1923 Isn't Darren Mann And Michelle Randolph's First Time As An On-Screen Couple
With a full season of "1923" in the books and a fresh one already in the works, Taylor Sheridan's century-spanning "Yellowstone" saga is inching ever closer to the flagship series' modern-day setting. And as Sheridan's latest period-specific chapter in the saga details, the Duttons' efforts to keep their vast Montana ranching lands in the family was a lot harder and far bloodier than anyone could've imagined.
Shoot-outs and bare-knuckle bloodshed aside, Sheridan and company opted to leave a little more room for love in the "1923" narrative than they have in perhaps any "Yellowstone" tale to date. While much was made of the almost swash-buckling coupling of Spencer Dutton (Brendan Sklenar) and his now-wife, Alexandra Dutton (Julia Schlaepfer), in Season 1, a case could be made that the unabashedly storybook pairing of Elizabeth Strafford and Jack Dutton was the real romantic highlight.
That's largely thanks to the simmering chemistry between stars Michelle Randolph and Darren Mann, who portray Liz and Jack, respectively. As it turns out, the pair's on-screen chemistry is fierce, in part, because they'd also played a few years before their "1923" casting.
Mann and Randolph first played a couple in 2017's House of the Witch
It was Michelle Randolph who put that fascinating little "1923" nugget into the world. She did so in the course of an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where she openly admitted to being taken in by the near fairy-tale elements of her character's romantic storyline. As for her past relationship with current "1923" paramour Darren Mann, Randolph also revealed that their first onscreen pairing came several years before they were cast as Elizabeth Strafford and Jack Dutton.
The actor brought that fact up when asked if she and Mann had read lines together for a pre-"1923" chemistry check, initially answering, "No, we didn't." Randolph quickly added, "But funnily enough, I actually worked with Darren five or six years ago on my very first acting job ever. He played my boyfriend in a movie." That movie is 2017's "House of the Witch," a little-seen horror flick about a group of high schoolers running into trouble when they set foot in the titular dwelling.
In any case, Randolph goes on to claim she'd actually kept in touch with her former co-star over the years and was happy to be working with someone familiar on such a star-studded series. And given how well the Liz and Jack romance has played to date, it's clear the series' casting team couldn't have made a better choice than to once again cast them as lovebirds for "1923."