Riley Green’s big acting debut is about to hit TV screens very soon, and his new Marshals’ role has already made waves on the internet– despite the producers’ original hesitations.
Thanks to a little nudging from the show’s lead star (Kayce Dutton) and recently transitioned country music singer, Luke Grimes, his now co-star was able to help Green land this new acting role. Preparing for his recently released debut self-titled album, Grimes and Green had developed a writing relationship.
The “Change My Mind” singer mentioned his budding dream to step into an acting role, and immediately, Grimes saw potential for the country star to dip his toes into the water via the brand new 2026 Yellowstone spin-off.
Premiering this past March 1, the Taylor Sheridan-produced western drama is well into its sixth episode, and pretty soon, allegedly, Green will make his appearance on the Sunday night, April 19 episode. Crazily enough, neither Green’s six number one singles nor Grimes’ lead-star recommendation was enough of a surefire endorsement to gain him a part on the series.
In a recent interview with Country Nights Live hosted by Bev Rainey, the two discussed this kismet crossover, and Grimes explained the backstory, saying, “A light bulb sort of went off, and I was like ‘hey, you should be on my show. brought it up to my show runner now, and he loved the idea as a fan of Rileys, and we wrote him a part, and then we thought, great, this is happening.”
Sure enough, CBS had some reservations before just letting Green on the set: “The network, you know, they don’t really know the country music scene, so they weren’t super aware of like how big of a deal Riley is.” Considering Yellowstone, which first aired on CBS, was rooted in highlighting country music artists through the soundtrack and even featuring artists like Lainey Wilson and Ryan Bingham, this statement is pretty wild. Nonetheless, Grimes said they treated Green like any ‘ole actor off this street vying for a role, confirmed, “So they made him audition, which I thought was really funny.”
Grimes, having faith in the ‘Duckman’s’ aspiring acting goals, added, “I was like, you guys, you shouldn’t, you should not make this guy do this.” Sure enough, being the great friend he is, he lent a helping hand to the audition process. “So I was like, I’m not gonna make him do it alone, so he flew out to Utah, and I did it with him. Somewhere out there, there’s an audition tape with me and Riley.”
I’m not sure what I’m more excited for: to see Riley Green play a bad boy former Navy SEAL in a few weeks or to watch the original bare bones audition tapes, which will inevitably be leaked someday. Either way, kudos to show runner Spencer Hudnut and Grimes, who advocated for this new role of “Garrett,” making Green the newest triple threat singer-songwriter and actor in country music.