Yellowstone spin-off 1883 has hooked viewers for its dramatic account of a migration west,
but some of the actors met — and married — well before the show's premier.
Keep watching to learn which actress had to slap her real-life husband.
Tom Hanks is a massive Yellowstone fan, so he jumped at the chance to appear in the prequel
series, 1883.
Co-star and longtime friend Tim McGraw told Cinemablend,
"I knew that there was this part in there, and I gave him a call and said, 'Hey, would
you be interested in showing up and doing a cameo in this show that we're doing?'
And he goes, 'Tell me when to be there,' and he just showed up."
Hanks has been in a relationship with actor and singer Rita Wilson for decades.
The two married in 1988 and have several children.
Hanks and Wilson were famously two of the first celebs to announce their COVID-19 diagnoses,
while working in Australia in the early days of the pandemic.
Tom isn't the only member of the family to appear on 1883; Wilson also had a cameo in
a first-season episode of the show, sharing a drink with Margaret Dutton, who was played
by Faith Hill.
"How 'bout a whiskey punch?"
On 1883, Sam Elliott plays Shea Brennan, a Civil War vet who leads the wagon train taking
the Duttons across the West.
He told Wide Open Country that the character is far more complex than he's used to, saying,
"There's a lot more going on in Shea's head than other cowboys I've played.
I don't think I've ever had a role like this.
The look of it, the expanse of it, the size of it, it's just not typical television by
any means."
"We're making too many widows, too many orphans."
"We ain't making nothing."
Since 1984, Sam Elliott has been married to actor Katharine Ross, who is best known for
playing Elaine Robinson in The Graduate.
They starred together in the horror movie The Legacy back in 1978 and have been together
since.
Elliott loves working with his wife as often as possible.
He told the Los Angeles Times,
"I think we just like making movies and having that creative experience together is the best.
It's just fun.
It's a whole different kind of energy to go home with some you're working with rather
than go home to somebody who isn't working.
It's a totally positive experience."
"What a nice surprise."
"A nice surprise?"
Their family life hit the spotlight in 2011 when Ross sought a restraining order against
daughter Cleo Elliott for stabbing her with scissors, according to People.
They appear to have worked everything out — Cleo accompanied her mom and dad to the
premiere of her father's film A Star is Born.
1883 follows the Dutton family heading West for Oregon; viewers of Yellowstone know that
they will eventually settle in Montana instead, because that's where their descendants live
on the original show.
Jim and Margaret Dutton are the ancestors of Kevin Costner's John Dutton, and while
Costner was of course a major star before Yellowstone, in casting the prequel the producers
upped the stakes.
They selected a real-life power couple to play the earlier Duttons: country-music superstars
Faith Hill and Tim McGraw.
When they first met, Hill was engaged to record producer Scott Hendricks, but she left him
for Tim McGraw.
It seems to have been a good choice, as the two have been together for decades.
McGraw and Hill can't seem to stop talking about how great it is to work together on
this show.
It seems that acting on 1883 has allowed them to work through their relationship in brand-new
ways, according to McGraw.
In particular, he told Extra TV about a scene where Hill's character had to hit him, saying
that she used her whole hand to deliver the wallup.
"She's gonna die."
Hill, on the other hand, told Rotten Tomatoes that she was nervous about being intimate
with her husband on screen, describing a bath scene in the first episode as particularly
strange.
She said,
"I'm a modest person.
That kind of thing, I kind of like to keep in my own house, you know what I'm saying?"
However, Hill was ultimately happy with the way things went.
She said,
"It was a beautiful bathtub, nice beautiful copper bathtub and it was done very tastefully.
It actually turned out to be a beautiful scene."
Eric Nelsen has had small roles on a number
of television shows, but he is better known as a producer, having won four Daytime Emmy
Awards for producing The Bay, as well as a Tony for producing The Inheritance.
He talked to Wide Open Country about the preparation that went into his role on "1883," where he
plays a cowboy named Ennis.
In particular, Nelsen recalled the strict training showrunner Taylor Sheridan put them
through, saying,
"​​He sent us to a multiple week cowboy camp before we started filming.
[It was] horses all day, every day.
We roped, we cut cattle, we shot guns and we ate the food that cowboys would eat back
then."
He also talked about being a Yellowstone holdout, saying,
"It's interesting because my wife was a massive fan and she kept saying, 'Watch the show,
watch the show, watch the show.'
And I just hadn't had time."
His wife is actor Sainty Nelsen.
She herself is a multiple Emmy winner and also has a Tony, and she describes herself
as a cowboy wife on Instagram.
