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Rising star Julia Schlaepfer stuns as Alexandra, affectionately known as Alex, in season two of 1923. The second installment of the Yellowstone prequel series, starring Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, premiered on Paramount+ on February 23, picking all of the drama right back up where Season 1 left off. A vision on the screen, the actress has already made herself a fan favorite, which is no surprise given the impressive performance as Alice Charles in Netflix’s The Politician that led her to capture the hearts of viewers everywhere. Schlaepfer, lovely as ever, took precious time out of her birthday (everyone say happy belated birthday to Julia!) to talk about her experience filming Season 2 and the whole new set of challenges that it presented, for her character and as an actress.

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How did you initially get into acting? How did you know that this was something you wanted to pursue as a career?
Originally, I was training to become a professional ballerina, that was my ultimate dream growing up. I spent all of my time doing it. I was dancing with the Pacific Northwest Ballet School and the San Francisco Ballet School; I was just getting injured a lot, my body was tired. I was 17 and I’d been doing it since I was 5; I was just broken down and my acting teacher in high school said “You know, I think you just love performing so much, maybe try auditioning for this Seattle Children’s Theater Summer Program.” I couldn’t dance over the summer, and I did that for 6 weeks, and pretty immediately when I started that summer course, I was like, oh, this is what I’m meant to do. This makes sense. I can perform, I can express myself, but I’m not killing my body every day. So, after that, I made the choice to kind of full force audition for every acting program in the country for college, and I dove right in. It felt right, everything about it just made sense to me. I never looked back.

Well I’m glad you found your way over [to acting]. What draws you to a project? What drew you to 1923?
The main thing, when I’m reading a new script, is the writing and the character, really. When I got 1923 sent to me, the first thing I saw was Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford, and I was like ok, this must be pretty special if they’ve chosen to sign on. Then I read the script, and I just fell in love with the character, I couldn’t have written a more dream character for me to want to play, and Taylor Sheridan is such a beautiful writer, the love story was so grand and felt so classic and old Hollywood. There’s something about it that reminded me of why I started acting in the first place. It was such a beautiful story, and so that, combined with the fact that I was going to get to travel the world, I was like “I really want this role.”

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Kind of going off of that… of course the men in the show are very powerful, but the women are very powerful as well, which stood out to me when watching it. What does it mean to you to be a part of a show celebrating female strength in that kind of way?
It’s so special, and then the women of the show are led by the dame Helen Mirren, which is so wild that I get to be a part of something like that. I think a lot of people probably see western, and men on horses with guns, and they think that there might be a lot of misogyny interwoven into the world, but in reality, I firmly believe that the women of our show are the backbone of these characters’ stories. Cara’s holding the entire ranch together, Teonna’s fighting for her life, Alex is fighting to keep her family alive -- they’re so relentlessly strong, and brave, they’re also really vulnerable. You get to see them have these love stories, and also be total badasses. It’s such an exciting challenge as an actor too, and such a fun thing to get to dive into a fully fleshed out character in that way. I’ve received so many auditions in my time as an actor, where the women characters are there to be eye candy, or just support the men, and I think it was important to everybody on set that that was not the case in this scenario.

Touching on that vulnerability that you were talking about, at the beginning of Season 2, Alex is travelling alone and navigating that as a young woman, and her vulnerability is very different from the feisty fire we’re used to from her. How did you approach portraying this shift?
It was tricky, because I said to my director that we had been filming for about a week, and it started to hit me just how intense and brutal what she goes through is. I was like, “I really cannot lose her spark, I can’t lose what makes Alex, Alex.” So we worked to kind of weave that part of her in whenever we could. But also, it was such a beautiful thing to get to explore her vulnerability and her softness, because, you know, human beings contain multitudes, and we’re such layered beings. I think one of my favorite parts about her is how fiercely and bravely she loves and lives her life, and sees the world. I think she’s been opened up to a whole different side of the world that’s very, very scary to her, and so it was really heartbreaking and touching to get to dive into this whole new worldview for her, and then exciting for me to get to figure out how, even though she’s been exposed to all these things, she still wants to push forward, she’s not going to give up. I really loved being able to find even more sides to Alex that I love and that I fell in love with this season as well.

