Luke Grimes Opens Up About Fatherhood, Working with Joaquin Phoenix & Yellowstone Sequel (Exclusive)

The actors sat down with TooFab exclusively to celebrate their upcoming film Eddington with A24, and shared what they learned working opposite the Walk The Line star.

"I mean... He's, first of all, really generous," Grimes told TooFab. "Really awesome guy, on top of being one of the greatest actors in the world. And you watch him work, and you realize why he's so great, because he works really hard."

In the film, Phoenix plays Joe Cross, Eddington's sheriff who takes on Mayor Ted Garcia (Pedro Pascal) in the upcoming election, enlisting his young officers Guy (Grimes) and Michael (Ward) to help with his campaign until things go south.

"He's there to give absolutely everything he has to this character to make this movie good," Grimes continued. "It's just inspiring to watch. He's never phoning anything in. This guy is working his ass off and somehow retaining enough energy after all that to be kind and generous to the people on set."

Meanwhile Ward, noted how present the Academy Award winning actor was.

"I learned from him was just to keep staying alive at every moment," Ward shared. "Even being here with you guys now, we're just here and reacting to each other and it should be the same way in a scene."

While A24's plot for the film is simply: "In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff (Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico" ... It is much bigger than that.

From conspiracy theories and the Black Lives Matter movement, to cryptocurrency, cult leaders, hoarding toilet paper and doom scrolling, it shows everything America went through during the year of 2020, slammed on the big screen with a shocking twist.

"Honestly, I couldn't believe what I just read," Ward recalled when he first got the script written by director Ari Aster. "I've never read anything like that before. I never get the opportunity to kind of dive into those worlds. There's not really much things that are written for people like me in those kind of worlds."

Grimes admitted if it wasn't for Aster directing, he wouldn't have understood how Eddington could become a film -- adding, "any Ari movie is like nothing I've ever seen."

"Because you have no category to put it in," Grimes said. "But I knew since Ari was directing that it was gonna be something special. And he's like a bucket list for me."

Ward's character showcased the juxtaposition of a Black officer amid the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement, which gained unprecedented global attention and participation following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.

"I mean it was definitely difficult, but it's part of the work," Ward began. "I've done research. I spoke to a couple officers. I've got a friend who's an officer in New York and it's a completely different thing, obviously, from being in New York as opposed to a small town."

Ward felt that without speaking to "local Black officers" to understand how they felt at the time, he wouldn't have got to the same place for his character in the film.

"That kind of was what helped me to ... understand Michael a bit more, because initial reactions and initial feelings instinctively might not have got me to the same place," he added.

Outside of Eddington, Grimes is set to return to the Yellowstone universe in a new spinoff, Y:Marshals where he will be reprising his role as Kayce Dutton.

"You will see some familiar faces," he told TooFab exclusively. "I'm excited to do it. It's going to be year eight for me, playing the same character, which is, who would have thought that I would ever play a character for eight years? But, he's really close to my heart. He feels like a family member, and it would be weird to fully let him go anyway, so I'm glad we get to reconnect."

Along with his work life keeping him busy, his home life is also jam-packed, as he and his wife Bianca Rodrigues Grimes welcomed their first child, a baby boy, in October 2024.

"It is getting really fun right now," he shared. "I say the first few months I was a little worried. I was like, maybe, 'I'm not good at this.' But now like all the lights are coming on. He has so much personality and we're like best buds. So it's all good now!"

Watch more from Grimes and Ward in our interview above and see how they feel the world has changed since COVID-19.

A24 will release Eddington in theaters July 18. The upcoming also stars Emma Stone, Austin Butler and Deirdre O'Connell.