What To Know
- Lioness star Dave Annable got his start in the Taylor Sheridan universe by being killed off in the Yellowstone pilot.
- Now, his character Neal McNamara is becoming ever more central to the story as the dangers of his wife’s job come home.
- Here, the actor reflects on his journey so far and teases what’s ahead.
If you’ve forgotten that Lioness star Dave Annable was one of the series originals of Yellowstone, you’d be forgiven. His character, Lee Dutton, the eldest son of John Dutton (Kevin Costner), was all lined up to inherit the family ranch until he was unexpectedly killed off in the very first episode.
After such a brief introduction into this story world, the actor wasn’t sure whether he’d ever make it back into another of Taylor Sheridan‘s shows … but he sure wanted to.
“I was praying because I’m such a fan of his work, and it was also this beautifully awful thing to be killed off in the first episode of Yellowstone — which I knew, but I had no idea how much fun I’d have playing a cowboy,” Annable told TV Insider. “To get that call, there’s no greater compliment for an actor to have somebody like Taylor call you and ask to work with you again. And when he presented Lioness to me, before he even said anything, I was like, ‘I’m in, I’m in, I’m in.’ So, it was a real gift, and I think he’s got a beautiful story, and it’s an important story to play a family member of these service members. It’s a real gift.”
His Lioness character, Neal McNamara, has become a vital part of the story, as he serves as the voice of conscience, normalcy, and sheer frustration in the life of Joe (Zoe Saldaña), who leads the secret CIA hit squad, taking lives while he, a pediatric surgeon, spends his days trying to save them.
With their moral compasses and professional responsibilities being so polarly opposite, one might wonder how these two ever got together in the first place — and how they continue to try and make it work.
“I think they met before their prospective careers, and they built this foundation and supported one another. Obviously, Neal was in medical school for a very long time, and she was joining the CIA. So, I think they, in my mind, have built enough of a foundation to really support each other, and they probably made some deal that, ‘We’re not splitting up. We are literally in this for the long haul, and no matter what, we’re going to stick to that,’” Annable explains of his own interpretation of the couple. “Now, with a few dead bodies on the front lawn, you know maybe that’s going to make a slight right off the exit ramp, but we’ll see. But I do think that it’s one of my favorite relationships that I’ve seen on TV, and it’s incredibly mature and forward and beautiful.”
Ryan Green / Paramount+
The dead bodies on the front lawn that he’s referring to, of course, were presented in the Season 3 premiere, after two strangers appeared on Joe’s doorstep in the middle of the night, and, when they tried to force her to come out of the house, she gave them the business end of her sidearm in rapid fashion.
Although Neal has never been naive about what his wife’s job entails, the sight of her standing there with a pair of corpses certainly clarified the gravity (and depravity) of it all.
“It has to all of a sudden get very real for Neal when he sees two dead bodies on his front lawn with his daughters sleeping upstairs, and the fact that, even with how much he loves his wife, that obviously it’s his wife that just murdered these two men [sinks in],” Annable said. “I was in the scene, like, ‘Does Neal try and save them since he’s a doctor? How many layers are here in this moment?’ And it feels like it really worked and was a great cliffhanger after the first episode to sort of see where they’re headed.”
Indeed, the promos for Season 3 as a whole make it clear that the tensions between Neal and Joe will reach a boiling point — thanks in part, no doubt, to the fact that the dangers are now at his front door.
Before getting the new scripts, Annable wasn’t sure that’d be the case, but he was delighted to find out how central these long-simmering marital woes would become in the show’s third outing.
“I didn’t know. We have no idea what’s going to happen or where it’s going to go, but all I can say is, I was like a kid on Christmas when that first script came out for Season 3, just to see, and I was blown away by the episode and what happens to Joe, now that it’s come home literally and this fight is now personal. I’m very excited because it’s a great story to tell, and I’m — without giving too much away — very, very happy with Neal’s journey in this third season.”
Lioness, Sundays, Paramount+