EXCLUSIVE: Nicholas Logan Talks Joining the Cast of ‘Dark Winds’ for Season 2

Season 2 of Dark Winds is just around the corner and we got to chat with the newest member of the family, Nicholas Logan. Playing this season’s villain, Colton, we sat down with Logan to talk playing the bad guy, joining the cast, coming up with an evil laugh, and so much more. Check out what he had to say below or by clicking play on the video above.

The first thing I want to know is how did you become attached to joining the second season of Dark Winds?
“It’s a funny story. The long story is actually funny, and a lot of people don’t know it, but I auditioned, obviously. Half of an actor’s job is just auditions. So, I auditioned for it, and it was really interesting, and it was a good tape. But what was funny is John Wirth, the showrunner, I had a bit part on Hap and Leonard some years before, and I’d had lunch with John during the shooting of that. I remember I was talking with him, and I was trying to sound smart because I thought he was this really cool, interesting guy, and I was trying to be intelligent. I walked away from that lunch, and I thought, ‘You sounded like an idiot.’

I was like, ‘That guy will probably never hire you again.’ And John Wirth is of course, the showrunner of this. And he really did a great job leading us and taking us into the second season and updating it in some ways. He is just great. I can’t say enough about him. But essentially, he was like, ‘Oh, Nick. I remember Nick. I really liked him. Let’s bring him in’ And when they ended up casting me and I joined, I told him this, I said, ‘I thought I would never work with you again, because you must have thought how big of an idiot I was.’”

You’re kidding!
“And he goes, ‘Idiots make impressions.’ So, he was being funny, but it was really sweet. I think we had had a good time working before, and he was gracious enough to give me the opportunity to play this part because it really is one of Tony Hillerman’s best villains I think in all the book series. It’s a really great role and a real challenge, and a great opportunity. I’m just very grateful to have been able to come onto the team and try to embody it as best as I could.

How was it trying to create chemistry with a cast that is already established, especially knowing that the character you’re playing is the villain?
“Well, think what was lucky about Colton is that, especially starting out, he’s alone. Colton is very much alone. He is a lone wolf. And I think a lot of what the character represents is how warped and ugly things can get when you go down a life path and you make certain choices that you can’t take back, which is then, I think the test for Zahn’s [McClarnon] character, Joe Leaphorn, are you willing to walk down a similar road?

So, the only kind of fear I had is, ‘This is a strange guy. Do you get approval from Zahn and Kiowa [Gordon]?’ I don’t know these guys. Is everyone going to be down for the cause and supportive of me and what I’m trying to do?”

Were they?
“Number one, all of those people are incredibly kind, humble, gracious, and welcomed me with open arms. So, it was very easy to feel relaxed and just show up and be comfortable doing what I had to do. But luckily, I was alone for a lot of my scenes so, I was getting enough positive feedback and trust from the cast and crew that was then filtering to the rest of the cast. So, when I showed up to do my scenes with them, I think they were more trusting and open to what I was doing. I think because of that, we had a really great time working together. I mean, I really did enjoy working with all of them.”

How do you prep for a role like this?
“I read the book and then I found out from John like, ‘Hey, this is definitely based off the book and this framework, but it is its own entity, and we are taking liberties,’ which then gave me freedom to take it where it felt most honest in each moment, in each scene. What the book gave me was the ability to embrace how strange Colton really is. I believe he represents and embodies the warp nature of the bigotry, the history of violence, and just the unfair treatment that has been bestowed upon native peoples and the history of this country.

I think Colton really does represents the ugliness of that and how warped and dark that becomes, how lonely that becomes, and how sick that can make you. Since that’s what I was wanting to embody and physicalize and experience, exploring that well of darkness based off his history and who he is and the kind of quandaries he’s trying to unravel within himself or not, it just allowed me to just fall down a rabbit hole. Then when you’re falling down the rabbit hole, I would describe it to some of the directors. I would say, ‘Guys, honestly, with Colton, it’s such a deep dark well that it’s really about what can I grab onto? Where can I hold on for a second before I fall some more? What’s another place?’

