1923 Alexandra

Paramount+ just announced that 1923 will be returning for a second season, and with the amount of action and drama the series has packed into just the first four episodes of Season 1, it’s no surprise. Part of what makes the gun fights and elephant chases land, however, is the series’ focus on the characters at the heart of the story. Included among the must-watch characters bringing the Yellowstone prequel series to life is Alexandra, played by Julia Schlaepfer. A resilient and capable woman, Alexandra met Spencer Dutton while he was hunting in Africa and fell immediately in love. She’s determined to show her value by escorting Spencer on his trip back to Montana, proving that she’s stronger and smarter than people have ever guessed.


Ahead of the return of 1923 Season 1, CBR spoke with Julia Schlaepfer about the brave Alexandra. Schlaepfer dove into what makes this character so special and the importance of her love story with Spencer Dutton. She also dove into the process of filming with large cats and incredible stunt work to bring Alexandra’s adventures to life.

CBR: Alexandra is a bit of an adventure seeker, a bit of a risk-taker. How did you find this character and step into those shoes?

Julia Schlaepfer: She is so brave, and she is such a romantic, and she wears her heart on her sleeve. She’s just so present in every moment around her, with the world around her, so it really did challenge me, as Julia, to show up that way every day. It was such a gift because no matter what kind of day I was having, no matter what I was going through personally, I had to show up, and I had to bring that quality to her. I think it really opened me up as a human… You have to just be in the moment and take life by the horns a little bit and go for whatever you want. It was just really beautiful for me to get to go through [that] with her.

I think growing up as a woman, society will expect a lot from you and will underestimate you and tell you how you have to be and which way you have to do it and to smile and look pretty. That makes me so mad. [laughs] I grew up with two older brothers, and I was like, “I’m gonna do that.” The competitive nature in me is very much alive. [laughs] It was kind of natural to me because I knew that that was inside of me, and I knew that it was something that she also felt — this yearning to break free of all these expectations.

Is running from these expectations that society has put on her something that drew you to the character? What was it that first made you want to be a part of 1923?

Oh, for sure — the character entirely. Alexandra was the reason. The script as a whole is so incredible, but then to get this character that just, in the first episode that you see her, has this insane character arc — that is so beautiful, and I think it really resonates with a lot of people. The way Taylor [Sheridan] writes it is so, so real and so raw, and to see her be so vulnerable right away is a really beautiful thing. Then, she just goes for it. She just jumps, and I think that’s so cool and so brave.

I think it’s what everyone wishes they could do. I think everyone wishes they could run after that car, you know what I mean? Most people are too scared to do that. It’s a scary thing. A lot of people don’t have the ability to do that or the privilege to do that, but she… It is something we all dream of, and she does it, and she gets to do it. It is really inspiring to get to play her every day and watch her grow.

1923 Spencer Alexandra

I think part of that journey is having someone that she’s running toward — a big part of her story is this relationship with Spencer. What was it like to build up that rapport with Brandon Sklenar?

It was honestly just so easy because Taylor somehow knew that we were gonna get along. Then we met on the first day of cowboy camp, and that chemistry that you watch on screen was just there. It just existed with us. Then we got the next two months of cowboy camp and then three months of filming, and it was just really us together a lot of the time, especially when we were filming where it was just us alone. When you’re stranded in the middle of nowhere in Africa with one other person, it’s like you go through everything together. We only had each other to lean on. We got Eagle Eye poisoning together. We were exhausted. We were dirty. [laughs] We had our own insecurities about helming this part of the show, and we just had to rely on each other, and we really did. So it was a really, really great gift in terms of bringing that to the characters because that existed with us already.

It’s wild that you didn’t have a chemistry test and that it just worked out so well!

I know! Brandon offered to fly out to chemistry read with the girls that were screen testing for Alexandra, and Taylor told him no. He was like, “I just don’t want to put more pressure on the girls.” It’s already a lot of pressure, which is very kind, and he was like, “I think I’ll just be able to tell. I’ll be able to tell.” I don’t know. He’s a wizard because he… just has such a knack for people and for humans. You can see that in his writing because he writes all of his scripts himself, and he builds all these characters from the ground up. He just knew somehow that Brandon and I were gonna hit it off, and we’re very grateful that he did. [laughs]

I’m curious how big of a role you think this relationship with Spencer has in Alexander’s arc. As you mentioned, so much of her early episodes are about this bravery, about running from this predetermined, predestined path that her family has set for her. So how much of her arc is her personal growth, and how much of it is this love story?

I mean, I think it’s a bit of both. I think at the forefront, what they’re both fighting for and clinging onto for dear life is their love for one another. I think the love drives her forward in her growth. I think it’s both of their reasons to live. I don’t think she would be leaving her family behind and going on this journey if it wasn’t Spencer there staring at her. It’s him. It’s about this undeniable, visceral connection that they have that neither of them maybe understand, but they just know that they need it.

