Luke Grimes has been playing cowboy Kayce Dutton on Yellowstone since 2018, but some fans are still coming to terms with a fundamental truth: he is an actor, not an actual cowboy.
The 42-year-old, who now continues the character’s story in the CBS spinoff Marshals, told Toronto radio station CHUM 104.5 that the strangest fan encounters often involve a version of the same realisation.
Some viewers, he said, “loved that show so much that they were, on a certain level, upset that it wasn’t real.”
The most common version of this comes in the form of a complaint. “A lot of times you’ll get the, ‘You’re not a real cowboy.'”
His response is straightforward.
“Well, of course I’m not, I’m an actor. That’s why I’m able to do this. If I was a real cowboy, I’d be, like, herding cattle right now. I wouldn’t be on this show.”
Even his one-year-old son, whom he shares with wife Bianca Rodrigues Grimes, has his own take on the cowboy persona.
“My son thinks my cowboy hat is really funny,” Grimes told PEOPLE at the Marshals LA premiere.
“He doesn’t understand why I have that big thing on my head.” That said, the baby loves visiting the set and got excited when he was brought along.
New episodes of Marshals air Sundays at 8pm ET on CBS.
