Is it just me or are Yellowstone actors starting to give interviews more frequently?
Fans of TV’s most popular show have been anxiously waiting for the second half of season five to debut and in the meantime have taken to lapping up any new details about the series or its spinoffs that hit the news.
At least to me, it seems like we’re hearing from the actors themselves more now than in the past, which I take as a good omen that the behind the scenes wheels are starting to turn and we’ll get some solid information soon.
Kevin Costner spoke about the possibility of a return to the show after it was reported that he wouldn’t be returning, Lainey Wilson said she’d be shocked if she didn’t return, Ian Bohen said filming would start in May, and now Luke Grimes is talking about the show’s return and how wide-ranging the responses to it have been.
Grimes, who is now a country artist in his own right, plays Kayce Dutton on the show and recently gave an interview to Tom Murray of The Independent.
It starts with a backstory on growing up in Dayton, Ohio and goes into a quick summary of his acting career (I always forget he was in the 50 Shades trilogy) before they got around to talking about Yellowstone. The writer brings up that the show has been called a “conservative fantasy” by liberal critics, to which Grimes responds:
“I think a lot of people see a cowboy hat and a horse and they think, ‘Oh, that’s not for me, those people believe differently.’ And it’s almost like they take these flawed characters in the show and chalk it up to some sort of weird belief that they’ve put on them.
Meanwhile, you can have a terrible person like (Succession’s) Logan Roy, who lives in an apartment in Manhattan, and that’s fine. That guy’s a total piece of s***! But that’s OK. It’s so funny to me because… I just don’t understand why that has to immediately equal some political belief. And I don’t think it does.”
Grimes isn’t the first person to address this idea. Show creator Taylor Sheridan previously said the following in an interview with The Atlantic:
“They refer to it as ‘the conservative show’ or ‘the Republican show’ or ‘the red-state Game of Thrones. And I just sit back laughing. I’m like, ‘Really?’
The show’s talking about the displacement of Native Americans and the way Native American women were treated and about corporate greed and the gentrification of the West, and land-grabbing. That’s a red-state show?”
Later in the interview, Grimes gave his opinion on the Kevin Costner saga that’s caused so much unease in the show’s final few seasons:
“Whatever happened there is unfortunate if it’s changed anything about how the show was going to unfold. I know, (Costner) got busy with his movies that were like passion projects. At a certain point, you gotta do what you gotta do, man… you gotta do what you love.”
There certainly doesn’t seem to be any bad feelings between the two, just judging from that response.
Does this clear up any confusion on where the show is headed? Nope, not at all, but just the fact that we’re hearing from the actors this much gives me hope that good things are coming our way soon.