Within that, there’s a lot of personal growth and finding her own strength. She can’t just be a damsel in distress forever. If she’s gonna go on this journey, she’s got to figure out how to fend for herself, and she wants to. I really think she desperately wants to. She doesn’t want to be helpless. She finds that, and she continues to find that as we go on. I think we’ll watch it evolve and emerge from her more and more and watch her strength fire back at really harrowing moments for them.

RELATED: 1923: Harrison Ford Dishes on the Yellowstone Prequel’s New Dutton

We haven’t seen Alexandra get to interact with a lot of other characters yet — she’s still off in Africa — but we have seen you get to interact with tons of wild animals. I’m curious what the process of filming with elephants and big cats has been like for you.

It was so cool and surreal. I still feel like they were puppets because they’re just so magical. They’re like these insane creatures, and nothing like I’ve ever seen before. I mean, when we were in Salt Lake City, filming with the leopard — that scene where that leopard eats that woman in the first episode — and that was a real leopard. They used a real leopard for as much of it as they could. When they brought that leopard into the soundstage. The purr that this leopard makes, the sound, it rattled the room — the purr alone. It was on the opposite side of the room, and it just shook the floors. It was so wild. We all had to stay behind these screens, and nobody could be eating food or anything like that, but then really, the leopard just kind of wanted to play, and kind of behaved like a house cat.

Then with the elephants, we really got up close and personal with them. They’re very sensitive, and they were scared of us. They didn’t really know what to make of the big sets and of all the people. They needed the elephant to come running towards our car, and it wouldn’t because it was scared of us. So they gave us oranges to feed to the elephants because citrus is their favorite treat. We were hiding oranges in the car with us, and then they would come up and grab it out of your hand. It was just one of those moments where [I was] like, “What is my life? This is insane.” It was so, so special.

The Yellowstone series have always been Westerns, so getting to work with elephants and leopards maybe wasn’t an expected animal encounter for filming this.

No, and I assumed that they would just CGI all of it or whatever. You don’t even think about that. I think there was so much I just didn’t even realize how special it was going to be or how lucky I was. Then we got to Africa, and I was like, “Wow, this scale is massive, and I get to be in the center of it?” I’m just so grateful. I really am so grateful.

1923 Spencer Alex Canoe

Along with those animal encounters is an incredible amount of stunt work. Alexandra is in the action in these episodes. What was the process like for filming those? Did you get your hands dirty with running from animals and climbing trees?

Yeah, we begged them to do all of our own stunts. They were like, “Are you sure?” We were like, “We’re doing it.” So yeah, we climbed those trees. We were really up in a tree. They used a combo of a real tree out in the middle of the bush, and then they recreated a fake version of that tree on a soundstage weeks later, but we were climbing it ourselves. We flipped over in that car. We were in the car when it flips.

There’s a lot more stunt work to come that I cannot mention, but you’ll know it when you see it. [laughs] We did like a month of training for one of the particular sections of Episode 6. We trained for a while with that. In the midseason trailer, you see Alexandra get flung across the boat. We did that. That was me. They were like, “Again, we have your stunt people here if you want to use them” We were so determined because it’s so fun. It’s so exciting, and when else am I gonna get to roll over in a car like that and then have elephants charge it? Never! [laughs]

You also mentioned the cowboy camp at the beginning of filming, so you’ve worked with some more mundane animals, too. How was that process?

It was beautiful. It was the most joyful time of all of our lives. We were in bliss. I mean, it was hard work, don’t get me wrong. We were beat up. [laughs] We were hurting and had bruises, and we were bloody — the whole thing. It was so meditative and beautiful. Horses are the sweetest, most sensitive creatures, and we got to keep the same horses the whole time once they found one that suited us. So I really created a bond with my horse, Monk. We called him Monkey. I miss him. He was so cute. [laughs] Yeah, we were put through the drills, taught how to trot and lope and lasso and do all of the things that a cowboy would do. Yeah, it was very special.

Does that mean we’ll get to see some horseback stunt work from Alexandria eventually in the series?

I sure hope so. You know, we haven’t seen it yet. I would love to. I mean, Brandon and I are standing by. We’re like, “Throw us in, coach. We would love to get on a horse.” So we’ll see. We’ll see.

Do you have a taste for Westerns now that you’ve had a chance to dive into 1923?

For sure, absolutely — I mean, especially any of Taylor’s shows because the special thing about his Westerns is they’re Westerns, but the characters are so well written, so thought-out and detailed. The stories are really rooted in a lot of grounded emotion, so I think they’re very special shows. I’m binge-watching my way through them for sure. [laughs]

When 1923 comes back on Sunday, Alexandra and Spencer are starting making their journey back to Montana, back to the US. What awaits them on that journey, and how does that compare to the time they spent in Africa together?

They’re in a kind of honeymoon period right now, enjoying the bliss of that. Things just get harder. [laughs] They are on the adventure of a lifetime, and we really watch their love be tested in every way. We watch their love grow and the strength of that love grow, but they are put through everything. So if you can think of something that they might be put through, they’re probably gonna go through it, and it’s gonna be a wild ride for sure. [laughs]

Classic Taylor Sheridan.

Classic, classic.

1923 returns to Paramount+ on Feb. 5.

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