The new INSP series Elkhorn finds a young Theodore Roosevelt testing his mettle in Dakota frontier territory.
“So what’s a New York reformer doing in the Dakota Territory?”
Good question. Theodore Roosevelt (Mason Beals), the twenty-something fellow facing this query by an inquisitive reporter, is indeed far from home and out of his element. He abandoned his comfortable life among the social elite class and his rising career as a crusading New York State assemblyman after enduring two devastating tragedies — the deaths of his wife and mother within hours of each other on Feb. 14, 1884. When we’re introduced to him in the first episode of Elkhorn, the new western series premiering April 11 on INSP, the man who would eventually become our 26th U.S. president is keeping a relatively low profile in the frontier town of Medora as he methodically plans to establish and operate a cattle ranch — and more or less reinvent himself as a cowboy.
Even so, Arthur Packard (Sam Schweikert), the local journalist who joins Roosevelt at his table in a quiet corner of a rowdy saloon, can’t help thinking the newcomer might have grander ambitions. “With statehood all but certain,” Packard notes, “a man like yourself would be well-positioned for a Senate run ... ”
But Roosevelt cuts him short: “I have no interest in politics, local or otherwise.”
Not yet, anyway.
Throughout most of its 10-episode first season, Elkhorn will focus primarily on young Roosevelt’s early days in the Dakota Territory as he struggles to maintain the cattle ranch that gives the series its name. “Most Americans are familiar with the man who charged up San Juan Hill with his Rough Riders and later became the country’s youngest president,” says Craig Miller, Vice President of Original Programming for INSP. “But few have heard of Roosevelt’s adventurous and life-altering years on the frontier after the unimaginable events that befell the future iconic leader as a 25-year-old.”
During a break in filming on the small-town set constructed for Elkhorn, up-and-coming actor Mason Beals admitted he knew little about this early chapter of Roosevelt’s life when he initially auditioned to play the future president. But he did know enough about the man’s later life to question whether he could possibly be cast.
“Yeah,” Beals says, “I think the weirdest part about it was when I first submitted a self-tape. I was like, ‘Nah, I’m not Teddy Roosevelt.’ See, as an actor, you submit a lot of self-tapes, and you’re like, ‘I’m not that guy — but I’ll submit a tape anyway.’
“But then you go in for the chemistry test [with other actors], and then they put the glasses on you for the first time, and they slick your hair for the first time. That’s when you’re like, ‘Oh, OK. I see what they’re seeing.
“And it’s fun because you learn to quickly slip into it, as to what the voice sounds like, and what the mannerisms are like, and quickly find that with your scene partners, and stuff like that.”
What I love about TR in this era — and about him in general — is that he was genetically programmed to be a big nerd ...
Early on, Beals realized his biggest challenge would be to humanize the historical icon — to convey his weaknesses as well as his strengths — while at the same time demonstrating the strength of his character and, when necessary, the potency of his right hook.
Consider: During that scene in the saloon, young TR has to dispatch a drunken bully with a few well-placed punches. (“I just thought it was a shame for the brute to mistake my silence for weakness,” he later explains.) But the rough stuff leaves the asthmatic Roosevelt wheezing for breath, and nursing a sore hand.
“What I love about TR in this era — and about him in general — is that he was genetically programmed to be a big nerd,” Beals says. “Think about it. He’s got asthma, he’s got terrible problems with his gut. He has horrible eyesight. But he’s incredibly intelligent, and he won’t let any of that stop him. He’s like, ‘Oh, absolutely not. I am no nerd.’ He thinks, ‘OK, you are not like the gruff cowboys that live out here, but you’re also not a pipsqueak.’
“But he is a pipsqueak in comparison to them, you know what I mean? He’s riding up on horses with this level of confidence that is almost not justified yet. Because he’s got this image of the heroes that he loves so much, he is playing pretend — but feeling it on the inside. So, it’s a really fun balance to figure out the parts where he is being a tough, cool, cowboy-type person, and where the city-slicker rich kid kind of comes in. It’s definitely a battle of those two mindsets for him, which is fun. As far as battles go, it’s a good battle.”
Speaking of battles: It doesn’t take long for TR to ruffle the feathers of Marquis de Morès (Jeff DuJardin), a powerful French-born landowner who views the new guy in town as a possible rival. Fortunately, TR has in his corner Bill Sewall (played by Elijah Mahar), his rugged, longtime friend and mentor, who journeys from New England to the Dakota Territory with his nephew Wilmot Dow (Garrett Schulte) to help the newbie rancher cowboy up.
“My character is like a father figure to him,” Mahar says. “When he was a young man, he went up to Maine to kind of get fresh air, because he was always sickly. His parents thought that would be a good idea. So, they sent him up to [my character] and I took him on hunts and stuff, and he started to trust me, rely on me. And so, when he came out to Dakota, he invited my character out to help him run the ranch and just kind of be the voice of reason.”
Is he the Elkhorn equivalent of Yellowstone’s Rip Wheeler? “Actually,” Mahar replies with a laugh, “I’m a little bit also the grumpy old man, the sarcastic grumpy guy. So, I’m not easily impressed by anything, and always look down at anything Teddy or anyone else does that seems like a pain. He’s like, ‘Okay, kids, get off my lawn,’ that kind of thing.”
“I really enjoy TR and Sewall’s relationship,” Beals says. “Not only does it have some of the more wholesome moments, but there’s also a level of complexity to it. Sewall is a guiding force in TR’s life. However, TR is ultimately the decision maker, which leaves Sewall to sometimes tiptoe around TR’s at times delusional choices.”
So how has playing a legend before he became a legend affected Beals personally?
Beals smiles at the question, then confesses: “I’m naturally a pretty big coward. The first time I was ever on a horse was for this show, and I was so nervous. This show has pushed me in the bravery department in a way that I did not think it was going to. From riding on horseback to sinking in quicksand to sprinting through the desert heat, it has definitely made me more adventurous.
“To quote TR, ‘By acting as if I was not afraid, I gradually ceased to be afraid.’”
Because much like a cowboy, an actor’s got to do what an actor’s got to do.
Find out more about Elkhorn, premiering April 11, at insp.com.
From our May/June 2024 issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy INSP