She's very supportive of her husband's success, at one point writing on Instagram,
"I kept crying watching Eric on that big screen.
11 years of self tapes, auditions, roles... and this is it baby!!!!"
"Hey, don't go nowhere alone, okay?"
Billy Bob Thornton plays Marshal Jim Courtright in 1883, a former outlaw now on the side of
the law.
He told People,
"There was a very thin line between a bad guy and a good guy, and a lot of times they
would wanna hire a bad guy as the sheriff because they knew he knows how to do it."
"I ain't armed.
Them immigrants took my guns."
"I can see that."
His romantic history is the stuff of pop culture legend, including his ill-fated marriage to
Angelina Jolie.
The tabloid sensations wore each other's blood in lockets and showed up to awards shows bragging
about having just had sex in the limousine; they didn't last past 2003.
Thornton had a child with his girlfriend, special effects artist Connie Angland, in
2004.
However, a few years later, he told Maxim that he didn't plan to marry again, saying,
"​​I told Connie I didn't want to put her through that.
We do fine.
We've been together for four years now.
We have a child together.
If we get married, then the press will start calling her 'Number Six.'"
However, they did marry in secret in 2014.
According to People, the news didn't break for several months, until a rep sent the magazine
a statement revealing that they had married in a private ceremony, with family present.
He told James Corden that they'd done it for his daughter, clarifying that they didn't
want her to think it was odd that they weren't married.
"Our daughter is 11, and, you know, we did it for her."
On 1883, Marc Rissmann plays Josef, a German-born man who becomes a leader of the immigrant
contingent on the wagon train.
In a behind the scenes video from the set, Rissmann described his character.
"I think the leadership role, I think he took it because he's a natural leader, and because
he cares about people, but it creates conflict for him."
Rissmann, who has appeared on Game of Thrones and The Man in the High Castle, appears to
be in a relationship with fellow actor Ana Ularu . They attended the premiere of 1883
together, and they have been photographed together on red carpets going back to Berlinale
in 2020.
Ularu seemed to confirm their relationship when she shared Rissmann's character portrait
for 1883 on Instagram, captioning it, in part, #love.
In an interview with Tekdeeps, Ularu refers to being into creative photography with her
partner.
They have worked together on numerous projects, including making music together and modeling
together in multiple fashion shoots.
While promoting their work as models for Entrance, the interviewer asked whether they plan to
star in a movie together because of their chemistry; Rissman replied, quote, "Working
on it."
LaMonica Garrett has had starring roles on a number of hit television shows, including
Sons of Anarchy, Designated Survivor, and the CW's Arrowverse, where he plays the Monitor.
His role on 1883 is that of a cowboy named Thomas, and Garrett is particularly proud
of the way his role reflects real-life Black cowboys often left out of Wild West narratives.
Describing the character, he told Wide Open Country,
"He's fiercely loyal.
To me, when I read it, Thomas is the humanity of the show.
He's the soul of the show."
"Them folks wasn't the thieves.
You're the thief, and you're going to die for it."
Garrett is married to Mina Ivanova, a Los Angeles real estate agent who sells luxury
homes.
While they married in 2019, they have been together a lot longer; Ivanova wrote on Instagram
in mid-2021,
"Today we celebrate 14 years together.
In Hollywood/LA relationship years, I think that's like 55 years?
Cheers to many more.
You're amazing!
I love you forever.
And infinity."
They had a baby boy together in 2019, and Ivanova frequently shares heartwarming snaps
of their family on Instagram.
She is also very supportive of her husband's role on 1883.
In addition to sharing photos of herself on set with other stars like Sam Elliott and
Faith Hill, Ivanova wrote,
"So very proud of this role and amazing show for @lamonicagarrett who's absolutely killing
it!"
Romanian actor Gratiela Brancusi's first major
role is Noemi on 1883, a woman who has joined the wagon train heading West along with her
children.
Brancusi described her character's motivations to Slashfilm, explaining,
"She's coming from a land that's been hard on her and her ancestors and she's just looking
for a more forgiving place where she can just be.
Just be free as we all deserve."
"I'm not the scared one."
Brancusi is currently single, but she has a very famous ex-husband, and, in fact, their
marriage was a secret!
No one knew that she had wed The Shawshank Redemption star Tim Robbins until they announced
their divorce.
After TMZ broke the news about their split in early 2021, People obtained documents showing
that they got married all the way back in 2017 and never told anyone.
The two reportedly filed for divorce due to irreconcilable differences.
Her private Instagram profile still lists her as being affiliated with The Actor's Gang,
a nonprofit founded by none other than her ex-husband.
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