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Ed Harris candidly shared he was not happy with how his role in Dutton Ranch began.
"Midway through this first season, I was ready to say, ‘Get me the f**k out of here,' to tell you the truth," the actor, 75 said in an interview with Variety on Monday, July 20. "I didn't feel like I was being used. I felt a bit misled."
Harris plays local veterinarian and Vietnam War veteran Everett McKinney in the Yellowstone spinoff series. Dutton Ranch follows Yellowstone fan favorite characters Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) and Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) as they build their news lives in South Texas.
The Oscar nominee explained that he is currently contracted for "two" seasons and before filming the first, he went into the project thinking his part played a bigger role.
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"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," he claimed. "And that wasn't really the case."
Harris shared that he told the Dutton Ranch crew that he felt "underused and inconsequential." He claimed that he was told that his character "will have a little bit more to do" next season.
"It was just a little frustrating, to tell you the truth. When I watched it, I watched this season, and it's fine," he admitted. "I thought it was pretty good. I felt fine about what I did in it and it seemed like I was relatively important to the story. But the doing of it did not feel that way."
Harris admitted he wanted a more action-packed story line and claimed that he was upset that one of his memorable scenes from the first season was cut.
"The thing that really pissed me off, to tell you the truth, the first episode [or] I think it was the second. One of the things that they told me before I signed on was, ‘Hey you get to sing something in the bar,'" he claimed. "So there's this scene in there …. I'm talking to Kelly at the bar and Cole 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.'"
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Harris claimed that he was told that the song was "too ‘up' for the dark ending of that episode." Following that moment, Harris felt it was "enough reason" to consider "voiding" his contract. However, Harris shared he ultimately did not decide to exit and that filming for season 2 will start in February 2027.
Us has reached out to Paramount for comment.
Dutton Ranch found success when season 1 premiered on Paramount+ earlier this year. The show was instantly renewed for a second season. However, one change was made to the Dutton Ranch crew as Chad Feehan exited as showrunner after completing his work on season 1.
