Dark Winds has been a treat for fans of detective thrillers, neo-Westerns, and mysteries alike, offering a unique glimpse into the world of the Navajo Nation circa the 1970s. Based on the novels originally penned by Tony Hillerman, the series follows Lt. Joe Leaphorn (Zahn McClarnon), Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon), and Sgt. Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) as they protect their home and solve the unexplainable. Collider had the immense pleasure of speaking with Matten about her time on Dark Winds so far and what’s next for Bernadette heading into Season 3.
What’s In Store for Bernadette Manuelito in ‘Dark Winds’ Season 3?

Image via AMC

MICHAEL JOHN PETTY: To start off, I can’t tell you how glad I am that Dark Winds is coming back. It’s hard to believe that Season 2 came out in the summer of 2023, and we’re already in 2025. Going into your now-third season as the character, what is your favorite thing about playing Bernadette Manuelito?
JESSICA MATTEN: Really, I just enjoy how bold she is, and unapologetic. And, it’s kind of a cliché to hear, the “woman living in a man’s world.” But I really do have a lot of joy in exploring that [for] Bernadette and what that constantly looks like, because there’s the added element of “it’s a Native girl coming off of the Rez,” or on a Rez — and what does boldness look like in that aspect? I just have so much fun. And, obviously, in real life, our cast and crew are like family, so it’s always this beautiful reunion when we get to go back to work.
At the end of Season 2, Bernadette chooses to leave the Navajo Nation to pursue a career opportunity with the U.S. Border Patrol. For the most part, Season 3 kind of isolates her from the friends, family, and the people she’s always known on the Rez. How does this new position challenge her compared to, say, working with the military or the Tribal Police?
MATTEN: Ooh, that’s a good one. Because Bernadette has chosen to work by the borders, it opens up a whole new topic that’s very prevalent in a lot of — not just Indigenous communities, but with the Mexican community as well, which is the topic of [human] trafficking. So, that’s something that’s completely out of her element, and something that she is aware of because of being Indigenous and missing and murdered Indigenous women being a prevalent issue on the Rez that she has some insight into — and that it hits home for her, ironically. And I feel like, because of it being by the border and, geographically, that this isn’t something necessarily [that] she would have experienced in, like you said, the Marines or the military or something. It ties nicely into the storyline of something that is very common in both cultures.
Back on the Rez, Bern always had Joe and Emma to rely on for guidance and encouragement and all that, but here on the border now, she has to be more self-reliant than ever. Was that a tough shift to make with the character, or did it feel like a natural progression for her?
MATTEN: When I was doing my research for the character, I was making sure to include that she would still be her full self, but I wanted her to be more of a “fish out of water” where, with the power dynamic, she didn’t necessarily feel like she was on. She’s not on equal footing anymore as she felt working with Joe, because they’re like family. I wanted to make sure that she really understood that, as tough as she is, she’s like, “Oh, I should take a step back and listen because I’m in this completely new environment and I don’t know what I’m going through.” And, also, the added element of how a lot of Native people feel when they leave the reserve for the first time. It’s scary. How you operate on a reserve and this tight-knit community is, in fact, quite different from, as we say, “going into the big city” or just out of that. You leave your family, your community, your resources, your way of life, which [isn’t necessarily] very similar to how you would operate out of a main reserve. I had to make sure to include that kind of mindset and her psychology going into Season 3.
It’s interesting that you say that she’s kind of willing to back down a little compared to how she was with Joe, because with Joe, she can challenge him and she could continue to put her foot down, but here she can’t. She’s not in that same position, and she kind of has to go outside her normal channels in order to get things done. Was that exciting for you to be able to do that, instead of knowing that your boss is on your side? Kind of shifting to something where you’re almost a vigilante in some respects.
MATTEN: Yeah, ’cause Bern’s relationship dynamic with Joe is very much like a father-daughter relationship. And true to father-daughter relationship forms, I feel like a lot of daughters get away with anything they want with their dads. We’re the ones who really, really test our fathers, and the fathers just can’t say “no.” And she knows that. So, she has that room to be bold with him, but now she doesn’t have that dynamic, [she] just straight up [has] a boss. She has to find a way to be sneaky, because one thing I really love about our Native people is that sometimes we feel like the rules in society don’t apply to us because jurisdiction-wise, on reservations, we do have different rules. I like that Bernadette is still thinking outside the box. And maybe [she’s] not even fully conscious of why she’s doing that, but I wanted to make sure that she was doing that because of her upbringing on the Rez.

