Relating to epic love tales within the Yellowstone universe, none have captured the hearts of followers fairly like Spencer and Alexandra.
Their journey throughout continents, via battle zones and household turmoil, was wild and sweeping — an old-school romantic journey with actual emotional weight.
And when all of it got here to an in depth within the 1923 finale, the payoff was each bit as stirring because the heartbreak that preceded it.
I had the prospect to sit down down with Julia Schlaepfer and Brandon Sklenar to speak about their characters’ unforgettable arc and the emotional journey they took to convey it to life.
“Am I in heaven?” I joked because the interview started. “Did I meet you guys in there?”
Brandon laughed. “If that is heaven, I’m leaving. I don’t wish to spend eternity in a 4 Seasons.”
It was a becoming opener for a dialog that might quickly return to heaven — actually.
Schlaepfer’s Alexandra made one of many present’s most haunting selections within the finale, refusing surgical procedure in an effort to spend each remaining second along with her new child son.
“It was only a no-brainer,” Julia mentioned. “That’s, I believe, essentially the most Alex choice and selection that we’ve possibly seen to this point within the present. She has at all times completed simply what she needs and has adopted her coronary heart and her intestine.”
At the same time as she lay dying, Alex was teasing Spencer and defending their son along with her remaining breaths. “It’s so emotional and exquisite,” she mentioned. “And I believe it was the appropriate means for her to go, if she was going to go.”
Spencer’s street to redemption — after battle, trauma, and the ghosts of his household — in the end led to a single, decisive act: placing a bullet between Donald Whitfield’s eyes.
“It was his first transfer to form of therapeutic himself,” Brandon mentioned. “He blames Whitfield for certain. However that’s simply an extension of how he feels about himself. He bears that burden.”
Even with Whitfield lifeless, Sklenar doesn’t consider Spencer ever absolutely recovers. “That impacts him for the remainder of his life.”
Their remaining reunion — chaotic, passionate, and completely on-brand — was filmed as the primary scene Julia and Brandon shot collectively for 1923 Season 2.
“It was our reunion as actors as effectively,” Julia mentioned. “All of the air was sucked out of the room. I believe all of us actually wanted a win. Their love is the spine of their story… it simply felt like no time had handed.”
After which, there’s that closing sequence — the afterlife, a dance flooring, a tuxedo, and a long-awaited smile.
“It’s essentially the most lovely factor I’ve ever learn,” Julia mentioned. “They had been at all times… this odd pairing the place it shouldn’t make sense. But it surely doesn’t matter as a result of they love one another a lot that they discover one another within the subsequent life, and the subsequent life, and the subsequent life.”
Brandon was equally moved. “I nonetheless, to this present day, I might sit right here on this chair and take into consideration reminiscences I’ve of being Spencer, and I’ve a really actual emotional response to them.”
He described taking pictures the ultimate scene in heaven — seeing her via the group, listening to her say “What took you so lengthy?”
“It simply hits so onerous. Each time we’d try this take and she or he’d hit me with that… God rattling, that is so good. It’s simply essentially the most lovely means I might have imagined it.”
He recalled studying the script for the primary time and being overcome. “I used to be simply weeping… studying that script. Like, give me a second right here. How am I going to do that?”
In the long run, they each agreed: the story couldn’t have ended any higher.
Watch the total interview with Julia Schlaepfer and Brandon Sklenar under, and remember to learn our 1923 finale evaluate for extra ideas concerning the finish.
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