Jack Schumacher is bringing a fan-favorite drifter with a heart of gold to life in Ransom Canyon. The Netflix series serves as Schumacher’s biggest role to date, playing series regular character Yancy Grey, a traveler who harbors a mysterious secret in his past that comes to the titular town and builds a connection with a local woman and the family of a large family ranch, only for his past to catch up with him. Prior to the series, Schumacher played supporting roles in the likes of Top Gun: Maverick, Welcome to Chippendales and S.W.A.T.
Joining Schumacher in Ransom Canyon‘s ensemble cast are Buddy Games‘ Josh Duhamel, Titans‘ Minka Kelly, Lizzy Greene, James Brolin, Eoin Macken, Meta Golding, Marianly Tejada, Garrett Wareing and Andrew Liner. Adapted from Jodi Thomas’ book series by April Blair, the series also explores the rising tension between the three local ranching families, the Kirklands, the Fullers and the Collins, which Yancy inadvertently finds himself pulled into and must decide where his loyalties lie.
In anticipation of the show’s premiere, ScreenRant interviewed Jack Schumacher to discuss Ransom Canyon. The star opened up about the Netflix series bringing him his biggest role yet and the lengths he went to in order to land the part, including his anxious wait for word of casting decisions amidst the 2023 WGA and SAG strikes. He also shared a tease about what’s to come from Yancy’s storyline, praised working with the show’s ensemble cast and why it’s more than a Yellowstone or Virgin River copy.
Ransom Canyon “Exists In Its Own World” In The Western Genre
“…That Was Very Important To Me…”
Ransom Canyon‘s premiere comes at a time in which the Western genre is enjoying a modernized boom on television, thanks in part to Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe, as well as other such shows as Netflix’s Virgin River. In looking at the genre as a whole, Schumacher recognizes there are elements his show shares with similar titles, but promises that “it exists in its own world” and that he’s “really proud” of how the show sets itself apart from others.
“I think with the success and the popularity of the modern Western, and all those shows that you mentioned — which are phenomenal, I watch them all — I think that part of the fear is like, ‘Okay, are we trying to imitate one of these?’,” Schumacher explained. “But the thing that walking away from Ransom Canyon that I’m really excited and proud of is that it doesn’t try to be Yellowstone. It doesn’t try to be Virgin River.
“Of course, it has elements of those things,” Schumacher continued, “it’s about love, and other struggles, and fighting new ways of life coming in, all through this lens of the modern Western and the backdrop of the American frontier. But it’s not a knockoff, and that was very important to me because. You don’t want to do that, you don’t want to just be like, ‘Oh, that’s that knockoff show.’”
Schumacher Did A Deep Dive Into The Books After His First Audition’
He Also Promises The Show Stays Very Faithful To The Source Material
Having been an actor for the better part of a decade, Ransom Canyon marks a big chapter in Schumacher’s career as it’s his first main role in a project, which he hasn’t taken lightly. As he reflected on his gratitude at getting to “do anything in this industry“, he pointed to Yancy as being “a special character” to get to play, recalling the character breakdown describing his “mysterious past and these secrets that he was holding on to“, combined with its modern Western genre as being “something that, right away, I wanted to do.”
With there being seven novels thus far in Jodie Thomas’ book series, there was a wealth of material for Schumacher to dive into along with showrunner April Blair’s scripts, though his path of learning everything he could about the character came at an interesting time for the star, and the entire film and TV industry. “The day after the chemistry reads — and I remember doing the chemistry reads, and I’m like, “I got this, I know I got this” — the actor strike happened, so they couldn’t do anything, they couldn’t talk about casting and all this sort of stuff,” Schumacher recalled.
While waiting “sort of in limbo” for any updates on both the strikes and the show, Schumacher began diving into the books and audiobooks to glean as much as he could, which led him to “start to imagine what the character might be“, while also reminding himself “don’t get married to anything“ given “things change all the time” in the industry. “That’ll happen with scripts where you’ll get a draft of script, and you’re like, ‘I love this. I can’t wait to do this.’,” Schumacher explained. “And then, ‘Oh, hey, we scrapped that. None of that’s happening.’ You’re like, ‘Oh, all right.’“
