In the Netflix series ‘Ransom Canyon,’ three ranching families clash over land in the Texas town, led by hardened rancher Staten Kirkland.
Actor Eoin Macken discusses being immersed in the world of the show and Davis’ manipulative nature.
Macken finds the contemporary western genre fun, with Davis being a complex character whose true motives are always unclear.

In the Netflix series Ransom Canyon, three Texas ranching family dynasties are in a fight to retain control of their land, with Staten Kirkland (Josh Duhamel) stubbornly at the center of it all. The heartbreaking loss of his wife and then his son has hardened Staten, leaving him in a dark place that makes it impossible for Davis Collins (Eoin Macken) to get him to give up his land, but that just makes him more determined to keep trying, even if that means trying some manipulation and deceit. To complicate matters even further, both men have fallen for Quinn O’Grady (Minka Kelly), owner of the local dancehall, but it’s up to her to figure out where her heart truly lies.

During this one-on-one interview with Collider, Macken discussed immersing audiences in the world of Ransom Canyon, transitioning from running from dinosaurs to becoming a cowboy rancher, Davis’ motives and manipulations, being Team Davis versus Team Staten, his favorite scenes with Duhamel, the dynamic between Davis and Quinn, the complicated relationship he has with his son (Andrew Liner), what he thinks could be fun to explore in a possible Season 2, and whether he’d want to direct an episode.

The Netflix Series ‘Ransom Canyon’ Transports Viewers Into an Immersive World

“It does take you into its own space.”

Collider: I love a TV series that can transport you to another world. La Brea was very much its own world, and even though this series doesn’t have a fantasy element to it, it’s still very much its own world.

MACKEN: Yeah, that’s true. La Brea was a very different type of show, that’s for sure. That’s what’s super fun about this show. It does take you into its own space, as it were. You are in the world of Ransom Canyon and in that town. You’re very much immersed in that for the whole show. That’s where you live and you exist.

After you finished La Brea, did you want to find something as different from that world as possible, so you ended up as a cowboy rancher?

MACKEN: Yeah, I was like, “Could I have no dinosaurs and no time traveling, and basically stay in the same town with zero running around and zero geographical movement?” I just wanted to do something a bit different. This show cropped up, and (creator) April [Blair] and (director) Amanda [Marsalis] are incredibly talented. I just thought the character was really interesting and he was very different. I had just come from doing an Irish show, where I was playing a Northern Irish police officer. I’d had a little bit of a character break from La Brea, and then this was something I hadn’t done before. I just thought the character was really interesting, which is why I was excited. I thought the whole world that they created was fun. You just get lost in what this world is.

I talk to a lot of actors who want to do a war film or a western, and this series definitely fits into the western category. Had you wanted to do something specifically in this genre and do something that was modern?

MACKEN: I grew up watching westerns like A Fistful of Dollars and The Alamo. I still play all those soundtracks on vinyl all the time. Those were the movies I grew up on at home in Ireland. We used to get all the old Spaghetti Westerns. I hadn’t thought of this as a specific choice. I’m not as drawn to stuff that’s set in the past. I do like contemporary cinema and contemporary characters. What was interesting about this is that it is a western, but at the same time, it’s very contemporary, but it’s not making a point of it. It just exists. It’s not forcing a certain time period down your throat, which is what I like the most about watching any form of television and movies. You just exist in the world that they’ve created. It’s not trying to be a specific time.

When you look at the projects you’ve done, from Merlin to Night Shift to La Brea to this show, they seem like they couldn’t be more different from each other. But as the person who’s lived those characters, have you seen a throughline in what you’ve been drawn to character wise? Do those characters have anything in common that you see, or do you just find yourself drawn to them because they are nothing like each other?

MACKEN: And Nightflyers was in there. I say that because it started off with these characters that didn’t have children, then they began to have a small child, and then the children gradually got older. Now, I keep seeming to have kids who are 20 years old. My little brother and sister are 20 and 22, and they were like, “You’ve got kids in this show that are older than we are.” I’ve just been lucky that these characters have turned up. I do find that you try to pull the character towards your trajectory. You find who the characters and you get to interpret it in your way. I always try to find a little something that I connect to.

In ‘Ransom Canyon,’ Davis Collins Is Not Running From or to Anything Because He’s Happy Where He Is

“Davis Collins thinks that he is the center of gravity.”

Image via Netflix

The trailer for this show says that everyone in Ransom Canyon is either running from something or running to something. Which does your character fall under?

MACKEN: Davis Collins thinks that he is the center of gravity. Davis thinks he is the center of the universe. Every character should think that they’re the center of their own universe. That’s the way that your world is. Davis Collins very firmly believes that he is and should be the center of this town and the centerpiece of everything. That’s what he wants and what he actually believes is the case. He’s the only one who’s not running to anything or leaving anywhere. He’s like, “No, I exist here, and you can all move around me.”

Because it’s hard to know when Davis is actually being sincere and when he’s being manipulative, were you thinking about all those layers as you did the scenes, or were you just trying to think about his purpose in any given moment?

MACKEN: Both. The most interesting thing about Davis Collins is the fact that a lot of previous characters I’ve played have a certain earnestness and honesty to them. Even when Davis is being sincere, there was always another reason behind it. He’s not a dark character. He’s complex, in terms of he always seemed to have a different modus operandi behind everything. Even when he was being kind and careful with his son, he’s still got something else he wants from that. Davis is always a little bit manipulative in that way, but it’s manipulative in the way that he thinks what he’s doing is correct. He’s definitely somebody who is very trustworthy, but at the same time is incredibly not, if that makes sense.

