As the Taylor Sheridan-produced series draws to a close, Brandon Sklenar is branching out into big-screen roles.
First, the good news: Brandon Sklenar will be back as the dashing Spencer Dutton for the second season of Taylor Sheridan’s 1923, the Yellowstone prequel that returns February 23 to Paramount+.
Now, the even better news: That’s not the only project on the rising star’s agenda.
After earning excellent reviews for his performance last year in the romantic drama It Ends With Us, Sklenar currently can be seen at theaters and drive-ins everywhere in Green and Gold, director Anders Lindwall’s uplifting drama about a debt-ridden Wisconsin dairy farmer (Craig T. Nelson) who makes a desperately audacious wager to save his homestead.
As Billy, a conspicuously hunky chart-topping singer-songwriter who figures into the life of Jenny (Madison Lawler), the farmer’s musically ambitious granddaughter, Sklenar makes a strong impression with a minimum of screentime, skillfully clouding Billy’s motives so you’re never entirely sure if he’s impressed by Jenny’s talent or attracted to her bod (or both).
On April 11, Sklenar returns to the big screen in Drop, a thriller directed by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky), written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach (Truth or Dare, Fantasy Island), and starring Meghann Fahy (pictured above with Sklenar) as Violet, a widow with a young son who is cast in a worst-case scenario when she finally makes a long-delayed return to the dating scene.
At first, Violet thinks she has hit the jackpot when she arrives at a swanky restaurant for her first date in ages, and finds she will be dining with Henry (Sklenar), a handsome charmer. But her happiness is short-lived: She doesn’t make it past the main course before anonymous threats start lighting up her phone from somewhere in the room, informing her that her family will be killed if she doesn’t kill Henry.
"The tone shifts a lot and it’s definitely a bit darker. It’s very beautiful," he told Forbes, adding that he will get “plenty of [Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford] time, and it’s going to be special.”
But, apparently, it will also be the end of the line.
“The finale of the series is probably one of the best things I’ve read in my life," Sklenar said. “I’ve kind of known how it was going to end since day one — Taylor kind of told me. I knew the full arc of Spencer from day one, so in shooting part one, you're mindful of where he needs to go. I’m really excited.”
