Stana Katic Looks Back on Shocking Castle Exit: 'I Was Hurt at the Time'

Two years after her abrupt exit from ABC’s Castle, Stana Katic is now opening up about that hurtful decision that shocked fans.

After eight years of starring opposite on-screen love interest Nathan Fillion on the crime dramedy, in 2016 she was shocked to hear that her character, Kate Beckett, was being written off.

“That was a confusing experience for me,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

“I was hurt at the time. However, I truly believe that I got to experience — that was amazing. I was a part of a show that won a number of People’s Choice Awards and we as actors got to win those awards,” says Katic. “We told a tale that people loved. To be anything but grateful for that experience and for the people that I collaborated with and to be able to play that character, I think is a disservice to everything that we as a company created.”

Despite the parting of ways with the series, Katic doesn’t carry a grudge.

“I genuinely look back on that project and say, ‘Wow, that’s cool. Thank you so much for the opportunity.’ We told a love story and we get to leave our audience with that. That’s beautiful. People fell in love with those characters,” she says of the series, which ended up being canceled by the network shortly after showrunners axed her.

“There was really beautifully done work by all the actors and our crew members,” she says. “That’s what this project was and that’s how I choose to look at it.”

Now, the 39-year-old is executive-producing and starring in the new psychological thriller Absentia, which debuted on Amazon last month.

“I think the only thing that I really wanted to next was tell a good story – that can come in any format,” she says about her decision to take on her new role. “What I was looking for was a more serialized show. It’s just fun, it’s exciting to play the development of that character and the development of that world.”

In the show, Katic plays Emily Byrne, an FBI agent who disappears, only to be found alive six years later.

“This is the sort of character that audiences will love and will root for and there will be points where they hate her,” she says. “They will be frustrated by her. I think that’s part of riding the wave of an anti hero.”

Absentia is now streaming on Amazon.