“To be new at something when you’re almost 40 years old is an interesting feeling,” says Luke Grimes, “Yellowstone” actor — and future country star? Grimes is on Zoom from Nashville, Tenn., where he’s finishing his first solo album.
This is a guy who could easily settle into his groove playing smoldering anti-hero Kayce Dutton on the Kevin Costner Western, which started as an underdog cowboy-cult hit and has since become the No. 1 series across all of television, per Variety, and spawned three spinoffs (“1883,” “1923” and “6666”) thus far.
Music kept calling his name, though, and Grimes decided to answer. In a way, it’s the logical next step for a life steeped in song. Grimes grew up in Bible-belt Ohio, the son of a pastor; he played drums in a church group from the age of 10, branching out to guitar during drama school in New York. But being a singer-songwriter wasn’t necessarily on his to-do list. “I was writing some stuff, singing it into my iPhone, and sent it to a few friends,” Grimes says. “One thing led to another, and I get a phone call from this great music manager, and he says, ‘Do you really want to try this?’ And I said, ‘Well, why wouldn’t I?’, not really thinking much of it. Now here I am signed with Universal Nashville, I’ve got a record deal, and I have a show booked!”
But Grimes exudes a quiet confidence in his professional choices. He made outsize impressions in supporting roles in HBO’s “True Blood,” 2014’s “American Sniper” and the “Fifty Shades of Grey” franchise. And his portrayal of “Yellowstone” fan-favorite Kayce feels as lived-in as one of the character’s well-worn flannels.
I tell Grimes I often found myself shouting at the TV when Kayce stepped into his beat-up pickup truck. Inevitably, he’ll drive past some rural chaos and be unable to stop himself from leaping out, pistol in hand. Grimes laughs. “Yeah, he’s very prone to, like, stumbling into violence,” he says. “He has a hard time not getting into some sort of fight. He should just stay at home.”
Kayce has got his hands full with the job he never wanted — Montana’s livestock commissioner — and there are serious questions about the future of his family. Last season he had a steamy hallucination of himself with a woman who wasn’t his wife Monica (Kelsey Asbille). I ask if he can give me a hint about Kayce’s future. “I feel like it would be frowned upon to divulge,” he says politely. “I feel like I would get a phone call. So I’m gonna plead the fifth on that one.”
Grimes’ father passed away recently, and I ask the 38-year-old what his dad thought of the show.
“Big-time fan, huge, huge,” he says. “This was his favorite thing I’ve done, by far. I took him to the set a couple of times, him and my mom, and they got to meet Kevin and Taylor [Sheridan, the show’s co-creator]. It was really special to do something he was so proud of. I’m so glad he got to see me realize a dream in that way.”
Working on this show does sound like a Western dream come true. There’s an open-stable policy that allows cast and crew to go horseback riding in their spare time. And Costner, says Grimes, “always wants you to come hang out at his trailer down by this creek. He’s got a fire pit, and he’s a musician, so he’s always got a guitar around and won’t hesitate to play you a song. He does a really good job of taking the pressure off what a huge icon he is.”
Not that you’ll see any of this on Grimes’ minimal social media presence. “You’re never gonna see my vacation pictures or my lunch on there, ever,” he says, though he knows the move into music may require some posting about show dates. He’s spoken publicly about his pandemic travels in a vintage Airstream with his wife Bianca, a Brazilian model; the couple, who tied the knot in November 2018, rambled around the western half of the country until they found a spot they wanted to call home. Conveniently enough, it was Montana, where “Yellowstone” is shot.
As you might suspect, Grimes isn’t a big city guy.
When I ask him about the unique spot that “Yellowstone” occupies in American culture, he’s clearly given it some thought. “In the political climate right now, there’s a line that’s been drawn in the sand between rural people and city people, and I don’t think that has to mean exactly what everyone takes it to mean,” he says. “While city people are doing city things, they still need food.
Someone’s gotta do that. I think rural communities need to be represented, too. And I think they’re misrepresented a lot.”
