by Gill Pringle in LA
The actor couldn’t resist an offer to reunite with J.J. Abrams on his new ‘70s crime series, Duster.
After all, Holloway owes everything to Abrams, who took a chance on the former fashion model when he cast him as Sawyer in his seminal sci-fi series Lost more than two decades earlier. The long running show would propel Holloway to overnight stardom and when the hit show ended after six seasons, he was able to parlay his success into popular TV series Colony and Yellowstone.
But nothing has quite brought him to the dizzying heights of small screen stardom since Lost – although Duster might just do that.
Set in 1972 Arizona, the show follows Holloway’s talented getaway driver Jim Ellis, with Rachel Hilson hot on his heels as Nina, the FBI’s first Black woman agent.
Co-created by Abrams and LaToya Morgan, the latter tells us how the idea for Duster first emerged: “J.J. had an image in his head from a few years ago. It was a phone booth, and a phone ringing in the middle of the desert, and a muscle car racing up to it. And he said, ‘I think maybe Josh Holloway jumps out of that car’. So, I was like ‘I dig this idea’. We started pitching ideas of what it could be and really building the show together, and we decided to work on it together,” says the writer/executive producer.
With so many iconic American cars to choose from, the pair arrived at a 1970 Plymouth Duster muscle car as the show’s titular star.
“The Plymouth Duster is a really cool car,” says Morgan. “They only made it for about six years; we wanted something really iconic for this show. We thought about the Aston Martin that Bond has or Steve McQueen’s Mustang, and we wanted something equally iconic for this, so, Duster it is.”
Holloway couldn’t wait to get behind the wheel: “Are you kidding me? First, it was J.J. He called, and I was like ‘yes’. The answer’s yes! ‘Whatever it is you’re asking, I’m in’. It’s just exciting to have anyone of that caliber artistically calling you for something,” Holloway recalls.
“And, as he proceeded to pitch me this show, every step of the way, it just got better because it’s set in 1972. Muscle cars, the explosion of music and individuality and all this kind of cultural explosions during that time, it was so rich. I grew up as a small child in the ‘70s, but I still remember it.
“I remember the freedom in the culture. It just felt more free. You were freer to do anything – especially as a child. Your parents basically just said come back for dinner, you know? So, there was not that helicopter type thing. It was just a wonderful, rich era – and I love cars,” says Holloway, 55.
“I have three brothers. We all grew up loving cars. It was very appealing to get to drive a muscle car, and I love the Duster because it’s an obscure muscle car. That’s why not a lot of people knew what it was. But it’s a fantastic choice, and just the emblem with the little Tasmanian devil on it, I was like, ‘Oooh’,” recalls the actor, the second of four brothers raised in Georgia.
Unexpectedly, he was allowed to do many of his own stunts. “As soon as I had that phone call with J.J., I contacted Rick Seaman’s Motion Picture Driving Clinic and sent myself to stunt driving school. I learned everything that they tell you not to do in a car, they’re like ‘Do it!’. So, it’s like Disneyland for people who like that kind of thing,” he says, finding it impossible to hide his enthusiasm.
“I learned to drive from Rick Seaman himself, and a guy named Chris Peterson, Smokey, was my instructor. And after I did the class, Smokey would stand there with an iPhone and be like, ‘Okay, come at me’. And I’m like, ‘Just put the phone on something’. And he’s like, ‘No. I trust you’. And I would slide right up to him, and he would not move. But it taught me the precision and that I could do it,” says Holloway.
Still, the crew weren’t taking any chances, locating four 1972 Dusters for the thrilling series. “There’s two heroes, two stunts and they’re set up differently,” explains Holloway.
“And every old car has their quirks. And so, each Duster, on one, the brakes are spongy. The other one is very jumpy. Another one won’t go into first but it’ll go into third fine. So, you have to know each of the cars, and how they have different amounts of power, which means they drive different. So, you get to mess with all that.
“But, luckily, I grew up poor, and I know how to figure the quirks of every car that I’m in,” smiles the actor who grew up doing construction until his good looks beckoned him to the catwalk.
Fresh out of training at Quantico, Rachel Hilson’s Nina is hellbent on taking down the crime syndicate where Holloway’s Jim works as their lowly getaway driver. Nina wants to get Jim onboard as her confidential informant, but he’s having none of it.
But what Nina wants, she generally gets. “Nina is a badass,” declares Hilson. “I’ve not really gotten to play many badasses yet. Like, overt badasses. I guess all characters are pretty badass in their own right but she’s overtly badass, and is just so dynamic and complex,” says The Good Wife and This is Us actress.
“She’s got this rawness that comes from her childhood and losing her father so young. There’s this vulnerability that she brings that sort of is like the fuel for this badassery and tenacity and drive. I was really excited to take that on.
“And then, the ‘70s are just such a rich period. You’ve got a whole cornucopia of things happening politically and culturally and then the civil rights movement. I was really excited to navigate this role, this young Black woman in this period in this environment of the Bureau, which is so unheard of. And I think that’s one of the coolest things about this project is that they thought to write this character in this very unlikely environment with her being the first one in our world,” she says.
With its action-packed formula and diverse cast featuring Corbin Bernsen, Camille Guaty, Donal Logue and Gail O’Grady, Holloway likens the series to Guy Ritchie movies Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch.
“They’re all big characters. You just don’t know what’s going to happen or who you’re going to meet when you open the door. And each one of them have their validity and layers and dimensions, so it’s really fun that way,” he says.
Duster is streaming from 15 May 2025
