Set in the 1857 American frontier, the upcoming limited series American Primeval — from director and executive producer Pete Berg, creator, writer, and executive producer Mark L. Smith, and executive producer Eric Newman — follows different groups and individuals fighting to survive and gain control of the lands out West. Chief among them are the members of the Mormon Church. Fleeing widespread persecution, violence, and humiliation, they travel to Utah to build a safe space and stronghold. And their leader, Brigham Young, will do whatever it takes to secure the survival of his flock.

When actor Kim Coates (Bad Blood, Sons of Anarchy) got the call to play real-life historical figure Young, his answer was immediate. “It was the offer of a lifetime,” Coates tells Tudum. “I’d long wanted to work with [director] Pete Berg. I knew how difficult it was going to be, inhabiting this true historical figure. We actors like to throw around the phrase, ‘I’ve never played someone like this before,’ but I genuinely have never played a character like Brigham Young before, someone who people are immediately aware of just by their name.”

Coates immersed himself in research, reading two biographies on Young — Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet and The Prophet and the Reformer: The Letters of Brigham Young and Thomas L. Kane — as well as The Twenty-Seventh Wife, the story of Young’s wife who divorced him.

Coates adds, “I also spoke to two people in my own life, with whom I have a personal connection, who are longtime members of the Mormon Church. They opened their doors to me and were generous with their knowledge. That helped me to feel more like this man that I’m really nothing like in real life. I wanted to know all about Young, and it was a difficult journey at times.”

Establishing Young’s physicality was key to Coates’ process. “I usually start from the inside out,” he says. “I start from the inside and then I work myself out to how they look, or how they walk, how they talk. This was different. I needed his physicality.”

Coates learned that Young had famously piercing blue eyes and an intense stare. He was also shorter and heavier, so Coates gained weight for the role. The actor dyed his famously dark hair reddish blond and donned mutton chops after learning Young was unable to grow facial hair. He tailored a mid-Atlantic accent for the role — there are no audio recordings of Young speaking, but he relied on a recording of a Mormon prophet from the 1890s as a jumping-off point — and worked closely with the costuming, hair, and makeup teams to craft Young’s look.

“It was a wonderful collaboration. How many vests would he have? How clean would he be? The top hat was a very important piece of the costuming,” Coates says. “The wardrobe was just key for me, and I got to feel very comfortable in it, even though it’s all wool. If anyone was going to dress well, it was Brigham Young. The wardrobe helped me play this guy to no end, for sure.”

In playing a historical and religious figure, and particularly one who makes divisive decisions throughout the show’s narrative, Coates didn’t label his character a hero or villain. Like all characters in American Primeval, Young is fighting for his own survival and the survival of his people, no matter the cost. 

“As an actor, you have to make choices,” he says. “Things start at the top and filter down, and we mustn’t shy away from both the nastiness and the goodness in our history. And this particular story has some of both, and it has some lessons that we can and should learn from. But boy, it was tough to survive in 1857. I don’t know how anyone did.”

As Young seeks to cement the Mormons’ stronghold in Utah, a large part of his strategy revolves around Fort Bridger, owned by Jim Bridger (Shea Whigham). President James Buchanan and the US government, at odds with the Mormons and their growing size and influence, are closely monitoring the group. Fort Bridger is key to the US Army’s continued presence out West, providing food, lodging, and other necessary resources. Young is eager to buy Fort Bridger from its reluctant owner — meaning Coates shares a good chunk of screen time with Whigham.

“Shea is just so brilliant,” says Coates. “I can’t talk enough about that guy as a talent and as a friend. I couldn’t have done this show without him. We play two completely opposite characters. When we got in the van to get going to work every day, he was Jim Bridger and I was Brigham Young.”

Both Coates and Whigham were so dedicated to their characters that director Berg addressed them both solely by their character names during production.

“I don’t think I ever talked to Kim Coates as Kim Coates,” Berg recalls. “It was only as Brigham Young the entire shoot. He’d come to set in that hair and the makeup and clothing and the attitude, and I would call him Governor Young. He would just stay in character all day. I thought it was extraordinary. Same with Shea Whigham as Jim Bridger. Basically, he was in character from the moment he got there. I wasn’t talking to Kim, I wasn’t talking to Shea. I was talking to Brigham Young and Jim Bridger, which I like because then it’s just all about the work.”

“I guess I exuded Brigham Young, with the boots and the coat and the top hat,” Coates says with a laugh. “What Netflix did in bringing all these people together was paramount in us then making the greatest show we could.”

American Primeval arrives on Netflix Jan. 9.

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