He wanted to earn it, and he’s a bona fide actor now.
Riley Green made his acting debut on the Yellowstone spinoff Marshals this past weekend as Garrett, a former Navy SEAL teammate of Kayce Dutton’s (Luke Grimes), who arrives at the ranch, unexpectedly, hoping to lean on his friends Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) to help “put the demons of his past to rest.”
Grimes said in a previous interview that it wasn’t just as easy as snapping his fingers to get Riley a part on the show… Grimes had the idea to get Riley on during a songwriting session when Riley talked about his interest in acting, and Grimes says a lightbulb went off and he wanted to get him on Marshals. He spoke with showrunner Spencer Hudnut, who loved the idea, so they wrote Riley in since this was all happening as the show was starting to come together.
But Luke revealed during a radio interview with Bev Rainey for her Country Nights Live with Bev Rainey radio show that network executives didn’t know “how big of a deal Riley is” in the country music world, so they made him audition just like any other actor, and told them they “should not” make him do that, but they weren’t having it:
“Oh yeah, that all happened because we were writing a song here. He had talked about wanting to act, and I’m sitting there, and that’s when ‘Marshals’ was starting to come together, and a little lightbulb sort of went off, I was like, ‘Hey, you should you should be in my show.’
Brought it up to my showrunner now, and he loved the idea as a fan of Riley’s. We wrote him a part, and we thought, great, this is happening. And then the network, they don’t really know the country music scene, so they weren’t super aware of how big of a deal Riley is.
So they made him audition, which I thought was really funny. I was like, ‘You guys, you should not make this guy do this.'”
It’s a great story, and I agree that it’s really funny, but Riley must have done well because he landed the part and will be in multiple episodes. Considering Riley has no prior professional acting experience (besides some music videos, of course), Grimes did it with him and says there’s a tape out there somewhere of his audition.
It’s funny to hear from Luke’s perspective and trying to tell the CBS execs how big Riley is and how they shouldn’t even question how good it would be for ratings to get Riley on:
“I was like, I’m not gonna make him do it alone, so he flew out to Utah and I did it with him. So somewhere out there, there’s an audition with me and Riley.”
In just the first episode Riley appeared in, it’s clear that they wrote Garrett to be played by him specifically, he’s even from Alabama and is an inspiring musician, and producers told Riley not to shave his mustache while they were filming, too, so I definitely think they wanted Garrett to be very similar to Riley in real life. In many ways, that probably made it easier for Riley with his first acting gig, even though his character is quite complex and suffers from “severe PTSD,” which we we will likely see more of as the episodes go on.
And during an interview with Decider, Riley said he had seen the interview of Grimes talking about making Riley audition, and he had a different perspective. He says he always assumed he’d have to audition, because he’s the “new guy” and he wanted to earn the part. Just because he’s had a music career “doesn’t mean [he’s] any good at acting, to use his words, and Riley explained that it gave him more confidence to know he got the role because he auditioned first and execs found him to be a solid actor.
Grimes was part of Riley’s audition and they read together, which Riley says helped a lot, but he knows he already “skipped a lot steps” but getting this kind of part as his first gig, and he’s “very thankful” for it:
“It was a whole lot easier for me to go read with Luke, you know, on set. And he helped me so much doing that. I saw an interview where he was, kind of joking about, ‘Man, we made him read for it.’ And I thought I was supposed [to]… that didn’t seem strange to me. I thought, I’m the new guy here.
Certainly because I’ve had a music career doesn’t mean I’m any good at acting, so I was glad that I got to go read, because it have me a little confidence that they said, ‘Okay, you’re good enough to do it. Because I had no clue If I’m going to be any good.
I’m also glad that I read, because I wouldn’t want to be given a part because of something I’ve done in music. I want to somewhat earn it if I can. I think I skipped a lot of steps by getting a part like this as my first gig. But I’m very thankful that I was given that opportunity.”
That makes a ton of sense, and after seeing Riley in his first episode, I think he has a ton of potential and he did a good job, especially considering that he has no prior acting experience aside from a few of his own music videos.
He seems to have caught the acting bug, so hopefully we’ll get to see him do more TV or even movies in the future:
@deciderdotcom #MarshalsCBS star Riley Green didn’t mind auditioning to play Garrett, even if his friend/ series star Luke Grimes recommended him for the role. #marshals #rileygreen #duckman #lukegrimes ♬ original sound – Decider
Riley will perform “My Way” during next week’s episode, which he just released this past Friday ahead of his Marshals debut:
Here’s a clip of Riley from his first episode on Marshals called “Blowback”:
