Anthem Magazine

Photography by Reto Sterchi
Styling by Regina Doland
Grooming by Olaf Derlig at Exclusive Artists using Dr. Barbara Sturm & Balmain Hair
Produced by Jesse Simon
Location: Wolf Creek Valley Ranch
Global Brand Ambassador: Kee Chang
Special Thanks to Shea Elyse Prior & Diamond Cross Ranch

Mitchell Slaggert’s journey in modeling and acting all started with an unbelievable stroke of luck. Once a 21-year-old mechanical engineering student, who had also just interviewed for a job within the Department of Homeland Security, Slaggert caught the attention of an eagle-eyed talent scout—the same man who plucked Jennifer Lawrence off the street before she would go on to become one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses—while going about his day in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Within weeks, Slaggert had scored a contract with DNA, one of the most prestigious modeling agencies in New York City. Within a month, he found himself in Milan, walking the runway for Calvin Klein. It’s a story he likens to “winning the lottery three times,” which includes his foray into acting. A charmed life by any measure, that aforementioned scout also happened to moonlight as a filmmaker, earmarking his new discovery for the lead role in his film Moss. Slaggert has since gone on to appear in The Sex Lives of College Girls and the Taylor Sheridan Universe’s Landman.

And with all of this luck stacked in his favor, the Southern gentleman’s greatest strength remains his own: an unshakable connection to his roots. Running with the horses, Slaggert, now 31, always finds his way home again—basking in the glow of it all with the sun on his back in North Carolina.

Anthem connected with Slaggert for an in-depth conversation, and a photoshoot in Los Angeles.

Hi, Mitchell. How are you doing, sir?

Great, man! I’m just settling back in at home. I was in South Carolina, hanging out with my brother and a couple of buddies. I’ve been traveling a lot. Today’s my first relaxed day. Where are you at?

I’m on a road trip. I’m Zooming from a shared office. IKEA threw up in here, as you can see.

[laughs] I’m thinking the girlfriend and I will do a cross-country road trip with the pups as well when the East Coast gets cold and gross. Maybe we’ll go to Cali for a couple of months.

And you guys were just in Los Angeles, too. I got the images back from our photoshoot.

I’m stoked! That was a fun shoot. The horses were being a little spicy… It’s hard shooting animals.

Tell me about the horses we were shooting with.

My girlfriend introduced me to this whole world. This is much more her bread and butter. I mean, my little sister was a professional rider growing up so she’d compete, and I’d make fun of her ‘cause that’s what brothers do. I’d hop on here and there. I just thought I was good, you know?

Essentially, the two wild mustangs are rescues. They are brother and sister. When the Bureau of Land Management was rounding them up with helicopters, their mom got sent off a cliff—

Jesus…

Yeah, I know. So Oni is the girl and Kai is the guy. Kai is—how do I put this… He’s annoying? [laughs] If you get upset with him, he’ll double down and not pay you any attention. Then there’s Tess, the tan horse. She’s young. She isn’t fully trained to be out, riding around. She’ll spook easy.

You were always big into animals, weren’t you?

Growing up, I wanted to be Steve Irwin.

That’s right. That I do remember.

I’ve relocated alligators, too. Pilots to the Rescue also reached out about us helping ‘em with a couple of wolves. Red wolves are rare. There are twenty something of them left in the wild. We don’t wanna see them go extinct, you know? So it’s about doing anything we can to help.

That obviously goes hand in hand with your love of the outdoors.

Oh yeah, absolutely. Even this morning, I got up before sunrise to hang out in the woods for a few hours. As I’m walking out, there’s a big old buck directly in my path. I’ve got a piece of land out here in North Carolina. It’s 75 acres and buds up to even more. It’s a beautiful ecosystem.

It must be grounding to have that serenity to go back to, especially given your line of work.

It’s fantastic. I’m a rich man because I have the knowledge that my dad passed down to me: being out in the woods gets your mind right. It’s medicinal. As you say, this is a hard industry, so if you can go out there and meditate a little bit, you’ll find the answers that you’re looking for.

I’d wager you’re blessed with the personality and stamina that modeling and acting require as well. You once said it yourself: “I can’t sit idle at all. I always have to be doing something.”

It definitely helps. I mean, I even built a lot of this space. When I got this land, it was just dirt and trees. I put a house a thousand yards back in the woods. That was fun. But then I started having to juggle the home build project with the HBO show [The Sex Lives of College Girls]. When you general contract something, you’re essentially setting up a bunch of dominoes to fall in sequence. Plumbing. Concrete. Drywall. This needs to get done before that, you know? When I was on the other side of the country working, the plumbing domino didn’t fall and that completely slowed everything down. There’s nothing I could do. It’s not like I can leave when I’m working five days a week out in Cali. So I don’t know if I’d do that again. But I do want to continue building stuff. My main goal is to take all the loot from the industry and pour it into real estate. And another thing about me is that, as a kid, the only toy I ever got were LEGOs. This is like adult LEGOs.

And you studied mechanical engineering in college. You really took after dad, didn’t you?

I call him my cheatsheet. He’s a cheatsheet for life in general. I was like, “He’s got it figured out. I might as well go down that path.” But before that came into play, I had pursued criminal justice.

How did your dad react when you floated the idea of modeling?

Well, he was concerned ‘cause my Uncle Billy got in his ear: “I don’t know, man… That industry? There might be some weird stuff going on.” But once my dad saw the success I had, he was like, “This is actually pretty nice. This is pretty neat.” Essentially, he said, “I always knew you’d be successful. I just wouldn’t have guessed that you’d choose one of the hardest industries in the world.” It’s not easy. I was very fortunate to get lucky. Right place, right time. I’m thankful for it.

It’s one thing to break out. That’s hard enough. It’s another thing to stay with it as you have.

You gotta keep that sword sharp.

I’m now remembering you quoting your dad: “I love our son, but I don’t want to be staring at him in his underwear every morning.” Your mom put up posters of you in the house.

[laughs] Well, I wasn’t there, but I know my mom had ‘em up in my old room at their house.

Remind me how the Marine Corps fits into your narrative. I know that’s important to you.

I’ve always wanted to join the Marine Corps. Ever since I was a kid, I was like, “This is my calling.” Every day in high school, at 4 a.m., Billy would come by the house and we’d go running. He’d say we’re doing so and so, and then go, “Just a little bit more!” He tried to instill in me that I can do anything I set my mind to. Don’t let your mind hold you back, you know? So I was training, training, training. The problem is, I got into a bad car accident when I was seven and lost a kidney.

I never got the chance to ask: why can’t you join the Marine Corps with one kidney?

It was part of Obama downsizing the military. So it could’ve been a number of things, like an allergy to bees or flatfoot. At the time, I think 75% of the United States population was ineligible for military service. And I still had normal kidney function. I was so young. One compensates for the other. I had three nephrologists say, “He’s good to go. He’s fine.” I’d also sent in scores from triathlons and Spartan races that placed me in the upper percentile. For some of ‘em, I was in the top 1%. I mean, I had this old Marine training me, you know? Essentially, we were getting BS’d around. I was like, “With all due respect, what the hell’s goin’ on?” I went to meet the colonel in charge of all recruitment east of the Mississippi. He pulled up my file and said, “Sorry, man. No can do.” That was an absolute gut punch. Two years later, I got scouted by Daniel [Peddle].

When you were discovered, weren’t you also considering a job within Homeland Security? I think Billy had floated the idea of you joining BORTAC [Border Patrol Tactical Unit].

That’s right. My uncle is high up in Homeland Security. I’d found that BORTAC is essentially the Navy SEALs or the SWAT team in Homeland Security. I’m like, “Well, if I can’t join the Marine Corps, I can hop on this opportunity that pays a lot.” I didn’t even know about them until my uncle suggested it. I was going through that whole interview process when this happened.