I’ve always scratched the surface with this guy. I mean, it’s very difficult as an actor to come into this kind of complicated psyche and act like I could possibly truly understand it. Lucky for me, I did have a weird experience with Colton where I’m a pretty physical actor, but with him, I would feel him sort of feeling come into my arms. I could feel him sort of enter me a little bit. Then once that happened, I could just sink into him.’
I’m a really happy guy. I’m very different from Colton. I like to have fun. I believe this is play. I’m not the kind of person who wants to sit in it all day. I like to get the juices going in the morning, but then have fun and be relaxed and comfortable on set. And then about 30 minutes to an hour before I just warn everyone, I say, “’Hey guys, forgive me. I’m going to go into weirdo zone. So, if I’m acting a bit strange or I’m not engaging, forgive me, I’m in Colton world.’ And then it would just be fall down the well and see what you find.”

How do you find yourself letting go of Colton when the job is over?
“I do a thing before and after scenes that I find is really helpful. I take these big breaths. And I’ll do that before a scene or when I’m going to switch into that and then after a scene. But I remember sometimes it’s hard. There’s a scene here where I think Colton is really faced with a memory of his mother and a time before he was so corrupted and he’s on the verge of breaking down. I don’t know how capable he is, but he’s right there. He could really be pushed given the right stimulus.

After the scene, I just had to walk away and weep. I was very lucky that our makeup team and Taylor [Rudolph], who I loved, who I spent a lot of time in makeup with, God bless Taylor, she just gave me a big hug and just loved on me. So, I would either blow it out or if I had to go and scream or cry to get all that out, I got to do it. My wife is a psychotherapist, so I’m not the kind of person where it’s okay to just come home and act crazy with my wife. That’s unacceptable. We have to go to dinner. I need to call my mom. I have responsibilities. I can’t just be Colton all the time.”

You want to be yourself.
“Yeah. I don’t think that’s very healthy. I don’t want to be that way. So, I blow it out, I weep it out, I do what I have to do, and then I try to go back to being Nick.”

I love how you use your breath to calm you down. It’s amazing the power of controlling your breath can have on the body.

“Which is strange because I think if you’ve had any kind of actor training, so much of it is based in the breadth and you really learned to start with that. I went to the University of the North County School of the Arts, and Mary Irwin, and Jordy McMahon, our teachers, they really were on us about breath, breath, breath, breath, breath. So, it definitely helped. And then I remember I read a book years back that I really liked this book, How to Stop Acting by Harold Guskin. I don’t know, he might watch what I do and think I’m terrible, but we got a lot from his book and he talked a lot about the breath. I know that James Gandolfini would do a lot of that before The Sopranos. That kind of breath work, it’s definitely been very useful to me just to get out of Nick, get into a new headspace, and then really get into my body.”

Now, the scene that you were mentioning previously where Taylor gave you the hug afterwards to help you calm down. Would you say that was your most challenging scene to film in the second season?
“No. The only thing that was challenging about that was it was very technical. It was like the camera is going to come in, I enter, and then I need to be at the emotional break for that right when the camera hits a certain mark. So, it’s sort of, ‘Okay, cool. We’re prepping, we’re feeling, we’re feeling.’ And boom, emotional break and settle, settle. And then I have to switch into a very different mode very quickly.

I’ll be interested to see if it even reads in the show or what they use. But the only thing about that, that was hard was the technicality. I felt very connected to the moment itself. No, I think what the hardest scene was later on in the season, and I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I do believe that Colton, my purpose is to try to draw Joe into the shadows and for the audience to see what choice is Joe going to make. Who is Joe going to be? What type of man is he? Because the time that Colton spends with Joe is the most human contact Colton’s probably had since he was a child.

