That’s what Esquire proclaimed 1923’s Spencer Dutton. In anticipation of Season 2 of the Yellowstone prequel, we talk with Brandon Sklenar about landing that role and being that guy.
Brandon Sklenar wasn’t taking any chances. Before he auditioned for the role that’s made him heartthrob-famous on the Yellowstone prequel 1923, he went to a ranch in Santa Ynez, California, to practice his horsemanship — without even knowing if he’d have to ride to try to get the part.
Rugged, handsome, and fit, it’s no wonder Sklenar struck Taylor Sheridan as the right choice for the romantic young lead of his then-new prequel, the second in the Yellowstone universe, after 1883. Now perhaps television’s hottest cowboy, Sklenar stars as Spencer Dutton, a World War I veteran and big-game hunter in Africa, who meets and falls deeply in love with Alexandra, played by Julia Schlaepfer, never dreaming a plea to return home to the family ranch in Montana would change his destiny.
The young Dutton’s aunt and uncle, Cara (played by Helen Mirren) and Jacob Dutton (played by Harrison Ford), are in danger of losing the Yellowstone Ranch. Spencer and Alexandra undertake the dangerous return to America and ultimately Montana. Through a series of disasters, he and Alexandra are separated and forced to embark on the journey without each other, while his family is running out of time to save the ranch.
Out of that storyline came yet another instance of Taylor Sheridan’s star-making power: Spencer and Alexandra are always chosen as one of the most popular (and sexiest) couples in the Yellowstone universe and on television in general. “From the moment they met, the rich heiress and the traumatized war vet had a connection that gave off some serious heat,” gushed TVLine.
1923 was nominated for a 2024 Golden Globe Award for Best Drama Series and Mirren for Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series, Drama, for her portrayal of Cara Dutton. But Sklenar as Spencer was the breakout star. A complex man, Spencer is an uncommon adventurer — as sensitive as he is physical. And he’s guided by a great sense of honor.
“I think you’ve hit the nail on the head describing Spencer,” Sklenar says enthusiastically in a phone interview from Santa Barbara, obviously keen to talk more about the complex character. “I’m most happy with the fact that ‘a man of honor’ comes through. In reading the scripts, it really struck me that he seemed like a classic character you might have seen 40 or 50 years ago. One of the reasons that he resonated so much with me was that my grandfather was a Charlton Heston, John Wayne, and Clint Eastwood fanatic, and I grew up watching those heroic characters.”
But after landing the part, Sklenar says, he did have to be mindful of creating and making Spencer “a fuller and more modern man. Those classic characters were amazing and fun to watch, but you didn’t get the vulnerability or awareness that I wanted to bring to the character.”
When the audience first meets Spencer, he has been on his own for six years, having enlisted in the United States military as part of the American Expeditionary Forces fighting overseas in the Great War. The youngest son of James and Margaret Dutton, he was born after the events in 1883 which was the prequel to 1923 and Yellowstone. We learn that during the harsh winter of 1893, James died after suffering a gunshot wound, and Margaret passed away several years later.
“As a child Spencer had so much trauma,” Sklenar explains. “He witnessed his father being shot, his mother dying soon after and he had to grow up really fast. He felt he couldn’t go home and embrace the ranch life in Montana and had to take his own journey. He was so isolated emotionally. When we first meet him, Spencer is in a place where he doesn’t care if he lives or dies.”
However, his life is about the change. He meets Alexandra, who is descended from royalty but decides to leave her posh but boring life behind and becomes this force in his life. Not caring what other people think, she dons men’s style pants and accompanies Spencer into the African bush for a life of adventure. Falling deeply and almost immediately in love, “this man who has not cared about anyone or anything for many years, finds Alexandra and a meaning in life,” Sklenar says. “This remarkable woman was able to find the child in Spencer.”
Sklenar credits Sheridan for the power of the plot and persuasiveness of the characters. “Taylor is an amazing writer,” he says. “He wrote all eight episodes of 1923 as well as all of 1883. The number of decisions he must make — from showrunners to directors to cast — is amazing. I don’t know how he does it all. The man also spends a lot of time riding horses and preparing for Western competitions, as well as carving out time for his wife and son. Truly remarkable.”
