing CW connection. “I feel thrilled about it, and I don’t think the show is typical for The CW. It’s a small-town show, and though there are younger people in it, it involves a lot of adults also. I think it’ll bring something different to the network.” Also featuring “Rookie Blue” alum Peter Mooney as a former classmate who starts as Joanna’s courtroom opponent and eventually becomes her ally, “Burden of Truth” has definite social relevance. “I think it’s really important for us to look at what actually happens in communities,” the Vancouverborn Kreuk reasons. “In legal series, we often get caught up in the office drama or the case work. In this show, you live with the people in the town, so you can see how it’s affecting them and their families. “These girls are all in their senior year of high school and thinking about their futures, and you can see what happens to them. This also looks at what it’s like to be in a single-industry town, and as that town starts to fall apart, what it does to the people there. It’s where all the mysteries of Joanna’s childhood reside, and she goes back with this practical but also romantic notion ... and everything she thought was good in the world gets yanked away. It really challenges her to look at the choices she’s made and completely re-evaluate them.” With Season 2 now in production, “Burden of Truth” has been a challenge for Kreuk in another way. While making it, she’s fulfilling a promise she made to herself by going back to school, something she put on hold when her professional life took off. “I’m going term by term,” she reports. “It’s going to take me a while to get through this degree because I keep taking work, and also, I don’t like doing a ton of classes at once. Each semester, I just take on a couple, sometimes three. And I really enjoy it.”