Oscar nominee Ed Harris isn’t hiding his disappointment with his role in the Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch, saying he felt shortchanged after signing on for what he believed would be a much bigger part.
Harris, who plays veterinarian Everett McKinney in the Paramount+ series starring Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton and Cole Hauser’s Rip Wheeler, said he was led to believe he’d be one of the show’s central figures before production began.
“Prior to signing on for it, I was talked to quite a bit about what the season was, and what my character was going to do—and that I was one of the four main characters,” the 75-year-old told Variety at Monday night’s premiere of Apple TV+’s The Dink. “And that wasn’t really the case.”
The four-time Oscar nominee said he voiced his concerns to producers during filming.
“I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh,’” Harris added. “I’m being told my character will have a little bit more to do [in Season 2]. I was just a little frustrated, to tell you the truth.”
Although Harris is currently contracted for two seasons, he admitted there was a point when he considered walking away altogether. The breaking point came after a scene in which his character was supposed to perform a song at a bar never made it into the final cut.
“So there’s this scene in there … I’m talking to [Beth Dutton] at the bar, and [Rip Wheeler] comes in and says, ‘OK, Everett, come on, it’s your turn,” Harris said. “I walk up to the mic, and they cut it. They cut the song out. I’m going, ‘F--K you, people.’”
According to Harris, producers explained the musical moment was removed because it was “too ‘up’ for the dark ending of that episode.” At the time, he said, the decision felt like “enough reason to say I’m voiding my contract.”
Despite his frustrations during production, Harris said his opinion softened once he watched the finished series. He described Dutton Ranch as “pretty good” and acknowledged that his character ended up being “relatively important to the story,” even if “it didn’t feel that way” while the show was being made.
The Daily Beast has contacted Paramount+ for comment.
Harris has earned four Academy Award nominations over the course of his career, though he has yet to win an Oscar.
He received his first nomination for Best Supporting Actor as NASA flight director Gene Kranz in Apollo 13 (1995), followed by another supporting actor nod for his performance as Christof in The Truman Show (1998).
In 2000, Harris earned a Best Actor nomination for portraying painter Jackson Pollock in Pollock, a film he also directed. His fourth nomination came in 2002 for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the dying poet Richard Brown in The Hours.
