At the end of Season Three of Yellowstone, Paramount network’s massively successful cowboy drama, it seemed like Kayce Dutton was a goner. Then again, it seemed like everyone in his family had been shot or bombed to bits. But the thing about the character that actor Luke Grimes, 37, plays so well is that he’s more prepared for a firestorm than the rest of the lot. (Though they all each survived as well.) When viewers met him back in summer of 2018, Kayce was a peace-loving husband who broke colts out on the Broken Rock Reservation, the home lands of his wife, Monica. He’d left his Navy SEAL past behind, until following the death of his older brother, the Dutton family called on him to return fulfill his role as the heir apparent. He went, and violence returned to his life.
Now, a few episodes into Season Four, viewers are finding Kayce in a pretty similar place. He, Monica, and Tate are all back living on the reservation, trying to steer clear of the gunfire and bloodshed that follows anyone brandished with the Dutton name or the Yellowstone brand. “Kayce’s always been between a rock and a hard place,” Grimes says over Zoom, shaking his head. “Because he loves Monica and Tate more than anything. And that is his life and his heart, but then he has this loyalty inside him for the legacy of the Dutton family.”
Love them or hate them (and a lot of people hate them), the Dutton family is one you should fear. With a hit list a mile long serviced to him by dear old dad, Kayce’s at a difficult crossroads. Grimes joined Esquire to talk about what’s in store for the most conflicted of the clan—and what it’s like to live my mom’s personal dream: hanging out in a hot spring with Kevin Costner.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Esquire: I need you to walk me through how Kayce survived that season premiere. He was absolutely cornered in that firefight.
Luke: Right, right. So, obviously, he’s a pretty trained Special Ops guy and he happened to have his bag there that had a flash-bang in it. Thank God, right? So he throws a flash-bang. He takes out the two guys that come in his office, because they’re disoriented and confused from the flash-bang, [Kayce] throws on a bulletproof vest that he has there as well. It kind of switches modes from livestock commissioner back into a badass soldier and runs out and takes care of business, I guess. I think that’s why I love Kayce and I love playing him and I love kind of reading the script as they come in just because he always surprises me. He’s got a lot going on—not a one-dimensional guy.
Esquire: So much of Kayce’s through-line is about this difficult relationship he has with John. He wants his dad’s approval, but I also get the impression that this is not the life he would choose for himself.
L.G.: I think part of the genius of this story is that there are no villains and there are no good guys; it’s about human nature and about how the people are fighting over something that’s really not any of theirs. And you see that all the good and the bad and the ugly come out of these people trying to get what they want. Kayce’s always been between a rock and a hard place because he loves Monica and Tate more than anything. And that is his life and his heart, but then he has this loyalty inside him for the legacy of the Dutton family. And, as you said, he and John have an interesting relationship, but he does love his father and he does want to do right by that legacy.
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And that’s sort of where we’ve seen him from day one up until now. He tends to handle things a little better as he matures within the show and he becomes a better father and a husband and a sort of a functioning member of society with being a livestock commissioner and all that stuff. And we’re really watching him kind of heal and mature, but it seems like even though that, he hasn’t gotten one step closer to any sort of solution or any sort of path to happiness.
Esquire: Kayce has become, in my opinion, one of the most empathetic characters on the show. We saw it with his interaction with Jamie because he wants Jamie to be good. But is there an end to that rope?
L.G.: I think the end of the rope would be if he puts his family in danger. Obviously, he considers him a brother and loves him like a brother. You also have to weigh the consequences to actions. And if he were to ever put Tate or Monica in danger—if he found out there was any link to Jamie directly to the attack that almost killed his wife and his son—there’s definitely an end to that rope.
Esquire: The story with Monica and Tate is one of the most complex that the show has. I actually have this theory that Tate is the end game of Yellowstone because he is the combination of the two worlds that have been going back and forth the entire series.
L.G.: Kayce obviously was living on the reservation when we first meet him. So there’s this sort of Romeo and Juliet thing there… kind of star-crossed lovers. His dad and the tribes are at war and there he is living on the wrong side of everything. That’s a metaphorical beginning to something that never stops with him. It’s always trying to choose between what’s right. And the loyalty to family and the two don’t always mix. Ultimately, we’re going to have to see Kayce make a real decision at some point. He’s going to have to pick a path. By the end of Season Four, we start to see that become apparent.
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Esquire: The exploration of life on the reservation has always been interesting, especially as it explores what happens to the female population living there. Is there any chance that we’ll see Kayce start to delve into that world a little bit more along with his wife?
L.G.: You know, I don’t know what happens past Season Four. So, that would be a really great storyline. I hope so. That would be cool. I love the fact that Taylor calls attention to that stuff and brings some awareness to something that’s really going on. I never would’ve known that something like this was going on unless I’d watched it in this show. And I think in that way, the show is doing a really good job.
Esquire: Everyone hopes that all of their projects is a hit, but very few probably predicted just how big this show would get. How has the world around you changed?
L.G.: The airport gets a little more hairy. I’ll tell you that one. Obviously, when we’d be here filming it, everyone in Montana watches the show, which you would expect, right? And then the first couple seasons, as long as I was in LA or New York or the bigger cities, I was safe. No one cared. No one watched it. Right? Now you can just tell the audience is getting broader and people are realizing its universal themes. The writing is so strong and that obviously, my fellow cast members are brilliant actors.
Esquire: If we can really cut to the serious journalistic question, you ended up in what I imagine was a position that a lot of women in America long for: in a hot spring with Kevin Costner. You get the script and you see that. What was the first thing that went through your mind?
L.G.: That’s going to be a long, cold day. First of all, you start to think about the logistics. Obviously, it’s a two minute scene, but it takes 10 hours to film. Then I’m thinking, is it a real hot spring? Because if it’s a real hot spring, I’m going to prune up really bad and probably be pretty dehydrated by the end of that day. It’s mostly with something like that, it’s kind of just logistical stuff.
But I always really liked that scene. I think it’s really been cool to watch Kayce and John’s relationship grow over time. It’s coming into something really different. I feel like I haven’t seen this relationship between a father and son before, where there’s an exterior disagreement that they have, that they just decide to forego a lot of the time to try to work together. And I just love the way that they interact with each other. They can laugh at each other’s jokes, but at the same time they can have problems with each other and it’s okay.
Justin Kirkland
Justin Kirkland is a writer for Esquire, where he focuses on television, pop culture, food, and the south; he is from East Tennessee and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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