If someone owned the largest ranch in the United States -- about the size of Rhode Island -- you can imagine a heck of a lot of conflict tugging at his borders.
"Yellowstone" is a new dramatic scripted series on Paramount Network, starring Oscar-winner Kevin Costner and Luke Grimes. Spectrum News talked with the on-screen father-son duo about "modern westerns," some ethereal moments, and whether Costner's returning to the Strawberry Festival.
ALLISON WALKER TORRES: You got to shoot on location in Utah and Montana. It was one of the last trips I took with my father and, boy, it truly was ethereal. I imagine you felt similarly.
KEVIN COSTNER: Yea, everybody has those last trips and that's a big memory for you and maybe "Yellowstone" will take you back to a good point in that. That's one reason why I think "Yellowstone will succeed and already has succeeded, in my mind, having watched it last night. It's really great. It's a great story. A great drama. You don't know where it's going.
AWT: This being a "modern western," what did you learn out there that might surprise us? It seems that as a country we should have grown up and grown out of this kind of conflict.
LUKE GRIMES: You know what was really surprising to me is, having read it and sort of gearing up to go out there and do it, I didn't realize how much of a part - like, a way of life - that this, what we're touching on - still is. It's such a huge way of life for people that live out there ... A lot of people who live in cities, they think it's like this archaic, old-timey sort of thing. But for a lot of people, this is how they live.
KC: The land's still there, but the feelings are still bruised. This land was taken away from the first people and ranches sprung up and towns sprung up. The people that came - if they were mean enough and tough enough and resourceful enough - they could take it and hold onto it. And now, the people - the white people, if you will - we're struggling to hold onto the property. There's all kinds of things threatening my ranch - taxation, urbanization, political movements, the EPA.
AWT: Luke, when riding a horse, you don't want to look like a doofus. You want to look like a rock star. So I imagine you were in the saddle a couple months before filming so you could tackle that, right? Maybe "cowboy camp?"
LG: Yea, absolutely, and thank God I enjoyed it because I would've had to do it either way. He was not going to let me off of that horse. You're right, a couple months before and everyday during --
KC: I like that word doofus. Doofus!
LG: Yea, don't want to look like a doofus. (Laughing)
AWT: Kevin, on that note, you are going to be a doofus if you don't back to Florida with Modern West to play the Strawberry Festival. I just checked your website. It's not on there, Kev.
KC: Ok, no I gotcha. I enjoyed playing it. Yea, it rained that day. So what's with Florida? You've gotta do your part, too!
AWT: Alright, alright. We'll have good energies.
"Yellowstone" debuts on Paramount Network (Check your local Spectrum listening) on Wednesday, June 20, at 9 p.m.