When the cameras started rolling on Tracker Season 3, Justin Hartley wasn’t just stepping back into the role of Colter Shaw — he was stepping into something far more intimate. In a rare behind-the-scenes interview, the actor revealed that filming the premiere episode, “The Process,” felt deeply personal, describing it as one of the most emotionally demanding experiences of his career. “It wasn’t just another episode for me,” Hartley admitted quietly. “It was personal. Everything Colter went through in that story, I felt it too.”
The episode, which has since broken CBS viewership records, opens with Colter alone on the road, haunted by memories and mistakes that won’t let him rest. It’s a darker, more introspective side of the character — and, according to Hartley, it mirrored what he himself was feeling during production. “We shot in these remote, cold locations,” he said. “It was just me, a truck, and silence. That kind of isolation… it gets to you. You start to think about your own past, the people you’ve lost, the choices you’ve made. It was like therapy with a camera pointed at me.”
Hartley, who also serves as an executive producer on the series, explained that he had a heavier hand in shaping Colter’s emotional journey this season. After two years of exploring the character’s external adventures, he wanted Season 3 to turn inward. “We’ve seen Colter solve cases and save lives,” he said. “But I wanted to see what happens when the man who finds everyone else starts to lose himself. What happens when the person who tracks others finally has to face his own truth?” That question became the emotional spine of The Process, an episode fans have called the show’s most haunting yet.
One of the most difficult scenes to film, Hartley shared, was a quiet campfire sequence between Colter and Bobby, played by Eric Graise. “It looks simple on screen, but that scene gutted me,” Hartley recalled. “We were shooting at two in the morning, freezing, exhausted, and I just remember looking into the fire and realizing how much Colter has lost — and how much of that loss I understood. Sometimes you play a character; sometimes, the character plays you.”
The emotional parallels weren’t lost on the crew. Director Ken Olin, who previously worked with Hartley on This Is Us, noticed the difference immediately. “Justin wasn’t acting,” Olin said in a recent interview. “He was living it. There was this rawness to his performance, a stillness that said everything. You could tell he was carrying something deeper.”
Fans watching the episode could feel it too. Social media lit up with posts about the vulnerability in Hartley’s performance, with one viral tweet calling it “the kind of acting that doesn’t shout, it whispers — and still breaks your heart.” Another fan wrote, “You can see the pain behind his eyes. It’s like he’s not just playing Colter, he’s healing something.” When asked about that reaction, Hartley smiled and said, “That’s the best compliment I could get. If people feel something real, then we did our job.”
It’s not just the acting that makes The Process feel intimate — it’s the way the story reflects Hartley’s own perspective on life and purpose. “I’ve always been fascinated by people who dedicate their lives to helping others but forget to help themselves,” he said. “Colter’s like that. He saves strangers every day, but he doesn’t know how to save himself. That contradiction felt familiar. I think a lot of us live like that.”
Hartley’s connection to the material deepened even further when he learned that the script was partially inspired by themes from his real-life experiences with family and resilience. “I won’t go into detail,” he said carefully, “but there were moments in my life where I felt lost, where I had to rebuild. That’s what this season is about — rebuilding after loss. The writers didn’t know the specifics, but somehow, they wrote exactly what I needed to express.”
During filming, Hartley reportedly spent long hours alone on set between takes, often sitting by himself in the Airstream trailer that Colter calls home. Crew members said he stayed in character even when cameras weren’t rolling, carrying the weight of the role with quiet focus. “He barely spoke some days,” one crew member shared. “You could tell he was somewhere else — deep in it. But when they called ‘action,’ everything clicked. It was mesmerizing.”
Hartley also opened up about how directing choices elevated the emotional tone of the episode. “We shot a lot of scenes in one continuous take,” he explained. “That made it feel raw, almost documentary-like. There’s a vulnerability in not cutting away, in letting the camera sit with you while you process everything. It’s uncomfortable — but that’s where the truth lives.”
Even the episode’s ending, which stunned audiences worldwide, held personal meaning for Hartley. Without spoiling specifics, he hinted that the final moments — Colter confronting an unexpected revelation — hit him harder than expected. “When I first read it, I had to put the script down,” he said. “It’s not just about finding someone. It’s about understanding why you were looking in the first place. That line hit me — not as an actor, but as a person.”
Filming The Process left a lasting impact on him, both professionally and emotionally. “You can’t fake that kind of exhaustion,” he admitted. “By the time we wrapped, I was drained, but also grateful. This episode reminded me why I love storytelling — because sometimes, through fiction, you find truth.”
As Tracker Season 3 continues, Hartley promised fans that the tone of The Process will carry through the rest of the season, with each episode peeling back more layers of Colter’s psyche. “This season feels like a mirror,” he said. “Every case, every person he meets — it reflects something he hasn’t faced yet. And I think the audience will feel that. It’s not just action. It’s healing.”
For Justin Hartley, Tracker has never been just a job — it’s been a personal evolution. “You don’t get many chances in your career to tell stories that hit you this deeply,” he said softly. “This one did. It found me at the right time.” Then, almost as if speaking to himself, he added: “Sometimes, you’re not tracking anyone. Sometimes, you’re just trying to find your way back.”
And in Tracker Season 3’s powerful premiere, Justin Hartley did exactly that — reminding everyone watching that the most compelling journeys don’t just happen on screen. They happen inside the person brave enough to tell them.
