Taylor Kitsch and Peter Berg are reuniting for their fifth project, with Betty Gilpin also along for the ride, inAmerican Primeval. Kitsch and Berg first began working together onthe TV adaptation ofFriday Night Lights, which also marked the actor’s breakthrough role on screen, before going on to work together on 2012’sBattleshipadaptation, 2013’sLone Survivorand 2023’sPainkiller. Gilpin, meanwhile, first found success with her supporting role inNurse Jackiebefore garnering acclaim for her leading turns inGLOW, Mrs. DavisandThe Hunt.
American Primeval, directed by Berg, explores the dangerous world of the American West in 1857, including some real-world figures and events, namely the Mormon Mountain Meadows Massacre. Gilpin serves as one of the leads of the miniseries as Sara Rowell, a high-society mother who sets off with her son on a journey to reach her husband and his father, while also holding a dark secret. Kitsch stars as Isaac, a mysterious and damaged tracker with a dark past who reluctantly agrees to help guide Sara and her son on their trek.
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Alongside Gilpin and Kitsch, the ensembleAmerican Primevalcast includesThe Suicide Squad’s Jai Courtney,Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning’s Shea Whigham,Oppenheimer’s Dane DeHaan,Sons of Anarchy’s Kim Coates,The Agency’s Saura Lightfoot-Leon, Preston Mota and Derek Hinkey, among others. Balancing some intriguing character drama with some of the most intense explorations of the Old West to date, the show proves to be a harrowing look at the country’s past.
In anticipation of the show’s premiere,ScreenRantinterviewed Betty Gilpin and Taylor Kitsch to discussAmerican Primeval, how Gilpin sought to ensure that Sara didn’t feel like “Lara Croft”, but instead bring an authentic transformation into a brutal survivor, as well as how Kitsch feels about reuniting with Berg for their fifth project together, and ensuring that his troubled character didn’t come off as just an “a—ole”.
Sara’s Journey Into A Survivor Was Very Important To Gilpin To Get Right
“…she should not be in this environment…”
ScreenRant: It is great to get to chat with you both forAmerican Primeval. I watched it over the weekend, and it is such an intense, gripping ride from start to finish. Betty, I’d love to start with you. I find Sara’s journey to be such an interesting one, as we see her start as sort of this skittish mother, but as we learn more about her and things happen, she becomes this really ruthless survivor. What was it like following her on that journey and finding the heart of her along the way?
Betty Gilpin: Thank you so much. Yeah, it was important to me that she not feel like Lara Croft, that you felt like, “Oh, this person’s gonna kill a bunch of people and be totally fine in this atmosphere.” I think about what the women in, like, Pride and Prejudice, or Downton Abbey, these buttoned-up society women, what their day-to-day would be like, or the life that they would dream about having involved sitting and writing letters and wearing corsets and having tea and just kind of being existing in a bubble, and living a Groundhog Day over and over again. Inside in a very safe, controlled, boring, hierarchical environment.
I think that it was important to me and to Pete that it feel like she was totally out of her element, and that she should not be in this environment, and that the circumstances of her life and the secret that she has, the stakes of where she was, there was no other option but to try and traverse those mountains, and to trust a person that she probably shouldn’t. In order to arc it, her starting off as someone who you would not believe to be brave or belonging in this world, that was important to me to keep that authentic.
Berg & Kitsch “Have A Lot Of Trust Between Each Other”
He Also Talks Isaac’s Emotional Journey That Reveals Why He’s Not “Just An A—ole”
Taylor, I’ll turn to you next. I love that we’re not only seeing you reunite with Pete yet again, but Isaac is such a complicated, damaged character who we’re never quite sure of, even up until the end, but yet we still find he still finds a way to be so endearing in his interactions with Sara and her son. What is it like finding that balance between the darker side of him and the side that wants to connect with someone?
Taylor Kitsch: I loved it. I think with Pete, he gives you that empowerment to create the character, so when I get that first call, he just goes, “I got you. We got our next thing.” He sends it, and then he kind of gives you the reins. And obviously, Mark L. Smith writing such a great, intense character, as well, helps. And to bounce off with Pete and him and Betty, to go to work with her was amazing. You really look forward to those beats. And with Pete, anything can happen on set, which we both loved, because we have a lot of trust between each other, and to push each other in the right way.
So that was a lot of fun to explore, and knowing where it goes, obviously, you’re able to kind of pick your beats of where you want to be a little more vulnerable or giving. It would probably start, his arc of actually trying to forgive himself, in the Shoshone village, for sure, where you start to see a real piece of him, and then you meet his mother and his brother. Almost more importantly, [you see it] through Sara’s eyes, she sees it as well. So it’s not just this guy that’s just an a—ole. [Chuckles] There’s so much more to it, and that was beautiful to explore as well.
AboutAmerican Primeval
This is America…1857. Up is down, pain is everywhere, innocence and tranquility are losing the battle to hatred and fear. Peace is the shrinking minority, and very few possess grace — even fewer know compassion. There is no safe haven in these brutal lands, and only one goal matters: survival. American Primeval is a fictionalized dramatization and examination of the violent collision of culture, religion, and community as men and women fight and die to keep or control this land.
From director/executive producer Pete Berg, writer/creator/executive producer Mark L. Smith, and executive producers Eric Newman and Alex Gayner, American Primeval stars Taylor Kitsch, Betty Gilpin, Dane DeHaan, Saura Lightfoot-Leon, Derek Hinkey, Joe Tippett, Jai Courtney, Preston Mota, Shawnee Pourier, and Shea Whigham. Julie O’Keefe is Indigenous Cultural Consultant and Project Advisor. Artisans include: Hovia Edwards-Yellowjohn (Shoshone Bannock-Navajo), Pete Yellowjohn (Shoshone Bannock), Georgette Running Eagle (Shoshone Bannock), Robert Perry (Shoshone Bannock), Kugee Supernaw (Quapaw and Osage) and Son Supernaw (Quapaw-Osage and Caddo), Joe Cheshawalla (Osage) Debbie Cheshawalla (Choctaw), Molly Murphy Adams (Oglala Lakota).
American Primeval
Cast
American Primeval is a Netflix limited series that follows the lives of several men and women in the middle of the expansion of the American West. Social dynamics clash as men and women battle for a piece of the new world against rivals and each other.