“This was his favorite thing I’ve done, by far. I took
Grimes on his father visiting the set of “Yellowstone”
him to the set a couple of times, him and my mom, and
they got to meet Kevin and Taylor [Sheridan, the show’s
co-creator]. It was really special to do something he
was so proud of. I’m so glad he got to see me
realize a dream in that way.”
Sheridan, Grimes says, has also prioritized the representation of indigenous people on the show. “We have someone whose job it is to make sure Native American stories are handled right. Mo [actor Mo Brings Plenty], he’s the head of that department. And we couldn’t have a better person doing that. He grew up on a reservation, and has so much respect for the native ways. He makes sure everything is done the right way. He’s one of the best people I’ve ever met in my life.”
It’s almost too easy to draw parallels between Grimes and the Dutton scion he plays, but the similarities really are striking: Like Kayce, Grimes went deer hunting with his father from a very young age, a pastime he continues on his sprawling new property. He’s unapologetic about being a hunter. “I’ve had people judge me for it, and they’re eating a cheeseburger. I really don’t understand that,” he says. “Because that animal, especially if it’s a fast food burger, had the worst life ever. You’re OK with it being a shape on a plate, and completely removing yourself from the actual process of how it got there? Versus hunting, where it’s really in your face.”
Another Kayce commonality: Grimes’ aversion to flashiness. “I like style,” he says, “but I’m not a fashion guy. A lot of times fashion suggests that you have money, and not everyone has money. People can still look really good without it.”
Grimes does make one concession to higher-end style: He swears by the boot brand Burns. “They’re a family-run brand, and they make these beautiful, handmade boots that will last you forever. They’re not cheap, but they’re amazing.” Kayce, meanwhile, wears more blue-collar Ariat cowboy boots. “I feel like he would just go to Boot Barn and get the first thing he saw.”
Now, the actor’s mulling another investment piece. “I’m in the market for my first big-boy watch,” he says. “I’ve always kind of loved watches, and I’ve been wearing cheap watches for so long now — I think it’s time I got a real one.” His Alexa shoot, at Ray’s bar on the Lower East Side, was just the push he needed. “I got to try on all these watches I’ve only seen pictures of,” says Grimes. It lit a fire in him. “I’m going to go into Nashville today and look at some vintage Rolexes, and see if I can find something I like.”
In this season of trying new things, Grimes even dipped a toe into the rom-com world. In “Happiness for Beginners,” out next year, he stars opposite Ellie Kemper (“Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”). It was, he says diplomatically, a learning experience.
“I’d always wanted to do a romantic comedy. It seemed like a lot of fun, and I’d been doing this really intense, heavy material. So I thought, ‘I want to try that and see if I’m any good at it.’ ”
So… was he funny? “The verdict is that I don’t think that I am,” he admits. “I’m a lot more in that sort of heady, dramatic space. And I was so intimidated by how funny everyone else was! I felt like I was in the wrong movie. But, you know, A for effort.”
He’ll keep pushing his own boundaries, forging the path that feels right. Music’s the new frontier right now, and it comes with its own set of emotional risks. “When you’re acting, you’re saying someone else’s words — you can hide behind it a little bit.” With music, he says, “there’s really no hiding, if you’re doing it right. Telling the truth and being vulnerable as yourself.”
Grimes clearly feels a synergy with the projects at hand, a sense that things are falling into place. “I look around at my life now, and I can’t see this having worked out better for me,” he says. “If I had gone someone else’s route, or become something else more quickly, I might not have reacted to that very well… I feel like it’s all working out the way it’s supposed to.”
Photographer: Kurt Iswarienko; Editor: Serena French; Stylist: Anahita Moussavian; Photo Editor: Jessica Hober; Fashion Assistants: Madeleine Shepherd, Madison Cheng-Trpisovsky, Alycen Humprey-Case; Groomer: Ben Thigpen at Statement Artists; Location: RaysBarNYC.com
