By George & Josh Bate
Prestige television meets ’90s-style action thriller in the new series The Last Frontier. Streaming now on Apple TV, the new show from the creator of The Blacklist takes place in rural Alaska and follows a U.S. Marshal (played by Zero Dark Thirty‘s Jason Clarke), his partner and best friend Hutch (played by Reservation Dogs‘ Dallas Goldtooth), and a CIA operative (played by The Magnificent Seven‘s Haley Bennett) as they try to round up violent inmates who have escaped from a crashed prison transport plane.
The HoloFiles recently had the opportunity to speak with series regular Dallas Goldtooth about The Last Frontier in a conversation that touches on how his Indigenous roots informed the show, what he was able to add to the character beyond the script, the challenges of undertaking ambitious action set-pieces, and more.
Those familiar with Goldtooth’s work will know that he is quite the renaissance man. In addition to having roles in hit dramas like Dexter: Resurrection and Echo, Goldtooth is the co-creator of the Indigenous comedy group The 1491s, acts in and co-writes the Emmy-nominated FX series Reservation Dogs, is an accomplished climate change and Indigenous rights activist with his non-profit The Indigenous Environmental Network, and even features in an exhibit at Chicago’s Field Museum.
In his latest work, The Last Frontier, Goldtooth takes on a variety of different challenges, namely navigating complex action and playing a more restrained character, while still serving as a voice for a historically marginalized community. However, unlike many projects that address and include Native American communities more heavy-handedly, The Last Frontier and Goldtooth do so in a more “authentic” way, according to co-creator Jon Bokenkamp. “The show does a good job of just showing Native people as regular people,” Goldtooth explained. “That’s really essential. This show just shows a Native person as a U.S. Marshal and as a secretary. I think that actually goes a lot further than people recognize – just depicting us in every day jobs.”
Goldtooth’s point rings true as The Last Frontier offers a more organic, seamless inclusivity than see in many other shows and films. In speaking about this topic, Goldtooth reminisced about his favorite actor, the late Graham Greene, who, like Goldtooth in the new Apple TV series, played characters who weren’t explicitly named as Native. “My favorite role of [Greene’s] was he played a cop in [Die Hard with a Vengeance]. He never says he’s Native or Native American. He’s just a cop. He’s just a guy. And I loved that….And I see something in that role that speaks to me. It’s not explicit.”
Making The Last Frontier even more personal for Goldtooth is his pre-existing, real-life connection to the Native communities depicted in the show. “Before I got into acting, I was a climate justice organizer and, in that role, I worked with front-line communities in Alaska,” Goldtooth detailed. “Many of the villages that are shown in the show, or at least referenced in the show, I’ve worked with folks there….I felt that it was essential that I not only represent myself as a person, as Dallas, as an actor, but also to do my best to represent the communities that are from there.”
Goldtooth indeed represents himself well as an actor in The Last Frontier, although he was still afforded opportunities to flex his other creative muscles on the show. Despite not penning the scripts, as he did as co-writer of the acclaimed series Reservation Dogs, Goldtooth’s thoughts on dialogue and directions for his character were integrated by the creative team. “Hats off to the creative team,” Goldtooth said. “To [series co-creator] Jon Bokemkamp and the directros, who were very supportive of the feedback I would give.” Goldtooth continued, “Being a writer myself and having been a producer myself, I also understand the fine line between actors. You don’t want too many people stepping on your work. So I try my best to be mindful of them but also say, ‘Hey, this is something I really want to speak to.’ Again, hats off to them. They were really really receptive to the feedback I would bring.”
Perhaps the most memorable of Goldtooth’s feedback that was integrated into the final show unfolds in a scene with Jason Clarke in which Clarke’s character gets on a moral high-horse, only for Goldtooth to bluntly respond, “That’s some white people shit.”
Making The Last Frontier stand out among other television dramas is its complex, intricate, and cinematic action set-pieces. To achieve these scenes, the creative team brought on Sam Hargrave as executive producer and director of the first and third episodes. After years of working extensively with Hollywood stunt company and production house 87eleven on a variety of projects, including multiple Marvel Cinematic Universe films, Hargrave quickly became one of the industry’s most well-regarded action directors when he helmed the Netflix films Extraction and Extraction 2. Like the Chris Hemsworth-led action flicks, The Last Frontier features various oners – continuous shots in which the camera follows movement for a sustained period of time without interruption – one of which Goldtooth plays an integral role in.
“I’ve never done action before like that,” Goldtooth described. “[But] I wanted to do all my own stunts. I’m down, I’m game.” In doing his own stunts, Goldtooth had a front-row seat to how a director like Hargrave crafts such complicated, prolonged action. “The way it works is…[Sam Hargrave] handed it over to his team and they choregraphed everything,” Goldtooth said. “And he’d come and give feedback and give notes to change this and change that… The beautiful part of how they film it is it starts out as a whole playground. How about we do this? How about we do that? And then they get feedback from us after.”
Much like how Goldtooth advocated for changes in his character’s dialogue, he also advocated for more involvement in an incredible action sequence in the first episode. “I actually advocated I wanted to do more,” said Goldtooth. “I wanted to shoot somebody [laughs]…. I ain’t no chump. Let me shoot someone in this scene…. Sam [Hargrave] was like, ‘Yeah, alright. Let’s have him shoot someone.'”
Goldtooth even described The Last Frontier as being “like a ’90s-2000s action show vibe,” which, in our view, is a perfect way to the describe the show.
But The Last Frontier isn’t all action, as a gripping espionage plot encompasses the 10 episodes of the series. And, in keeping with tradition of espionage stories, everyone has secrets. Leads Jason Clarke, Dominic Cooper, and Haley Bennett are not excluded from this, leaving Goldtooth’s Hutch to be a pseudo-proxy for the audience – someone who represents the questions and thoughts of the audience in a story filled with so much deception. “I feel like I’m an anchor for Jason Clarke’s character,” Goldtooth stated. “Hutch and [Jason Clarke’s character] Frank have known each other for a lot of years. A lot of trust in that brotherhood. He’s not holding back anything. He is as he is. He wants to be the best, not only as a partner for Frank, but as a best friend and brother.”
Frank and Hutch’s warm and brotherly relationship parallels that of Truman and Hawk in Twin Peaks, another series that focuses on an isolated community. Goldtooth described how cultivating a sense of community for their remote setting was essential to telling this story. “This story is about this community – Fairbanks,” Goldtooth remarked. “It’s a tight knit community. It’s relatively small. Not a lot of folks have been to Fairbanks, Alaska. And Hutch is one of the representatives of that.”
In keeping with the “straight forward” attitudes of the people of fairbanks, Goldtooth played Hutch as someone who “says it as it is” and often relies on silence and restraint to get points across. With much of his prior work in comedy, Goldtooth spoke about the challenges this different kind of character posed for him. “It’s a whole entire different genre,” said Goldtooth. “And I’ve never played this genre before. Each genre has a different kind of performance that comes with it….The way the show is written is very high-paced, very tense and has a lot of jargon at times. Landing the jargon was always a challenge, but I welcomed it and I think that my comedy background helped me be more willing to adjust and go with the flow….”
Those who watch The Last Frontier will see a different side to Dallas Goldtooth’s ever-growing repertoire of skills and be treated to a thrilling series unlike anything streaming today.
The Last Frontier is now streaming on Apple TV. New episodes debut every Friday until the finale on December 5, 2025.
