EXCLUSIVE: 1883’s LaMonica Garrett Talks Sam Elliott, Cowboy Camp, & More with BB
Last night, December 19, the first two episodes of Paramount+’s new series, 1883 were released. To celebrate the release, we sat down with one of the stars of the show, LaMonica Garrett.
Garrett plays the mysterious cowboy, Thomas, righthand man to Sam Elliott’s Shea. During our chat, we talked Garrett’s character, what drew him to the series, Cowboy Camp, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below.
What drew you to the series?
“A lot of things. Taylor [Sheridan], his writing for one, you just want to be a part of that world and be a part of some of his projects. And this story being told. When I read my character’s breakdown and what he was about, and then I started reading scripts, these roles don’t come around often. I wanted to be the one to tell Thomas’ story.”
How would you describe Thomas and his interactions with Shea (Sam Elliott)?
“Shea and Thomas have a deep history together. They served in the war together. The right hand knows what the left is doing. They’re brothers at this point. They can communicate and say so much without saying a word together. They just know each other.
How about your relationship with Elliott, how would you describe that?
“Sam’s a great dude. He embraced me from the first time that we met. He calms the nerves of everyone that he comes in contact with just his steadiness and his work ethic. He’s the first one there, he’s the last one to leave.
He said he hasn’t ridden a horse in 20 years before this project and he’s killing it. He’s inspiring to watch work. Sometimes I have to remember that we are working together because I get caught up looking at him work while I’m in the scene with him. There was a part coming up in episode three where I had the next line, and I had some action that was about to happen after that, I caught myself looking at him like, wow. Oh, snap back into it. All right. It’s time to work right now. It’s amazing, working with Sam. He’s a great person. And he’s a great actor.”
You can read the rest of our interview with the actor under the jump. The interview does contain spoilers from the first two episodes, so read at your own risk.
Photo credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
What about Thomas’ relationship with James (Tim McGraw), what can fans expect to see there?
“James, he’s there. He has his own reasons for coming along on this journey. The tension starts from that because when your reasons don’t align with why we’re doing this, it’s going to come off as selfish at some point. Because you’re doing it for your family. But at some point throughout the series, we realize that we can’t butt heads. We have to do this together. If we’re not together on this, then we’re all going to fail. And we have that point to where we come together and it’s beautiful.”
What has it been like working with Sheridan on the series?
“Working with Taylor has been amazing. This is the first time I’ve read scripts where each script that I read, it brings out different emotions and all of them get me choked up. That knot in your throat. That’s from the page. This is one of the projects. You know how they say, sometimes the book is better than whatever movie it was, this translates to the screen. It’s really wonderful to watch.
And working on a Western, I think that’s every actor’s bucket list. You want to do it at least once. That’s all that was on TV for a long time was the Bonanzas, the Gunsmokes, the Wagon Trains. I remember watching these shows with my mom. My mom still watches them. She goes on YouTube and that’s all she does. So being able to be a part of a Western that I grew up watching. The genre that I… Unforgiven is my favorite movie. And now that we’re telling stories like this from a different time period. I think people gravitate towards that because you rarely see it these days.”
Can you tell us a little bit about Thomas’ costuming and the inspiration for it?
“Taylor had the idea of the Buffalo Soldier, the Union coat. He has a tremendous amount of pride in being that soldier. For a lot of former slaves back in the 1800s, they went over to the military. They were Buffalo Soldiers. And a lot of those Buffalo Soldiers became Cowboys because there was a different kind of freedom.
They moved to Texas and it’s a whole… There’s a rich culture in that. But Thomas, his Buffalo soldier jacket, they don’t have much. Everything he has in this world is on him and on his horse. And the most important thing to him is that coat, his guns and his horse.”
What about the decision for Thomas to wear his hat so low?
“Thomas is a guy that he’ll sit in a bar in the back and just see everything. He might not say a lot, but he’ll see everything that’s going on and see what potential threats are in here. And he’s protective of Shea. And we have that hat being low. It’s like just barely being able to see the eyes. Growing up, watching westerns those mysterious dark characters always had their eyes kind of hidden. But, when you see their eyes, it’s for a reason. Something bad is about to happen. I keep going back to William Munny with Unforgiven. He hid his eyes a lot, but when he showed his one eye and he was looking at Gene Hackman, Little Bill, he was about to kill him. Like you didn’t see his eyes a lot, but when he does it’s for a reason.”
