Helen Mirren is the wise and witty Cara Dutton in Taylor Sheridan’s 1923, and her on-screen husband, Jacob Dutton, is played by her long-time friend, co-star, and confidant Harrison Ford. Their bond over the years made playing husband and wife easy as pie in the Yellowstone prequel.
The Dutton family romances are a huge drawing point for fans; from Rip and Beth and Kayce and Monica to Elsa and Sam and Spencer and Alex — fans can’t get enough of the love stories Sheridan weaves throughout the highs and lows of the family and those they encounter. Another powerful couple is Cara and Jacob, and while they’ve left the butterflies-in-the-stomach phase in the rearview mirror, their comfortable love is something we all look forward to in our lives. You hope to have it when you look back at your “glory” years, holding hands with your partner.
While they’re not married outside of the Dutton realm, they are close friends who share an immense love for one another, which definitely translates. Speaking to Deadline, Mirren says that their bond is very special to both of them, and it solidified this for her and Ford.
Who got hired first is a mystery as intense as the age-old question of which came first: the chicken or the egg. Both Ford and Mirren have different ideas, and maybe that was Sheridan’s strategy; he knew he needed them both to tell this story, and a selling point for each is the other.
“Well, we don’t quite know. Harrison says that I was asked first, and then he agreed because I had agreed [laughs]. My side of the story is that he was already cast when I was asked to join it, and I joined because Harrison had joined. So we’re not quite sure which came first, but I think it’s a wonderful pairing. We love each other very much as people. I love Harrison. There’s just no two ways about it.”
The pair first worked together in a film called The Mosquito Coast, and they played a husband and wife there, too — their chemistry was comfortable and well-lived, like a pair who had been in love for years. In loving one another then, they kept up with each other through the years, rooting for the other as they achieved various successes and holding space for their friendship to develop into something beautiful.
As we said above, that bond carries over so well in 1923 because of who they are as people. You want to root for these two because you know they’ve done a lot of life together, they’ve lived several stories together, and they’re still pressing forward, enjoying each moment they’ve got and working hard to ensure their love lasts.
They’re an immovable force, they cannot be stopped or forced apart, and they rely on one another on and off screen in a way that develops that instinct naturally. It also made the heartbreaking scene when Jacob was injured even more emotionally charged. Cara wasn’t ready to do life without him yet; she didn’t want him to leave her to do this part of life alone.
While he survived the ambush, other Dutton family members didn’t, and Mirren also talked about that in her chat with Deadline. She looked forward to the future, and what’s coming soon, she hopes, where Spencer Dutton is involved. As we all know, when we last saw him, he was in a dingy headed somewhere, and Mirren hopes that somewhere is Yellowstone Ranch.
“I think Spencer’s gonna show up pretty quickly. I got the sense that Taylor was really imaginatively attracted to Spencer’s adventures, which were great for the audience, I thought. He made a great storyline, which was really beautiful to watch. I hope Spencer comes home soon, though. I dunno how many more letters I’ve got in me.”
Cara’s letters have been another critical piece of this chapter of the family story, and we certainly hope that her letter-writing days are numbered. She deserves a moment of peace in her life, and we’ve been eagerly counting down the days until their reunion. You can catch up with everything happening in 1923 as the first season is available now for streaming in its entirety on Paramount Plus.