The 1923 schedule included finding time for international travel. Most of the first season of filming was done on the vast plains of Kenya, on the east coast of Africa. Shooting was very challenging, seeing the cast and crew worked for 16-plus hours a day in the dust and rugged terrain. Sklenar recounts that filming in Kenya “was probably the most intense work I’ve ever done,” he says, no doubt reliving scenes in which Spencer must protect Alexandra against everything from marauding elephants to prowling lions. “One of the beautiful things about how Taylor runs his shows is that you’re not on a soundstage. You’re not having to imagine what the locations are like — you’re just experiencing them in real life,” he says. “I had the ability to let my imagination run wild and fully develop the character of Spencer without having to worry about a green screen or tackling the L.A. traffic to get to the studio. After weeks and weeks in Africa it did start to wear me down, but it was also the most rewarding work I’ve ever done.”
And it wasn’t without some other serious perks. As a complete change of pace, the team headed to the beautiful coastal area of Zanzibar and got to experience stunning beaches and warm ocean water. Sheridan and the production crew had found one of the most beautiful beaches on Zanzibar and created a romantic little waterfront hideaway hut for Spencer and Alexandra on the beach. But the idyll doesn’t last long: When they receive the bad news from Cara Dutton, they make their way onboard the Majestic, a luxurious ocean liner bound for England, only to discover that Alexandra’s former fiancé, Arthur, is on the ship. A violent altercation between Spencer and Arthur ensues, ending badly for both men. But, Sklenar says, it was a great scene.
“I am a very physical person,” he explains. “I’ve studied martial arts my whole life and love doing action scenes. I’m kind of hardwired that way, and doing something very physical makes me really feel like I’m really doing something. I think I’m good at it, and I rarely use a stunt double.” Picture the end of that scene. “I’ve never held a sword,” Sklenar says in reference to Spencer’s fighting skills. “So after a brief duel, I end up punching Arthur and throwing him over the boat.”
Freeze the frame right there. Now rewind to that audition. …
When 1923 was first announced, it was called 1933, and although the character of Spencer was originally written for a more well-known actor, Sklenar felt so strongly about the role that he “wouldn’t take “no for an answer,” he remembers. For the past decade he had followed Taylor Sheridan’s career, starting with Hell or High Water. And after seeing Yellowstone, he felt closely aligned with Sheridan’s universe that he knew he somehow had to work with him.
“By the time this project came around I had just finished The Offer and was doing an ungodly number of self-tapes to send to casting directors after memorizing pages of dialogue and then watching myself on tape.” He decided to detach himself from the whole process for a while and went on a backpacking trip in the Oregon wilderness. That was when lightning struck. “My manager called to say I had an audition for the role of Spencer Dutton in what was then called 1933 and both Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford were attached. I read the character description and immediately knew that Spencer was my guy. So I brought my camera with me, drove to my friend’s house in Northern California, and put myself on tape.”
Then he went to a bluegrass festival and waited it out. Several days later he was on a plane to Jackson, Wyoming, to test with Sheridan. Sitting at the bar of the Four Seasons Hotel Jackson Hole, a well-prepared Sklenar had a drink and got into the flow of the character. And then he met the man who was going to change the course of his career. “The process was one the smoothest I’ve ever been through and the most significant one — it has changed my life.”
But first, Sheridan’s Cowboy Camp.
“Even though I’ve always felt comfortable on a horse, Cowboy Camp is a great equalizer,” Sklenar says. “You had to check your ego at the door, and although some of us had riding experience, most were on the same level, trying to learn the skill of riding horses as well as working with cattle. We were all supportive of each and got to get up every morning and trail ride in Montana for a few hours; then we headed back to Taylor’s Texas ranch to practice drills and herd and cut cattle.”
Sklenar proved a natural. Being around horses and experiencing trail riding as a boy on his uncle’s ranch in Arizona growing up served him well. “I found that I love loping, chasing cattle, and working with real wranglers,” he says. He has a particular affinity for horses. “They are so intelligent and so in tune that they are able to create a beautiful trifecta between the rider, the horse, and the land. It’s a profound experience if you allow yourself to sink into it.”
