'Texas Rising': Watch Ray Liotta and Bill Paxton ID Their Co-Stars by Their Facial Hair

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the size of the cast History employed for its latest event series, Texas Rising.

Premiering on Memorial Day, the five-night, 10-hour saga (which was actually filmed in Mexico) picks up right after the Alamo has fallen as the last survivors are executed to tell the story of the Texas Revolution and the rise of the Texas Rangers. Bill Paxton stars as Gen. Sam Houston, the man who ultimately defeats his nemesis, Mexican Gen. Santa Anna (Olivier Martinez), at the Battle of San Jacinto to help Texas become independent.

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As the story begins, “Houston is besieged, not only facing the death star army, but he also doesn’t have an army. His officers want to turn on him,” Paxton tells Yahoo TV.

Among the actors playing those men under Houston’s command: Rob Morrow, Chad Michael Murray, and Crispin Glover. Of Glover, Paxton says, “He plays a fanatical character. He just wants to kill Santa Anna, he doesn’t care what it’s gonna take. [Crispin] made a choice, and he stuck with it, and when I was shooting the film, I thought, ‘God, is that gonna work?’ When I saw it the other day, it works great. I realized, ‘F–k, he fills it up.’”

Houston does have the loyalty of most of the Rangers, played by the likes of Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Christopher McDonald, Brendan Fraser, Rhys Coiro, and Jeremy Davies. Justified fans expecting Emmy winner Davies to do what he does best will not not be disappointed: “He brings a lot of comedy to the piece, just because he’s so mannered and so crazy,” Paxton confirms. But it’s Morgan’s Deaf Smith, the quintessential Ranger, with whom Paxton says Houston has a bromance: “The myth of the cowboy of the West, and particularly Texas, is kind of the evolution of chivalry of the knights,” he says. “Deaf Smith, and the way [Morgan] plays the part, had a real true code of honor, a stoicism, but was also incredibly well-mannered and an impeccable gentleman.”

Co-star Ray Liotta — who joined Paxton for a visit to Yahoo Studios during which they agreed to identify their co-stars by viewing only their facial hair for the video above — also praises Morgan’s work: “He plays somebody with consumption, and he really lost weight. He did not eat. He was in his [hotel] room the whole time smoking and going through misery, I guess.”

Liotta’s fictional, legend-like character, Lorca, is also a scene-stealer: “I kind of represent what war does to somebody,” he explains. “We first find me in a pit of dead bodies, and obviously I’m not [dead]. I see my family has been massacred, and I want revenge for it and just go on a killing spree until I end up in a church and everything starts coming back to me — being a religious man and a farmer. [It’s] how I get out of that killing frenzy and try to get back to who I was.”

Texas Rising premieres May 25 at 9 p.m. on History. Nights 2 through 5 air May 26, June 1, June 8, and June 15.