SPOILER ALERT! This story contains details from the sixth and penultimate episode of 1923 on Paramount+.
Taylor Sheridan certainly has a reputation of killing off characters to help juice his stories but did his Yellowstone prequel really need this kind of kick in the butt?
In the penultimate episode of 1923 titled “The Mountain Teeth of Monsters,” not one but seven characters meet their demise. For most viewers, at least two of the killings should have been welcome. (Jamie McShane’s Marshal Kent, that’s what you get for telling a priest to go f–k himself! And Sebastian Roché’s Renaud? You got what you deserved, padre).
As for the other deaths, which include the couple that froze to death while trying to get Julia Schlaepfer’s Alex to Montana, the poor saps didn’t know what hit ’em.
Watch on Deadline
Here, four of the victims of Sheridan’s Sunday massacre — Jeremy Gauna (Pete Plenty Clouds), Michael Spears (Runs His Horse), Sebastian Roché (Father Renaud) and Darren Mann (Jack Dutton) — talk about ending their run on the Dutton saga.
DEADLINE How and when did you find out that your characters weren’t long for this world?
DARREN MANN Reading episode six. I got to that page and that’s how I found out. But hey, I figured odds are pretty high in a Taylor Sheridan show that making it out alive is pretty rare.
MICHAEL SPEARS I kind of got the scripts a little later than I would’ve liked to, but I did get a chance to read them and I was definitely hurt.
JEREMY GAUNA I found out shortly after I got the call from Taylor that I was going to be taking on this role and honoring Cole Brings Plenty, and it was very difficult. Obviously everyone grieves in their own ways, but it was a very tough moment for me because when I read the script, all I could think about was my friend, so I was just sobbing the whole time. So yeah, it was tough. Let’s just keep it at that.
DEADLINE Sebastian, you have to know that viewers would welcome your demise.
SEBASTIAN ROCHÉ Oh, I’m all for it. To tell you the truth, if this was a movie, I think the whole audience would stand. They would do the wave. I understand. That only adds to the brilliance of Taylor Sheridan in writing such an evil but complex character.
DEADLINE Jeremy, Aminah Nieves’ Teonna definitely did the right thing in that moment, killing the priest, right?
GAUNA Oh, absolutely she had to. One hundred percent.
SPEARS I wish I did! Runs His Horse got him! I really do. He should have just started emptying his pistol. I feel like he would’ve, too. But Sebastian, he’s a beautiful soul. The first time I met him, he came up and actually apologized for some of the what’s going to happen in the future. And I’ve never had another actor do that to me.
ROCHÉ Yes, I did. I was in the presence of people who had generational horrors happen to them. I know that we’re doing a work of fiction, but this is a re-creation of things that truly happened with those residential schools, and I thought it was fitting for me to, before we did the scene, to apologize. I think it’s the least that I could do. This is the most evil character I’ve ever played. Not only is he evil, but he’s based on reality. During my research, my mouth dropped at the horrors that happened within the residential schools.
GAUNA I get a lot of people saying that they did not know it happened and they couldn’t watch it. They didn’t want to deal with it. Out of sight, out of mind tends to be something that was very frequent. In today’s world, it still exists quite a bit. I wish people would have sat there and forced themselves to go through the uncomfortable things that we had to deal with as people. Our ancestors dealt with it, and it would give you more perspective and more understanding.
DEADLINE Let’s talk about the scene when Renalud kills Runs His Horse.
GAUNA I think everything that you see from Aminah and Michael in that scene, all the emotions, are real. When we filmed that, the set wasn’t the same the next two days, just from her screams, her cries. She was allowing everything that she had been through with Cole build up, and it finally came out on camera. That’s what you’re seeing. It did something to every single person on that set. There wasn’t a single dry eye in there. That’s just the blessing of the opportunity that we have in order to share this story.
DEADLINE Michael I’m assuming you didn’t know during season one that your character’s journey would end this year, right?
SPEARS Back then, the sky was the limit for me! I was looking forward to the character development and what was going to happen. There’s so much untold about our story that I kind of let my imagination run away with me a few times, wondering if we’re going to do this or if we’re going to run into Spencer, or how we’re going to make that connection.
DEADLINE Darren, Jack never should have left the ranch. Did you ask how your death helps the story?
MANN I didn’t ask, but I had to figure that out for myself. I had to create some peace for myself, and I think it taps back into how Jack’s just so much different than the rest of ’em. He’s not so hardened or jaded. He has such a beautiful, pure view of the world. It’s just unfortunate that a guy like him couldn’t survive in a world like that. I think what he was doing was for the best reason. He was always trying to do right by what his uncle asks of him. He’s always saying yes. He wants to do right by the ranch. But I felt like this was that breaking point for him where all season he’s being told, no, you can’t do that. Now he’s going to have a kid. There’s a new sense of feeling like he’s needs to protect his kid. This world’s crazy. They’re trying to take a ranch. Spencer’s coming back, Jacob’s going out there. I should be with him. So I think the idea that if anything happened to those guys while he was just sitting at the ranch safe, he never could have lived with himself.
DEADLINE Sebastian, what was it like shooting your final season with Aminah? How many times did she have to do that?
ROCHÉ I think we did three or four takes. That’s what I really love with our director, Ben Richardson. He manages to put us in this incredible, safe environment for us to emote in the right way, to share the emotion of that scene was really important. The fact that Aminah and I are very close helped even more. The writing is so extraordinary in that scene that it brought tears to my eyes, and there was a huge amount of emotion too, but it’s something that we can actually find within each other. When your scene partner gives you so much, it makes the job all much easier. And that scene was very dear to my heart. I was very nervous getting into it. I wanted to do the best job possible, and I think I’m really happy with the results because we got to a level of emotion that was really needed for that scene, and the intensity was really, truly beautiful.
DEADLINE Your character really did become a little bit odd toward the end. Was he just trying to lean in to the spirituality to justify his behavior? What was going on?
ROCHÉ There was a real dissent into madness. This is a man who lives within the rigidity of his religion, within the confines of residential school. As soon as he was thrust into the wilderness, into something that was so foreign to him, Marshall Kent suddenly reflected the evil that he himself perpetuated. I played it in a way that there was a slow descent into madness. He could not stand Marshal Kent’s cruelty because it reflected his own cruelty, and he had to get rid of the disease. That scene with Marshal Kent is extraordinary. I think he needs to get rid of this person who reminds him too much of himself.
DEADLINE So what’s going to happen to Teonna? Will members of the church stop looking for her?
ROCHÉ Let’s say that the next episode has many surprises. You are going to be on the edge of your seat. It’s going to be very interesting to see what happens to Teonna’s character. I can’t divulge more than that, but what I can say is that reading the finale was like reading a great novel, and the ending of this series is going to be momentous. I was in tears. You never want to end a really good book. I wish this would go on forever. It wouldn’t for me, anyway, because I’m dead.
DEADLINE Darren, what’s going to happen with your wife, Elizabeth?
MANN I’m hoping that the ranch in this way of life will be something that keeps her close and connected to Jack, that she’ll want to stay because my future unborn child will be raised by our family. I know this is a beautiful way of life for her. If she can just see the love in it that Jack saw in it. I hope that she does and I hope that this pushes her to stay.
The post ‘1923’ Shocker: Cast Sounds Off On Killing Spree In Penultimate Episode appeared first on Deadline.