Sklenar had double duty at Cowboy Camp: In addition to learning advanced horsemanship, he had weapons training. To be knowledgeable and convincing in battle flashbacks sequences as well as when he returns to the Yellowstone ranch, he needed to be able to handle a range of period weapons, including machine guns used during World War I, rifles, and even a flamethrower.
Less technical and more enjoyable, Sklenar and 1923 costar Schlaepfer got to ride together for a day at Sheridan’s ranch in Weatherford, Texas, on the boss’ personal horses. “Taylor’s horses are like Ferraris,” Sklenar says. “I was so amazed at how fast and agile they were. They are so well-trained and fine-tuned that I barely had to move my body and they responded immediately.”
The way he sits a saddle and so fully inhabits the role of Spencer Dutton, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s the only thing Brandon Sklenar has ever done. Although 1923 has been the catalyst for casting him in the emerging leading man category, he’s not a newcomer or a one-hit-wonder. Sklenar made his professional film debut in 2011 in Cornered. Now 32, he was signed by a manager at age 20, not all that long after leaving New Jersey after high school for Hollywood.
Most recently, he starred as Atlas Corrigan opposite Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in It Ends With Us, based on Colleen Hoover’s bestselling novel of the same name. Directed by Baldoni, who plays neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid, the film is a modern-day love triangle set in Boston. Lively stars as Lily Bloom, who has a complicated past (high school lovers) with Corrigan, who comes back into the picture and upsets her already-troubled marriage.
“I was not aware that It Ends With Us was a book and first thought it was just a woman’s romance story. But after doing some research, I discovered that it was not that at all,” Sklenar says. “It turned out to be a culturally relevant story about domestic abuse. When I learned about how many women had been helped by this book, I started to open myself up to the story. Justin was very open with me about why he wanted to make the movie. I had someone close to me who had experienced domestic abuse, and it became very clear that I had to do this movie.” You can’t help thinking about protective, sensitive-but-strong Spencer Dutton when Sklenar talks about his It Ends With Us character.
Skelnar has also played a handful of other compelling characters on both the big and small screen over the last five years. His film CV includes co-starring in the biopic Mapplethorpe as Edward Mapplethorpe, the brother of the brilliant and controversial photographer Robert Mapplethorpe; George H. Gay Jr. in Midway, the only survivor of the aircrew who fought in the Battle of Midway in World War II; small roles in Vice, about Vice President Dick Cheney and Westworld; playing a young Burt Reynolds in The Offer, and a starring role in 2022’s time-travel romantic drama Futra Days.
And now there’s Season 2 of the show that truly changed his life. “For me it’s going to be a hell of a ride,” Sklenar says. “There will be a tonal shift in the back half of the season, and if you know Taylor’s writing, it’s not going to be all sunshine and roses. Even Spencer’s journey back to the Yellowstone is not going to be an easy one, but I do make it back to Montana.”
Airing on Paramount+ February 23, 2025, the second season of 1923 finds Spencer Dutton back on the ranch and under the gun. Whatever happens, 1923 fans are there for it. And so is Brandon Sklenar. “I’ve never enjoyed playing a character or working on a project as much as this,” he says. “It’s truly a blessing that I’m associated with 1923. I’m excited to continue that journey.”
The Helen-And-Harrison Effect
Brandon Sklenar has nothing but praise for his 1923 costars.
Although Brandon Sklenar did not appear in scenes with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren in the first season of 1923, he did spend time with them during filming and at Taylor Sheridan’s Cowboy Camp. That’s where Mirren learned to drive the buckboard and horses, and Ford even brought his personal saddle for the perfect ride.
“They are such solid and thoughtful individuals and don’t let egos get involved, which is what makes them so damn good at what they do,” Sklenar says. “And Helen does know her way around a rifle.”
When Sklenar found out that both Ford and Mirren were attached to the project, he got excited. “Harrison and Helen are legends,” he says. “To work with just one of them is a dream scenario, but working with both of them is a career coup. But then I started receiving scripts and going through pages, and I realized that I wasn’t going to have on-screen time with them for the first season.”
That all changes in Season 2. “Audiences will see that I finally get to play with them in the new season. It’s exciting.”
From our April 2025 issue (coming soon).
PHOTOGRAPHY: Courtesy of Paramount+
