The charismatic actor is ready for life after the Taylor Sheridan-produced series.
It appears to be time for Kayce Dutton to ride off into the sunset. But that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of Luke Grimes, the charismatic actor who has intrigued and impressed viewers during the lengthy run of Yellowstone.
The Taylor Sheridan-produced series kicks off what’s billed as Season 5B, the “final cycle” of six episodes, on Sunday, Nov. 10. And we’ve been promised that we’ll have some of satisfying resolution to the arc of Grimes’ character, the loyal son of Montana mega-rancher John Dutton (Kevin Costner), wary sibling of the mercurial Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and the conniving Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley), and loving husband and father to Monica (Kelsey Asbille) and Tate Dutton (Brecken Merrill). Maybe.
When we caught up with Grimes a few weeks ago, he was fresh from filming his final scenes in Yellowstone — and purposefully tight-lipped about specific plot twists that Sheridan might spring as the show nears the end of the line. He did speak highly of the show, however, and expressed gratitude for the roundabout way Yellowstone led to his finding the home he now shares with his wife Bianca and, since October, their first child, a baby boy.
Other topics we discussed: The growth of his country music career — he released his debut self-titled album earlier this year, and will make his Grand Ole Opry debut Nov. 15 — and his job as spokesperson for heavy-duty clothing manufacturer Carhartt, which has collaborated with Grimes on a program to support land preservation.
Cowboys & Indians: We know that Taylor Sheridan swears everyone to secrecy when it comes to talking about Yellowstone plot specifics. But since there has been a lot of loose talk about a possible sixth season for the series, we have to ask: Will Season 5B be the last time we see you as Kayce Dutton?
Luke Grimes: I’ll be completely honest, I can’t say for sure. But as of right now, yes. And that’s the way that we treated it, and that’s the way that I played it, and that’s the way that it was written — this is the end. I think anytime you have something this successful, there’s going to be someone somewhere who wants it to keep going because of course it’s going to make them some money. So we'll see how it plays out. But as far as how it was treated while we were shooting it — I mean it was the end for me. And I think, honestly, it was the perfect ending, and I can’t see how it would go further. If someone can figure that out, it’s probably Taylor. But I haven’t heard anything about that, and so I would just treat it as the end.
C&I: Did you save any souvenirs?
Luke: Yeah, I asked to keep my hat and jacket, which I thought were pretty key pieces of the wardrobe. They sort of made Kayce who he was on-screen. And so they let me keep those, which was really cool.
C&I: Now you’ve been spreading your wings a bit, with movie roles and more music. What else is coming up on your horizon that we should know about? I mean, besides being a representative for one of the great clothing lines in America?
Luke: [Laughs] Yeah, I think there will definitely be more music. I think we’re going to try to get in the studio early next year, and I got a tour coming this fall. And I think there will definitely be more on the film and TV side. As far as what direction, what format, with whom, I have no idea. But it’s kind of a great spot to be in. I think it’s been a long time, over seven years since, I’ve been sort of an unemployed actor waiting on the next job. And now I find myself in that place again. But I go into it excited and with a lot of hope, and knowing that whatever the next job is, I’m going to take that job because I’m passionate about it and we’ll see what it is. My mind is open, my heart is open to a lot of different genres, characters. Whatever speaks to me next is what I’m going to do.
C&I: Was there any kind of emotional get-together either on the last day of shooting or thereabouts with you and your other castmates, where you all thought, “Hey, we’ve been a family for this many years and now we’re not anymore?”
Luke: Yeah, the last day was of my shooting was with [Kelsey Asbille], who plays my wife in the show, and [Brecken Merrill], who plays my son. It was just a scene with the three of us and it was very, very emotional. I mean, we’ve been doing it for seven years. We watched Brecken grow from being a little kid to a little man. He's 16 now. He was nine when we started. So it’s been a long journey and we’ve all become really close. And so it was hard. It continues to be hard. That was over a month ago now, and I still think about it all the time. And we’re still kind of acclimating to life without the show. But the way it was sort of set up is, everybody kind of had their last day on different days in their own world in Yellowstone. We all kind of have our worlds and then we intersect, so I didn’t wrap the same day as a lot of the other characters.
C&I: How does the partnership with Carhartt work? Do they just send you a box in the mail every couple of weeks to say, “Okay, you want to try these on?”
Luke: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s kind of been like that. I think almost my entire wardrobe is Carhartt now, because they’ve sent me so much great stuff. And it’s stuff that I wore anyway, which kind of works out great. I already love the brand, I already wore a lot of Carhartt. With my lifestyle it just makes sense. So that’s been one of the perks of this collaboration — all the nice free clothes.
C&I: Finally, have you resigned yourself to the fact that, when you get future acting jobs, you probably won’t be working as close to your house as you have while making Yellowstone?
Luke: No, probably not. I doubt that they’re going to shoot anything in the Bitterroot Valley anytime soon. But that’s okay. I love living here. This is home and it’s where I recharge. And I wouldn’t have known about this place if it wasn’t for a job bringing me up here. That’s part of what I love about being an artist — and specifically being an actor. I never know where the next job is going to be. And because of that, I get to explore the world in an interesting way, and be somewhere for an extended period of time that I may never have visited. And look, now I live in a place where I filmed Yellowstone, and I may never have found this place any other way.
