It was recently announced that Riley Green would be stepping into the acting ring with a role on the new Yellowstone spinoff Marshals, which premieres on CBS on March 1. Green is good friends with Marshals star Luke Grimes, and Grimes is actually the reason Green scored a role on the show, a story he shared with Extra during a recent interview.
Like Green, Grimes is a country singer and songwriter, and he explained that he and Green were writing a song together in Nashville when Green expressed his interest in trying out acting.
“Riley and I were writing a song together in Nashville and he said, ‘I want to try some acting,’” Grimes recalled. “And a little light bulb went off above my head and I was like, ‘Oh, you should totally come do this show with me. What a perfect way in for you.’”
Grimes called the situation a “win-win” for both Green and Marshals, saying, “It’s great for us to have you and if you’re going to do your first acting gig, this is a pretty good one. So yeah, I mean, obviously that’s just one example of how those sorts of relationships can kind of bridge both worlds.”
The 42-year-old shared the same story with Entertainment Tonight, joking that he “just felt bad” for his friend when the country star seemed like he needed a new gig.
“Well, I just felt bad for the guy, you know,” Grimes said. “It seemed like he needed a job, honestly. We were writing a song together, and he was talking about wanting to get into acting. That was right before I started this, and I just had a little idea. I was like, why don’t you come try to be on our show. and it worked out, here we are.”
He also had praise for Green, who will appear in several episodes of Marshals as former Navy SEAL Garrett, who arrives at the ranch, unexpectedly, hoping to lean on his friends Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) and Cal (Logan Marshall-Green) to help “put the demons of his past to rest.” Marshals focuses on Grimes’ character, Kayce Dutton, who “joins an elite unit of U.S. Marshals, combining his skills as a cowboy and Navy SEAL to bring range justice to Montana, where he and his teammates must balance family, duty and the high psychological cost that comes with serving as the last line of defense in the region’s war on violence.”
Grimes said Green’s work on the show was “amazing,” adding that the “Worst Way” singer is a “very, very good” actor and that he thinks Green “can do this as much as he wants to do it.”
“He’s an incredibly talented guy, he’s not bad looking, either,” Grimes laughed. “So that helps. But I thought he would crush it. I mean, the guy writes all his own songs, he’s super talented, and obviously handles the rest of all of this very well, so I think he’ll do great.”
When his role was announced, Green said in a statement that he was “so excited to be joining the cast of Marshals.”
“Being on set with my buddy Luke Grimes made the experience even more memorable,” he added. “This is my first go around in the acting space and I couldn’t have asked for a better introduction to this world.”
Marshals premiere on March 2 via CBS/Paramount+ at 8/7c.