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He definitely has opposing qualities. He’s charming and he’s a family man, but he’s dysfunctional and manipulative. Were you always thinking about that balance?

MACKEN: It’s funny, but that’s what I liked about him. I love Succession, where there were always those internal politics and even subconscious politics going on. For Davis, that’s what he’s dealing with all the time. He’s constantly dealing with these machinations between the relationships and even just in his own sense of right and wrong. There’s nothing that he’s doing that’s particularly straightforward, and that’s what I found fun. There’s nothing that Davis does that is firmly black and white.

When you’re playing someone who most people in town hate, does that rub off on your co-stars? Do they tease you about it?

MACKEN: Not at all. If you look at my Instagram posts, Jack Schumacher tells me he’s Team Davis all the way, between Team Davis and Team Staten. It just depends on who you talk to and on which given day.

Eoin Macken Shares His Favorite ‘Ransom Canyon’ Scene with Josh Duhamel

“That set up the whole season for the two of us.”

Image via Netflix

Do you have a favorite scene or moment where you were able to just get into it with somebody on the show and it was really fun?

MACKEN: Genuinely, the very first scene I had with Josh Duhamel, which was in episode one when we sit down over whiskey and we talk about what’s going to go down. That set up the whole season for the two of us. That was the first scene we did together and that was the most fun because it set up exactly what we were doing for the whole rest of the show. Every scene I had with Josh, I really enjoyed it because he is such a good actor and he’s also such a sweet man. I enjoyed the push and pull with Josh that didn’t have to be on the surface. It was always just simmering below and didn’t have to be explicit. There was always that tension going through it. There were even a couple of times that were building up to being a big fight, and we decided not to let it get to that level because it was more interesting when it was always just there.

Quinn doesn’t actually break up with Davis and tell him that she’s gotten together with somebody else until the last episode of the season, even though it’s been going on for a while before she says anything. Did you have conversations about how he would react to that? Were you surprised that he wasn’t just an asshole about it all?

MACKEN: Davis really, genuinely cares about Quinn. Even though he’s got these layers to him, he’s actually, genuinely a sweet person and he really cares for Quinn. That’s why he’s genuinely hurt by her breaking up with him. It had to be an honest thing between Davis and Quinn for it to feel real in the first place. There was a real feeling there between them. He’s got nuances to him.

What do you think it says about Davis that he manipulated and orchestrated this whole thing with getting Cap’s grandson to show up to town, lie about who he is, and try to steal the land out from under him? Do you think he ever considered maybe not crossing that line?

MACKEN: When you put it all down on the page, he is actually quite manipulative. It’s funny, I just tried to justify everything that this character did because it was from his point of view. But when you lay it all out like that, he also did try to just leave Cap out in the storm. He did some gnarly things. Davis Collins reminds me a little bit of the early days of a politician. In 15 or 20 years time, he might have even less duty of care towards people and this is just an evolution of somebody who’s just begun to realize the value of relationships and what he really cares about, and putting himself and his own positions first. He’s the kind of character you’d be really interested to see what he’s gone in 10 years’ time. If Davis and Quinn were to get together, it might change his course trajectory, and if not, he might go down a different road altogether.

Davis also doesn’t really have the best relationship with his son. What was that dynamic like to figure out?

MACKEN: I loved working on the relationship between Davis and Reid with Drew Liner. I think he’s fantastic. Some of my favorite moments wwere the stuff to do with Drew. I think that the relationship with Davis and Drew is really important because Davis genuinely cares a huge amount for Reid and really wants him to be the best version of himself. That relationship is fundamental to who Davis is, even if he’s pushing him away and going about it the wrong way. He may be trying to turn Reid into a version of himself, but Davis thinks that’s a good thing. A fundamentally huge part of who Davis is, as a character, is believing that he’s a strong a strong father figure. Even if the stuff he’s doing might not really be the best way of going about it, he firmly believes he’s doing the right thing.

Should Davis Collins Get a Redemption Arc or Go Full Villain in Season 2 of ‘Ransom Canyon’?

“I hope we get to do many seasons of this show.”

Image via Netflix

If you get to do another season of this, would you want to see Davis have some sort of redemption arc, or would you rather see him lean further into being a full-on bad guy?

MACKEN: I hope we get to do many seasons of this show because it’s so much fun, from my perspective, with that character. I don’t know which way I’d like him to go. I feel like I want him to go both ways, if that makes sense. I feel like he needs a redemption arc. But at the same time, I do think there’s something interesting if he leans full-on into being the bad seed of Ransom. Then, he’s going to be the character you love to hate.

Do you think he’s really over Quinn, or will he keep trying there?

MACKEN: We’ve had some conversations with the writers already about where we want it to go, but I couldn’t possibly tell you that. Every show needs to have a certain kind of, not bad guy, but antagonist like that. I think that Davis is that, but he firmly believes that what he’s doing is not that.

If you do more seasons of this, would you want to direct an episode? Is that something you’ve thought about at all?

MACKEN: My whole thing with directing is that I love directing and I’m always trying to direct projects in between acting, but I only want to direct stuff if it makes sense. I’d love to direct a show like this, but only if it makes sense and I feel like I could bring something interesting to it. So, down the line, I’d love to, of course, but I’d have to feel like it would help the show.