From showrunner Seamus Kevin Fahey and executive producer Jared Padalecki, The CW Western series Walker Independence follows Abigail Walker (Katherine McNamara), an affluent woman from Boston whose life is derailed before she can complete her journey out West, leaving her in a position to have to reinvent herself. Once in the town of Independence, Texas, Abby quickly realizes that everyone she encounters there seems to be keeping secrets and making allies, like con artist Hoyt Rawlins (Matt Barr) and Apache tracker Calian (Justin Johnson Cortez), is imperative to her survival. And while Hoyt was initially suspicious of Abby’s true intentions, he learns that nothing is what it seems in the small frontier town and that seeking justice just might be the only thing that will keep them alive.

During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Barr talked about how this Walker spinoff came about, the fun of playing a character who always seems to get into trouble, the challenge of looking like an expert gun slinger, bonding with his horse, how Hoyt’s blurry morality makes for a fun unpredictability, shooting the bank robbery in the pilot, that Hoyt prefers to be a charming talker rather than a violent fighter, whether the chemistry between Abby and Hoyt could lead to more, and how much he likes to know about where things are headed with the series.

Collider: This seems like such a fun show to be a part of and that it would be a dream for any actor because of how much you get to use your imagination.

MATT BARR: It’s true. When you walk onto our set, it’s literally like a time machine, with horses and goats and the old town. What boy didn’t want to be a cowboy? It’s pretty amazing.

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Image via The CW

This series started with you on Walker. When and how did you find out that you were going to be doing another series and that you were going to be playing your own ancestor?

BARR: I was still in Austin doing Walker. I knew that was going to be expiring, and the writers were having very rough talks about the idea of doing this prequel and meeting Hoyt Rawlins’ ancestor. We’d always wanted to make a Western, so it just seemed like this idea was born and we ran with it to really introduce the origin of the Walkers and even the Texas Rangers. What started as just fun talk, literally a year later, we were filming, so it was pretty amazing.

I can’t think of any other time that it’s happened where you play one character, and then you get another show playing an ancestor of that character.

BARR: His ancestor looks just like him. It’s amazing. Those genes are very intense.

When we meet your character, he’s digging a grave and he ends up using that shovel to hit the guy in the head who’s holding him at gunpoint. It was a very clear way to introduce your character and it feels like the perfect representation for how resourceful he is. How fitting is that introduction, for what we’ll continue to get to know about him, over the season?

BARR: Hoyt is always getting himself in a hole, so it’s funny that we literally started him in a hole. I thought that was pretty poetic. That’s who he is. He’s this grifter scoundrel who’s always making really bad decisions and is somehow still alive. He’s made a rough living out of it. But in the midst of all that, there’s this really noble guy there that has a lot of soul. So, we see what’s appealing about him and what might, in the end, drive him to do some great things, if he decides to.

Not only is he resourceful, but he definitely has this desire for self-preservation.

BARR: Very much so. That’s all he knows. He has only had one team his whole life, and that’s his own. He trusts no one, but he has this code that he follows, and there’s something noble about that. He may rob an old lady, but he’s never gonna shoot one.

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Image via The CW

This seems like the kind of rule-breaking character that’s fun to play in any genre and in any time period. When you add the Western element and the horse riding, are you constantly having to learn new skills for this? Are there aspects that are more challenging than you expected, or that you’re taking to quicker than you thought you would?

BARR: My character is a gun slinger and does a lot with his Colt revolvers. Val Kilmer and these guys made it look easy in the movies when I was growing up, but it’s so hard to do, especially to make it look good. The guns are heavy, so that’s been a huge challenge. I’ve done it before, but working with horses is the most amazing thing. They’re smarter than us. They know that they’re bigger and they can, at the end of the day, do what they want. Trying to hit that mark and say the line and keep the horse in the camera frame is always a hell of a fun challenge.

In this time period, a man’s relationship with his horse is important. Because horses are unpredictable, do you go through any bonding experience with your horse? Do they have to see if you guys can get along?

BARR: That’s a great question. We did exactly that. It was like a casting. We went to cowboy camp and we tried different horses, just to see who I’d have chemistry with. It’s funny that each horse has a different lope and a trot. My horse was a wild card. He was just fearless and goes from zero to 60. There’s not a lot of middle ground with him. He’s a little dangerous, but he’s kind of fun to ride. Every now and then, he scares me.

I love a good antihero because they’re usually more interesting than just a straight up hero and they’re more layered than just a very clear villain. They’re the person that gets to do questionable things and blur the legality and morality of it all. What have you most enjoyed about playing this character? Are there qualities in him that you find yourself oddly admiring?

BARR: Yeah, and that’s exactly why I wanted to do the show. There’s something about trivial characters who continue to make poor decisions, and yet have this sense of nobility in them still. And even if they don’t have the moral compass, you see them searching for it. There’s something that we root for in those characters. We want them to win. I love how Hoyt takes 10 steps backwards, but then takes that one step forward, which shows his soul. There’s a bit of that Robin Hood outlaw bandit quality, where he might be robbing a small town barbershop, but he may end up giving the money to someone who actually needs it. Every now and then he does something right. I found, and I find, that to be romantic, but I also find it dynamic and fun to watch, and it makes me curious to read these scripts and see how Hoyt is gonna find his purpose in life. There’s gotta be more than just gambling and pretending to be a preacher.

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There’s such a sense of fun with a character like Hoyt because he’s so unpredictable. It keeps you from being able to know exactly how he might react, at any time.

BARR: I agree. That’s a great way to put it. And it’s fun that the audience gets to be a part of that discovery. It’s a lack of predictability, and they get to go along for the ride with Hoyt, in terms of his own self-discovery. What’s right and wrong and morality can be gray, at times. Someone can rob a bank in the morning, and then later in the day, they can save 10 people from a burning building. Are they good or bad? You tell me.

