Denim Richards – Yellowstone

By: Jamie Steinberg

Q) Going into this season, what did they tell you about Colby?

A) Every year we go into a new season of “Yellowstone” you always have an expectation that it is always going to be amped up even more than the season prior. So, I know that maybe it was the end of Season 2 – closer to the end of Season 2 – I remember Taylor [Sheridan] telling me that we’re going to have this really fun and dynamic character that is going to be coming onto the show, played by Jennifer Landon (that everyone knows as “Teeter”) and she’s really going to give you a run for your money. So, I remember getting an opportunity to see her audition tape probably eight months before getting to meet her. I was like, “Wow! This is going to be an experience,” because she has so much energy and she’s such a dynamic actress. I was really, really excited to get into Season 3 and start seeing how she was going to drive Colby up one way and down the other. So, it definitely happened.

Q) What kind of physical prep went into being Season 3 ready? Was it different than previous seasons?

A) The interesting thing is I kind of keep myself in good shape all year round. I’ve always been a big proponent of “stay ready so you don’t have to get ready.” So, working out and kind of being physical has been a part of my every day life. It’s great for my emotional and mental health as well. So, I was kind of nice for me when they said, “Oh, you have all these physicality things you have to do,” and it wasn’t an extra stressful thing where I was like, “Oh my gosh! I only have so much time to get ready for it.” It was like, cool, you have one less thing to worry about. It was cool to be able to see that pay off in a different way.

Q) How familiar were you with ranching and the Montana lifestyle prior to working on “Yellowstone?”

A) I’ve been able to ride horses now for a while. I had actually come off a film called Chickasaw Ranch where I was also playing a cowboy, but it was a period piece. So, I had been doing the riding and I was doing some cattle draws on the film. But it was nothing close to the immersive experience that we’ve had with “Yellowstone.” Obviously, everyone has seen this year with us doing the two hundred wild horse push across the field – all of these different things that we never really imagined that we would have like hundreds of cattle, horses, ATVs, helicopters and ambulances and all of these other things coming together in one frame. I don’t think anything can really prepare you for that, but I think what is really awesome is you have like the best wranglers in the world on this show. So, they’ve all really done such a phenomenal job making sure we were all trained and prepared. And then when we’re not on set, we are usually training anyways. We’ll just go to the ranch and do a couple hours of training. We go through what we call a “cowboy camp” before we even start production, which is pretty much a week immersive – it’s like training camp like you would see for the NBA, NFL or for any other sports league – just to kind of get us back into shape because nothing that we do in the big city will ever be able to sort of hold us to par as for what we do on the show when we’re actually here.

Q) What’s it like filming the bunkhouse scenes?

A) Every one that was have in the bunkhouse, especially Ian [Bohen], Jeff [White] and myself, we are going on three years of being able to around each other and having the opportunity to have so much quality time with one another. So, for us, it’s just another day we would be spending together when we’re not working. It’s always such a fun thing because Taylor has given us so much freedom to do improv with that. He really encourages that. I remember certain times in Season 1 where we would be getting into these bunkhouse scenes and we would just be saying what was written. Then, he would come in and say, “Guys, you said what was written, but do other stuff.” So, we were just like, “Okay. Are you sure?” He was like, “Yeah.” As the seasons have gone on we just say wilder and wilder things in our improv and we’re always laughing about it because we’re like, “This will never make the cut.” Then, when we’re watching the show we’re like, “Oh my gosh! It made the cut!” [smiles] So, it’s always really fun to see how Taylor has trusted us (especially in the bunkhouse) to be able to go with it and still get the story across. He’s really allowed us to infuse so much of our own personalities within the characters and that’s really an awesome thing.

Q) Taylor is so hands-on with this series. What is that like for you compared to other series you have worked on?

A) Well, I think you just have a different appreciation. For everyone on the show, we’ve been there since day one, episode one, Season 1 and so I think we all kind of feel a pride. Obviously, we can’t ever feel as much as Taylor has felt because he’s the one that wrote it word for word. But I think we all have a different appreciation as opposed to other series where maybe you are coming into it in the middle of it and maybe you’re coming into it for only a couple episodes and they are already in the middle of Season 3 or 4. So, you just kind of have a different sense, but I think we all kind of have this feeling that we were all together when this thing was getting off its knees and getting ready to start walking. So, I think that we all kind of take a sense of pride and it really speaks a lot to Taylor being able to bring such an amazing group of people together to be able to tell a story and I think that we all just respected it and responded to it and because of that the audience has responded to that in kind with just a tremendous following and smash ratings week after week. It’s just been awesome.

Q) Were you looking forward to working with someone(s) in particular more this season?