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‘Dark Winds’ Season 3 Separates Bernadette From the Rest of the Cast (Sort Of)

Image via AMC

How strange was it for you personally, as an actor, to be largely isolated from the rest of your main cast?
MATTEN: The cool thing is, our sets were right in the back lot of where they were shooting their scenes. So, I didn’t feel that separated. [Laughs] They would be shooting indoors, in our… for example, the Tribal Police station is indoors, and they literally build an entire Border Patrol office right behind the stage. Psychologically, I didn’t feel that far. But as an actor, that’s something I absolutely had to create. And I spoke a lot with our hair team as well, and I said, “How can we, even through her hairstyle, make it feel that perhaps [there’s different] humidity by the border? How would that affect very, very subtle things? Would her hair get naturally curly?” That’s why we have Bernadette with more curly hair this season, for example. We really paid attention to little elements that we [could] change in Bernadette, even physically, to make the audience believe that we were not shooting on the back lot. [Laughs]
Is there a chance that Bernadette and Chee can still make things work, even though now they’re apart, and she seems to be going in a different direction?
MATTEN: I think we all have in life that one person who gets to our heart. And, no matter the distance, they will always tug at those heartstrings. That’s to be revealed and seen this season. I really believe in that. You can go off and have these different experiences and relationship dynamics, but there’s still that person sitting in the back of your mind all the time. I think that’s really real for a lot of us. That definitely is the same for Bernadette.
Bernadette’s Spirituality Sets Her Apart on ‘Dark Winds’

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One of the things I especially love about Bernadette is her commitment to the Navajo traditions. Her supernatural outlook on life kind of gives her a different perception of the world that is often either missing or, I think, caricatured in most media. In what ways, if any, has your own upbringing or experience prepared you for playing such a character in that regard?
MATTEN: Ooh, I think Bernadette and I are very similar that way where I have a science degree, and yet, I was raised very spiritual and [in] ceremony. And so, I’m very much in tune spiritually in understanding that there is more than meets the human eye. There’s more than just operating with our five human senses. There’s a lot more that we do not know. And the science part of me, researching all this, also has pieced it together and has validated all of this to be true. So, I don’t know if I’m answering your question [right], but I think because that is how my mind operates in real life, it was very easy for me to understand Bernadette in Season 1, right away, how she lives between two worlds. And you’re right, it’s such a cool question, that her perspective, and how she perceives the world, will be very different because of that. She lives between two worlds, and so, how she operates in the world is going to be reflected because of that.
In Season 1 she encounters a witch [Amelia Rico’s Ada Growing Thunder], right? And Chee kind of says “That isn’t what [she] is,” but for Bernadette that is exactly what she is.
MATTEN: Yeah, and because she believes in that spiritual part, she, more or less, knew how to take out a witch, right? Whereas if she was strictly just operating on the human plane, [that] way of thinking, would she have defeated the witch? I don’t know. She had known to use her medicine, and what medicine means, and, she understands that there’s spirits that latch on, and that’s what medicine is for. It’s to protect you from the energy that latches on. And, it doesn’t mean that someone’s going to attack you like a witch in your everyday life, but you’ll definitely feel the frequency drops in your own reality when there are things that latch on.
Three seasons in, what are you most proud of about Dark Winds?
MATTEN: I’m proud that we’re kicking ass, and that we have a Season 3. And that we are reaching not just the Native audience, that I’m so grateful [for] and that are super proud of what we’re doing, but that globally there is an interest for the show. And, I feel that Dark Winds — outside of Sterlin Harjo’s Reservation Dogs — is the show that is going to reach even further. And, just because the storyline is amazing. These characters are fantastic. John Wirth, our showrunner, has really made these storylines so insanely good with our writer’s room. And, because of that, it just shows that, yes, it happens to be a Native show, but really there is an interest [in] storytelling in general for what we’re bringing to the table, and in a lot of ways it has nothing to do with being Native, which is so cool. It’s just a thriller noir crime show that people love to watch, and I’m so grateful to be a part of that.
‘Dark Winds’ Connections To the Novels and Jessica Matten’s Inspiration

