Luke Grimes knew signing on to the Yellowstone spinoff wouldn’t be easy. He just didn’t expect the hardest would be picking up the phone.
Grimes reprises Kayce Dutton in Marshals, which premiered March 1 on CBS. But the debut delivered a gut punch: Kayce’s wife, Monica (Kelsey Asbille), has died after a cancer diagnosis.
Fans had already noticed Asbille’s absence from the cast list. Now they know why.
Grimes admits he was “heartbroken.”
“It felt like, ‘I don’t even know what that would look like doing it without her, what that would feel like.’ Kelsey’s become one of my best friends,” he told TV Insider.
“She’s the coolest actor I’ve ever worked with. She’s down to earth, sweet and kind to every other actor and the crew.”
Before agreeing to the storyline, he made a call.
“I worked up the courage to call. I didn’t know how she was going to feel about it,” Grimes said. “I had to see how she was doing.”
The conversation? Better than he feared.
“In true Kelsey fashion, she handled it like a pro and totally understood. She’s going to do just fine.”
Creator Spencer Hudnut said the loss was necessary after Kayce and Monica’s peaceful ending. “We had to shake up his life, to get him off the ranch and into a new position,” he explained, adding the storyline also highlights higher cancer rates on reservations.
As painful as it is, Grimes promises the risk pays off: “the idea that was pitched to me is very, very good and very interesting and it really roped me in.”
Ready to be roped in, too?
