'1923' Season 2: Julia Schlaepfer cried reading 'emotional, 'beautiful' arc for Alex, and premiere reveal

Yahoo

24-02-2025

The Taylor Sheridan hit, 1923, is back for Season 2 (on Paramount+), giving us a look a ranch life in the harsh winter. Starring Helen Mirren, Harrison Ford, Brandon Sklenar, Julia Schlaepfer, Michelle Randolph, Aminah Nieves, Sebastian Roché, Darren Mann and Brian Geraghty, the new season of the Yellowstone prequel series begins after the Duttons sold of most of their cattle, now having to hunt to survive.
But one of relationships 1923 fans have been anxiously waiting to see the continuation of is Alexandra "Alex" (Schlaepfer) and Spencer (Sklenar), after they were ripped apart at the end of the first season. But 1923 returns with much higher stakes in place for this couple to find each other again.As Schlaepfer revealed to Yahoo Canada, she was so excited about Alex's story this season she called Sheridan, in tears, to express her gratitude after reading the scripts.
"I was so excited. The whole season, episode after episode, there was just so much, and it's so emotional and beautiful," Schlaepfer said. "I called Taylor Sheridan crying, being like, 'Thank you.' ... So it's a very, very exciting start to the journey."
"I was excited to see her tackle a chunk of the season on her own and figure out how she can survive without Spencer there to save the day. I think it's a really beautiful thing to watch her figure out the world and figure out what's out there on her own. And I think she's strong enough to do it, and she's very brave."
As we find out in Episode 1, Alex is pregnant and needs to get to Spencer before their child is born. While her friend Jennifer (Jo Ellen Pellman) wasn't a fan of this relationship in Season 1, she's instrumental in helping Alex get money to buy passage to America.
"We're friends in real life and so it was a relief a little bit, it was nice to have that moment between these two women who I think both grew up very kind of caged birds, and they had a very privileged upbringing, but they were forced into this life. They didn't have a choice," Schlaepfer said.
"Jennifer wanted to be with somebody like Arthur, and thought that Alex was so lucky to have something like that, and that's all she wants. Whereas Alex wanted to break free of it and run away. And I think it's so beautiful that they want these two different things, but they respect and love each other so much that they just want to help each other be happy at the end of the day."
Schlaepfer also highlighted that the way Alex chooses to live her life, with conviction and respect for herself, and her desires, is particularly admirable, and not something we see often.
"She's living in a way that I think we've lost so much in society, in a way that people really want to live, but are a little scared to live," she said. "We keep our heads down on our phones so much, and she just is living bravely and loving so directly, and so fiercely."
"She inspires me in the way that I live my life, because she just follows her happiness. And it's like, for her, [there's] no other option but to just follow her joy and her love and her happiness. And I think that's something that we don't experience too much anymore, or we don't see too much, and I think that makes her really special."
But a character that starts off in a very different place in Season 2, versus Season 1 of 1923, is Teonna, played by Aminah Nieves. While she's on the run, with Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché) on the hunt for her, it does feel like a small breath of fresh air to see her connect with her father (Michael Spears), and Pete, played by Jeremy Gauna, after Cole Brings Plenty's 'death
"I think it's so easy to forget that she hasn't seen her dad for like five or six years, so she's experiencing and relearning so much about herself, and about her culture, while also trying to reestablish this relationship with her father," Nieves said. "And she's been on guard for so long. She's been in such a trauma response for so long. So to be able to kind of let it down, even just a smidge, you're able to see such a different side of her. You're able to see the pure humanness of her that we all carry."
"And that isn't usually showcased within Hollywood. The humanness that Indian country and Indigenous people in general, that we hold, and it's so beautiful. I was really excited. I'm really excited for the the viewers to see this little glimpse of more of her."
What 1923 also continues to do, and is applauded Nieves, is use elements of Teonna's story to contribute to preserving Indigenous languages.
"One of my main questions before I really signed on to the show for Season 1 [was], who are we going to have to represent? Who's going to be there to make sure everything is accurate? Are there going to be Elders? What Elders? I asked all this information because it is so vital and so important, and also so easy for someone to dismiss that," Nieves said. "But we had Mo Brings Plenty, who's incredible, and also we had Birdie Real Bird, who's Apsáalooke Crow, which is what Teonna is, she's from that Nation. ... And she was also teaching us Apsáalooke outside of what we were learning."
"I think it's so important for us to speak as much Apsáalooke as we can, not only just for the Elders and for us, but for the babies. For them to watch something and see the language that their parents and grandparents are speaking, and know that they're seen, is so beautiful and so important. Because, you know, a lot of people look at us and are like, 'Oh, you're still here?' It's like, we've always been and we remember that, and we have to honour ourselves in that way. So it was very special and very important for us to to hold on to every little bit, and to make sure it's as accurate as possible."
As the season continues to unfold, we'll see how realities of the threat of Father Renaud is explored, but Sebastian Roché teased that his character is in a particularly interesting spot in Season 2, operating outside of the residential school.
"Within the confines of the residential school, he is almighty. He follows the laws of God. As soon as he's outside of that residential school, he's out of his element, and I found that extremely interesting," Roché highlighted. "His whole arc for Season 2 is him approaching the world in a totally different way, in a foreign way, and he's discovering things that are going to change him as a human being."
"There are many more complexities. He is a complex character. He is 'the bad guy' in Season 1, but what motivates him, it's the laws of the church. It's something that's very rigid. And then suddenly he's thrust into the West, into lawlessness and the jungle that is the West, and things start affecting him as he goes on this peregrination. And I think that the public is going to find that very interesting. They're going to see a different aspect of Father Renault."
But back with the Duttons, Elizabeth, played by Michelle Randolph, is even more so a part of this family, but she's still learning the ropes of being married to a rancher, Jack (Darren Mann).
"Season 1 it was kind of her becoming a Dutton and entering that family, and Season 2, it's her first winter with the Duttons and living in the house, and kind of finding her place in this world," Randolph said. "So I think audiences will see her becoming a Dutton concretely."
The first episode also shows how Elizabeth and Cara, played by Helen Mirren, will be spending a lot of time together through the winter season.
"They really do get to share a lot of very intimate moments together, because they're essentially hibernating together, and they only have each other because the men are often off during the day," Randolph said. "And so I think Elizabeth learns a lot from Cara. ... That's all she has. That's who she must become in order to be the ultimate rancher's wife."
"And so I think she's just almost in awe of Cara, and thinks that she is the wisest person. And also, I think sometimes gets frustrated because they do spend a lot of time together, and she's constantly learning from her."
With several interesting reintroductions to its characters, 1923 is certainly off to an enticing start for Season 2.