‘Lioness’ Star Ian Bohen Reveals His Family Sent Him ‘Hate Mail’ Over Season 3 Premiere

Lioness‘ third season is now in full swing and has brought in a few key new characters into the mix. In the premiere, fans are introduced to Ian Bohen‘s Grady, a Delta Force operator whose dutiful dog helps the Lioness crew complete their operation in the Ukraine … but with devastating consequences. Though Titan manages to neutralize several enemy soldiers in the trenches, the animal is stabbed in the process and later dies from the injuries, leaving Grady visibly despondent.

For Bohen, the news that his four-legged companion would not be long for the Lioness world was “devastating” for another reason. The actor tells TV Insider that he’d been trying to become a part of the Taylor Sheridan show since the beginning and almost got a spot on Season 2 that fell through due to scheduling issues — Bohen was promoted to series regular on Yellowstone for its final two seasons — so he was fully committed when he got the call for Season 3. After learning that he’d be portraying a military dog handler, he immersed himself into crafting that persona … only to have that part of the character’s journey end in the first episode. Worse, his family was angry with him over the canine’s fate and made their dismay heard loud and clear.

Bohen’s time on Lioness will continue throughout Season 3, of course, but we caught up with the actor to chat about his journey onto the celebrated Paramount+ war drama, below.

I wanted to start by asking you about the call you got for Lioness. I understand that you wanted to be on this show earlier, but there were conflicts with Yellowstone before. So, what was the call like when you found out you’d be on this show?

Ian Bohen: We were trying from the beginning of Season 2, and we were fairly certain, like, “This is going to happen, and it would be exceptional: You could do both,” and it doesn’t happen. And then, as timing and schedules changed, and something shortened, it became pretty evident, and I was like, “Are we still doing this?” And at some point, I got the first call that was like, “Not doing it anymore,” and that takes away [momentum]. That’s like getting kicked off a sports team for a year and a half. You’re like, “You’re not playing anymore.” So that was devastating. But it was with the, “It’s OK, we’ll get them next year,” and you’re like [sighs] “OK.”

Then, as that 12 or 16 months comes around, and you start to look at the calendar, you’re like, “OK, this can work. This can work. This can work.” And then you’re like, “Are we doing it?” Then the call comes in, and when the official thing is like, “We want you to do this,” then it’s like you’re jumping around. You call your mom… You just laugh, cry, and you’re like, “This is why we struggle so much as to have these moments where we can do it.” So, for me, this was a seminal part of my career being on this show, and I’m still to this day over the moon about it. Yeah, I could not be happier.

What was it about Lioness that made you want to be on this particular show so much? 

I read the pilot and a subsequent couple of episodes before they were made, and of course, everything hit. I’m like, “This is very good.” I can’t see it in my mind yet because it hasn’t been shot, but being part of a military with heavy action, heavy drama. I know he shoots action sequences in a way that’s just different than anybody else does. So, right away, coming in — as a young boy, I [would] play guns and play army and want to do battle stuff — and so this melded everything perfectly that I would want to do as an actor. Then, when you combine so many of my friends that were involved, as well as Taylor, it just becomes a no-brainer. What else are you going to do? And then I saw Season 1, and at that point, I was like, “Oh, put a fork in me,” like, “Just let me. I want it. This is where I want to retire on this,” because it all came together, honestly, and then of course couldn’t do 2 and watched Season 2, and it was just, “Agh.” And then now here we are. Thank goodness, we’re watching Season 3, so, life is good.

Emerson Miller / Paramount+

In the premiere for Season 3, we get to meet Grady, and he’s handling the canines. Can you talk about the emotional elements that you brought to that scene because he is this rough-and-tumble guy, but also, he’s obviously devastated with what happens to Titan.

Yeah, and for me, too, as an actor, when I was told, “Hey, you’re going to be a dog handler. You’re going to have your own dog,” early before the first script, you start to project and think like, “Oh my gosh, what could this be in the long term?” And then you get attached to that idea and fall in love with this animal, which you haven’t met yet. And then you read the first script, and you get to the last few pages, and you read the dog dies, and it’s like the rug is taken out from under you, and everything you’ve been working on, thinking about, making in your mind for the last month, gone. And no one cares [in the show]. They’re like, “Well, too bad,” and you have to then go like, “How do I?… What do I do now?” and still be happy about it, and then think, well, I’ve got X amount of shooting days and several months of prep with the dog — so from start to finish, at least probably three months of daily handling activity — like, that’s good, that’s enough. But it was still devastating, and I couldn’t tell anyone. Obviously, I told my family, “Hey, I’m gonna have a dog, and it’s gonna be cool,” and they probably were expecting this to go on forever, and then at the end of Episode 1, I got virtual hate mail from my friends and family, like, “You didn’t tell us, I can’t believe it. We didn’t care about all the soldiers getting killed, but as soon as the dog got hurt, we lost our s**t.” And I’m like, “I know, I know, devastating.” But thank God, Britta, who plays Titan, is alive and well in Montana.

It must have been fun for you, too. Not only did you get to do all of that, but you also got to share the screen with Taylor since he was playing Cody in that sequence during the action in the trench and things like that. What was it like for you to get to share the screen with him? In addition to working with him on a creative level.

It’s interesting when the writers and the creators of shows are performers, [they] have leveled themselves down on the playing field, and everybody’s the same. Actors are actors. You’re all in a room. You’re all trying to make a scene. Ego goes out the window, and you get to do the dance together. And so it’s fun watching a guy that really can just do whatever he wants, wants to be an actor, wants to be a scene partner, listen, get directed by the director who is directing the episode, and be told, “I think here’s how we should do it,” and and the actor Taylor goes, “Oh, that sounds great. OK, how can we make it better?” And we all talked, and so all of those days were just a treat to go to work and not feel any kind of weirdness. It was, “Oh, we’re gonna have fun and make the best product that we did.” So, anytime I have a scene where I read that Cody’s in it, I’m like, “Oh, this is going to be a really great day.”

Lioness, Sundays, Paramount+