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Ed Harris recently admitted that he nearly walked away from Dutton Ranch after he felt “misled” about his role.
At the premiere of Apple TV+’s The Dink, Harris told Variety he joined the series after being led to believe Everett McKinney would be a central character.
“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,” Harris said. “And that wasn’t really the case.”
The Oscar nominee felt disappointed and reached a breaking point halfway through production.
“I said, ‘I’m feeling underused and inconsequential,’ and they kind of went, ‘Oh,'” he recalled. “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.”
One deleted part fueled his frustration more than anything. He filmed a scene in which he sang at a bar, but it was deleted from 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.’ I walk up to the mic, and they cut it. They cut the song out. I’m going, ‘F*** you, people,'” Harris said.
He was told that the performance clashed with the episode’s darker ending, but Harris was not satisfied with this explanation.
However, the finished season left a better impression on him than the filming process. After he watched all the episodes, Harris felt his character proved “relatively important to the story.”
His future on Dutton Ranch appears secure because in a TV Insider interview, co-stars Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser suggested season 2 will give Everett more screen time.
Hauser described Harris as “an amazing American actor” and acknowledged the series used him “very sparingly” in season 1.
He asserted, “We’re going to make sure that he is a big part of helping us moving forward in whatever capacity.” Reilly also hinted Everett will become one of the show’s driving forces in the coming installments.
“I think Season 2 is going to feel very much more Ed’s show. This is not the Beth and Rip show. This is Dutton Ranch, and there’s four lead characters, five,” she said.
The actress added, “Annette Bening and Ed Harris, it’s such a privilege to have them come join our show. I’ve said this before, I feel like they made us legit. We could have just been a little soapy spinoff, and we’re not because of them. We’re a drama, we’re a new show, and it’s got some heavyweights in it. We’re very proud to be working with them.”
