Rob Kirkland Talks ‘Yellowstone’ and ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ [Interview]

The last year has been a big one for Rob Kirkland. Between his return on Yellowstone Season 4 Episode 9, “No Such Thing as Fair,” and his pivotal role on Mayor of Kingstown, Kirkland is becoming a recognizable face amongst TV viewers.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with him about the excitement of being involved with not one, but two of Taylor Sheridan’s projects. This allows him the unique opportunity of being immersed into two similar, yet very different worlds. 

Now, if you have been living under a rock for the last few years and don’t really know what Yellowstone is about, don’t worry. Kirkland explained the show in the simplest of terms, using words he borrowed from a friend: “it’s Succession for red states.”

“Yellowstone is ranches and horses instead of board rooms and jets,” Kirkland added for further clarification.

Whatever way you spin it, it’s clear this show is gritty, intense, and dramatic all at once. Kirkland’s character, so far, hasn’t been that involved in the shady dealings of Kevin Costner’s character, John Dutton. 

Kirkland was quick to point out that Taylor Sheridan “plays the long game” on Yellowstone. He said there is “a lot of thoughtfulness and authenticity. Not just in the writing, but also the execution of the show and even the position of pieces on the chessboard.”

There have been two seasons of intensity on Yellowstone from when his character, Bill Ramsey, was first introduced and when he comes back on the scene in that explosive Season 4 episode. With a shocking moment like that, I had to ask Kirkland what it was like to create such a moment with Kevin Costner.

“[Sheriff] Haskell dies in Season 4,” Kirkland noted. “Dutton, Costner’s character, has lost his inside man within law enforcement — which is very important. So, he shows up to find Bill has been made sheriff and he’s not happy.”

“Bill didn’t want the job of sheriff. One thing that Bill believes in is the law. He doesn’t have faith in people; he has faith in the system,” Kirkland continued. “So when Haskell dies, he knows it’s going to bring him face to face with John at some point. When some stuff hits the fan, he has to come to [Bill Ramsey] for a favor. Which, I grudgingly give to him.”

Kirkland said this was his first time working with Kevin Costner. “We went in and worked it a bunch of different ways and working with Kevin Costner as someone at that level, and in that type of scene it was kind of what you dream of as an actor.”

He also wanted to be sure to add that Costner is nothing like his character. “To watch him slip into John, who’s such a surly guy, when he’s such a nice guy [outside of the scene], is just great.”

The conversation also turned to his other claim to fame this year, Mayor of Kingstown when Kirkland mentioned getting opportunities to work with great actors like Kevin Costner and Jeremy Renner. 

“I spent some time in Detroit for a few days with the patrol officers and the command officers, spent some time with LAPD and the sheriff’s office. A lot of these officers said the same thing, in these different cities and states, cops are pretty much all the same.” Kirkland said that Ramsey and Walter are two different people that are doing two similar but different jobs.

“Obviously, a captain is different than a sheriff,” Kirkland added. “They’re both law enforcement and they believe in their [own unique] point of view.”  

“We have Ramsey, who’s the sheriff and believes in the law and the system, but the people are broken. Whereas Walter doesn’t incorporate the law and the system, but he believes in the people. He knows the people he works with are flawed, but he believes their flaws come from unconsciously being involved, sometimes consciously, in a system that is broken.” 

Kirkland likened Ramsey and Walter to two different authors. 

“Walter would be someone who is like James Baldwin. He grew up as a student of James Baldwin and if he wasn’t a police captain he would be a civil rights attorney. And for Ramsey, he’s more of a James Allen; if he wasn’t a sheriff he would be a Marine General.”

Talking in-depth about these two law enforcement characters brought us to the heavy topic on many viewers’ minds these days — police brutality and the way they are portrayed in the media. As a man of color, Rob Kirkland has his own unique viewpoint to create Captain Walter from.

“That is something Taylor and I talked about when he offered me both of these roles. There are some implicit things he felt would come out of me playing these roles, and there are some explicit things we would be exploring with these characters. We wanted to be prepared,” Kirkland said.

“The officers that I shadowed all told me ‘we have a lot of officers who have done some unscrupulous things and it’s made an already difficult job even harder.’ I have my own experiences with officers, some of them were bad and some were not. So, I wanted to be sure I portrayed a real person.”  

Kirkland also discussed how much effort he and Sheridan put into making sure they didn’t fall into the traps of TV stereotypes for police officers as well as Black officers. They worked diligently to make sure every detail was done right and every moment was important.

“I approached [Walter] as someone who does believe because he’s aware the system is broken,” Kirkland added.

“Walter looks at it as a system that needs to be completely restructured. And it’s not working, but Walter is smack dab in the middle of it. He’s part police officer, part politician trying to do what he can from the inside. Because it’s the foundation of the system that makes sense.”

—

*Featured image credit: Collin Stark

You can catch Rob Kirkland on Yellowstone now streaming on Peacock and Mayor of Kingstown now streaming on Paramount+.

 Follow us on Twitter and on Instagram!

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!