I think a huge part of why it’s probably so successful too is the novels that it’s based off of, and how long those have been going as well. And the Bernadette character has been around a long time. Ever since Tony Hillerman’s original Leaphorn & Chee books, and in recent years, his daughter, Anne Hillerman, has continued that legacy and given her an even larger role in the story — even renaming the series Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito. And so, as a fan of those too, I have to know: in playing Bernadette, have you ever consulted with Anne Hillerman or spoken to her at length about the character?
MATTEN: I haven’t, but I’ve met Anne a few times and, Anne and I, we just, we just love each other to the point… This is actually funny. She had me record one of her audiobooks for one of her new novels [2024’s Lost Birds], predominately featuring Bernadette, last year — and she’s making me do another one [for 2025’s Shadow of the Solstice]. And I was like, “Anne, I suck at these audiobooks, why are you making me do this?” I never like to read reviews, but I read the reviews on the audiobook and I love that the fans said the exact same thing. They’re like, “Look, we love Jess playing Bernadette as an actor, but as an audiobook narrator, she sucks!”
Oh, no!
MATTEN: And I was just laughing, going, “I know, I suck!” [Laughs] But Anne and I… We get along so well that Anne was like, “Can you please do my other audiobook?” And I went back to the team, and I was like, “Is she aware that I sucked on the first one? Is she for real? Is she sure? I don’t want to ruin her jam. I don’t want people to like the stories less because I’m doing the audiobooks and just not really good at it.” [Laughs] So that’s our dynamic. I’m actually recording that next week in New York, so I’m like, “OK, well, here we go. Round two!” And I love the fans because they’re brutally honest, they’re like, “Hopefully that was just a [one-time] thing that Jess was doing.” Nope! We’re going again!
Well, good luck. Maybe… Hopefully it’ll be better this time?
MATTEN: I don’t think I’m going to be better. I’m being very honest, but I really enjoy it. And, it gives me a chance to read Anne’s new novel before the release of it too. But, hey, campaign problems.
Are you pretty well-versed in some of her books then?
MATTEN: I’m gonna be honest. No I’m not. Actually, I had never read a Tony Hillerman novel when I first got this role and, I remember, one of the first… I think it was the first week on set, [executive producer] George R.R. Martin came to visit, and he was like, “So, have you read the novels?” And, I was about to film the scene, and I was like, “Hey, George, no I haven’t. Um…” And then he just like, the blank look on his face. Maybe there was a mix of fear? I don’t know if he was just like… [Matten offers a deadpan look] And I was like, “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. I’ve got you, dog.” And then I’m like, “I’ve got to go now.” [Laughs] So, I left.
I think I was so confident in understanding who this character was and, I had just gotten off the lead of another show in Canada that I produced called Tribal. I literally was the chief sergeant on that show, so I was just confident in… I know how to operate guns, I know the dynamics, I know what it would be like to play [in] “the man’s world.” So, I just came fresh off of another show playing a very similar character, but I was just excited because I was like, “I need to infuse Bernadette with something you don’t really often see in cop shows for a character like hers.” And I actually drew inspiration from Jennifer Carpenter when she played the cop on Dexter. I remember seeing that character for the first time as a kid, pretty much. And I was like, “Whoa, this is cool. This is so original. I love what Jennifer Carpenter did with this character, and she has my attention.” So, I remember saying, “Oh, I want to play a character like that one day.” So, this is my homage, in a lot of ways, to Jennifer Carpenter’s character on Dexter.
Dark Winds Season 3 premieres March 9 on AMC and AMC+.