Why Yellowstone Stars Kevin Costner And Josh Lucas Were Separated On Set

Before the history of the Dutton family stretched off into their own shows like “1883” and “1923,” Taylor Sheridan spent some time looking at the younger years of the family patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner) on “Yellowstone.” Before Dutton was killed off in the final season, some of the early seasons of “Yellowstone” flashed back to the 1990s to uncover the life-changing moments that impacted his children and those closest to him. To bring a younger version of Costner’s character to life, Sheridan enlisted Josh Lucas to don the hat and well-combed mustache — though he refused to let the pair interact

Sheridan deliberately kept Costner and Lucas separate, though not due to any conflict between the actors. Rather, Sheridan used the same technique employed in two of the greatest films ever made by two of the most famous movie stars. If you hadn’t guessed already, it’s the same technique used with both Robert De Niro and Marlon Brando in “The Godfather” and its sequel, who were kept apart to play different eras of the legendary mob boss Don Vito Corleone

We’re almost kept separate on purpose,” Lucas explained to Collider in a 2021 interview. “Taylor and I talked about the idea of ‘The Godfather.’ When De Niro was playing Brando, he wasn’t attempting to look or act like Marlon Brando. He was attempting to play the character. That’s what we talked about.” Unfortunately, any other talks about Lucas developing John Dutton’s earlier years fell apart after Costner’s tumultuous departure from the show