‘Dutton Ranch’ star Berto Colón talks filming scenes with a live jaguar
Berto Colón took a little of the cowboy way back with him to New Jersey.
The 53-year-old actor spent around eight months in North Texas working on “Dutton Ranch,” the Paramount+ series that follows Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler after “Yellowstone.”
Colón plays Miguel, a loyal employee of the 10-Petal Ranch ran by the cunning Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening). He’s spent much of the season as a bodyguard and babysitter to Beulah’s granddaughter Oreana (Natalie Alyn Lind) as she explores a relationship with Carter (Finn Little).
In “Dutton Ranch” episode 6, “A Cowboy Saint,” Miguel’s loyalty comes further into focus as forces threaten the ranch (and the people) he protects.
For the episode, out Friday, June 12, Colón spoke with the Star-Telegram about working on the show and his experience living in North Texas.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Spoilers for “Dutton Ranch” below.
Star-Telegram: I know your started pursing acting after injuries ended your college football career. Before then, do you remember watching something that made you want to become an actor?
Berto Colón: I have to be honest with you, right off the bat, “All the Right Moves” with Tom Cruise was a movie that I probably had on repeat for the better part of three or four years throughout my high school career. I just felt it connected a lot of the things that I wanted to do. There’s a story of this young cat who wants to get out of this Pittsburgh world, the small world of the steel mills and the lifestyle that he was living at the time. I’m obviously watching this character, but it was a movie. It was a movie about that world. That movie had an impact on me. I mean, there’s been many others. “Pale Rider” was a movie that I loved as well. There’s so many.
Honestly, for me, there was something that happened more towards the end of my college career, where the writing was on the wall. I had two injuries, my brother from another mother had gone off to school to study directing. Towards the end of my college career, I was starting to take an interest more and more [in acting]. I had red shirted because of the injury my freshman year, so I had extra time to take some extracurricular courses. I just kind of dedicated myself to taking everything that had to do with theater and writing and cinematography, etc. That’s really when the idea started to take place, so from that point forward, I was a little unsure about what I wanted to do. I went to work, just thinking, “OK, now I’m graduated, and the dream of football is kind of over at this point.”
I do regret, I did get an invitation for an NFL combine that I never went to. To this day, I’m kind of bummed about not taking that chance, but again, I kind of took my sights off of that goal, so to speak. I kind of started to see more clearly in a direction I wanted to get into. I had participated in a bunch of different NYU student graduate and thesis films. Then, of course, everything that my brother was doing, I would take part in. That’s when the aha moment came, and I said, “You know what, I want to pursue this, I really want to get behind this and learn, go study and figure what this is about, get into some kind of theatre.” That’s when it all kind of took place.
S-T: You’ve been a part of some big projects like “The Penguin,” “The Night Agent,” “Power Book II: Ghost” and “Orange Is the New Black.” But the “Yellowstone” and “Dutton Ranch” universe is huge. I mean, nearly 13 million tuned in for the series premiere. What’s it like to be a part of this giant production?
BC: It was such a crazy thing for a city slicker like myself to get out of this urban world that I live in. I mean, most of my work is always taking place in and out of the city. To be in Fort Worth for the better part of the last eight, nine months was exhilarating. I mean, I did have a little bit of this life when I was a young kid. My father was a rodeo roper for four years, so my brothers and I, we all got to learn a lot about horsemanship and rodeos and the ins and outs. We never got to ride, we never had our own horses or anything like that. We rode others. From time to time, our father would put us on his horse, but never alone, because he was quite a big horse. He was a roping horse, quarter horse, so he was super strong. We weren’t prepared for that, but we got to be around it enough. For me to be able to kind of bring that and tie it into what I’m doing now, it gave me a little bit of a leg up when I first got down there.
We did have like a mandatory, so to speak, cowboy camp to learn the way. I was one of the later hirees. I think I got hired probably towards the beginning of September, and I think the bulk of the cast had already been down there for a week or two with the group cowboy camp. I guess you can consider it a privilege, it was kind of like a one-on-one cowboy camp. Then pretty much a week or so after that was done, we were all roping and riding and going up to Bosque Ranch together. The wranglers, I’m super proud that they were confident enough to kind of let us ... by I think at some point November, I actually roped a live calf. I actually got to ride and rope and take off right from the gate. It was so addicting.
For me to be able to kind of land in that world, and honestly, that more than anything else kept me sort of involved. I’m living the life of this character day-to-day, and it did wonders for me, as far as the performance was concerned. There’s a freedom that you have when you’re aware of what’s going on, and obviously being on a horse or in that world is ... unless you never lived it, you don’t know what that’s like. Then to just have it be one of the biggest shows ever. God is good. Whatever path I’m on, I am not going to change the formula. I’m going to just continue to keep working, because it’s been such a blessing so far.
S-T: Your character Miguel has real presence on the show, whether that’s his cowboy hat or the way he presents himself. He has such a deep loyalty to Beulah (Annette Bening). When you’re building a character, do you also create a backstory for yourself or do you just go off what’s in the script?
BC: Well, I think anytime you go into the work, there’s got to be a backstory. Sometimes you don’t necessarily have the pages. In this case, I always did, so it was a lot easier for me to read and be prepared for what I needed to do. Right off the bat, I think I had four episodes that I had available to me. That gave me a lot of information. Obviously, knowing what his job and what his main purpose in the story, and how he helps push this story along, that scene with Oreana and Miguel, it was my opportunity to sort of draw the human connection. The parallels that kind of exist between those two. I mean, they’re kind of troublemakers in their own little way.
