Julia Schlaepfer Is Still Processing That <i>1923</i> Season 2 Finale

Spoilers below for the 1923 season 2 finale.

Julia Schlaepfer always had a suspicion that Alexandra Dutton might die.

When the actress was first announced to play the feisty Brit in Taylor Sheridan’s Paramount+ Yellowstone prequel 1923, Sheridan took Schlaepfer and her fellow cast members out for dinner ahead of production. “We were all trying to pry him for information on what the story would be,” Schlaepfer says, laughing. “He was sitting next to me, and I was like, ‘Alex is going to die, isn’t she?’” At that point, the actress had only seen scripts for two episodes of season 1, and Sheridan claimed he hadn’t yet decided Alex’s fate. “But you see enough of these things, you kind of know how they go,” Schlaepfer says now. “It was almost too good to be true.”

Sure enough, in the 1923 season 2 finale that aired on April 7, Alex meets a tragic—if ultimately hopeful—end. Having spent most of the season separated from her husband, Spencer Dutton (Brandon Sklenar), as she desperately tries to reach him in Montana, a pregnant Alex ends season 2’s penultimate episode stranded in a broken-down car, her fellow travelers having succumbed to hypothermia. Mere miles from the Dutton Ranch, she is surrounded on all sides by snowbanks and quickly freezing to death herself.

In the finale, she manages to keep herself alive by setting fire to shreds of newspaper—and her beloved’s letters—in the backseat. A supposed deus ex machina arrives in the form of a train carrying Spencer, who leaps from the back of the caboose into the snow, racing to intercept his long-lost wife. Only once they’ve embraced and he’s lifted her into his arms does he realize she’s six months pregnant with their son.

Of course, the joy can never last in a Yellowstone story. Soon after Alex’s rescue, a doctor reveals the frostbite-induced necrosis that has already crept up her extremities. When she arrives at the hospital in Bozeman, she goes into early labor, giving birth to a premature son (who miraculously survives). Naturally, she names him John—meaning her baby is likely John Dutton II, father to Kevin Costner’s John Dutton III in the Yellowstone flagship series.

But Alex’s choice not to immediately have her hands and feet amputated means that the necrosis progresses, ultimately killing her in her sleep. Mercifully, she’s given one last reunion with Spencer, who lies beside her as she dies. “Be patient with him, Spencer,” she tells her husband of their son. “If he’s anything like me, he’ll be a terrible child.”

Below, Schlaepfer discusses filming the physically demanding finale, acting alongside Sklenar and co-star Harrison Ford, and what Alex’s tragic death—and John’s unexpected birth—mean for the Dutton family legacy.

There was a lot of thought put into it. Taylor [Sheridan] said to me, “Please do not let fiction become reality, because Montana winters are no joke. I do not want you freezing.” So, what they did, which is funny, was the polar opposite: That [scene] was all built on a soundstage in Austin, Texas, in the summer, in the 100-degree heat. There were blue screens all around. They built a giant snowbank, which was like the length of a football field. But I had about seven layers on, so I was actually profusely sweating, and makeup had to come in and keep airbrushing my “frostbite” on my face, and at the same time, I was pretending to shiver. So, it was a total mindfuck, but it was a really cool challenge.

Truthfully, this entire season was so brutal, both for Alex and for me to film. Also, it was the greatest challenge and gift of my life; every actor dreams of being able to dig into things like that. So, before we started filming, I mapped out, from beginning to end, her emotional ups and downs—because I wanted to make sure that we got all those different levels in there. The tears that she’s shedding at Ellis Island are very different from the tears that she’s shedding when she sees that train go by. That really is her last hope. Burning the letters was this hurdle for her, I think, in terms of understanding that she’s coming to the end. Because she would never want to burn those letters. Those are her most prized possession, other than the baby that she’s carrying.

When she sees that train go by, and she knows that she probably only has hours left of her life, she collapses in the snow. And that first “Spencer” she says, when she hears him running toward her, is really her assuming that she’s gone to heaven; she is passed on. That whole arc was truly wild to film. I was running on pure adrenaline.

Julia Schlaepfer as Alex Dutton in 1923.

With the running portion of it, what our director had us do was—separately from each other—run the length of that football field’s worth of snow over and over and over. I probably did it for 45 minutes one day, just running back and forth, back and forth. There’s so many takes where I eat shit in that snow; it was so slippery. Same with Brandon. After me, he did the same thing. I’m sure the camera crew got so many different levels of emotionality from both of us.

For when they hit [each other]...On that day, I was speaking with my director, Ben Richardson, about what that meant for Alex. Because I didn’t want [the collide] to be cheesy. She’s felt the entire spectrum of emotions at this point. You can’t even describe the amount of emotions one would feel in that scenario, after so many months being apart, being pregnant, and [you see] the love of your life. What Ben said to me was so brilliant. He said, “I want you to run at him and hug him and collide with him as though you are a child on your first day of school returning to your mom. Your mom’s coming to pick you up and you had the worst day at school imaginable, and all you need is a hug from your mom.” Because I think we all know that feeling. Of course, this is a much more heightened version of that, but at its core, that’s what it was. It’s the first time this entire season Alex has really felt safe and protected.