There’s a lot of action and strenuous activity in 1883. What was the hardest part about preparing for your role?
“Learning to ride the horse. I never rode a horse before. Cowboy camp was tough on us. We did three weeks of cowboy camp before we started filming. That was riding horses, learning to drive the wagons, steering the horses. That was roping cattle, herding cattle, shooting. It was a lot. And that was a challenge. Like you think cowboy camp like, oh, that sounds fun. I want to go to cowboy camp. It’s cool for three or four days. But after… It’s a hundred degrees in Texas every day in August and it’s humid and we were doing it six days a week, that was a challenge, but it got all of us closer as a cast.
We bonded and we all learned something together that we didn’t know before. And that was the cowboy culture. I got a tremendous amount of respect for cowboys now. Because I had no idea how hard it was.”
Was there something at cowboy camp that you were actually immediately good at that surprised you?
“I was pretty good at roping. Roping cows and not just roping them like standing still. Being on a horse and a cows running and you’re getting it, you’re getting it. I would get the horns a good amount of times. I had to learn how to ride the horse first. But yeah, once I got going on that, the roping came a little easier than the rest of the stuff.”
Was there something that wasn’t as easy for you?
“The wagons, they’re not comfortable. They’re not fun. Like that was their only means of transportation back then. You feel every rock in the road and if you’re a big… I’m a big guy. If you’re a big guy, you’re just getting like knocked all around where you sit. It’s not fun.”
Black representation is super important in Entertainment. I think a lot of people don’t realize just how involved Black people were in the West. How important is it to have that kind of representation?
“Reading the arc of my character, in the past, the way Thomas is going, it was traditionally written for the White stars in that whatever era, that was in. These roles weren’t written for Black actors. And there’s a rich history of Black Cowboys all throughout how the west was won, recreating the frontier. They were there.
And oddly enough, throughout the westerns and television and films, you didn’t see them. They had a purpose. Like they would come, they would say a few things and they would walk out like, where is he coming from? What’s his story? Does he have a family? Where’s he going right now? You just see them come and go. But Thomas’ character. They don’t mention a lot about his backstory, but the fact that you could see the history and the relationship with him and Shea from the opening scene of the series. And me being the one to bring this to light in such a strong role, in such a strong piece, like 1883. I get emotional every time I think about it. My son growing up, one day he’s going to look back, like my dad was Thomas in 1883. He was the second Black cowboy to have his name and picture as a co-star when the episode came on.
The last time that happened was 1968. I think with Otis Young and the show called The Outcast. And it hasn’t happened since then. And there was one time before in Rawhide, the last season of Rawhide, Robert St. Jacques, I think was his name. He had his name and there was a sketch drawing of his face, but you couldn’t tell it was him. So there’s only been two, three, maybe four co-stars that had their picture and their name. And that was what you did back in the day with the Westerns. In the beginning of the episode, you see the actor, you see the star and their name underneath. That was a big thing. When I saw the first two episodes a couple of weeks ago in Amarillo. We shot it. I know what’s going to happen. When I saw the opening credits, I lost it. I cried for two straight hours. So it means a lot to me. And yeah, I hope I’m doing it justice.”
The show is a prequel to Yellowstone, so who is your favorite character from the original series?
“I think Rip. I think Rip is everybody’s favorite character. Just that dark bad dude that handles business and yeah. That would probably be my answer.”
We learn in the second episode that James was part of the Confederacy, but he has a lot of complicated thoughts about that post. Do you think that Thomas has an indication of what James might have gone through during that time and which side he fought on?
“Thomas has this code that he lives by. He has a hard line in the dirt of what’s right and what’s wrong. Respect and disrespect. He’s protective of Shea and their relationship. He’s a soldier. There’s an order of who’s leading this whole outfit and who is isn’t?
So if you cross that, if you talk back to Shea or me in front of all of these immigrants that we’re supposed to be leading, it breaks the chain of command. It’s like insubordination. As the episodes go, you see the tension rising more between Shea, Thomas and James. And it comes to a point to where it’s almost like if you don’t talk to him, I will. And make sure it sticks. Because if you don’t want to make it stick, I’ll make it stick. I’ll take care of this business. So, once we figure out that we all need each other, like I said, then the three of us turn into a machine working trying to get everybody to where we’re going.
He knows he was fighting on the other side and he just keeps an eye on him. He sees how he moves. He doesn’t know if he trusts him yet. So that’s going to be fun to watch play out.”