So, for him, there’s a lot going on and there’s some emotional rollercoasters and manipulation tactics happening within a particular scene that I have with him that is challenging to get to where you’re like, ‘Oh, am I hitting this?’ You read in scripts sometimes like evil laugh and you’re like, ‘Oh, that can go really poorly.’ Or it can be brilliant, and you just hope you make it honest, and you ride the wave to its natural conclusion.
So much of acting is a wave where it’s like, it’s going to come in, you get up, feel it, and then explore it as it happens. They’re in episode five. You might be like, ‘Yeah, you lost us there.’ And then you’ll go, ‘That was probably challenging.’ But I think everyone was pretty happy and I think we found some good stuff. So overall, I’m very satisfied with the work.”

Let’s talk about doing an evil laugh. Is that something you come up with yourself or do you leave it to the crew to tell you what they want?
“It is a challenge and it’s a part of the job and you just got to do it, but I don’t think it’s about… I’ve had to do it before. I had to do it before in this small indie. I got asked a similar question by one of the actors, ‘Are you practicing the laugh?’ And I just think that’s a very poor way to go about it. I mean, I try to go into my office and get into my crazy zone and exist in the scene of the moment, and I try to explore the connective tissue of the thoughts.
So how do the thoughts play out? How could they play out, explore the different ways in which the thoughts unfold within the scene, how they may change. And then what is it about this moment that is so hysterical to Colton or to the character? What is it there? And I think it’s getting connected within myself, whether it’s replacement work, that kind of work, or if it’s just learning to find that same humor that Colton is finding in the moment.

I think for a lot of villains, it’s oftentimes based in irony, and it’s oftentimes based in hypocrisy because I think most of the time, I’m not of the mind that every villain believes themselves to be a good guy. I think that makes it too easy for us as regular people to understand. I think sometimes villains are very aware that they might not be the good guy, but I think the truth is they might just be okay with that. And that good is relative and morality is relative and is based on perspective upbringing and your place in society. I think where the humor can come in is more the intellectual understanding of the futility of it all.”

I love it when a villain can just be a villain.
“And for me at least, it’s fun. I mean, many actors, acting teachers, whoever dramaturgs, they’ll disagree with me or whatever, and that’s fine. But for me personally, I agree with you. I enjoy the fun in it. I like crafting good characters. And then particularly, I think it just depends on the show, but particularly for something like this, like I said before, there are really sick people out here in this world.

I think the truth is like, there are definitely monsters in the shadows or monsters among us who you may never know. And those people are absolutely horrifying. My friend, Jake Lacy, just played one of those guys in a show and did an excellent job, but there’s also real monsters who are in the shadows, who are out there, who are not a part of our society are and are choosing not to fit in. And their behaviors do not fit in, and what they do does not fit in. They stand out and they’re sick, many of them.

So, I think it’s also important to show them and to not just shy away from it, because for me at least, I always want to take a chance. I always try to morph as best I can. I always try to just throw something crazy at the wall and hope it’s good and sticks because that’s a lot of the stuff I like to watch, and I enjoy watching.”

Now, you’re actually working on a new project right now, a Norman Lear’s Marine project. Can you tell me a little bit about that?
“I don’t know how much I can say because we got an email two days ago being like, ‘Don’t share anything on social media.’ So, I don’t know. My wife runs my social media account. I’m very brand new to social media, but you can follow me at NicholasLogan__My wife forced me into it. She was like, ‘You’re doing it. I’m taking care of it. Do it.’”

You have a smart wife!
“I hate social media, but that’s okay. So, we’re trying to build it. We’ll see what happens. But anyways, no, I think it’s based off a book, but I can say it’s based off this great book by Greg Cope White called The Pink Marine. It’s his life story. It’s about a young gay man joining the Marine Corps in the early ’90s. It’s got a great cast and a lot of wonderful people around it.

I was handed Norman Lear on FaceTime by my friend, Logan Gould who’s wonderful and just out of UNCSA himself. And he just hands me a phone. I think he’s going to show me something stupid on Instagram, and instead it’s Norman Lear’s face. He’s like, ‘Hello, I’m Norman Lear.’ And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you are Norman Lear. You are a genius and I love you. Thank you for 20th century American humor in television ’cause I’m probably not who I am if you don’t exist. Wow, you’re awesome.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know what to say to you.’

