‘We were getting frisky’: Ransom Canyon’s Garrett Wareing spills on cut scenes and season 2 plans

PSA: The follow interview contains spoilers for the season finale of Ransom Canyon

Since it dropped on Netflix late last week, cowboy drama series Ransom Canyon has taken over our office lunchtime chats, TikTok feeds and if we’re being honest, our dreams. The 10-part drama, based on a series of books of the same name by Jodi Thomas, explores the loves and lives of the inhabitants of ranch town Ransom Canyon. There’s three main love storylines going on, and we sat down with one half of the teen storyline’s actors, Garrett Wareing, who plays Lucas Russell.

Lucas is a sweet, kind-hearted boy, who is battling, not only his father’s abandonment, and keeping a roof over his head, but also his will-they-won’t-they romance with the Sheriff’s daughter Lauren. And after 10 episodes it seems they will, but is it destined to last? We caught up with the 23-year-old actor to find out.

Cosmopolitan UK: Ok, can we just start by saying Lucas has had it rough and yet he’s such a lover boy…

Garrett Wareing: Lucas is the cowboy I’ve always wanted to be, and he’s the lover boy I am inside, and so playing him was joyful and easy. I felt so close already to this character, being from Texas, loving horses and being that country guy. I wear my boots every day, and the boots that I’m wearing in the show are actually the same boots that I’ve worn since I was 18. They [the show’s creators] were like, ‘let’s throw them in the show’, which I thought was a really cool way to bring it back and make it familiar for me.

As a native Texan did you have to do cowboy training for the role?

If I had pretended that I knew how to ride a horse when I showed up to cowboy camp in the way that the cowboys rode horses, or how they, expected us to ride, I would have been fooling myself. I grew up riding horses and on ranches, but it was the first time I ever held a rope when I was on set, which was pretty cool when we were doing cowboy camp training.

They worked us hard, it was not this leisurely ‘get on the back of the horse and walk around in circles’. It was training. We would go home sweaty and dirty every day, and to be there alongside my boys, Jack [Schumacher] and Drew [Liner] every day was a really cool bonding experience for us.

And then to be able to get better daily at these skills, and be able to show them on camera was a really cool progression.

Did you have the same horse throughout filming?

I have my boy, Boone. But horses also have stunt doubles. They’ll put you on a few different ones to see how you ride and I bonded very well with this horse named Boone. And so they found a stunt double for Boone named Crockett. They looked identical, and I would have to be told which horse I was riding, because each horse rides differently in the same way that each car drives differently. I got Boone tattooed on my leg.

Speaking of body doubles…that lake scene, did you use a body double?

Oh, no, that was all me. I put a lot of work in with the gym and training. But I will say it was freezing that day. The water was freezing. I think I saw God every time I went under that water.

Everyone loves the pinky swear with Lauren [Lizzy Greene], was that an original part of the script?

That was between Lizzie and I, we came up with the pinky swear thing. Being able to add these personal traits to your characters really brings them to life in a three dimensional way. We starting to incorporate that [the pinky swear] into a scene that actually got cut, but then we loved it so much we just kind of kept doing it, making it our thing.

I like seeing that recurring theme between the two of us, showing that we have each other. It came from a place of secrecy, because, Lucas and Lauren have this secret love, and we’re not allowed to hold hands and be seen together. But there’s this little moment of touch where you can have your pinkies together and still show that you are with one another.

What was the scene that was cut?

We [Lucas and Lauren] were getting frisky in the back of the truck. And it was actually a very lovey dovey, really meaningful scene between the two of us. She was talking about her dreams, wanting to go to Paris and pursue art after UT. I think we were going through her sketchbook in the scene, which I really liked.