Ford’s ‘1923’ costar Mirren, 79, tells PEOPLE he’s a “fantastic rider”

Harrison Ford’s impressive horseback riding skills are on display as 1923 returns for season 2. But even at 82, the actor plays coy.

“I think the demands are not really as daunting as they look,” he tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue.

Playing Jacob Dutton, the patriarch of the Dutton family and their Montana ranch (the same one that Kevin Costner’s John Dutton runs in Yellowstone), Ford is required to be out in the elements, gun-slinging and riding on horseback as his character fights to defend his family’s land.

“Maybe from a contemporary point of view, the horses represent something — some special skill or danger — but they really are not,” Ford says. “I spent half an hour on a horse, and from a contemporary point of view, you look at that, and say, ‘Whoa, people used to do that,’ but it really is not that difficult.”

His costar Helen Mirren disagrees. “Harrison says that because he’s a great rider,” she tells PEOPLE. “I was incredibly impressed, I have to say, with watching him gallop off across the Montana hillside.”

Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton in ‘1923’. 

While Mirren, 79, who plays his onscreen wife, Cara Dutton, in the western drama, praises him as a “fantastic rider,” Ford instead directs the compliments to his scene partner: “I had a fantastic horse,” he says.

“That’s what great riders always say,” Mirren tells him. “That’s what makes you a great rider.”

While Ford asserts that the “physical demands are not extraordinary” for the show, he clarifies that its setting — Montana in the early 20th century — definitely is. “It’s an intensely physical reality that we’re seeing.”

Harrison Ford as Jacob Dutton and Helen Mirren as Cara Dutton in season 2 of ‘1923’. 

In the series’ long-awaited second season, the stakes are even higher for Jacob and Cara as they battle a “cruel winter” and foes who want to take their land.

The onscreen couple’s nephew, Spencer (Brandon Sklenar), meanwhile, “embarks on an arduous journey home, racing against time to save his family in Montana,” while his wife Alexandra (Julia Schlaepfer) “sets off on her own harrowing trans-Atlantic journey to find Spencer and reclaim their love,” per the official description.

Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren at the 37th Annual American Cinematheque Awards in 2024.Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty

Sklenar, 34, previously told PEOPLE that his time working with Ford and Mirren on the series created by Taylor Sheridan showed him that “one of the large contributing factors to their staying power and their ability to maintain such incredible careers over such a long time is largely due in part to who they are as human beings.”

“To see people at their level and to be able to maintain such a deep level of humility and humanity and kindness is something that I’ll take with me forever,” he continued. “Because they are both just really special human beings and I think that that’s reflective in their work and how they’re revered by audiences and have been revered for so many years.”

Of the season in general, he teased, “It’s the most fun I’ve had as an actor in my life — shooting this season — and I cannot wait for people to see it. I know they’ll love it.”

Season 2 of 1923 premieres Sunday, Feb. 23 on Paramount+.