And it’s funny because on this show, I will say I’m a drill instructor and I’m a bit scary. I’m definitely a jerk, but I’m also more… It’s a real treat to go to this after Colton, because I get to improv a lot. I get to roast these guys, rip into them, and make up funny stuff to call them. These drill instructors are crazy. But when tasked with all of a sudden maybe because I represent that on the show, being funny in front of Norman Lear, it’s like the mountaintop of humor. I mean, he’s Mount Rushmore of funny. So, you’re like, I froze, and I was like, ‘I love you. I don’t know what to say. Bye.’ I think I said something funny. I don’t remember what it was, but it was really exciting and it’s fun.  It was a wonderful shoot, and everyone involved is excellent. It’s definitely been a lot of fun. It’s hot. We’re shooting in New Orleans. It’s hot. It’s so hot. So, I’m glad to have a week off. We’ll see what happens with the actor strike if I go back.”

For my final question for you is why should fans tune in to season two, Dark Winds?
“Fans should tune into season two of Dark Winds for a lot of reasons. The most important reason being that I think it’s an awesome crime thriller. I think it’s a really fun film noir, crime thriller, and I think you’ll have a really good time. I mean, we have a lot of excellent villains. We got great acting. We got some wonderful writing. And I think you’re going to really enjoy the show. I think what makes Dark Winds so fun and cool is that we have typical film noir, crime thriller, but you have the occult that inherently goes with the Navajo or the Dene and native peoples, which I think what’s so interesting about that as an audience who, especially audience members who may not be native themselves is there’s a mystery there that I don’t think we being non-natives can ever fully understand. I mean, you can study it, get a PhD in it, live there, try to really drop in.

But I don’t think that unless you are the Dene, which is the Navajo for the people, unless you are part of the Dene, I think that it’s just will always remain on some level a mystery to you. And I think that mystery is fascinating. So, I think there’s a lot from an entertainment standpoint to draw people in and have fun. And then I think on the other side of that, at least on a deeper level, I just think it’s really awesome to see a show like this, Reservation Dogs, where it’s like, “Hey, these are people. They’re not just these weird caricatures or devices of an olden time that John Wayne’s going to come in and either save or battle or what have you. It’s like these are human beings who were living then. They’re living now. They’re right over there. They have a culture. They have a belief system. And we always talk about immigrants in this country and all this.

Look, I’m Scotch Irish Polish. My whole descendants, they’re all immigrants. Every last one of them. The only ones who aren’t are the natives and we came to their land, and they were here for tens of thousands of years, if not longer. And so, it’s one of those things where I just think it’s really cool to see a show where the leads are all natives, the story, who our protagonists are our natives. That’s who we’re rooting for. That’s who we’re following.
Just having Zahn at the helm is awesome. He’s just such a good guy, and he crushes it as Joe. He’s just an easy guy to root for as a human. I mean, Zahn, Joe, obviously, but Zahn himself. And Kiowa too. I mean, just two… And Jessica as well. I got close with all of them. They’re just good people. They’re cool people. They’re fun. I can’t say enough about any of them. A. Martinez is the ultimate man who you just want to work with. He’s just such a sweetheart. But it’s a great show, and I think it’s going to be fun. I think people are going to like it.
I think it challenges people. It’s going to remind you like, ‘Hey, man, a lot of bad stuff happened on the native peoples.’ And it needs a spotlight. It needs a spotlight. Wrongs need to be made right. I know people don’t want to face it in their own generations. I know it costs money. Everything that’s happening down in Oklahoma right now, in Tulsa, these issues matter and these people, their rights matter. I hope that this show shines a spotlight on those people, and they can get more of what they deserve because they absolutely deserve it.”

Perfect. Well, thank you so much for speaking with me today.
“Thank you. I really appreciate you having me.”

Dark Winds Season 2 will premiere on on AMC and the AMC+ on July 30!

*Interview was completed in June 2023, prior to the SAG Strike. Interview was edited for length and clarity*