Warning: Spoilers abound here as the two lead players discuss the characters they played in the Yellowstone prequel.
Maybe they didn’t enjoy the kind of happily-ever-aftering most viewers were wishing for them. But we must admit: It was hard not to shed a tear or two as the long-separated Spencer and Alexandra Dutton finally reunited in the series finale of 1923, the Taylor Sheridan-produced Yellowstone prequel that ended its two-season run Sunday on Paramount+.
Credit the writing and direction, of course. But what really sealed the deal in terms of touching our hearts and misting our eyes were the deeply affecting performances by Brandon Skelnar as Spencer, the man’s man transformed and transfixed by the woman he loved, and Julia Schlaepfer as Alex, the upper-class Brit whose steel-spined determination enabled her to survive all manner of dangers and humiliations to be with the man she loved.
It was more or less love at first sight when the couple first met in Africa, where Spencer, an emotionally scarred WWI vet, was routinely dicing with death as a big game hunter until Alex gave him a reason to live. As soon as they met cute in the second episode of Season 1, we knew they were meant for each other.
A few days before the series finale premiere, we had the pleasure of sharing with Brandon Sklenar and Julia Schlaepfer a postmortem conversation about 1923.