We don’t have to get political. I personally don’t care about other people’s politics. Having said that, considering today’s climate, aren’t you relieved? No matter where you’re standing—politically, or physically at the border—you’re opening yourself up to a lot of heartache.

Yeah, man. I’m not a fan of talking politics ‘cause it can get heated sometimes. My mom always said, “Understand their perspective. Even if you don’t agree with them, they have a reason for saying what they’re saying.” That’s part of the reason why I like living out in the country. If I were working in government, in this climate, I’d be like, “God, what am I doing?” I’m so fortunate.

Once Daniel scouted you, I think everything went pretty fast. I wanna ask you to recount that scouting story again because I saw that there are different permutations of it online.

So I’d been walking to my car after class, and Daniel was heading to a premiere or some event. He was wearing full Givenchy so I was like, “Huh. That guy looks interesting.” I walked past him and, sure enough, I get twenty feet before he’s tapping me on my shoulder. I’m like, “What’s up?” He was telling me all these things that seemed too good to be true. He was like, “I discovered Jennifer Lawrence.” I don’t know if I believed him at first. Then he said, “Here’s my card. I’ll be expecting to hear from you.” That’s what got me. That’s what made me go, “He might be legit.” After that, we met in a back alley in downtown Wilmington to take some photos. He took three face shots and three shirtless shots. I did a runway walk. He sent those to his friends at DNA Models and they sent me a contract. I’d never been to New York City before so I was like, “Sure, let’s check it out.” One thing led to another and the ball started rolling. It’s been snowballing ever since.

Where do you think you’d be without that encounter? Modeling wasn’t on your radar…

At the time, I was still recovering from the knife to the chest—not being able to join the Marine Corps. Honestly, I think I would’ve found myself in construction. There’s good money to be made in building, and I love doing it. Yeah, I definitely think I would’ve become a builder.

Well, you’re doing that now, too. You’re building your dream house. You get to do it all.

It’s great! I just want more projects coming my way so I can buy more “LEGO sets.” [laughs]

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Are you still working with Daniel these days?

Yeah, man.

In what capacity?

He’s my father figure in the industry. He’s a cheatsheet. He bridges the gap between my agents, my manager, and myself. If my team is being too polite with me, he’ll be like, “That audition wasn’t good.” We definitely still chat a lot and hang out as often as we can. He’s a Carolina boy, too.

You’ve had many blessings in life, including solid mentors.

It was Arnold Schwarzenegger who said, “There is no such thing as a self-made man.” I will always search for guidance. Two minds are better than one. I will never claim to know it all.

You’ve now called dad, Billy, and Daniel cheatsheets. And it’s a two-way street, right? You introduced Billy to modeling. He even played your dad in Moss. It’s a wonderful exchange.

It’s amazing. With acting, we had no training, you know? Well, I had two weeks of training. It worked out great ‘cause we had a good dynamic that showed up on camera. Billy was also on option for fragrance campaigns—all sorts of stuff. He lived such a wild life. I just know that the Good Lord was looking down like, “How the hell did I miss you?” He couldn’t get the aggressive cancer treatment he needed. He was in hospice for eight days before he passed. Now I have a guardian warrior angel above me. It’s been three years and it still doesn’t feel good to think about. He’s the one who had reached his hand down into the water and pulled me up when I was a young teenager—getting me ready to go to war. That’s when I found myself in this predicament.

You’re living a fantasy life. I’m glad Billy got a taste of that, too. Thanks to you, at 67, he was suddenly at your same modeling agency. You were really playing the part of puppet master. 

I was like, “Come over! You’re an attractive old dude. You want to give this a shot?” He’d kept in great shape. He was such a charismatic, enjoyable, likable guy. Everybody loved him. It was a no-brainer. If he’d spent more time in New York City, I know he would’ve landed even more jobs.

He proved the maxim true: you can try something completely new at any point in your life. Of course luck plays into it all, but you can start something new at 40, 50, 60, 70. It’s possible.

We do it all the time. Colonel Sanders didn’t start franchising KFC till he was 60 or something.

He’s the perennial metric. Did you know that Colonel Sanders also coined the phrase, “If you have time to lean, you have time to clean”? I think people find that upsetting nowadays.

Don’t tell me that! [laughs] I can see my mom using that one on me.

Mitch—I think I know how you were able to keep such a level head while your life was being turned upside down. You didn’t even know what Kendall Jenner looked like when you were thrown into the deep end of modeling. You only recognized her by name. Prior to meeting Donatella, you’d only heard of Versace in a Migos song. So you were taking it as it comes. You weren’t hungry to make it in that world, or there was a lack of desperation at least. I’m sure that, if you didn’t like what you saw or experienced early on, you would’ve bolted and done a number of other things that interested you. That gave you an upper hand. 

Yeah, I openly admitted that I didn’t know anything about this industry. And I had a good team, you know? I’d get DMs saying, “We wanna work with you!” I’d screenshot those and send them to my agents. Then I’d get a call and they’d say: “If we let you work on that, you’re gonna quit!”

With Versace, I truly believe that part of the reason why I got that job was just because, after I tried on the suit, I hung it up. They were so appreciative. I was like, “My mom would break my neck if I didn’t hang up this suit.” I guess most of the guys were throwing it over the chair or something.

It’s how you were raised. These things matter, even when you don’t think anyone’s watching.

Absolutely. I love those little things.

Do you enjoy modeling or acting more these days? 

Definitely acting. For Landman, I packed on some muscle mass. I was playing a football player. Now I’ve lost twelve pounds, just in case a modeling job comes along that I’d be a fool to turn down. My team turns down most gigs already. I trust their judgement. They’ve gotten me this far.

When I binged the first season of Landman, I just figured you’d appear in season two. You were ingratiated into Billy Bob’s [Thorton] family by the end of the season. What happened?

Even my agent was like, “I don’t see how they couldn’t bring you back. But we’ll see.” I didn’t reach out to Landman because I’d signed a contract for another show that would’ve been my most lucrative job to date. But that ended up falling through. They recast some of the characters and I was part of the recast. So, ouch. But I did watch the first episode of Landman season two. They did me dirty a little bit! Ainsley’s [played by Michelle Randolph] like, “I was just going to Tech for my boyfriend, who scored a 17 on his ACT, so off to junior college for him.” I was like, “What the hell?” [laughs] It’s funny, though. Everything Taylor Sheridan touches turns to gold. He’s a wizard.

If nothing else, he’s prolific. Tell me about the Taylor Sheridan Universe.

Well, there are a lot of moving parts, so for it to be such a well-oiled machine, it’s incredibly impressive. And I actually didn’t get to work with him. I only met him briefly ‘cause he only directed the first two episodes. As you know, I’m in the last four. So I missed that opportunity. But everybody on set was full of praise: “He’s a savant. It’s an honor just to be a part of his universe.”

I thought you were fantastic as Ryder. With a character like that, it’s so easy to think, “This is a throwaway character. He’s eye candy.” But similar to how you described Billy earlier, you have that unmistakably likable, charismatic quality. I felt it the first time I talked to you. 

That means a lot coming from you. I tried to bring a lot of myself to it, like respecting elders. I put myself back in high school—meeting the tough father of a girl I’m picking up. Politeness. It’s all, ”Yes, sir. No, sir,” with a smile on your face. Going through all the scenes, wondering, “What’s the best way to play this?” it always seemed to point back to the same common denominator: I’m from the South. Having growing up down here, that was easy to step into.

And you showed a lot of skin. Was that easier to do, given your background in modeling?

For sure. I’d imagine that would be hard without it. I even called my mom and sister. I was like, “What do you think? Should I do it?” They read it and they were like, “This is so funny. You gotta do it.” And my team was going back and forth for like a month trying to get rid of the jockstrap. I was like, “I’ve never even worn a jockstrap. I played football. It’s all compression underwear.” But they were adamant about it. Then they wanted to spray tan my—am I allowed to curse?

You can say whatever the hell you want, Mitch!

[laughs] They wanted to spray tan my ass. I was like, “Leave it white. That’s funnier.” With any overthinking, I just chucked it in the fucking bucket. I mean, it wasn’t a Channing Tatum type of ordeal. Another stripper slaps me on my ass. I’m just scared as hell up there. A deer in headlights. It was my first time ever on a stripping stage. I didn’t really have to do any research for that one.

Nudity is one challenge. There are all different kinds of challenges. Do you enjoy improv?

Improv is something I’ve been training in as well. I wasn’t there for this, but apparently, at the beginning, Taylor Sheridan was very adamant like, “Know your lines. Don’t deviate.” But once he saw Billy Bob play and improv a little bit, he was like, “Do you, man. I wrote this for you. You’re perfect.” I think that’s part of the reason why it’s so successful. Billy Bob throws curveballs. I mean, that one scene where I’m getting punched in the throat and thrown outta the back of the truck, I’m supposed to act scared, but he’s making me wanna burst out laughing. He is so witty and funny. So that was one of the hardest things to do: not breaking character while working with him.

That’s what I mainly learned on Landman: how to play off of good actors. It’s a ping pong match, especially with improv ‘cause they switch it up on you. That makes you wanna stay spontaneous. James Jordan is the best at that. He’s in all of Taylor Sheridan’s shows. He’s funny, too. He kept me on my toes in that one scene where I’m knocking at the door so I can hang out with Ainsley.

I remember that explicitly. Your reaction was pitch perfect. That felt completely genuine.

It was! I’m like, “God dang it.” I get it. If I were in his position, I’d totally mess with the kid, too.

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I don’t know how much you’re engineering this—Landman feels very on brand for you. As you once said, “The Americana aesthetic, that’s what I grew up with. It’s in the DNA of things.” You think horses, cowboys, the dirt, the South… How did this show enter your orbit?

I just got the audition, and I was stoked about it. Then, as I do with all of my auditions, I forgot about it. Sure enough, a month later, I get the phone call. I’m like, “What? This is amazing!” I felt like I was the perfect fit for that character. It was also funny because, the thing is, if I spend too much time back home, the Southern accent will come back out. I was still working with a voice coach ‘cause I gotta stay on top of that. For two years, I was getting rid of my Southern accent. Then it’s like, “We need to bring it back for Landman—and go deep in it as you possibly can.” 

In those times of waiting for the call, I bet you can distract yourself better than anyone.

You stay on top of your classes. You go out and exist in the world, doing a bunch of side quests that also help you as an actor. As I grow as an actor, I grow as a human. It’s all self-discovery stuff.

I love a good side quest.

I got a buddy of mine that I call side quest champion. He’s always out there doing random stuff.

Moving forward, what do you want to explore? How do you want to stretch creatively?

The sky’s the limit. I’m ready to see what’s thrown at me and what I can tackle. But there’s an easy one I can immediately point to: I’d love to be on that Fallout TV show. I’m a turbo nerd for Fallout. I like that it’s action with dark humor. I love action. I love comedy. Drama’s great, too. And I haven’t done an action gig yet.

We’re totally synched up right now. Do you know where I was yesterday? My friend took me on a side quest to grab lunch at the Pioneer Saloon, which, as you probably know, served as the inspiration for the Prospector Saloon in Fallout: New Vegas, on our drive to Vegas for F1.

No way!

Walton Goggins had been there the day before for the Fallout Fan Celebration event. I mean, this was all new to me. I had no business being there. I know next to nothing about Fallout. 

Yeah, it’s a major community. It has a huge fandom. I also like how a lot of these videos games are turning into TV shows and movies. I think the scripts are so good because it takes like eight years to make the games. In that time, they get to develop these gorgeous stories. Just look at Fallout.

Let’s manifest that Fallout dream for you right now. What other goals are on deck for 2026?

Well, I want to build a house on the lake. There’s this beautiful lake twenty minutes from me where my parents live. I mean, if you build an Airbnb there, you’re set. So that’s another goal I have…