Lucas and Lauren’s skinny dipping scene on Ransom Canyon allowed Garrett Wareing to bare himself as an actor like never before.
“I’m all about body positivity,” Wareing, 23, exclusively told Us Weekly about his memorable scene before quipping, “All of my friends on set saw my naked body, but now I guess everybody who has Netflix can see my naked body.”
Wareing was thankful for the opportunity, adding, “But I’m really grateful for the chance to be able to lean into that body positivity and embrace myself in that way.”
Netflix’s newest romantic western, which premiered on Thursday, April 17, introduced Us to the fictional Texas town full of drama, love and hot cowboys. Wareing plays inevitable fan favorite cowboy Lucas Russell, who charmed Us and his love interest Lauren’s (Lizzy Greene) by stripping down to take a secret swim together, which didn’t turn out as expected but fans still caught a glimpse of the actor putting quite a lot on display.
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“Everyone likens me to a golden retriever. Part of me wants to be like a Rottweiler or a pit bull but it’s all golden retriever. So Lucas is very, very much that guy. It felt very close to me — not only being from Texas — but also being the golden retriever and being able to play that role,” Wareing noted. “Given some of the fun scenes I got to have — specifically the skinny dipping and the mud wrestling — I would say every character is a version of you and this is a version of myself that I’m very proud to play and very grateful to be able to share with the world.”
Wareing knew Lucas was the right role, because he would “have the most fun with” certain scenes.
“That was going to be playing the cowboy, going to cowboy camp, skinny dipping, mud wrestling and that line dance sequence,” he detailed. “And a little secret for you about the skinny dipping scene:that was the coldest water I have ever been in. I think we were freshly past winter in New Mexico. It was at elevation, we were in the mountains and I saw God that day.”
Despite the tough conditions, Wareing was “not a wimp,” adding, “I opted to do it as many times as production needed and we did it safely. I had my dear friend who was our safety diver who I had brought in and I was definitely in there for a while. I go under the water too — to add to injury. I had to go underwater and also I’m butt naked, so that was quite the day for sure on Ransom Canyon.”
That instantly iconic scene scored Wareing a place in Us‘ Guys We Googled Shirtless selection — but it wasn’t the only highlight of the show. Wareing specifically recalled going to cowboy camp for research.
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“We showed up to New Mexico and we were aware that we were going to go through the ringer for cowboy training. I — being from Texas — wanted to claim this ownership of being a cowboy. But if I showed up to that cowboy camp and told them that I knew how to ride a horse the way that they knew how to ride a horse, they’d all laugh at me,” he recalled about spending “three hours a day” for a month learning the basics. “We were learning how to rope. We also learned how to ride horses, hit marks on horses, ride in tandem with one another, get that walk into a trot, that trot into a leap and do that comfortably and safely, which was the most important part.”
He continued: “Then once we got proficient at that, they started incorporating the lasso. We started practicing on this roping dummy and then we would upgrade to a dummy that was a mechanical bull basically pulled by a horse. We would go behind this robot bull and rope it on horseback.”
The experience allowed Wareing to “become the cowboy” he always wanted to be.
“I felt like I finally earned my stripes as a cowboy through cowboy camp with all of my friends that definitely brought us together and we bonded through that,” he added. “I think being a cowboy is a state of mind. It’s a state of being that’s a steadfast, sure and confident version of yourself.”
Ransom Canyon is currently streaming on Netflix.
