“Lioness” — the Paramount+ spy thriller from creator Taylor Sheridan — is loaded with a cast of familiar faces. But character actor James Jordan, whom you know as Two Cups, is no stranger to roaming the sets of a Sheridan production. The actor has worked with the “Yellowstone” mastermind more than half a dozen times.
For the uninitiated, “Lioness,” which premiered its 3rd season on Paramount+ on August 2, follows Joe McNamara (Zoe Saldaña), a CIA operative who leads a team of undercover operatives tasked with bringing down terrorist organizations from the inside. In addition to Saldaña, the star-studded cast features some other Oscar-winning heavy hitters like Nicole Kidman and Morgan Freeman, but the heavy lifting on the ground falls to the Quick Reaction Force (QRF). That’s where Jordan shines as Two Cups, the rugged Quick Reaction Force operator and former Green Beret whose tactical expertise and dry banter keep the team grounded during perilous extractions.
If you’ve watched every series in the Sheridan-verse, odds are you’ve seen him before. Jordan played livestock agent Steve Hendon on “Yellowstone,” brought weary charm to the trail cook Cookie in the prequel “1883,” and took on the role of prison guard Ed Simmons on “Mayor of Kingstown.” Most recently, he stepped into the oil fields as tough-talking petroleum engineer Dale Bradley in Sheridan’s West Texas drama “Landman.”
James Jordan first worked with Taylor Sheridan on Wind River
Early in his career, James Jordan also had a string of guest roles on popular shows, such as “CSI,” “24,” “Justified,” and “Fargo,” just to name a few. But it was in 2017 that his long-running creative partnership with Taylor Sheridan began. The two first crossed paths when Jordan auditioned for the filmmaker’s 2017 crime thriller, “Wind River.” During an interview with Town & Country, Jordan opened up about his long history with the now-famous “Yellowstone” creator.
“When you get to work with a master storyteller like Taylor Sheridan it just doesn’t get any better,” Jordan told the outlet. “He really has the pulse of the culture right now. When he’s writing a story it usually just clicks into place for me. I love the worlds and frontiers that he likes to explore, and I fit into those worlds, for the most part.”
Jordan also revealed to the outlet that, for the last 20 years, he’s learned to let scripts speak for themselves, adding that Sheridan’s solid writing has already done most of “the heavy lifting,” which allows the actor to show up and focus on the performance, something he calls “a blessing as an actor.” As for shifting between roles in Sheridan’s expanding universe — particularly with “Lioness” and “Landman,” Jordan’s biggest recurring roles to date — he’s loving every minute of it. “Bringing to life Dale and Two Cups is a riot for me,” he said. “No one can say I don’t have a blast doing it.”