This is a show where getting dirty is part of the job description, literally. What’s it like to be a part of a show where you’re required to play a character who gets dirty, both literally and figuratively?

BARR: Yeah, he’s willing to get dirty when a lot of people aren’t, and that makes him valuable. That’s what Abby Walker sees in him. He’s got this quality that very few people have, and I enjoy it. I grew up in the creeks of Texas. I never wanted to be in a courtroom, wearing a suit and tie. I wanted to get out there and get dusty, so this is a perfect role for me, in that sense. There’s something heroic about being willing to get dirty, especially if it’s for a noble cause.

The bank robbery scene in the pilot is memorable because it’s so funny. He’s very clearly committing a crime, but he’s not the greatest criminal. What was that sequence like to read, to figure out, and to shoot? It seems like it might have been more challenging than you’d expect, doing an action sequence through a pretty narrow town.

BARR: Right? Yeah, it was. Performance wise, he’s not a superhero. What’s funny is that he’s vulnerable and messes up. I don’t think it made it into the cut, but there was even a version of robbing the bank, and then tripping over one of the goats. That illustrates how imperfect he is. He’s not a mastermind of this stuff. He just gets by. And logistically running horses through that little town was a hell of a thing to shoot. Luckily, we had Larry Teng, our master director, doing that episode, and then there are the stunt guys and the people that come together to make it all look easy. It was a beast to shoot, but it turned out great. It was really fun. We’ve reinvented the Western for a modern audience, but there are some of those classic tropes that we pay homage to, which I love. The bank robbery and the chase through a town just brought back great memories of growing up watching Westerns.

Because Hoyt seems to always be getting in trouble with someone about something, would you say that he’s better at talking his way out of a situation or fighting his way out of a situation?

BARR: Hoyt is one hundred percent a talker. He’s like a golden retriever with an unloaded gun. He can charm and love his way out of it. He’s a talker and a schmoozer, for sure, but I do think that this version of Hoyt, the 1800s version, is a bit dangerous and has killed before. He definitely has that element to him. As the series goes on, we start to see some of those qualities come out where, if you push him into a corner, he’ll be reactive and do what it takes to survive.

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There’s a fun moment when he meets Abby where he sticks his head in a trough of water, and then shakes it out all over her. What was that like to shoot? Did you have to keep dunking your head into water, take after take?

BARR: I did have to keep doing that. I loved the idea of that, but what I didn’t realize is that we had to keep drying my hair, so that we could shoot it again. There were hair dryers and extension cords in the middle of this 1800s Western town. It was this weird contrast with me getting my hair dried with two hair dryers, but we kept doing it. I don’t know how clean that water was, but I lived. I thought that was really fun. I thought that said a lot about Hoyt’s playfulness and the reckless fearlessness that he has. That’s one of the qualities I love about him the most. He’s amused by life, and we see that a lot. He finds the funny joy in even little clinical circumstances.

Abby sees Hoyt as a criminal, so she wants to enlist him in her own quest for revenge. When she brought that proposition to him, what do you think he thought of her, in that moment?

BARR: On one hand, he thinks this woman is off her rocker. And on the other hand, he’s incredibly attracted to this driven, fearless woman with conviction that is willing to go the distance. It’s very bold, and that’s a quality that Hoyt is really attracted to. That’s why he ends up going with it. He needs her, but also, game respects game. That’s real appealing to him. A lot of people are all talk, and she has this drive and purpose that’s appealing to him.

Hoyt and Abby and Calian have formed this unexpected trio. What can we expect from that dynamic, throughout the season? Is the fact that all of these individuals are outsiders really the thing that bonds them together?

BARR: Yeah, they’re all people trying to reinvent themselves. They’re all searching for something, and they’re all very strong individuals, in their own unique ways. They’re well-matched in that way, so they make a really good team. It’s fun to see them start to recognize that in each other, even though they come from different worlds, are critical of each other for that, and they challenge each other on that. What’s fun is to see how they all change by the interaction they share with each other, and the writers have done a great job writing that. There’s something dangerous and exciting about them taking that leap together, as a team. What these new towns represented, as the railroads went west, was this dream that you could build your life and that it could be what you make it. Abby says that in the pilot. That can bond people. We’re all fighting for freedom, to be ourselves, and to have a life that we want. I like how that brought them together

And it wouldn’t be a CW show without romance or unrequited love or a love triangle, or something of that sort. Will we see any of that with Hoyt and Abby? Will there be other characters that we see come in and out of Hoyt’s life?

BARR: Yeah. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to talk about that, but there’s gonna be lots of that. There are some love triangles that are gonna start to develop very quickly in this series. We’ve already have established Hoyt and Lucia have this relationship. Anyone who brings out great qualities in people, like Hoyt and Abby do, there’s a natural chemistry and attraction there. I think we are gonna see what that evolves into. And the same with Calian. That’s an interesting ingredient in the cocktail because he’s a pretty special guy. I mean, he’s a six foot two supermodel.

How much are you aware of the season story arc and the character journey? Do you take things as they come with each script? Are you given general story points? How much do they actually make you aware of?

BARR: It’s different with each job, but with this one, I like getting it week to week and in the script, so that I get to experience it as the audience does. Obviously, there are maybe some long game things that I need to be aware of, or some backstory stuff that informs the choices you make, but I like experiencing it, week to week, just like the audience does. I think that helps me make the best choices for Hoyt. When I get the script, I get to watch it for the first time. The writers keep a lot from me. The character is living in real time, so I think it’s fun, if I am too. I think that’s just a fun way to approach it. For the character, it’s a real world for them.

Walker Independence airs on Thursday nights on The CW, and every episode will be available to stream for free on The CW App and CWTV.com.