Hollywood stars don't quit California and move to Montana.
But Luke Grimes did – and now, with his Yellowstone spinoff Marshals set to premiere this Sunday on CBS, he told Fox News exactly why.
What he said at the Hollywood premiere this week is something your neighbors have been saying for years.
Luke Grimes Left California for Montana — and the Yellowstone Spinoff That Brought Him Back
Grimes had been filming in Montana's Bitterroot Valley for years when something shifted.
Every time production wrapped, heading back to Los Angeles felt wrong.
"It sort of felt like I was leaving home rather than going back home," Grimes told Fox News Digital at the Marshals premiere Tuesday night.
That's not a PR soundbite.
That's a man telling you California stopped feeling like America.
Grimes and his wife, Brazilian model Bianca Rodrigues, rented a house during COVID when the production choice was simple: come for the entire season or don't come at all.
They came.
They built a house.
They never really left.
He's not alone in that calculation.
Kirk Cameron moved to Tennessee.
Kelly Clarkson said she "really wanted to be in Montana."
Mark Wahlberg packed up for Nevada.
Ali Larter moved her entire family to Sun Valley, Idaho, and never looked back.
The pattern isn't coincidental – it's a verdict on what California has become under one-party Democrat rule.
Kayce Dutton Returns in Marshals on CBS — With a Federal Badge and No Apologies
Starting Sunday, Grimes brings Kayce Dutton back in Marshals – this time carrying a federal badge instead of running cattle.
The new CBS spinoff follows Kayce as he joins an elite U.S. Marshals unit in Montana, putting his background as a rancher and former Navy SEAL to work against the gangs and traffickers the ranch life never fully let him escape.
A cowboy deputized to hunt the worst criminals in the West.
That's not a character liberal Hollywood invented.
That's the kind of American they've been trying to cancel for the last decade.
CBS committed $52 million to production and opened a writers' room for season two before the first episode even aired.
That's not a network hedging its bets – that's a network that knows exactly who watches Yellowstone and what they'll show up for.
The show doesn't lecture.
It doesn't moralize.
It gives viewers action, hard men doing hard work, and a protagonist who protects his family without apology – the exact formula that made the original a cultural phenomenon.
Hollywood Critics Gave Marshals 60% on Rotten Tomatoes — Then CBS Ordered Season Two
The critical establishment spent eight years calling Yellowstone a "conservative fantasy," a "red-state Game of Thrones," proof that flyover America is too simple to handle nuanced storytelling.
Those critics gave Marshals a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes before a single regular viewer has seen it.
Meanwhile, CBS – not exactly a conservative stronghold – scheduled it to anchor Sunday nights and already commissioned season two scripts.
Someone in that building can read a room.
The critics who sneer at cowboy hats will never understand why Luke Grimes looked at Montana and saw home while looking at Los Angeles and saw somewhere to escape.
But your audience understands it perfectly.
He built a house in the valley.
He's raising his son in the mountains.
He chose the kind of life that made America worth fighting for in the first place – and then put on a U.S. Marshal's badge to play someone who fights for it on screen.
Marshals premieres Sunday, March 1, 2026, at 8:00 PM ET/PT on CBS.
Sources:
- Janelle Ash, "Luke Grimes reveals why he ditched California for Montana," Fox News, February 27, 2026.
- David Hookstead, "Violent Preview Released For 'Yellowstone' Spinoff 'Marshals,'" OutKick, February 25, 2026.
- Andy Swift, "Marshals Review: CBS' Yellowstone Spinoff Is A Prestige Procedural With A Dash Of Dutton," TVLine, February 22, 2026.
- "Marshals," Wikipedia, February 2026.
- "Kirk Cameron joins Hollywood exodus leaving California," Washington Examiner, July 2024.
- "CELEB-XIT: These celebrities chose to flee from the 'Golden State' due to Dem policies," Fox Business, October 2024.