‘Tracker’: Jon Huertas on Reuniting With Justin Hartley for Thrilling Episode
It’s a This Is Us reunion!
Jon Huertas, who starred on the NBC drama with Justin Hartley, directed the April 21 episode of Tracker, which is already a hit for CBS (and is coming back for a second season).
“It was a great episode. It really came together really well. We worked really hard on it, so I’m proud of it,” Huertas tells TV Insider. “It’s always great to work with Justin.”
In the episode, “Aurora,” Colter (Hartley) searches for a missing girl who disappeared three years ago and is presumed dead. Her father shows him a newspaper photo from a recent county fair he’s convinced is her, and Colter’s search leads him into the world of amateur ghost hunting and paranormal activity.
Below, Huertas talks about reuniting with Hartley, directing this episode, and more.
Talk about reuniting with Justin and directing him again outside of This Is Us.
Jon Huertas: I’ll be honest, Justin was one of my favorite actors on the show to watch, to work with, and to direct. I was able to do all of that on This Is Us. And so when the opportunity came up, Ken Olin was like, “Hey, you interested in directing on this show, Tracker?” I was like, “Absolutely. I get to work with Justin again, you,” and there’s definitely an amazing crew in Canada, especially the DP, Ron Richard. He’s great. But to work with Justin again as an actor is just a joy. He’s so collaborative, so easy, so willing to play, to have different takes on each take for that take. So yeah, it was really a great experience to reconnect with him.
What excited you when you read the script about what you get to play with as a director?
The script is very much, for me, a thriller. It’s akin to movies like Seven, just those classic thrillers where characters are wearing masks and they have to be revealed and there has to be so much nuance in their performances so that we don’t jump the gun as far as, it’s this guy, it’s this girl, whatever. It’s a true mystery. I think the script had all of those elements, and so it was really exciting to be able to come in and kind of take Justin’s character from the world he was in before and put him in a new world. I think it’s a realm that his character hadn’t really been in before, this paranormal activity kind of world, where, is this stuff real? Is it not? Who’s playing with who? Who’s wearing a mask? And ultimately at the center of the story, there’s a girl who’s been taken and is missing and presumed dead.
Colter’s search takes him into this abandoned hospital and the world of amateur ghost hunting and all that. That gave you quite a bit to play with, right?
Yeah, and finding the right actors was, I think, paramount for me. Being an actor and having worked with so many different actors, I think that’s probably one of my strengths, is recognizing who’s got a real handle on the character and the arc of that character within the story when they put themselves on tape and we watch those tapes and then meet with them. We had some incredible actors come in and play some quirky characters, some scary characters, and I was really, really, really happy with the cast we were able to assemble to help us tell this story.
…What’s great about directing in television is that you can bounce between genres and it helps you develop the different muscles. When it comes to some directors, they can get, in film especially, pigeonholed: They do sci-fi or thrillers or whatever. For me, it’s about letting the script kind of guide me. Being an actor, the way that I have always approached the work as far as breaking down my character, my wants, my objectives, my needs, my obstacles, all that stuff, as a director, you gotta do that for all the characters and for the story itself. And so [it’s about] allowing the script to just I think guide me on how best to tell the story. And as a huge fan of TV and film myself, I know what I like, so I thought, let me just let the story speak to me and then put on pixels—I was going to say put on film, but we don’t do that anymore—what I like and what I would like to see and how I would like to be pulled through the story, and those moments, I think, find themselves with a great script.
Part of directing as well is really working with the writer and the showrunner in prep. We have a full week of prep before we start shooting and really working with them on the script and in the locations that I end up picking, and how do we now take the script and mold it to the locations, mold it to what my sensibility is, but retaining the integrity of the script and what the writer’s vision is, what the vision for the whole show is. As a director, I think it’s overcoming the obstacles of having all these different points of view to then make it become Colter’s point of view and tell the story through his point of view, utilizing everything that we have at our disposal, from the locations to the types of cameras we’re going to use.
Were there any conversations about you appearing onscreen on Tracker in this or another episode?
I think Justin has mentioned something about me doing some kind of character in the future. Who knows? But I really enjoy directing, so we’ll see if I want to dust that hat off for Tracker or not. Hey, if I get to work with Justin, it’s a joy no matter what, whether behind the camera or in front of the camera, I’ll work with Justin on anything.
Over the past couple of years, you’ve directed a few of your former onscreen costars. This episode, The Rookie (Nathan Fillion), The Company You Keep (Milo Ventimiglia)… What do you enjoy most about reuniting with your costars in that way?
I think there’s a shorthand when it comes to directing someone that you already know. … We see lots of directors doing that; they find their people and they work with them and they know that they’ll be able to have a great experience pulling a performance out of someone because they have that history. I’ve definitely loved seeking out directing gigs that I get to work with people I know, whether it be the showrunner, the actors, somebody on the crew, the DP. I want to work with people I know or people that I am separated by degrees of Kevin Bacon or something. If someone says, you should work on this show because of this reason… Sarah Wayne Callies said that about a show—”You should work on the show. You’d love these guys. They’d love you.” Okay, great. I trust her. I love her. So yeah, I would love to do that. I always want to walk away having a great experience right on a show, and I think if you work with people that you know and love—and I’ve also worked in town long enough that almost every show I’m going to know somebody on it from someone on the crew to one of the actors. So I have a feeling that most of the stuff I’ll end up directing will be with people that I know and enjoy working with.
What else is coming up for you? Do you have any other episodes that you’ve directed that are going to be coming up on anything?
I’m going to be directing on The Irrational. Tracker, I’m going to go back and do some more of those, and some other CBS titles. And I’m doing a pilot for an animated show for Disney+. I don’t know that I’m allowed to say anything about it yet. We’ll see if that is picked up. And then I have a couple of projects that I’ve set up myself that we’re hoping go, and I will probably be on camera for one or two of those shows that we set up.