I think being the older character, I think that there’s an opportunity for him to kind of impart a little bit of knowledge and to kind of understand the idea that she wants to rebel against, but offer her the opportunity to go about it in a different way. That gave me a lot of information, I have to be honest, that was like a key scene for me in understanding that. Then one of the other pieces that I read was the Austin scene with Beulah in the hospital, which ultimately was a general scene that people were given to read, so that I guess casting could get a general idea of who everybody was. But that scene informed me a lot as well, because there’s a lot going on in that scene. I mean, Austin is in a very rebellious rage state, and he obviously wants to get even, but then there’s the power that Beulah has to then let Austin know that that’s not necessarily the best move that he can make at this moment.
Ironically enough, it was very similar to the Miguel and Oreana deal, and it informed me a lot about who Miguel was and where his loyalties lie and that more was coming. Without revealing what’s coming next, Miguel is tied to bigger things in the plotline of the show, which are still to be revealed. Up until now, I definitely had so much, so kudos to the writers for giving me enough to sort of build a life prior to. You sort of have to know the moment before you go into the scene, and it’s the same in how you prepare.
S-T: I feel like you get a good sense of who Miguel is in episode 5, when he and Oreana go pick up Carter after Dwight’s been killed. Oreana and Carter meet in the middle of the road, and Miguel doesn’t rush them and instead turns off the truck’s headlights so they can have a moment.
BC: There was a lot of little nuggets like that. Again, this was a real class, right? In calming down, because, as you can see I’m always on a high level, I move fast through life, no doubt about that. But if you pay attention to the beginning of the scene, I was kind of coming in very hot, and I did get to drive that truck. I did purposely, it’s a very loud truck, big diesel, middle of the night, there’s no sound, right? It’s just darkness in middle of night, so he is coming in hot, and they entrusted me with that, and my God, Finn [Little], courageous young actor. What a great fun person, fun actor to work with. He was so comfortable, and he’s in his moment, he just lost one of his new best friends, I guess you can say. He’s trying to find his way in this world, and I just wanted to scare the [expletive] out of him because it’s just fun, why not?
But Oreana is in the car, obviously, he wasn’t going to do anything. I really purposely tried to build that whole scene in a way that was going to make sense from where I started to be completely different from where it ends, as far as like the scene is concerned. I remember doing the scene a couple of times with the lights on, I think it was a little bit intrusive, and I think by the second or third take I turned the lights off. Then [director] Jessica [Lowrey] was there, she was like, “Do that again.” She just liked the fact that we’re turning the lights off to give them their moment. It was super cool.
S-T: You mentioned scaring someone. I was scared for you in episode 5 because of the scene at Dwight’s ranch with the live jaguar. Was there really a jaguar in the cage? And were you worried at all about that?
BC: Yeah, 100% that is a real animal. I actually have some beautiful BTS footage of the way it was brought about. We’re out in the pasture, we’re in the middle of some part of Weatherford somewhere back there in the woods, and there had to be complete silence. Everyone was, if you notice, like that scene kind of takes place and there’s nothing behind the cage. Basically parallel to the cage and back, nobody was allowed on set. I think we only had our second [assistant director] and then maybe a couple of the stunt guys, and obviously the wranglers and the animal handlers. Nobody else, there’s no talking, and as soon as that animal is ready to go, everybody is quiet.
The animal was walked into the pen, and then the scene takes place. Once it ends, it’s a wild animal, it’s upwards of 200 and something pounds, whatever they are. I mean, when I tell you that in that silence, maybe 60 yards away or 40 yards away, you hear they have like this purring sound that they make like in the back of their throat. It’s incredible. I mean, no one ever gets to hear anything like that, but that was so impressive. They’re such majestic animals, it’s incredible. That was quite a sight.
S-T: Last thing: You guys filmed this show all over North Texas. Being someone not from here, how was your experience?
BC: Yeah, I mean it was amazing. The thing with being down there is, of course, we are all in this Taylor Sheridan world. I mean, Fort Worth, for as much as you want to try to ignore, you don’t want to get too caught up in the hype. It’s obvious that we’re there. This is like another character in all of these stories. “Landman,” “Lioness,” “Frisco King,” they’re all at one time or another also shooting there while we were also working. There’s that perspective that this is happening. In fact, we were staying in downtown Fort Worth, and “Landman” was shooting scenes a block down from where we were staying.
The people there are so welcoming. For a guy from New York ... if you only go by what you see on the news, you would think Texas is this or Texas is that, depending on what network you watch. The actual fact of the matter is, that this is a bustling, diverse, beautiful city. Dallas is the same. Everyone is welcoming. There’s just this courtesy, and people are just very aware. There’s hello’s, there’s goodbye’s. Thank you, ma’am. Thank you, sir. All of that stuff. Just the way of life down there is completely different, and it’s super comfortable. It also helps to kind of keep you in character and keep you in tune with your surroundings.
I mean, I’m using sir more often than I ever did before, and I don’t think I’m going to stop doing it. I think I’m going to continue to do that, because there’s something so honorable about that. Why change that? I mean, I have gained so much more insight into how people should be treating one another, how much we should really be present in each other’s life. Nobody’s here alone, you know what I mean? We’re not just walking through life by ourselves, so extending a little courtesy, a little bit of that cowboy way, I love it.
“Dutton Ranch” airs Fridays on Paramount+ and the Paramount Network.
