If you think being an actor on Yellowstone is just playing cowboy, guess again.
In fact, series creator Taylor Sheridan, the man behind 1883 as well as the new Mayor Of Kingstown, places a HUGE focus on the authentic. That means that his actors aren’t just acting on set… they’re going to work.
And the only way to learn how to be a cowboy is to… be a cowboy. Sheridan explains that there isn’t much rehearsal going on:
“So, it just comes back to authenticity. I don’t rehearse with my actors. There’s no way to inform those on what this way of life is, you just have to do it.
The better I can make them understand the thing they’re acting out, the better the performance is, the more authentic the scenes look, and it looks real. I just take my actors and put them to work.”
And unfortunately for Jefferson White (who plays Jimmy Hurdstrom), he showed up to the Yellowstone with the least amount of horse experience of any member of the cast.
Much like his own character on the show, he had to learn the hard way… hours upon hours with his ass in the saddle.
And what can hours and hours in the saddle do for someone who isn’t used to it, and also doesn’t quite understand the proper way to ride? Saddle sores.
Jefferson recently revealed that he has a permanent reminder of his days learning how to ride… right between his ass cheeks. He hilariously explains his injury situation with ET’s Cassie DiLaura:
“Knock on wood I’ve been very lucky… I’ve got some permanent scars, a little bit TMI, on the inside of my butt cheeks… there’s a kind of Rorschach ink blot of scars that will probably never heal.
Other than that I’ve been very lucky. Very sore, very bruised, very beaten up but very lucky.”
Much like his character Jimmy, he has his own Yellowstone brand:
“It’s an evocative image… it is kind of a Y-shape, kind of a permanent, Y.”
The Four Sixes Spinoff
Jefferson White sat down with us on the Whiskey Riff Raff podcast and explained everything he knows about the upcoming spinoff so far.
Here’s what he had to say:
“We filmed those Four Sixes sequences down at the Four Sixes, which is a real life, huge, working cattle ranch… one of the biggest in the country, one of the oldest in the country.
After spending four years on the Yellowstone which is a fictional ranch, it was a real eye-opener to go down to the Sixes which is a real life, incredible, sort of goliath, cattle ranch.
As far as the spinoff goes, I don’t think you’ll be surprised that I, Jeff/Jimmy never have any idea what the fuck is going on, and any time I think I do, Taylor does something better and cooler than I ever could’ve imagined.
All I can say is that I hope… I’m incredibly grateful for the work we’ve gotten to do so far, incredibly proud… all I can say as an actor is job security is very rare and very precious so I wanna play this character as long as they’ll let me.
And we’ll find out together how much longer that is… anytime I think I know what’s best for this character or for this world, Taylor proves me wrong. He knows better than any of us.”
Needless to say, only time will tell, but based on the way we saw Jimmy leave the Yellowstone Ranch at the end of Season 4… it sounds like Jimmy is going to be the star of his own show someday soon.
Stay tuned… with Taylor Sheridan involved, anything is possible.
Listen to the full podcast with Jefferson White, AKA Jimmy Hurdstrom, below:
The podcast is available everywhere. Download the podcast on Apple Podcasts by searching “Whiskey Riff Raff” or click here. We’re also available on Spotify and wherever else you can listen to podcasts.
