In the Netflix series Ransom Canyon, three Texas ranching family dynasties are in a fight to retain control of their land, with Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) stubbornly at the center of it all. The heartbreaking loss of his wife and then his son has hardened Staten, leaving him in a dark place that makes it impossible for Davis Collins (Eoin Macken) to get him to give up his land, but that just makes him more determined to keep trying, even if that means trying some manipulation and deceit. To complicate matters even further, both men have fallen for Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly), owner of the local dancehall, but it’s up to her to figure out where her heart truly lies.
During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Macken discussed immersing audiences in the world of Ransom Canyon, transitioning from running from dinosaurs to becoming a cowboy rancher, Davis’ motives and manipulations, being Team Davis versus Team Staten, his favorite scenes with Duhamel, the dynamic between Davis and Quinn, the complicated relationship he has with his son (Andrew Liner), what he thinks could be fun to explore in a possible Season 2, and whether he’d want to direct an episode.
The Netflix Series ‘Ransom Canyon’ Transports Viewers Into an Immersive World
“It does take you into its own space.”
MACKEN: Yeah, that’s true. La Brea was a very different type of show, that’s for sure. That’s what’s super fun about this show. It does take you into its own space, as it were. You are in the world of Ransom Canyon and in that town. You’re very much immersed in that for the whole show. That’s where you live and you exist.
After you finished La Brea, did you want to find something as different from that world as possible, so you ended up as a cowboy rancher?
MACKEN: Yeah, I was like, “Could I have no dinosaurs and no time traveling, and basically stay in the same town with zero running around and zero geographical movement?” I just wanted to do something a bit different. This show cropped up, and (creator) April [Blair] and (director) Amanda [Marsalis] are incredibly talented. I just thought the character was really interesting and he was very different. I had just come from doing an Irish show, where I was playing a Northern Irish police officer. I’d had a little bit of a character break from La Brea, and then this was something I hadn’t done before. I just thought the character was really interesting, which is why I was excited. I thought the whole world that they created was fun. You just get lost in what this world is.
I talk to a lot of actors who want to do a war film or a western, and this series definitely fits into the western category. Had you wanted to do something specifically in this genre and do something that was modern?
MACKEN: I grew up watching westerns like A Fistful of Dollars and The Alamo. I still play all those soundtracks on vinyl all the time. Those were the movies I grew up on at home in Ireland. We used to get all the old Spaghetti Westerns. I hadn’t thought of this as a specific choice. I’m not as drawn to stuff that’s set in the past. I do like contemporary cinema and contemporary characters. What was interesting about this is that it is a western, but at the same time, it’s very contemporary, but it’s not making a point of it. It just exists. It’s not forcing a certain time period down your throat, which is what I like the most about watching any form of television and movies. You just exist in the world that they’ve created. It’s not trying to be a specific time.
When you look at the projects you’ve done, from Merlin to Night Shift to La Brea to this show, they seem like they couldn’t be more different from each other. But as the person who’s lived those characters, have you seen a throughline in what you’ve been drawn to character wise? Do those characters have anything in common that you see, or do you just find yourself drawn to them because they are nothing like each other?
