Kevin Costner has been the face of “Yellowstone” since it premiered in 2018. Playing John Dutton, head of the Dutton Yellowstone Ranch, Costner is undoubtedly one of the reasons why Paramount’s neo-western series has become so popular. But Costner isn’t the only actor to play the Dutton family patriarch. Josh Lucas plays a younger version of Dutton on the series, and was actually approached for the role before “Yellowstone” even shot its pilot, which was just one element of the pre-planning by show creator Taylor Sheridan.
In 2022 deadline In an interview, Lucas recalled that once the Dutton Ranch location was set, Sheridan “walked around, pointed out a few places and said, ‘This is where Season 1 takes place,’ ‘This is where Season 2 takes place, and the cemetery is here.'” The Beautiful Mind and Sweet Home Alabama actor remembered being impressed by how meticulously Sheridan had planned the show even before it premiered. What’s more, it seemed the show’s creators had big plans for a young John Dutton, telling Lucas, “It’s going to be Season 5. You’re going to be in Season 5.”
And that’s exactly what happened. Yellowstone Season 5 Part 1 delves into John Dutton’s past in more detail than any flashback has done to date, providing a more extensive backstory for the character shortly before star Kevin Costner exits the show. Last year, it was confirmed that Costner would not be appearing in Yellowstone Season 5 Part 2, the long-awaited sequel. It’s only fitting that Season 5 sees John’s life flash back before our eyes before he leaves. It’s as if Sheridan foresaw Costner’s departure before the pilot was even made, writing a visual eulogy for the character years before he actually left the show.
What’s even more surprising is that despite playing a young John Dutton throughout the series, Josh Lucas never actually spent any time with Kevin Costner on the set of Yellowstone.
Why Josh Lucas and Kevin Costner were separated in Yellowstone
There’s a long history of actors being filmed separately while starring in the same project in Hollywood: James Earl Jones and Eddie Murphy were never in the same room while filming Amadeus II, and Arnold Schwarzenegger never shot a scene with his co-stars in Batman & Robin. In the latter case, it was all about scheduling and saving time. But there have also been more controversial reasons for actors being filmed separately on set.
Thankfully, in the case of Josh Lucas and Kevin Costner, there didn’t appear to be any controversy. Instead, there was a more practical reason for keeping the actors apart. Looper), Lucas explained that he and his brother Costner were “almost purposefully separated” and that “Costner was not there when we were filming.” He continued:
“Taylor [Sheridan] And I told him about the idea of The Godfather. [Robert] De Niro was playing Brando, but he wasn’t trying to look or act like Marlon Brando. [a younger Don Vito Corleone]That’s what we talked about.”
Put simply, it seems that both Sheridan and Lucas were trying to avoid Lucas imitating Kevin Costner in the role of John Dutton. As Lucas stated in an interview with Deadline, the two characters “need to be at the essence of each other,” but that doesn’t mean the actors necessarily had to meet.
Josh Lucas was doing his own thing as John Dutton.
In the case of Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando, the two actors were never on set together because they weren’t in the same movie. Brando played Vito Corleone in The Godfather, while De Niro played a younger version of the character in The Godfather: Part II. TelegraphExtensive research into De Niro’s script revealed that he had repeatedly prepared by watching Brando’s performance in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 classic, so while the two actors never met, De Niro was clearly heavily influenced by his elder’s performance.
But for Taylor Sheridan and Josh Lucas, the simple fact that De Niro and Brando never met while playing the same roles was key to making Lucas’ performance as John Dutton unique — and, as Lucas explained in an interview with Deadline, his performance was informed, more than anything, by conversations he had with Sheridan before filming.
“What I wanted to understand was [Dutton] Was he a darker character? Was he angrier? What kind of person was he at that time? The death of his wife was a devastating element to the family, very destructive to the kids. Beth becomes Beth at that moment. I think the different characters break down in a way. So I asked, is John lonely? Taylor yelled at me and said, ‘He’s too busy to feel lonely.'”
With Costner now out of Yellowstone, there are a lot of questions surrounding the show, most notably whether existing co-stars Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser will continue in their lead roles for a sixth season, but it will also be interesting to see how much, or if, Josh Lucas will be featured in the show now that Costner has controversially left the show.
