1883 Star Tim McGraw Talks About Tom Hanks' Surprise Premiere Cameo and How It Came Together
The first two episodes of the Yellowstone prequel series 1883 recently premiered, and this show is freakin’ awesome! This is beautifully made western series that tells a fascinating story.
The series follows “the Dutton family as they embark on a journey west through the Great Plains toward the last bastion of untamed America. It is a stark retelling of Western expansion, and an intense study of one family fleeing poverty to seek a better future in America’s promised land — Montana.”
The show also has a great cast that includes Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as play James and Margaret Dutton, the Dutton family’s patriarch and matriarch. Sam Elliott also stars and plays Shea Brennan, “a tough cowboy with some underlying melancholy to be revealed as he guides the emigrants from Texas to Montana.”
The premiere also features an huge cameo that was a complete surprise. The last thing that I was expecting to see in the series was Tom Hanks, but he showed up in a surprising yet powerful role in the series.
In the scene, McGraw's character, James Dutton, a captain of the Confederate Army, is walking around the battlefield after the Battle of Antietam and he’s looking around in horror at all the dead soldiers. He sits down on a log and he’s approached by a group of Union soldiers, including a general, who comes and sits beside him. This is Civil War hero General George Meade, and that’s who Tom Hanks plays.
The scene that McGraw and Hanks share is a powerful one as it shows two soldiers on opposite side of the war wondering what all the bloodshed is for. McGraw was asked about this scene during a roundtable and how it came about. This was his reply:
"Well, Tom and Rita and Faith and I have been friends for almost 25 years, we're really good friends. So we spent a lot of time together. So when I read the script and read the second episode, I just had an idea and I called Tom and said, 'What do you think about showing up for this cameo to do this show?' I said, 'Faith and I are doing this show. It's our first really big parts and trying to carry something, we're doing it together.' And he goes, 'Tell me when, tell me where and I'll be there.' It was just that simple."
McGraw went on to share how he and Hanks prepared for the scenes, saying:
"[Hanks and Wilson] stayed with us for a couple of days before we shot. But the morning that we shot, we separated from each other, because he didn't want to see me because I'm in hair and makeup and a whole different sort of look than I have in the whole show and I didn't want to see him. And so the first time I actually see him is when he walks up to me in the scene, we did that on purpose.
"And when I fell apart emotionally, part of that was certainly the scene and the devastation that was in front of me and losing all my men, certainly, and for a cause that I didn't believe in, but to know that one of my best friends showed up and he is there with me, and when he grabs my shoulder, it just made me fall apart. Because we've tried to do stuff together over the years and the timing never worked out. So to have him there in that moment and there to support us for a big project was pretty special. And that shows you what kind of guy Tom Hanks is."
I love this story and I really do hope that we see more of Hanks in the series. But, even if we don’t, the scene that he and McGraw shared together was beautiful.