[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Reservation Dogs Season 3, Episode 9, “Elora’s Dad.”]
Reservation Dogs has never shied away from welcoming a famous face to the show’s talented ensemble, and in the show’s penultimate episode, “Elora’s Dad,” the biggest surprise guest star yet was unveiled as Elora’s (Devery Jacobs) estranged father Rick Miller, played by Ethan Hawke.
Introducing the mystery at the beginning of Season 3, Elora discovered her father was alive during a conversation with her aunt Teenie (Tamara Podemski). After believing he was dead all these years, she was presented with an opportunity to seek him out, even taking note of his name on her birth certificate, but it was her college application process that ultimately led her to minorly stalk him as she weighed the pros and cons of connecting with him.
Clocking the close-following car, Rick pulls into a gas station to confront his stalker, only to realize it’s his own daughter, recognizing her for her likeness to her late mother Cookie. What follows is a masterclass back-and-forth between Hawke and Devery as they tip-toe around this unexpected reunion and learn about each other.
Agreeing to sit down for a coffee in exchange for Rick signing her college financial aid forms, Elora learns that he was responsible for naming her, an intended nod to Oklahoma’s own Ron Howard who directed the fantasy film Willow. The proximity seems to be a bit much for her as Rick gets candid about his reasons for leaving her and his regrets for not reaching out to her before this point in time.
(Credit: Shane Brown/FX)
While Elora seems to have one foot constantly out the door for a quick escape, Rick does his best to make sure she feels welcome, sharing that she has three younger siblings. Eventually, she agrees to follow him home where he gives her a baby photo he still has from her first birthday. The poignant exchange is brightened by Rick’s insistence that Elora meets her siblings, which she happily does, finding joy in their presence as they embrace her with enthusiasm.
She promises to come back and visit with plans to attend school nearby, and it’s a promise we’re sure she’ll keep, just like the one she made to her late pal Daniel (Dalton Cramer). So, how did Hawke end up in such a pivotal role in Reservation Dogs‘ final season, you may ask?
Casting director Angelique Midthunder tells TV Insider, “We knew that it had to be somebody really great.” While she notes, “We didn’t know that this would be the final season,” she says, “We knew that Elora’s dad is kind of a big deal in the storyline, and what a fun opportunity to bring in somebody really cool, a non-native actor into this world.”
“That was the initial conversation that [series creator Sterlin Harjo and I] had,” Midthunder shares of the discussion surrounding Rick Miller as a character. “I went through my process and gave him ideas upon ideas,” reveals Midthunder, “and Ethan Hawke was [on my list].” Luckily, Hawke has a relationship with Harjo, according to Midthunder.
(Credit: Shane Brown/FX)
“So I think Sterlin was like, ‘This is great, let’s get Ethan Hawke.’ And I mean, it was just the easiest process that we’ve had on the show,” Midthunder continues. “Ethan and Sterlin have been eager to work together. So it was a no-brainer and it was just a perfect fit,” she gushes. While Midthunder doesn’t say who else was on the list she reveals it included “quite a few names.”
“When we get a guest star opportunity like this as we had earlier in the show with Megan Mullally and Bill Burr and Marc Maron… it’s a departure from what I’m typically doing,” Midthunder shares. “So I do have a lot of fun with my list and with my team, we all brainstorm and we like to aim high.”
While there was a list of stars who could play Rick made, Midthunder notes that there was “no one else that we went out to. No one else that we really considered. “Sterlin was like, ‘If we can get Ethan, that would be amazing.’ And he made it work. Everyone made it work.”
As for whether Jacobs had a say in who would play her onscreen dad, Midthunder says, “When the actors are directing, as Devery tends to, we certainly want to include her in the process.” But in the end, it was Harjo’s decision to make as she says, “Sterlin comes from the independent film world where he’s kind of used to doing all of it himself. The directors are always included in the process, including the cast members who are directing like Devery. But for the most part, Sterlin’s got his hand in every pot.”
Jacobs has had her hand in several episodes this season as well, beyond acting, penning the script for this installment along with others and directing this season’s seventh episode, “Wahoo!” which followed Elora’s mom Cookie (Janae Collins) as she haunted Rita (Sarah Podemski).
(Credit: Shane Brown/FX)
While Midthunder wasn’t on set for the filming of this specific episode, she says, “I can only imagine how satisfying it must have been for both of them, especially Devery.”
