Nancy Travis, Beau Mirchoff, and Tiera Skovbye Preview Hallmark’s ‘Ride’ [Interview]

Hallmark Channel’s gripping new series, Ride, transports the audience into the everyday lives of ranchers while highlighting important topics such as women’s empowerment.

I recently had the chance to speak with stars Nancy Travis, Beau Mirchoff, and Tiera Skovbye about the new series and why Ride is Hallmark’s next big hit.

Travis plays Isabel McMurray, a businesswoman and mother who keeps the McMurray ranch and her family afloat after her husband’s death. Isabel’s hands-on approach ensures that her ranch and children are well taken care of.

Meanwhile, Skovbye plays Missy McMurray, a former rodeo queen and trick rider who finds herself on the McMurray ranch after marrying Austin McMurray. Missy’s bull-riding knowledge makes her the go-to for the McMurray brothers needing a coach.

Mirchoff plays Cash McMurray, a veteran marine and the brooding younger brother of Austin McMurray. When times take a turn for the worst, Cash steps up to the plate to help save his family’s ranch.

Mirchoff said the initial appeal of Ride was the ranch life itself.

“For the last few years, I’ve been getting into horses, horseback riding, and looking to get a ranch of my own,” he said. “So, this script came to my desk, and the character was complicated and interesting. All the characters were. They had their clear destinations and intertwined really well with each other, and I just loved the world.”

Coming off her ten-year run on Last Man Standing, another series rooted and centered around family, Travis says that the familial aspect of the series was a great appeal. Being able to play a strong-minded woman, however, was the dealbreaker.

“Isabel is very much her own person, woman, and is multifaceted. I was excited to play somebody who’s not just charming for the man, as I say,” Travis said. “And like Beau, I was just so fascinated by this world that I admired and appreciated from a distance but was just dying to get into it and learn how it works. How do these people survive, and what motivates them? What makes them excited to get up every morning? So that was a really fun journey to take.”

Travis said fans will easily relate to Isabel because she’s passionate, knows what she wants, and is willing to sacrifice whatever she needs to achieve her goals.

“To me, Isabel is every woman. She’s everybody’s struggles, and she’s everybody’s triumph. I think people, male and female, will see a lot of themselves in her. Certainly, for me, I look at her, and I admire her. I admire her grit, tenacity, and her grace,” Travis explained.

For Skovbye, the appeal was being able to portray a young woman who’s dealt with so much grief in her life but still finds a way to navigate through her struggles and the dynamics at play.

“I thought it was a really interesting opportunity to play somebody who was very grounded in this world and had so many complex things going on in these relationships. It’s also a very different world and setting than anything I’ve ever played before, and I just thought that was really interesting,” Skovbye said.

Skovbye stated that part of what makes Ride unique is how the series showcases authentic family dynamics and how they navigate their world and struggles.

“Everybody’s going to have something to relate to. You can watch it with your family, and you can find hope, love, drama, heartache, and grief. It’s so complex, but everybody can find a reason to smile through every episode and a reason to feel empathy and courage. I think that’s really special,” Skovbye said.

Naturally, being part of a series that demands so much physical work is a challenge in and of itself. However, Mirchoff said that the most difficult part of the role was the emotional aspect and figuring out the character’s mindset and just how broken he is.

“How big of a shield has he had? How much is he willing to share? Physical stuff is challenging in its own way, but it takes care of itself if you put it in time.”

“It was mainly figuring out who he was and how I wanted to play him. I ended up just kind of going back to the softness of him. He’s a rugged kind of cowboy, but deep down, there’s a real soft, tender heart to him. So that was fun and challenging to discover,” Mirchoff continued.

While Mirchoff didn’t get to ride any bulls for real, he said he did get to sit on them in the chute, which almost led to him being hit by a bull while filming one of the promo shoots because he didn’t have a spotter at the time.

“You’re supposed to have a spotter when you’re sitting on the bull, and I was leaning too far forward, and then the bull pulled back. So, I didn’t get to ride, but I would love to try,” Mirchoff said.

“I can’t even imagine, honestly. I mean, I think of it like downhill skiing. You wouldn’t take somebody who doesn’t know how to ski and just go. I mean, it’s so difficult. People think, ‘oh, eight seconds.’ Eight seconds feels like a lifetime. I can’t even imagine,” Travis interjected.

“Even when we were watching the scenes of the actual bull riders riding for eight seconds. I was like, ‘please be okay, please.’ Like, it feels like an eternity. I can only imagine if watching it feels like an eternity; how long does that eight seconds feel?” Skovbye added.

Filming on set was a magical experience for the actors, from the weather, animals, and sights all the way down to working with the crew. Travis said that while filming, a highlight was getting to interact with the animals and getting to hand them back over to the handlers afterward.

“You know, I think it’s like having grandchildren. I mean, you get to hand them back,” Travis laughed. “We had the pleasure of being on the ranch and being a witness to all of the facets of what that’s like, but we didn’t actually have to do anything. I think that is a hard life. I’m sure it’s rewarding, but ranchers and wranglers work very, very hard.”

Outside of being the first time filming on a ranch for all three actors, they also share the same sentiment towards the series and crew.

Skovbye says that one of her favorite moments on set came from a night shoot while filming a bonfire scene.

“It was the middle of summer, there was an actual fire, someone’s playing the guitar, and we’re in this beautiful setting out in the field, and I’m like, ‘wow.'” Skovbye said. “I left that day being like, ‘this is my job? I don’t understand.’ It felt like just a bunch of friends literally hanging out, having a bonfire, and getting to do the thing that they love. It was amazing.”

“We laughed a lot too. The snapshots that come to my head are Nancy and I like buckled over, not able to get through a scene laughing, or me and Jake not being able to look each other in the eye because we can’t stop laughing,” Skovbye continued.

“There are snapshots in my mind of the foul running around with its two mamas, the cows coming in from the field, the way the light played on the mountains, and the way the clouds would move. It’s just gorgeous images in my mind,” Travis added.

Mirchoff said that one of his favorite things while filming was everyone’s collaboration because having that on set is rare.

“We’ve been really collaborative, more so than I have been on other things,” Mirchoff said. “That might be a product of us as individuals together, but I like it a lot. I really like being collaborative, bouncing ideas off each other, and getting the ego out of there. If I can bring that to the next job, I think that would really behoove me.”

Skovbye said that being away from their hometowns and filming together in Calgary forced them all to bond, making them feel like a family and adding a communal element.

“It allowed us to have these really big conversations about characters and have it be a collaboration. We all cared about each other’s storylines as much as our own, which is very rare,” Skovbye said. “You know, you work with people, show up, and do your thing, but we showed up for everybody all the time, and that was a wonderful experience.”

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Ride premieres Sunday, March 26, at 9/8c on Hallmark Channel. 

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