A) It’s really interesting. Coming into Season 3, what I think was really interesting for me was more so we do this and then we kind of leave each other. We kind of look at “Yellowstone” now the way people look at sports. We kind of come together for this intense and immersive experience for four or five months and then we kind of leave. We all live close to each other in some of the relatively bigger cities we kind of come together outside of that and maybe go bowling or have dinner – something like that. It’s really always just exciting to be able to get back into the atmosphere and be able to see the makeup artists, hair and wardrobe just kind of getting back up and gearing back up because of this show is such an immersive experience. We’re doing the horses and the cattle and we’re in the middle of nowhere. But I think it really isn’t necessarily about looking forward to who we are working with on a day-to-day, but just more so about being back in that atmosphere – that really, really immersive atmosphere that we find ourselves in season to season. It’s awesome because a lot of us that do live in the big city it’s also just a really nice break from the big city where we can kind of just slow it down a bit off set and then just kind of dive-in and lose ourselves in the show.

Q) Talk about getting to film with iconic actor Kevin Costner.

A) Again, it’s really something that as I’ve kind of grown up and pursuing the entertainment industry for the amount of time that I have been it’s seeing Kevin do so much amazing work on so many iconic films and really historical films. You kind of sit back and never really imagine a world in which you would ever find yourself on the same camera, film or show that he would ever be on. It just shows that we always have an idea about things in our mind and sometimes we have to just trust the process. So, it’s such a great thing to be able to be around and see his dedication to the craft four decades plus of really being an A-lister, winning so many prestigious awards. To really see that he has such a dedication and he’s really a tactician when it comes to the arts that for all of the younger artists that are on the show, it’s something that is kind of nice to be able to look at that and go, “This is a great benchmark to continue to push yourself year after year” and to never get complacent with anything that you’ve been given or had the opportunity to have gotten in this industry because things can change very, very quickly. So, it’s always about honing your craft constantly and he’s really been a testament to somebody that has been able to do that.

Q) What have been some of your favorite moments from filming?

A) There are so many different things. I think we have different iconic nights. For us, I think we have from Season 2 Cowboy Poker, which I think for all us of still maybe in production was probably one of the most amazing and fun things that we’ve been able to do and be a part of. It’s always interesting because when we are watching the show with the audience and the audience is reacting, we’re not only watching the show for the reactions, but also kind of reminiscing about the night, the setups and the meetings – all these things that were leading up to these really big scenes. Obviously, in Season 2 you have the opener where we’re in the bar and having a bar fight and other things. Those are those type of things. Even for Season 3, I think now it has been about all of the women that have now come into the bunkhouse and have rearranged the energy in a way and I think that’s always been fun because you come in and you understand that everybody on the show has been a part of another show before where they have had to come in within the middle of a season and the cast has already had an opportunity to bond. And now you’re maybe coming in and it’s kind of weird. I think it’s really been awesome because we all have had that experience so all of these women like Hassie Harrison, Jen Landon and Eden Brolin coming into the bunkhouse… Not only for the fact that they have embraced “Yellowstone” so much, but allowing us so much to embrace them has also been really, really remarkable. It’s been fun to be able to see their growth as artists in this other immersive world because everybody that comes on to the show it doesn’t really matter what you’ve done prior. There is nothing that can really build you up or get you ready for “Yellowstone” until you actually get here. I think those as of right now have been the most exciting things that I’ve looked at just because it’s so fun to see other people come on and see how excited they get to be able to be a part of this show. It’s really awesome.

Q) What have you personally taken away from your time working on “Yellowstone?”

A) Some of the things that I’ve always taken away…I tell people all the time that being around this cast and obviously people like Taylor and other directors and executive producers like Steven Kay that have come on to this show I think I’ve learned a lot about the artistry, but also as I go on to do other things like going into the directing world and this, that and the third and writing more and more creating I think that it’s really given me a great idea of how to handle that and how to handle that responsibility. One of the things that people don’t think about with directors is for actors we show up on set, go through hair and makeup and maybe sit in our trailers and do a couple scenes and then go back to our trailer or if we wrap then we get to go home. Whereas with the directors, they are the first ones there and the last ones to leave and they never really get a break. They are dealing with so many pieces of energy from all over – not only on set, but off of set. So being able to sit back and have such great examples to see how they have all handled that I think is just amazing and to be able to see them be able to handle it where it almost seems effortless…When you’re seeing a product and then seeing the way that the audience has responded with these amazing kind of historic ratings from week to week and season to season, I think for me going away from the show and pursuing other projects and doing other things that I have created, I think it’s just given me a stronger foundation on how to build that up for something that will sustain for the long term.

Q) Is there anything else you want to be sure we share with our readers about the upcoming final two episodes?

A) I would definitely say that these next two episodes everybody wants to tune in. I think that Season 3 has been a really good opportunity for all of our fans to really emotionally kind of engage with our characters in a way that maybe Season 1 and Season 2 didn’t do. There was a lot of action and moving around and this one we’ve kind of kicked the tempo and changed the tempo in a way so that people kind of emotionally engage more. I definitely know that as we’ve seen in the last episode and moving on from Episode 9 into Episode 10 there are a lot of boiling points and a lot of boil overs. I can definitely tell everyone that the season finale is something that no one is expecting. It’s something that no one is expecting and something that no one wants to have to go in at the end of Season 3 and have to wait another eight or nine months for the results. But it’s going to be very, very exciting. So, I would just say make sure you tune in and make sure you are on time.