Hawke isn’t the first big name to pop up this season as Graham Green joined the mix as Maximus, an old friend of Bucky (Wes Studi) and Brownie (Gary Farmer). According to Midthunder, it wasn’t much of a challenge getting the iconic actor to sign on. “If you would’ve interviewed me in Season 1, it would’ve been much more of an adventure. Now, it’s like everybody wants to be on the show, and it’s so much fun,” Midthunder exclaims.
“We knew that we had to get somebody really amazing that could hold their own with Wes Studi and Gary Farmer and Zahn McClarnon and these actors who have become really big in the indigenous community,” Midthunder shares. “Reservation Dogs does this thing where you see people you’ve never seen before alongside classic famous native actors.”
Similarly to Hawke, Midthunder says, “Graham was the obvious choice at that time, and we didn’t even hold auditions [like] with Ethan. We just went out to him and I think he was one of those actors that was hoping something would come along that would be a good fit for him. It was just like putting puzzle pieces [together].”
(Credit: Shane Brown/FX)
The show has a true familial feel behind the scenes for Midthunder who also cast siblings of two core cast members for the ’70s-set episode, “House Made of Bongs.” Paulina Alexis and Lane Factor who play Willie Jack and Cheese shared the season with their siblings Nathan Alexis and Shelby Factor who portrayed young versions of Uncle Brownie and Elora’s grandma Mabel.
“We did a huge extensive casting process, almost as extensive as what I did for the pilot,” Midthunder reveals. “I didn’t do boots-on-the-ground searches like I did for the pilot, but I did a huge international search.” Little did she know some of the perfect performers were right in front of her.
“It’s like you see them just embodying the characters, which we didn’t necessarily ask them to do, but we did let them know down the line who they were going to be portraying,” she says of the audition process. “I want to call it something of a happy coincidence. And in the end, I really do feel like bringing in people who are related to the characters that we see on the show… by bringing in these blood relations, we did feel that that was a wonderful way to ground the characters in the world and not feel jarring.”
Even earlier in the season, the show added another member of the Podemski family into the ensemble, casting Michael Podemski-Bedard as Koda, the little boy who befriended a young Deer Lady in the Native American boarding schools. He’s the nephew of Tamara and Sarah Podemski, who play Teenie and Rita. Appearing alongside Georgeanne Growingthunder as young Deer Lady, the episode sought young actors who could pick up the Kiowa language.
(Credit: Shane Brown/FX)
“Georgeanne is from Oklahoma and she actually already had a pretty good knowledge of the language. It was a natural process for someone that young to learn the language,” Midthunder adds. “And Michael [is] just a really smart, brilliant, dedicated boy who already has a working knowledge of the hard work that it takes. So these actors were just very dedicated and took it very seriously. And of course, we had language translators, advisors, and consultants from the area helping everyone with the dialect.”
For Midthunder, “it’s just been so gratifying,” she says of watching the four leads come into their own over the years onscreen in these roles. “Three of them had already been on my radar. Devery, Paulina, and D’Pharaoh [Woon-A-Tai] had been auditioning for other projects. And then Lane was a complete discovery that we found when we were searching Oklahoma,” Midthunder recalls.
“Sterlin and I road-tripped around Oklahoma back in 2019 and just visited all the reservations to open casting calls, and he was just somebody that kept showing up at the casting calls and to see how far they’ve come and to see them grow into their own and their confidence as actors is just… I don’t know if I’ll ever do a show — I feel like I’m going to cry — that will be as satisfying as this,” Midthunder told us as her eyes watered.
But they’re “happy tears,” as Midthunder says, “to see how far they’ve come with their confidence and their skillset, it’s so incredible. And I couldn’t be more proud. I feel like a mom to all of them.”
While she couldn’t share any details about the casting of Reservation Dogs‘ final episode, Midthunder tells us she was on set for the final installment and teases, “Working on casting the episode, I didn’t know that it would be the final episode, but I will say that I found it to be very satisfying for the end of the show as far as just seeing where everybody is going.”
What that means, we’ll have to wait and see. But one thing’s for certain, Elora’s mystery about her father has been solved with the help of some clever casting and fantastic performances.
Reservation Dogs, Series Finale, Wednesday, September 27, FX
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
