Hoyt and Calian are almost like reluctant besties. They don't necessarily see eye to eye on things, but Hoyt goes to bat for Calian in this episode. What have some of your favorite moments been working with Matt Barr, and how do you think Calian and Hoyt's dynamic will evolve from here?
The Calian-Hoyt dynamic is one of my favorite things about this show. Matt — I love that man to death. I truly do. I had lunch with him today, and we hang out, and he loves my family, and they love him.
He's so funny. It comes easy to him ... He makes me laugh all the time. I watched the episodes back after filming with him [and] I was still laughing. It's great. We get each other — we're cut from the same cloth in a way. We love all the physicality. We love that stuff and riding the horses, and we're like kids out here. We're like 6-year-olds playing make-believe, and it's a dream come true.
There's actually a funny story with Matt [from] Episode 3. We ride double on the horse, so we did the practice of him swinging up, which looks way easy, but it's actually quite difficult. Everyone's like, "That looks easy." I'm like, "Man, it's hard. We worked really hard for that." We had to practice riding double, so we're out at the ranch or we're riding around — and [I] probably shouldn't say this because they'll freak out — but I get him on the back, and we're riding, and we're at a low and we take a right-hand turn, and I feel him sliding. He's sliding off my side, and I'm like, "Oh, no, he's going to go."
He knew. Afterward, he's like, "Dude, I thought I was going to hit the ground." But he starts sliding, and I reached around and grabbed him and pulled him back on. Everyone else in the cast is on their horses watching us, and I think everyone's heart stopped for a second, because I was like, "I can't be the one responsible for Matt Barr breaking his arm right now. This is going to be awful." I got him back on, and we stopped the horse, and we were able to laugh. But for a second, I thought for sure I was fired. I was like, "I'm done."
How mad is Matt going to be at you for sharing that story?
No, he shared it once. That's why I felt okay telling it. Being on the back of a horse is actually terrifying. I'm glad I was in control. I was lucky to be the one in front. But he's down for anything. He was like, "Sure, I'll jump on." He gets on. He's a cowboy in real life.
