Logan Marshall-Green plays a mission-critical role on the first season of CBS’ “Marshals.” The show is a “Yellowstone” spinoff that stars Luke Grimes as Dutton family good guy Kayce, while Marshall-Green plays Pete Calvin — a Navy SEAL buddy who went through the hell of war with him. Pete is the one who gets Kayce a job on the five-person marshal team and ends up being a big influence on his friend, despite battling his own demons. Marshall-Green recently spoke with Variety to break down his character’s complex dynamic with Kayce, his training for the show and how he’s using his performance to pay tribute to veterans.
What was your training like for this role?
It was quick. We jumped right in. This is the fastest I’ve ever seen a TV show get put together, to be completely honest. I got the offer, and I was boots-on-the-ground training and shooting within two weeks. And I think that goes pretty much for everybody, except for Luke. None of us had really worked together. I’d done a lot of tactical work in other roles, I’ve played a lot of soldiers, and I’ve held a weapon before, but it’s really about the dance between, what we’d call the “pain train.” When you kick that door and go through and check those corners, everybody has to know where to go, how to dance and move, and make it flow.
We had an amazing prop master who propped everybody up beautifully, got everybody really tied into what was realistically needed. We had a great military consultant named Ryan Sangster, who’s an ex-SEAL. Because of the background of Luke’s character, Kayce, and mine being SEALs, we needed to have that tip of the spear very sharp, and everybody else flowed amongst us. We busted our butts. A lot of that training was about getting the five of us dancing together without two left feet.
Were you comfortable horse riding?
I was pretty comfortable with that as well. I don’t know actually how much they were aware of my horsemanship. Not that I’m that soft in the saddle, but I was a ranchhand for about half a year while I worked on the movie “As I Lay Dying.” There’s a lot of horsemanship in that, and I was very dedicated. So I worked my butt off for that, and I’ve got some other things I’ve done horseback with, so I’m not too bad at it.
Does it feel like you’re living a cowboy lifestyle while you’re shooting in Utah?
Yeah, I bought a truck! [Laughs] I did, actually. You kind of needed one in Utah once it snows. I needed to get four-wheel drive, and I got a truck. I guess you could say I turned a little bit into a cowboy. It is a cowboy lifestyle in that it was really hard work. This show got shot out of the gate, like I mentioned before, and we were doing, some days, six-day eps, and we were traveling almost an hour out to an incredible location called Thousand Peaks, where they originally shot the first three seasons of “Yellowstone.” To say it’s beautiful is an understatement. While it may have been cold, and it may have been really early a lot of those days, it was still me on a horse with an incredible view, and I didn’t take that for granted at all.
Your chemistry with Luke feels so natural. How were you able to get there with him so quickly?
Luke’s pretty easygoing. He disarms you when you meet him. He’s a very grounded, down-to-earth guy. We took a few hikes right away, just to meet each other. But a lot of that just is being easy to work with, and that Luke has in spades. There’s a lot of the relationship, though, to be seen, and to evolve or devolve, and there’s a lot of history between them. You all know about Kayce, but I don’t. I wasn’t around him in those years. I come to terms with not just who he is and where he comes from, but also the things he’s done in the past. That puts a wrench in the works, as well as ties us even more tightly together, as two ex-SEAL Team buddies.
Were you a “Yellowstone” fan before you got the job?
They offered the part to me and I had about an hour to decide, because they needed me out there in a week. We sat down, watched the pilot, which I thought was quite good, and I’m a big fan of [“Yellowstone” co-creator] Taylor Sheridan’s films. But I’d never seen any of the “Yellowstone” shows — none of them. I quickly realized that I didn’t need to. It would probably be better to when I ask questions, so that they are coming from a true place of ignorance. That ignorance is bliss in this way, and actually made my job a lot easier to find out who he was in front of a camera.
Did Taylor have any advice on the part, or did things happen so quickly that you didn’t have time to connect ahead of time?
I didn’t. We were shot out of a cannon, and I’ve had no conversations with Taylor about it, to be completely honest.
What kind of journey are viewers going to see your character go on this season?
My journey is one of the vet. It’s one of the reasons I wanted to play this guy. I have a deep respect for soldiers, especially veterans. When they come home, and they’re somewhat lost, not just externally, but internally. The depths that they have to go to right their ships … some of them make it, some of them don’t. It’s the effects of war — not just in battle, but at home.
More than anything, relationships are destroyed by this job. A lot of these soldiers have high divorce rates, high amounts of alcoholism and abuse of pharmaceuticals. One of the biggest storylines is a relationship with a family member of his that he lost. So he’s got a lot going on, not just trying to refine his brotherhood with Kayce.
The series premiere of “Marshals” airs on CBS tonight at 8 p.m. ET.
