'Hatfields & McCoys' stars talk about the central love story
'Hatfields and McCoys' stars Lindsay Pulsipher and Matt Barr talk about the star-crossed lovers they portray.
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So you and Matt played the “Romeo and Juliet” storyline. Do you think that Roseanna and Johnse would have had a different story if they had actually gotten away from their families?
LINDSAY: I’d like to think so. I actually thought about that a lot: what would happen if they had branched off on their own. I like to think that it would be really beautiful and they had a wonderful life together.
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The series was always dangling the possibility that Roseanna might eventually accept one of Perry Cline’s proposals, and his last proposal created one of your more dramatic scenes. What was that like to work on that scene?
LINDSAY: That was after Roseanna had really transformed from who she was at the beginning of the series. Ronan Vibert, who plays Perry Cline, he is a tremendous actor and it was really easy to play that scene even though it’s so emotional. It was really fun to work with him. He’s super talented and he kind of helped me through that one.
It caught me off-guard. I probably should have anticipated it, but I was very surprised when that happened.
LINDSAY: Yeah, I know!
What will you take away from the HATFIELDS & MCCOYS mini-series?
LINDSAY: It will be just really fulfilling to see the whole project come together. To see it as a whole. When I first read this script, I was blown away by the dynamic of it. How rich and full it was. It’s always amazing to see it come together and to see the scenes that I wasn’t in. To see how they played out, it’s just sweet. I’m super excited to see it!
Then for his perspective on, Matt Barr shared his experiences working on this wonderful mini-series.
What attracted you to the role of Johnse Hatfield?
MATT: Two different things: one, my childhood idol is Kevin Costner. We actually met briefly when I was eleven years old and I told him I was going to grow up and play his son in a movie. So when this came along, I always wanted to work with him as an actor and as a filmmaker. So I knew he was attached. Then when I read the script, it just had all the elements that I love in storytelling. It was kind of timeless. It was epic. It’s tragic. And I like when the character is kind of put upon by the world. He’s somewhat of a black-sheep and it makes for a fun dynamic.
There were a lot of rich textures to this story and the characters themselves. Was there anything that you really admired about portraying Johnse?
MATT: I like that throughout all the chaos, death and war that endured over the years, Johnse never really lost himself. He was still so pure-hearted about things and in a way, unaffected. Even when he was brought to his breaking point, I think that in the end, he was still that young dreamer. Kind of a young lover. I don’t want to give it away to the audience, but he does end up going West.
Do you think he was ultimately more of a pacifist than the rest of his family? ‘Cause he seemed so reluctant to get involved in some of the shenanigans.
MATT: Absolutely. For that generation of Hatfields and McCoys, they were innately raised with a sense of judgment towards the opposing family, and what separates Johnse is he just doesn’t have it. He doesn’t have the hate and, unfortunately, it causes a lot of conflict between he and his family.
For your portrayal, working with Lindsay, were you more focused on trying to make this a love-story than opposed to just two families that were always fighting with each other?
MATT: Absolutely. I think a lot of the heart and soul of the mini-series lie within the Johnse/Roseanna storyline. They represent the best of us. So that love-story, that narrative thread is what I really buy into as you’re kind of taking the ride through all those years. It shows how black-and-white it is. How ugly those families became. There was something so beautiful and kind of pure in what Johnse and Roseanna had.
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