MINNEAPOLIS — Actor Lea Thompson could be spending her time taking it easy, signing “Back to the Future” posters at sci-fi conventions and boasting about the red-hot success of her younger daughter Zoey Deutch.

Instead, the 65-year-old Rochester native is doubling down on her directing career.

Her latest project, “Anna Pigeon,” debuting at 10 p.m. ET Friday on USA Network, is also her most ambitious. In addition to serving as an executive producer, she helmed nearly half of the 10 episodes, including the first and final episodes.

“I’ve always liked giving back all the knowledge I’ve learned over many moons on all the sets I’ve been on and all the wonderful people I’ve worked with,” Thompson said last week in a phone conversation from upstate New York.

She’s certainly checked all the boxes: The Local Sensation (Minnesota Dance Theatre, Children’s Theatre Company). The Tom Cruise Love Interest (“All the Right Moves”). The John Hughes Comedy (“Some Kind of Wonderful”). The Blockbuster (“Back to the Future”). The Bomb (“Howard the Duck”). The Sitcom Star (“Caroline in the City”). The Broadway Bombshell (“Cabaret”).

Thompson, who was last in Minnesota earlier this year for a show celebrating the late dancer Toni Pierce-Sands, continues to act. She was calling from the set of an independent film in which she’s playing a punk rocker, opposite Rosanna Arquette.

But Thompson started plotting a career path behind the camera roughly two decades ago, when she realized juicy parts would become harder to snag.

“Statistically, very, very few roles go to women over 50 and most of those I don’t want or they go to people with Emmys,” she said during her lunch break. “If I wanted to work in a meaningful way, I would really have to pivot. My evil plan worked.”

When asked what filmmakers influenced her most, she playfully sets aside husband Howard Deutch — who directed her in “Wonderful” and then shot “Grumpier Old Men” in the Twin Cities — and cites two pioneers: “Future's" Robert Zemeckis, for showing her the importance of visuals, and James Burrows, who directed 21 episodes of “Caroline.”

“He was always saying that if you don’t feel it, you won’t remember it,” said Thompson about Burrows, who died in June. “What’s the emotion in the scene? What are people identifying with in those characters?”

Those lessons serve her well in “Pigeon,” a quasi-procedural set in Glacier National Park, based on the Nevada Barr books that Thompson bought the rights to about a dozen years ago (Barr was an actor in the Twin Cities in the 1980s).

Pigeon (Tracy Spiridakos) , an anti-authority ranger, solves crimes against a backdrop a lot more picturesque than the alleys of “Law & Order.”

Thompson said she had to fight to make sure the series would be shot in Canada, doubling for Montana, rather than a sound stage.

“As an executive producer, it was a financial challenge, but we did it,” she said. “I love that when you see the outdoors through the window, you can see we’re actually in front of a mountain.”

Morwyn Brebner, the drama’s showrunner, praised her producing partner.

“Working with Lea has been constantly cool and surprising,” she wrote in an email. “She likes to say ‘Jump in the cold water’ which means to just leap and take the risk, even if you’re not sure where it’ll land. I feel like we really got to make the show in that adventurous spirit.”

“Pigeon,” which is set in modern times but plays out like an old-timey Western, is the latest example of Thompson’s versatility as a director.

Her past credits include Hallmark movies (“Jane Doe” mysteries), a feature film (“The Year of Spectacular Men,” written by her oldest daughter, Madelyn Deutch), sitcoms (“The Goldbergs,” “Young Sheldon”) and thrillers (“Will Trent”).

Cast members appreciate her focus on performance.

“She didn’t have to call me days before we were scheduled to shoot to talk the episode through and ask me what I thought. But she did,” said “Star Trek: Picard's" Ito Aghayere in a 2022 interview. “She advocated for me and my character.”

Thompson said too many directors are “terrified” of actors.

“I didn’t want to be like that,” she said. “I found that directors that are all about being technical miss the real reason for art.”

Thompson’s hoping for a second season of “Pigeon” and to maybe direct a musical. But don’t expect her to spend any time micromanaging the career of Zoey Deutch, currently starring in “Gail Daughtry and the Celebrity Sex Pass.”

“I’m not allowed to hover. They’re very independent,” said Thompson, referring to both daughters. “Like all good mothers, I just wait for them to talk.”

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