He’s glad he made it through Season 1, he’s looking forward to Season 2.
Dutton Ranch aired its Season 1 finale just last Friday, so it’ll be a while before we see Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) in new episodes and find out how they and others wrap up all those loose ends left dangling in that cliffhanger conclusion.
Like, Who shot Rob-Will Jackson? Will Beth and Rip be able to save their adopted son, Carter, from those pesky drug dealers? If Oreanna really is pregnant, who’s the father?
And what about Zachariah Moss, the faithful ranch hand newly hired by Rip and Beth, played by Marc Menchaca? Zachariah served hard time in prison after accidentally killing his wife during a quarrel, and was grateful for the opportunity to rebuild his life with a new job and, hopefully, a new purpose in life. Trouble is, people from his past are unwilling to forgive and forget. Indeed, in one memorable Season 1 episode, Zachariah had a tense faceoff with his gun-wielding former mother-in-law, that Rip had to deescalate.
And as he’s drawn into Rip’s and Beth’s often-violent world, he’s finding a whole new bunch of problems to worry about. Like, well, drug dealers.
“I don’t know what I have to worry about more,” Menchaca told us during a recent interview. “But I’m pretty sure he can take of himself. Like, I know he’s a Christian, and he’s a changed man. But I still think there’s some grit in him, and he’s got a little steam that he needs to release sometimes.”
Menchaca — whose previous film and TV credits include Ozark, Manifest, and American Rust — hopes Zachariah will have a few more chances to blow his top in Season 2. Until then, you can reacquaint yourself with the character, or meet him for the first time, as Dutton Ranch remains available for binging on Paramount+.
Here are some highlights from our conversation with Marc Menchaca.
Cowboys & Indians: Your character Zachariah had an interesting arc throughout Season 1 of Dutton Ranch. When we first meet him, he’s a guilt-ridden ex-con, determined to keep his head down and make a new life for himself while working as a ranch hand for Rip and Beth. In the final two episodes, though, he does everything from join in a bar fight to engage in a shootout with drug smugglers. Do you think Zachariah ever thought, Damn! I was safer in prison!
Marc Menchaca: [Laughs.] Yeah, I would say it’s been a little tricky for him. I don’t know. It’s almost like six of one way, half-dozen another.
C&I: Producer Taylor Sheridan recently coauthored a book titled How Not to Die in Prison, which he wrote with seasoned ex-convict Tom Nelson. Did he give you a copy to prepare yourself for playing Zachariah?
Marc: I didn’t even know that he had released a book about that. Actually, I’ve never met Taylor, so that was not in the cards for me. Maybe this next season I'll get a chance to meet him. I saw him a couple times driving by on the ranch, but I never had a chance to say hello to him.
C&I: But you did have to go to cowboy camp, right?
Marc: Oh, yeah. I mean, it was pretty full-on. It was 6:30, 7 in the morning just to get started. And we were there until 2 or 3 every day, I feel like. I mean, I usually stayed after and roped the dummy for a while. And if I got to do some extra cutting, I’d go out and do cutting with the cowboys. And then I went on my own. J.R. Villarreal, who plays at Azul — he and I were out there after cowboy camp was over, and we were out there every day off. We could get out there just whether it was out checking yearlings or going roping for a few hours every day.
C&I: So to ask the burning question all of America wants answered: What is Cole Hauser really like?
Marc: Cole’s a soft-hearted, funny guy. We have a great time on set together. He did seem a little bit like Rip at first when I first met him and I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. And then on day two, it was like we were buds. Which I can understand. I’m sure you have all these people coming into your world and if it were me, I would probably want to get a feel for everybody before I was like, all right, you’re in the door.
But Cole was great, and we chatted a lot over the season just about everything, whether it was scenes we were shooting or what we would be actually doing. And we worked on driving cattle from pasture to pasture and into the pens. We do that on days off. I mean, Cole, he basically lived out at the ranch, so he just had to walk across or drive across the street to the stalls.
C&I: And what about Zachariah? I mean, we know he inadvertently killed his wife, Terry Jane. He survived a long stretch in prison. He’s still guilt-ridden. And you talk about having a come-to-Jesus moment while he’s found strength in the Lord. How do you go about building a backstory for a character like that?
Marc: Really, all I needed was once I crafted in my mind who she was, who Terry Jane was to me, that was the key for me to a lot of who he is. And then he wasn’t somebody who came from any means. I don’t think he really had a dad that was around — or, well, I should say present — and I think Mama worked all the time, and he was kind of left to make it on his own. And then Terry Jane, that was kind of the end of the story for a while.
C&I: What do you think enabled him to have this religious conversion while in prison?
Marc: I think it’s just a way to deal with guilt for what happened. I grew up around cowboys and there’s a lot that are very devout and have a little cowboy church. And there are some that aren’t. And I think that from his growing up and seeing those cowboys that were devout that had a peace about them, I think that was what attracted him. He was like, Maybe they knew something that I didn't, that I didn't want to let myself believe.
And yeah, I think it was just something that happened in prison. That it was a way for him to find himself through the pain and the guilt of what happened with Terry Jane and what happened with ... well, see, I don't know. I can't remember because I haven’t watched that episode, but I can’t remember what all they said about Terry Jane. I feel like that scene was cut and Paramount may not like me to say this, but I guess the other thing that was important to me, whether they cut the scene or not, is that Terry Jane was pregnant with my child when that happened.
C&I: Your wife is Lena Headey, star of The Abandons and Game of Thrones. I can see where there might be some disadvantages to being married to somebody who’s also in the business. But I would think the biggest advantage is when you come home after a hard day’s work, you don’t have to explain to each other the pressures you’re under. I mean, you can almost deal in a kind of shorthand. Am I right in assuming this?
Marc: Yes, sir. We do have a common understanding of the different frustrations or things that go on during a day. And then the days that are incredible, you get that as well, and it's easy to celebrate and to empathize coming home to a wife or her coming home to me when we have knowledge of what the things are that happen on set that make you either incredibly happy or incredibly frustrated. Or there are some days that are very heavy emotionally, and you kind of know when to let the reins go and when to pull them back.
C&I: Finally, what aspects of Zachariah’s character are you looking forward to further examining in Season 2?
Marc: I would like to see somebody from Zachariah’s past that had an impact on him come back. I’m not sure which direction — if it was a good impact or a bad impact — but I want him to face that. For whatever reason, I tend to lean into the darker elements of characters, and I like getting into the meat of it. It just makes me craft different things. And creatively it’s fun for me. So yeah, I’m hoping that we get to see something from Zachariah’s past come up.
C&I: Anyone in particular?
Marc: [Laughs.] Somebody who’s not Terry Jane’s mom.
