Taylor Kitsch secured his TV GOAT status long ago via his role as taciturn Texan Riggins in the country-fried classic “Friday Night Lights.”
The good ol’ Kelowna, B.C., boy made a move for movie stardom, but tent-pole attempts fizzled, resulting in one of the auto-generated Google questions about him being “Was Taylor Kitsch exiled from Hollywood?”
Today, Kitsch still shines on the small screen, turning in a nuanced performance as David Koresh in “Waco” and scoring good reviews for Netflix western “American Primeval” earlier this year. He also has an eternally bustling sideline in playing military men (“Battleship,” “John Carter”), ex-military men (“21 Bridges,” “True Detective”) Navy SEALs (“Lone Survivor”), ex-Navy SEALs (“Savages”) and ex-Navy SEALs turned CIA (“American Assassin,” “The Terminal List”).
Now he gets a spinoff of his very own with “The Terminal List: Dark Wolf,” currently streaming on Prime Video. Kitsch reprises his role from Prime hit “The Terminal List” as Ben Edwards, a dedicated Navy SEAL who struggles with an unplanned pivot into the CIA after a mission goes awry.
Complete with hard-rock soundtrack, brooding close-ups, orders barked at top volume, lingering man-hugs and international espionage shenanigans, this is peak action escapism in its most earnest form. Kitsch enlivens the entire enterprise with his trademark smoulder and sass, bringing both world-weariness and a teeny-tiny eye twinkle to the play-it-straight proceedings.
Despite his unorthodox career path, Kitsch remains filled with gusto and gratitude for his craft. We chatted with the extremely amiable, straight-shooting actor about his propensity for paying tribute to enlisted folks and how he spends his days out on his Montana ranch.
A lot of film and television about the Iraq conflict can be a bit problematic in terms of how the other side’s portrayed or even the internal actions of America’s troops, so what made you trust that this show was gonna be inclusive in portraying this particular story? What appealed to you about Ben’s journey?
Authenticity is our North Star, really, to be honest. Five of the seven episodes are written or co-written by veterans … Every day you’re on this set, man, you have army rangers; there’s a SEAL on set every second of filming. I’m in such good hands and also my commitment to these guys and telling those stories and being authentic is very important as well, so I’ll call bulls—t if there is a need for it, but we have a great little family there.
Jack Carr wrote and created this series, so he’s obviously a retired SEAL as well. Even in the bridge sequence (in the pilot), if you look at that, I’m literally surrounded by Navy SEALs. So it’s pretty f—king awesome to go to work and do these night shoots and get into these gun fights. Our rehearsals were like three, four days, and that’s done by Ray Mendoza, who’s one of the most celebrated Navy SEALs alive, so this guy’s seen enough combat for any warrior out there.
A lot of people aren’t pro-war and I totally get that, but you can’t not be pro-soldier, man. I don’t care who you are or what you stand for: it’s those men and women over there that are in the fight. You gotta f—king be rooting for them.
Masculinity and male friendship is a hot-button issue these days and this show explores the deep bonds between servicemen, and how they can have both positive and negative consequences. What aspects of male bonding were you most excited to get into with this role?
I honestly don’t know if I’ll know the depth of that brotherhood, to be brutally honest. I’ve never been in the fight. I’ve never dragged a brother out of a f—king house in Ramadi (Iraq) after he’s lost his legs or something like that, but my job is to, hopefully, emotionally attach myself to these moments. I think that brotherhood is what keeps you alive and what you’re really fighting for. And if it isn’t personal, then you’re just watching people shooting at each other.
People have a lot of love for you and want to see you in more stuff, to the point where one of your Google autocomplete questions is “Was Taylor Kitsch exiled from Hollywood?” How does it feel to have so much support from people?
If you write a song and you put it out, and your guts are in there and f—king everything else, and no one listens to it, it sucks, but I think you always want your stories to be heard and seen, and hopefully there’s some emotional attachment, but I just do my thing, man.
Maybe in my 20s, when you’re a little bit less secure within yourself, you’re worried about what other people are thinking … It’s an energy thing of, like, I’m just not gonna give it energy anymore because you see how much energy you f—king wasted doing it, you know.
It sounds very Canadian, to be honest, that people are worried about me, but I couldn’t be more proud of the career I’ve had … (I’m) 44 now. If I’m super worried about being exiled or anything like that, it’s like, there’s bigger problems on your plate, so I feel great. I feel very confident in who I am and my abilities, so I’m going to keep f—king swinging for sure, as long as I’m allowed to.
How are you spending your time on your Montana ranch these days in your off time?
I’ll go fly fishing. I love wildlife photography. I just rode my motorcycle through Patagonia with my best mate.
I’m just always trying to keep adventures going and living your life a little more, which is really important to me as you get older; you try and find more of a balance for sure. I take my work so f—king serious, so at least being conscious of that, it’s like, “OK, kids, go have a little f—king fun. Don’t just sit in this.”
When I track wolves, or whatever it is I’m going for, 99 per cent of it is just being out in the wild doing that; the encounter is very rare to have, so it’s like being in the back country with a PB&J, your 600-mm camera and one of your best mates at morning light — that kind of stuff is irreplaceable, man.