The language in Taylor Sheridan shows is so specific and intentional. What I realized as I started to film season 2 was, her language throughout episodes 1 through 6—because she’s on her own; she’s away from Spencer; she’s facing all these challenges and strangers and threats—is very formal and very calculated. She’s trying to make sure that, whoever she’s speaking to, they won’t harm her and she’ll stay alive.

Then, when we filmed that reunion scene and the rest of that finale, the real Alex comes back. Because she’s with Spencer again, the language shifts, and suddenly it’s like this poetry again between the two of them. It’s so natural. The love in her heart that she has been protecting this whole season is able to be unleashed.

Brandon and I got really lucky because, immediately, when we met, we had that chemistry. There’s no other way to describe it, other than it was just there. We just spoke Alex and Spencer’s secret language. We didn’t see each other for pretty much all of season 2, because when I was filming, he was off, and when he was filming, I was off.

And then we both showed up to work that day and saw each other for the first time in a while. We both just had this trust and belief that the chemistry would exist still. And luckily it did. I actually think the distance did help us, because everyone in the cast and crew that day that was on set got emotional because Spencer and Alex were back! Everyone was missing that dynamic, and we all wanted Alex to feel safe again and for them to be reunited. Taylor did a phenomenal job with knowing who to cast.

It was a dream come true. Of course, every actor dreams of working with people like Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. But I didn’t know how he worked. I knew that he was wonderful based on the small amount of time I’d spent with him outside of work. The first scene that I filmed with him was the birth scene. And I was pretty bedridden that day, because they had to bandage my hands and my legs.

I was so excited to observe him—as an actor, you want to soak up as much as you can. He came in, and he’s such a leader. He’s the most humble, kind, funny person. He knew when to crack a joke when it got too heavy. But he also gave me the room and gave me the floor and had so much reverence and respect for what Alex was going through that day. It was so special because, at that point in filming, it was toward the end of my block, and I had been through the ringer. I was exhausted, and he had just the most incredible fatherly energy that I ever could have asked for. At the end of the scene, we were looking at each other crying and he just said, “Thank you.” And I was like, “Thank you.” Then he held me for a second, because I think we both were like, This is a lot. I just am eternally grateful for that opportunity with him.

I’m not personally a mom, and I’ve never done a birth scene before. So, I watched some videos; I talked to my friend who’s a certified doula and helped her sister give birth recently. But, on top of giving birth, Alex has necrosis; she has frostbite; she’s near death; she’s been in these extreme temperatures. Essentially, what’s happening is her body is shutting down, and that’s why she goes into labor.

I had charted out her entire frostbite journey from when she gets in that car to death. At that point, her body had heated back up. And what happens at that stage of things is, you get really hot and really sweaty. On top of the birth, she’d be on the verge of passing out. But all season, until her death, the thing that keeps her alive is this baby, making sure this baby’s okay. This is the last bout of adrenaline that she has left in her, the last bit of fight that she has in her, and it’s to make sure that the whole reason she made this treacherous journey comes to be.

It’s okay, the whole cast has been crying all week.

It is surreal. Alex, for the past two and a half years, has become a major part of me, and I have put as much as humanly possible of myself into her. When Alex dies, that part of me also dies with her. Not to sound overly dramatic, but it is a loss. It’s a big grieving process. I think this show was life-changing for all of us, especially the younger generation of cast members. Emotionally, it’s going to take me a long time to process everything. But in that, there’s also this incredible celebration, getting to share it with the world, and being so proud of it.

“It’s the greatest honor” to be a part of the Dutton lineage in 1923, Schlaepfer says.

I didn’t know until, probably, five months before we started filming season 2. One day, I looked at my phone, and I had an email from Taylor Sheridan, and it was episodes 4 through 7. He texted me saying, “Just sent you the scripts. Call me when you’re done.” I read all of them in one sitting, and that is how I found out, no warning involved.

I know a lot of people, a lot of fans, are going to be upset by Alex’s death, but I knew from speaking to Taylor throughout the course of the past two and a half years that her death comes from his love for her and my love for her. I think the death is written in the most Alex way possible, where it’s just born out of selfless love for her baby. And she’s still cracking jokes while she does it! Not that I wanted her to die—I would’ve loved to have seen a version of her on that ranch. But I also love her story so much, and I love that she made that choice for her family. I think it was noble.

It’s the greatest honor. That’s also part of the reason why I am so at peace with Alex’s death.

We cannot confirm or deny whether or not Spencer and Alex’s child, baby John, is the John. Brandon and I love to think it is. Unless Taylor Sheridan says so, we don’t know. Because there are so many years between [John Dutton II and John Dutton III], and there’s other babies out there!

Whatever happens with baby John, I don’t know. There will be a 1944 series and we’ll find out, and I’m excited to see what baby John does. But it’s been the greatest gift and the greatest honor, and I feel so lucky that this is what my piece of the Dutton family puzzle has been.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.