1 of 3 | Zahn McClarnon’s “Dark Winds” returns for Season 4 Sunday. Photo courtesy of AMC
Zahn McClarnon says his character Joe Leaphorn is still struggling emotionally, but trying to move forward when Dark Winds Season 4 kicks off Sunday on AMC.
The screen adaptation of Tony Hillerman’s best-selling novels follows Joe, a lieutenant with a tribal police department in 1970s New Mexico.
Season 3 showed Joe’s wife Emma (Deanna Allison) leaving him because of his decision to let the man who killed their son die alone in the desert.
“I don’t know if Joe’s healed yet. He’s, obviously, possibly losing the love of his life, his wife. So, I think Joe is exploring his cultural ways this season, through ceremonies. He’s exploring… Hozho is what the Dine people call it, the Navajo people,” McClarnon, 59, told UPI in a recent Zoom interview.
“It’s a balance in life, trying to find your place,” he said. “We find Joe searching for that Hozho this season. So, I don’t think he’s completely found himself yet. I don’t know if Joe Leaphorn ever will find a complete balance. Just like every human being, we’re always searching for that.”
This season, Leaphorn and his fellow cops Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) and Bernadette Manuelito (Jessica Matten) search for a Native teen girl who has run away from a Catholic boarding school and ends up in a diner where a mass murder takes place.
Run Lola Run and The Bourne Identity icon Franka Potente, 51, plays Irene Vaggan, the assassin whom Joe and company end up crossing paths.
McClarnon said he enjoys having the consistency of Emma, Chee and Bernadette as part of the story each season, while also adding in fresh new characters depending on the case he is investigating.
“I’m always surprised when I open up the scripts,” the actor said.
“I think John Wirth and the writing team have done a great job and to be able to bring in actors of Franka’s caliber and Udo Kier and Titus Welliver and Linda Hamilton and A. Martinez, it’s just wonderful to be able to work with the actors of this caliber,” McClarnon added.
“For me, I’m learning a lot from them and learn a lot from Franka and watching her process and picking up a lot of things,” he said. “One of the most positive things about being on Dark Winds for four seasons is how much time I have learning as an actor and as a producer and being a part of a production.”
Potente chimed in, “He’s so humble saying this.”
“As someone coming from the outside, I came to a show that wasn’t only just solid, but also had maintained a sense of magic and it was still contemplative and breathing and mystical,” the German actress explained. “That’s really difficult to do.”
She went on to say everyone involved is talented and dedicated to creating the most compelling series possible.
“It’s done with so much love and care that, coming in from the outside, you understand immediately this is creative collaboration at its finest,” she added. “That’s really a gift for all of us.”
Although McClarnon and Potente both lent their voices to vampire characters in the Netflix animated series, Castlevania: Nocturne, the actors haven’t had the chance to act together until now.
“They recorded us separately,” Potente said. “I loved that job! I was the vampire queen!”
The Season 4 premiere episode of Dark Winds was dedicated to the late Robert Redford, an executive producer on this series and a decades-long champion of western storytelling.
“I got to get to know him a little bit, spend some time with him, and I got to actually do a scene with Bob and it’s just a dream come true. I grew up watching him,” McClarnon recalled.
“He was a huge inspiration to me as a kid,” he added. “There’s a movie called Little Fauss and Big Halsey. Robert plays a motocross track guy and he’s kind of a playboy type. He had a toothbrush the whole movie in his mouth and my parents couldn’t get the toothbrush out of my mouth for a year straight because I wanted to be Robert Redford as a child. It never was a big hit, but it was one of my favorite movies.”
