You can’t keep a good genre down. The venerable Western proved that it’s gulches have hardly run dry after the epic limited series Into the West premiered to 6.5 million total viewers on TNT.
Members of the cast of the miniseries–including Keri Russell, Jessica Capshaw, Skeet Ulrich, Rachel Leigh Cook, Gary Busey, Irene Bedard, Simon R. Baker, Michael Spears, Eddie Spears, Elizabeth Sage, Christian Kane, Tonantzin Carmelo, Francesco Quinn and Tyler Christopher–circled their wagons at the premiere at the Directors Guild of America’s Sunset Boulevard headquarters, where they recalled their tales of the Old West for Hollywood.com.
Comely Jessica Capshaw, who’s step-pappy Steven Spielberg produced the epic mini, described her favorite (and least favorite) samplings of the Old West experience while filming: “The best was the way that they traveled. They were really coming up on things that no one had ever seen before. So there really was no homogenization, there was no industrialization. There was nothing! It was just these gorgeous mountains–it was just amazing. The worst: We kept saying ‘If we think this is bad, imagine not taking a shower this morning before putting [our costumes] on. Imagine not showering AT ALL for a lonnnng time. We got to shower, but not in the show. Keri and I were in a hotel, so we were happy. Well, we were in a Calgary hotel with very weak water pressure, so I’m not sure how well-showered I was.”
Jessica said she also failed to pick up any practical pioneering skills. “No, no. Keri Russell TRIED to pretend like she was cutting Skeet Ulrich‘s hair in one scene, and it was the biggest joke. Keri and Skeet and I laughed so much during the scene, because it was so hard. When things are hard, you have to make light of them, otherwise you can’t get through them. So while Keri and I are a pushing a wagon up a hill at a 90-degree incline, we laughed because we were really doing it. I fell down, and our makeup was mud. That’s what they did. They just figured out where the mud was on our face and just matched it.”
Co-star Rachel Leigh Cook revealed that she had to campaign hard to be cast in the Western. “At first, they were like ‘Rachel’s pretty current, we don’t think that she’s right for this’. What does that mean? That I have short hair?” She prevailed and got the part, and noted that some of her sexy male co-stars may have been a little more good-looking that the real cowboys and Indians of the era. “Who knew that guys in the 1860s were this hot? What’s going on? Yeah, a few of them do have pretty good teeth.”
One of those hunky pioneers was Skeet Ulrich. “I had heard about the project and just fell into love with what Steven said the idea would be,” Skeet explained. “And then I got a hold of what has become known as ‘the Bible,’ which is sort of the synopsis of the six episodes and what it is we’re trying to tell. It just fascinated me, instantly. My part in the entire thing is one of the Wheeler brothers, the white family that we follow through generations. He’s part of this initial migration west and ultimately gets involved with the Gold Rush.”
Skeet said that while he enjoyed the historical elements of working on a Western, he also got a kick out of the visceral thrills of riding a horse and drawing his six-shooter. “It plays right into the male ego, that’s for sure. Horses and guns. It’s a great thing to do. It is like being a kid again.”
“I love Westerns,” admitted co-star Lance Henrikson. “I’ve done five. They’re morality plays and it’s not being dressed as a cowboy. It’s just a person who happens to be wearing the stuff, and I’m always basing it on something real.”
“The whole project really is following families,” the veteran character actor added. “The part that I’m playing has to do with the era, it’s a very difficult time. You’ve got Europeans and Easterners coming out to the West, and they had to a lot to survive. If you’ve got wits or good labor, you could exploit situations, and I think it was a very exploitive era as well as being one of just out-and-out trying to survive. I got pulled into it because in the story I’ve got three sons and a daughter, and my family has to survive at all costs. And that’s the tragedy of this thing, that we all want to survive at any costs.”
