SPOILER ALERT: This submit accommodates spoilers from the Season 5, Episode 12 episode of “Yellowstone,” “Counting Coup,” which premiered Sunday, Dec. 1, on Paramount Network.
Pour one out for Colby.
The fan-favorite cowboy all the time lit up the “Yellowstone” bunkhouse, fueled by a simple power from actor Denim Richards. Paired with that was a budding romance with Teeter (Jennifer Landon), which was reduce quick by Colby’s premature loss of life in Sunday’s episode. He went out on prime, saving Carter (Finn Little) from a wild horse that finally kicked him one too many occasions. Variety spoke with Richards about the place he was when he first heard the information of his character’s loss of life, getting ready for his closing romantic second with Landon and the enjoyment of performing reverse Kelly Reilly’s Beth.
When did you first discover out that Colby was going to die?
That occurred in May. I used to be getting back from Dallas, from the U.S.-Africa Business Summit, and I received the decision. I had a really fantastically delicate dialog with Christina [Alexandra Voros, executive producer and director of the episode], and she or he’s simply such a giving particular person. If anyone ever will get the chance to work along with her, I feel they are going to all say the identical factor: That she’s simply so heat and sort {and professional}. Of course, as an artist, you’re going by all of those tremendously wild ups and downs as a result of generally we really feel like we’re navigating the character and the human. So a lot of our id feels prefer it will get tied to each. She mentioned, “I’m right here in the event you want something.” Luckily, issues by no means received to an excessive amount of of a down level.
How did you put together to your closing telephone name with Jennifer, understanding it’d be Colby and Teeter’s final large second collectively?
I feel the aim is that you just don’t put together for that, proper? You don’t have a look at it as that is going to be the final time, as a result of it’s not as if Colby was planning to die. So I feel that in the event you play the character as if he’s planning to die, it suggestions the hand of the viewers an excessive amount of. It feels just a little bit too contrived, it doesn’t really feel pure and natural. As loopy because it sounds, it simply ought to really feel prefer it’s simply an on a regular basis incidence. Early on in my profession, I feel that will have been just a little bit tougher for me to have the ability to do since you’re all the time attempting to separate the truth that what the end result is. As you begin to get just a little bit older, you notice our job is to service the story and to separate your individual private satisfaction and ego from that. At the top of the day, it’s simply one other telephone name to this wild and wacky person who I assume you simply occurred to be falling in love with. Because of enjoying it like that, I feel it lands in a different way as a result of it didn’t really feel just like the viewers noticed it coming.
I’m certain there are such a lot of, however is there one favourite reminiscence you’ve got from filming the present?
We had this scene the place it was the primary time Kelly’s character comes into the bunkhouse and has a second with Carter (Finn Little) and Rip (Cole Hauser) and we’re throughout the bunkhouse. It was this large day, there have been 13 or 14 of us all within the bunkhouse. It was actually stunning to get these sorts of alternatives with individuals you don’t get to interact with, as a result of Kelly’s character is doing these different issues. So that was an attractive second. In between that, we performed poker across the desk. I keep in mind we had like a lightning strike that had occurred, so we needed to shut down for over an hour. Ryan Bingham is enjoying his guitar, and we’re educating Kelly methods to play some kind of poker. In these moments, you sit there and go, “Man, we may do that without end.” It’s these kinds of moments that I’ll all the time cherish.
Is there one thing you want you can have finished within the collection that you just didn’t have an opportunity to do?
Hindsight is all the time nice, however I’ve tried to coach myself as an artist {and professional} to dwell each second genuinely. The job is to fall in love with the method and don’t get tied to the end result, as a result of we now have to take action a lot preparation, and oftentimes the end result doesn’t come to what we would like. We achieve this a lot work after which we don’t get the present or the gig. If you tie your expertise of whether or not or not you’re good as to whether or not you have been profitable at reserving one thing, I really feel such as you’re happening a extremely, actually darkish place.
I feel that one of many causes this present has been so profitable is as a result of even because it was getting extra high-profile, the artists that we had on board have been nonetheless capable of put apart their egos and private emotions to simply service the story. I went from being comparatively unknown in 2017, and now right here I’m speaking with you guys. Who would have thought?
Your character had a really noble loss of life, however “Yellowstone” has a historical past of killing individuals off in wild methods. Do you’ve got a favourite?
Even although I don’t know that anyone died in it, I nonetheless return to Season 2, the place we’re simply unleashing a bull in a bar after which entering into a large combat. That was wild. There have been so many loopy issues which have occurred, and I feel that that speaks to the simplicity of Colby’s loss of life, as a result of it’s extra of what actually would occur within the cowboy world. And I feel Taylor tried to infuse just a little bit extra of that this season, that it is a quite simple loss of life, however very true to what actuality may be for a cowboy and a cowboy’s life.
Did you’ve got a watch social gathering final evening to your final large episode?
I didn’t — I truly didn’t even watch it in any respect. I watched clips of it in a while, however I’ve been replaying this second on a regular basis since May, and it’s been emotionally difficult only for me as a person to be dwelling with it. There was a lot pleasure coming into this season, so many individuals saying, “Colby and Teeter, they’re lastly going to get collectively, we’re lastly going to see that second!” I felt like yesterday would have simply been an excessive amount of for me. But in fact, the second that I went on-line and I began seeing the 1000’s of responses, I believed, ‘Wow, it actually meant one thing.”
When I truly watched it noticed how Taylor eloquently pieced all of this collectively, it was an attractive strategy to exit in the event you have been going to exit. But I used to be treating it prefer it was one other day on the workplace. It was like a stress check for me. If you wish to do this stuff, in the event you’re going to have a protracted profession, you’re going to in all probability have one or two extra of some of these issues. So you’re gonna have to have the ability to deal with them with a stage of professionalism and sophistication, and that’s what I’m attempting to train myself in proper now. Otherwise, I’d in all probability be crying in each interview.
Have you began to include any cowboy gear into your regular wardrobe?
Not actually. As a lot as I really like the cowboy way of life, it’s not likely Denim’s way of life. I costume in loads of African apparel, normally. Occasionally I’ll throw on some cowboy boots. It is humorous although, as a result of like anytime I’m going anyplace, any individual’s like, “Where’s your hat?” Or generally they don’t even imagine that it’s me as a result of I costume so in a different way. Just know I took each piece of drugs that I’ve worn on that present with me. So the image that I posted on my Instagram, all that stuff is sitting in my workplace.
You have your characteristic debut as a author and director, “The Forgotten Ones,” set as your subsequent challenge. What are you able to reveal about that?
“The Forgotten Ones” is one thing that we’re very, very enthusiastic about. Right now we’re in that sort of bizarre, tenuous spot about precisely what the distribution seems like. It’s a historic interval piece that I’ll be excited to speak about quickly, separate from the tragic, tragic loss of life of Colby Mayfield on Paramount’s No. 1 present, “Yellowstone.” [laughs]
This interview has been edited and condensed.