There’s a specific scene that really stuck out to me; as she crosses that final stretch getting into America, she’s put through quite an ordeal with the doctors at Ellis Island. What were those scenes like for you to film, because they were very emotionally dense for me to watch?
It was really tough. Those were long days. I feel so connected to Alex. I obviously knew that wasn’t happening to me, but as an actor, you’re exposed and vulnerable, emotionally and physically. The Ellis Island scenes in general, the set deck and the costumes were so beautiful and so real, and I will never forget walking into set the first day and seeing this huge crowd of, these immigrants, going through processing, it just was like wow, people really went through this, and it felt really important to tell the story of what a young pregnant woman would be going through alone, so there were very emotional days. My crew and I are so close, I love my crew, and we’re like a family, we all really took care of one another on those days. They were long, hard days, but they felt really important to me as well.

Totally, I can imagine. Kind of on a lighter note, if you could bring anything from your life in 2025 into Alex’s life in 1923, what would you pick?
Literally Google Maps. That’s it. That’s all. She just needs Google Maps! She will be ok! She has no idea where she’s going, she doesn’t know what winter is like, she’s so confused. So, yeah, Google Maps.

L: That’s a good one, I didn’t even think of that, but yeah. That would do it.

So while the conditions are often less than ideal for Alex (lions, shipwrecks, separations, the works) the backdrops of the scenes are gorgeous, and you mentioned that that’s something that drew you to the show, was the opportunity to travel. Do you have a specific location that was your favorite to film in?
Yes. Kenya was incredible, we were on a beach where all of the Zanzibar scenes took place. We had been filming for a few months, we had all gotten sick, we were exhausted, and then we go to Kenya and it’s just the most beautiful beach you’ve ever seen. It felt a little bit like a mini vacation for the cast and crew. We’d all have dinner together every night, there were monkeys running around everywhere, it just felt like we could relax a little bit. Truly in between every take we filmed, Brandon and I just played in the water like little kids on vacation, and so that was I think really nice, and it just came at the perfect time in our filming schedule.

Totally. Were there any memorable, whether that’s goofy, sentimental, nostalgic, behind-the-scenes moments with the cast while filming season two?
It’s funny because the cast was much more separated this year than last, and the story’s so hard, but I will say I’m so close with the crew, and the only way we could really get through some of the storylines were to just laugh through it. We had so much fun every single day on that set, and then when I wrapped season two, they surprised me with a big cake with Alex themed decorations on it, and the lighting crew put up all these strobe lights in different colors, and it was so nice and such a beautiful way to end a hard season. I would say the crew made every day really special for me.

Do you have a personal favorite show, and what makes it special to you?
My favorite show of all time is Gilmore Girls; it’s my comfort show. I probably watch it every year around fall.

Exactly. And then last one: What is your absolute favorite thing to do on a day off where you have nothing planned?
I moved to Montana after season one. I bought a ranch out there and so I’m there pretty much full time, and it’s just my happy place. So if it’s summer, I’ll go for a hike and enjoy the outdoors, if it’s winter I’ll build a fire and cozy up by the fire and just chill. Just anything having to do with being at my house in Montana is what I’d prefer to be doing on my day off.

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CREW CREDITS:
Talent: Julia Schlaepfer
PhotoBook Editor-In-Chief: Alison Hernon
PhotoBook Creative Director: Mike Ruiz
Producer: Alison Hernon
Photographer by Aaron Jay Young
Movement Coach: Nina Kripas
Fashion Stylist: Sarah Slutsky Tooley at Forward Artists
Hair: Tim Muir
Makeup: Dana Delaney at The Wall Group
Assistant Fashion Stylist: Avantika, Carlee Princell, Mia Stella
Tearsheets by Daniel López, Art Director, PhotoBook Magazine
Interview by Logan Dutra, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine

Finding Strength in Vulnerability: Julia Schlaepfer on 1923