Kevin Costner has been the face of “Yellowstone” because it debuted in 2018. As the pinnacle of the Dutton Yellowstone ranch, John Dutton, Costner is undoubtedly a part of the explanation Paramount’s neo-Western sequence has turn into so widespread. Nevertheless it’s not simply Costner that has portrayed the Dutton patriarch. Josh Lucas performs a youthful model of the character on the sequence, and was really approached concerning the position earlier than “Yellowstone” even shot its pilot episode. This was simply one of many components that present creator Taylor Sheridan had mapped out forward of time, too.
In a 2022 Deadline interview, Lucas recalled being advised how, as soon as the situation for the Dutton Ranch was confirmed, Sheridan “walked round and pointed at sure factors, and mentioned, ‘This may occur right here in season 1,’ and ‘This may occur right here in season 2. And here is the place the graveyard goes.'” The “A Lovely Thoughts” and “Candy Dwelling Alabama” actor remembered being impressed with how meticulously Sheridan had his present deliberate out earlier than it even premiered. What’s extra, it appears the present creator had large plans for younger John Dutton, telling Lucas that “It’ll be within the fifth season. The fifth season is the place you are gonna are available.”
That is precisely the way it occurred, too. Season 5, half 1 of “Yellowstone” delves into John Dutton’s previous extra extensively than any of the flashbacks in prior seasons, offering a way more expansive backstory for the character simply as star Kevin Costner was wrapping up his time on the present. Final 12 months, it was confirmed that Costner wouldn’t return for the long-awaited “Yellowstone” season 5, half 2. It is becoming, then, that season 5 basically noticed John’s life flashing earlier than our eyes earlier than he departed, as if Sheridan had a imaginative and prescient of Costner’s exit within the pre-pilot days and wrote a visible eulogy for the character years earlier than he really left the present.
Extra shocking nonetheless is that, regardless of depicting a younger John Dutton all through the sequence, Josh Lucas has by no means really hung out with Kevin Costner on the set of “Yellowstone.”
Why Josh Lucas and Kevin Costner have been stored separate on Yellowstone
There is a lengthy historical past in Hollywood of actors being stored separate whereas engaged on the identical undertaking. James Earl Jones and Eddie Murphy have been by no means in the identical room whereas filming “Coming to America 2” and Arnold Schwarzenegger did not movie a single scene together with his “Batman & Robin” co-stars. Within the latter’s case, it was all right down to scheduling and time-saving. However there have been rather more controversial causes for actors being stored aside on-set.
Fortunately, in Josh Lucas and Kevin Costner’s case, it appears there was no controversy afoot. As a substitute, there was a way more sensible cause for preserving the actors separate. In a 2021 Collider interview (by way of Looper), Lucas defined how he and his elder are “virtually stored separate on objective,” and the way Costner is “not there after I’m capturing.” He continued:
“Taylor [Sheridan] and I talked concerning the thought of ‘The Godfather.’ When [Robert] De Niro was enjoying Brando, he wasn’t trying to look or act like Marlon Brando. He was trying to play [a younger Don Vito Corleone]. That is what we talked about.”
Evidently, put merely, each Sheridan and Lucas have been each trying to maintain the latter from doing a Kevin Costner impression together with his model of John Dutton. As Lucas put it in his Deadline interview, the 2 characters “have to have the essence of one another,” however the actors themselves do not essentially want to satisfy to ensure that that to occur.
Josh Lucas was very a lot doing his personal factor as John Dutton
Within the case of Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando, the 2 actors have been by no means on-set collectively as a result of they merely weren’t in the identical film. Brando starred as Vito Corleone in “The Godfather” whereas DeNiro starred as a youthful model of the character in “The Godfather Half II.” Nonetheless, as as soon as reported by The Telegraph, a significant examine of De Niro’s screenplays revealed the extent of his preparation, with the actor repeatedly watching Brando’s efficiency in Francis Ford Coppola’s celebrated 1972 movie. So, whereas the 2 actors by no means really met, De Niro was clearly closely knowledgeable by his elder’s efficiency.
For Taylor Sheridan and Josh Lucas, nevertheless, the straightforward incontrovertible fact that De Niro and Brando by no means met whereas enjoying the identical character offered the important thing to making sure Lucas’ John Dutton efficiency stood by itself. What’s extra, as Lucas defined in his Deadline interview, his portrayal was extra knowledgeable by the conversations he had with Sheridan previous to capturing than the rest:
“I wished to know, was [Dutton] darker? Was he angrier? Who was he at that time? His spouse’s demise was a shattering ingredient within the household that’s so harmful to the youngsters. Beth turns into Beth in that singular second. I believe all of the totally different characters, they turn into damaged in a approach. And so I mentioned, is John lonely? And Taylor sort of barked at me and mentioned, ‘He is too busy to be lonely.'”
Now that Costner has left “Yellowstone,” there are a number of questions surrounding the present — most notably whether or not it’ll certainly proceed right into a sixth season with present co-stars Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser within the lead roles. However it’ll even be attention-grabbing to see how a lot Josh Lucas is used transferring ahead, if in any respect, now that Costner has departed on such contentious phrases.
