1923′s Darren Mann on the Pros and Cons of Jack’s Seriously Wooly Pants
When it gets cold on the Montana plains, the tough get wooly. And that’s why Darren Mann‘s 1923 character, Jack, spent most of the show’s Season 2 premiere sporting some seriously fuzzy trousers.
“I love those pants. Those pants saved my life in the cold,” Mann tells TVLine during a chat about the Paramount+ show’s second season.
Jake wears the leg warmers, better known as wooly chaps, for a good chunk of Episode 1, “The Killing Season.” The episode brings us back into the Duttons’ life at a particularly icy moment, as the family fights to keep its ranch amid a blisteringly freezing Midwestern winter. (Read a full recap.)
It wasn’t hard for Mann to act like he was rapidly losing body heat, he says. Production on the Yellowstone prequel “got shut down three times for cold,” he adds. “You put those, what are they called, toe warmers in your boots? They don’t work at that temperature.”
Michelle Randolph, who plays Jack’s beloved, Elizabeth, is sitting next to him. She nods. “Oh yeah. They actually freeze over.”
Enter the chaps. This style of outerwear, worn over a man’s pants, consists of animal hides that still have the creature’s hair or fur attached, all the better to repel snow and rain.
“You know what?” Randolph says, starting to chuckle. “Every time I think of you on set, I just see those pants. They’re really hard to miss.”
Indeed, Mann wears Jack’s chaps both at the Dutton ranch — where he narrowly avoids a run-in with a mountain lion — and during the Dutton men’s foray into Bozeman. Just putting on the costume became an exercise in strength training.
“They’re heavy. They’re probably close to 50 lbs., I’d say,” he recalls. “It makes it a lot tougher, getting on the horse with them on. But, like I say, very thankful for them in the winter.” However: “Wasn’t thankful for them when we faked an indoor bar scene in Texas and I was wearing those.”
Sadly, the chaps returned to the wardrobe department at the end of the shoot. “I should’ve been given those,” Mann says, laughing. “So if you talk to anybody, let ’em know: Jack’s still looking for those pants.”
I’ve never seen Montana called Midwestern before ( ‘a blisteringly freezing Midwestern winter’) – The Dakotas sometimes don’t qualify for that designation.