There’s a popular Texas expression—“all hat and no cattle”—that’s frequently used to describe someone lacking soul, substance, or authenticity. However, for actor Josh Duhamel, the star of the new Netflix series Ransom Canyon, which is set in the Texas Hill Country, he had the cattle—he plays a rancher, after all—but he didn’t have the hat. Not the right hat, at least.
Although Josh didn’t have to dig too deep to get into character as stoic and steady Staten Kirkland (more on that later), he did go to great lengths to make sure Staten’s wardrobe felt as authentic as possible. To bring Staten’s rugged and resilient demeanor to life, he worked with hatmaker Nick Fouquet to create a hardwearing cowboy hat that would feel appropriately lived in—a hat that’s seen some things, so to speak. “I went to Nick and told him I needed a real worn-in and beat-up cowboy hat. We worked together and he made me this badass hat—I wanted it to feel like it had been worn for a long time.”
Josh has worn many hats over the years. After all, he’s been at the Hollywood thing for more than two decades now—you likely recognize him from the Transformers franchise, NBC’s Las Vegas, or even his early days on All My Children—but the North Dakota native has somehow maintained a grounded demeanor, a natural fit for a series that’s all about land.
That likely has something to do with how the actor chooses to spend his downtime. Rather than jet-setting between Los Angeles and, say, the Hamptons, Josh—along with his wife, Audra Mari, and two young boys—spends as many waking hours as logistically possible at the family’s lakeside property in Minnesota, which he purchased 15 years ago. To be clear, we’re not talking Lake Superior. Josh’s “doomsday cabin” as he jokingly (and also maybe not jokingly?) refers to his humble compound of cabins, is on a small lake in northwest Minnesota, about an hour-and-a-half drive from Fargo. “And then after that you venture even deeper into the forest,” he says. The journey ultimately leads to a two-mile dirt path that winds all the way to the house. “We’re about 40 minutes from civilization,” says Josh, who clearly savors the solitude. “It’s an exhale whenever we get here.”
The actor initially bought a half-parcel of land with nothing on it, where he eventually built a rustic cabin. Later, he added a second parcel that came with a hunting shack and when the opportunity presented itself, he acquired another parcel that included a house. “It’s a cute little red cabin with a stone chimney that sits right on the water—it’s basically a Terry Redlin painting,” says Josh, referencing the famous South Dakota painter known for his nostalgic outdoor scenes.
The whole endeavor was truly a labor of love. “We were basically homesteading the first 12 years. For the longest time we didn’t have plumbing. We were using outhouses and washing dishes in the lake.” Over time, the amenities grew, but the live-off-the-land spirit remains unchanged. “I feel so connected to it—I didn’t just buy the place, I shaped this place. While we’ve made a lot of improvements, you still feel like you’re roughing it, and I love that.”
He also values what it brings out in his kids. “There are a lot of great things about L.A.,” says Josh, who is currently remodeling a home in the city, “but here my kids get to be kids—catching frogs, collecting sticks. They come home and they’re filthy, and I think that’s so good for them. These days there’s so much anger in the world, and I think it’s because people are on their phones, getting caught up in whatever they’re being fed through their devices as opposed to being outside connecting with the world. Nature helps ground you to what’s important.”
Fittingly, Josh was at his cabin when he got the call from April Blair, the showrunner of Ransom Canyon, about playing a widowed rancher looking to hold on to his land despite growing pressure from external forces. “I felt like this was a guy I could dig in to,” says Josh. “I’ve spent 15 years cultivating our lakeside property—building on it, popping stumps, putting in wells, planting food plots—and Staten has a similar connection to his land as I do with mine.”
Staten’s home is similarly a reflection of the character. “It doesn’t feel too modern, and it doesn’t feel too dated,” says Josh. “He’s a simple guy. There’s not a lot of fluff, but he has taste, and if Staten’s gonna build it, he’s gonna build it right the first time.” (For what it’s worth, Staten also has good taste in cookware, as evidenced by the impressive collection of copper pots that hang over his kitchen island.)
The entire series carries the same worn-in, sure-of-itself quality. With its sweeping cinematography and roster of veteran actors (James Brolin plays ranch owner Cap Fuller), Ransom Canyon feels noticeably secure in its footing. “The whole show kinda feels lived in—like an old pair of jeans,” says Josh. Design enthusiasts are sure to find themselves studying every detail of the colo
rful and collected farmhouse owned by Quinn O’Grady (played by Minka Kelly), a concert pianist turned proprietor of the local dance hall. (Side note: How has Lyla Garrity not aged?)
Ransom Canyon also offered Josh an opportunity to reconnect with more pastoral pursuits of his childhood. “Growing up in North Dakota, there’s a lot of opportunity to ride when you’re younger, but I hadn’t been around that [lifestyle] in years. It was nice to reconnect with horses.” The cast went through a whole two weeks of “cowboy camp” to get acclimated with roping, riding, and lassoing. “Thankfully, horse-riding is muscle memory,” says Josh. “It was a lot of fun to get back in the saddle.”
In addition to transportation of the four-legged variety, vintage vehicles play a significant role in Ransom Canyon. For example, Quinn can frequently be found cruising around town in her wood-paneled Wagoneer, and there are more old pickup trucks than you’d find outside a Tractor Supply come Saturday. This was also a treat for Josh, a self-described “old car person” who owns an Indian Scout motorcycle and a ‘69 Camaro, which he drove on Las Vegas. (If you can count 20 years as vintage, the actor’s also pretty smitten with his 2004 GMC Sierra Denali pickup truck, which he says “still purrs like a cat.”) Not to limit his obsession to the land, he’s also in the process of refinishing a ‘54 Chris Craft boat, which had a cameo in his 2022 film Shotgun Wedding.
With sweeping country settings and ranching family drama, Ransom Canyon—which is based on a book series by Jodi Thomas—has naturally drawn comparisons to that other show about a family dynasty under siege. (Several reviewers have described it as a hybrid of Yellowstone and Virgin River.) In fact, in the first episode of the series—which is available on Netflix on April 17th—there’s a scene when pipeline surveyors are seen poking around some land and Staten says to his ranch manager, Jake Longbow: “You tell them that this is private property, and if they don’t leave, you shoot ‘em.” It’s quickly followed by, “I’m kidding—just get rid of them.” The moment feels a bit like a wink to the more over-the-top violence on Yellowstone.
Other punchy one-liners call to mind the snappy, highly quotable dialogue of the HBO dark comedy The White Lotus. Without giving away spoilers, a few favorites include: “Do you know how hard it is to get the smell of horse shit out of Gucci?” and “Strap that kid to a chair and make him listen to some Waylon Jennings”—both of which feel tailor-made for memedom.
Although Josh remains coy as to whether there are any specific nods to the Dutton brood, he does acknowledge the spot-on scriptwriting. One of his favorite lines comes in the morning after a whiskey-fueled night at the dance hall, when Staten is trying to piece together the prior evening. “Lay it on me, how bad was I last night?” he asks Quinn. She informs him of his honky-tonk hijinks, to which Staten replies: “I went full Hootie? I can’t believe I went full Hootie!”
“I like that line because I do often go ‘full Hootie’ in real life—that goes back to my college years [shoutout to Minot State], and I think anyone around my age will appreciate that.” Josh says the writers originally had Shania Twain’s name in the script (and it remains in a less prominent capacity) but he told them, “I’m not gonna belt out Shania Twain in a bar. It’s gonna be Hootie.” Whether it’s cowboy hats or jukebox karaoke, Josh Duhamel stays true to the character—and true to himself.
