After watching four seasons of TV’s hit series Yellowstone, creator Taylor Sheridan gave us a wallop of an origin story in the 10-episode, heart-wrenching 1883 starring Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Isabel May, LaMonica Garrett and many notable others. The series was Paramount+’s most-watched title ever. On Aug. 30 Paramount Studios released the 1883 three-disc Blu-ray and four-disc DVD set that includes over two hours of bonus content including never-before-seen featurettes.
In celebration of the 1883 DVD release, we caught up with LaMonica Garrett, who plays Thomas, the levelheaded war veteran who joined the Duttons on a brutal journey across the Great Plains. “I was reading [the script] along with my agents and managers and they were a couple of scripts ahead of me,” Garrett explains about first reading the project. “And around script five, I’d get a call and they’re crying. And I’m like, ‘Oh man, how’d Thomas get it? Like already?’ But each script, it brought out a level of emotion because of so many other things going on in the show. The quiet dignity that he has throughout the series, that didn’t go unnoticed with me.”
And it didn’t go unnoticed with us either, as Thomas was the calm in this epic storm.
Here Garrett shares his insights on his character, his horses (he had two!) and what life was like filming this epic drama.
1. Characters like Thomas are rarely seen in Westerns.
LaMonica Garrett: This is a once-in-a-lifetime story. I haven’t seen characters like Thomas, especially in television Westerns. I haven’t seen that kind of a story arc. The relationship that Thomas had with Shea [Elliott] in this time period absolutely 100% existed back in the day and we just never really see this dynamic.
2. The cinematography in the series is breathtaking. It “wowed” even the cast.
I think the truthful storytelling — the cinematography. It lends itself to the lens. And to me that was one of the best characters of the show was nature. And we captured that — the mountains, the land, the rivers. And with Isabelle’s narration while you’re watching this, it was like a book being read out loud. It was special. Sam said a couple of times there was a few things that happened he’s never seen this before in his career. And Sam saying that, with all that he’s seen over the years in Hollywood and filming. ”Wow.” I’m sure we’ll never see this again in our lifetimes.
In the first episode, Sam and I are sitting on top of our horses, it’s the first time you see the 26-wagon train line coming in. Usually they just do a CGI and might have six or seven wagons and make it look like a bunch. But Taylor doesn’t want to do that. Taylor wants it real and authentic. … Sam and I, we’re just looking. But he says, “I’ve never seen this many wagons. I’ve never seen this experience.” Him saying that kind of set the tone early. Like, “Wow.” I knew this was something special with Billy Bob Thornton and Tom Hanks and all these people jumping onboard, and the scripts were amazing to read, and Tim and Faith. But hearing Sam speak of it like this. It was just like, “Wow.”
3. Cowboy training was required.
I’ve been on a horse before, but not to that degree of what was needed of us to do in the show. But cowboy camp helped out a lot. We had three weeks [of training] first thing in the morning for four or five hours a day. We’d go from horse training to lunch, to wagon training, to weapons safety training, then back to cattle driving, learning how to rope, learning how to push cattle from one side of the ranch to the other. It was day in, day out. It was work.
At first you think “cowboy camp,” you think Disneyland. I’m like, “Oh, I want to go to cowboy camp. That sounds fun.” And by the third day you got muscles hurting that you never knew existed, and you’re tired and your body’s aching and you look over and you see Sam, he’s there doing everything. So it’s like I can’t complain about being tired.
4. Actors needed two horses for some scenes.
I had two horses, but King was the one I was on the most. Jack Boone was the athletic horse [we used] when we’re chasing bandits. He was like a cutting horse, so he was real athletic. And King was like the ranching horse. Where we had a lot of dialogue, King would sit still where Jack Boone would be fidgety and be like, “I want to run.” But I was on King most of the time. He was my favorite horse. … Me and Jack, we came to an understanding. He tried to kill me two or three times and we had to talk and we hashed it out midway through and then it was all good. But in the beginning it was a little dicey.
5. It was the dirtiest role LaMonica’s ever had.
It was the only show I’ve ever been on where I would get to work and I wouldn’t go to hair and makeup because there’s no need to. I’d just wake up out of bed, I’d wash my face and brush my teeth and go to set and go get on my horse. And throughout the day, like certain places more than others, where the red dirt was … I think Amarillo had this red dirt, Dixon had this red dirt, and that red dirt gets in everything. It stays there. You’re breathing it. When you’re back, long after you’ve left that place, you’re still tasting the red dirt in your mouth. You’ve cleaned your ears, you’ve bathed at least a dozen times, but red dirt is still coming out.
6. Starting a new life back in the late 1800s was heart wrenching.
Everything is trying to kill you. Nature is trying to kill you, man is trying to kill you, snakes, the weather. Life expectancy back then for men was I think like 50 something, and that was old age. So it was a harsh time, and sometimes we need to be reminded of that. I think that’s why people gravitate toward Westerns. You really get to see life before technology. And we complain like, “Oh, I don’t have juice. Do you have an outlet?” Like juice? You’re mad about that? Go back and watch any Western and that’ll set the tone for where your energy needs to be. But I think that’s why Westerns are so beloved. It’s man against man, man against nature, and man against himself. And at the core, that’s all it is. All this other stuff, it’s stuff [that makes] our life harder than what it needs to be.
7. Taylor Sheridan’s legendary Four Sixes Ranch (6666 Ranch) is like a museum.
We were at the actual house [near Lubbock, Texas], the historical house. The room I was staying in, two presidents stayed in that room. This house was old, but they embraced their old. They haven’t tried to make it modern, it’s an old house. And not the whole cast, but Tim, Faith, Sam, Gratiela, Isabel, we all stayed there while we were filming at the 6666 Ranch. Each night we would come home from work, we’d all have dinner together at this long wood table.
The producers were there, Taylor was there, and we’d have dinner each night together like a family. And this table was another table that was older than all of us. Everything in this house was just like a museum, like a historical artifact, and it looked that way. And just to know the people who walked these halls before us was like, “Wow”. From the wallpaper and just everything was small — I’m 6’3, 220. I’m ducking in places. But that’s what it was. It was something to be at that house.
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ABOUT THE DVD:
Academy Award® nominee Taylor Sheridan’s acclaimed original series “1883” arrives on Blu-ray and DVD August 30, 2022 from Paramount Home Entertainment. The hit prequel to the Emmy®-nominated series “Yellowstone,” “1883” follows the Dutton family as they embark on a journey through the Great Plains. It is a stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land – Montana.
The “1883” three-disc Blu-ray and four-disc DVD sets include all 10 episodes, plus over two hours of bonus content including the never-before-seen featurettes “A Land of Peril & Wonder: The Journey of 1883” and “From Cast to Cowboys: Creating the Pioneer Spirit.” The sets also include additional behind-the-scenes interviews with the cast and crew