She’s a natural.
According to Deadline, Jennifer Lawrence had quite the acting coach in her younger years… well, sorta.
Back when Lawrence was an aspiring actress and Sheridan was a struggling actor, he gave acting lessons to scrape up a little extra cash. One of his students was none other than Lawrence, who had yet to star in her breakout role, Winter’s Bone, in 2010.
Lawrence however, had no idea that Sheridan was the acting coach from her past.
Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. reminded her during a panel for her Apple/A24 film Causeway at Deadline’s Contenders Film: Los Angeles event.
She said:
“I remember going to see someone and him telling my mom, ‘Here’s your money back. Just don’t put her in any acting lessons whatever you do.’
Was that Taylor Sheridan… I gotta tell my Mom.”
It was.
In fact, Lawrence had such a natural gift for acting, such a natural presence about her, that Sheridan didn’t want to screw it up with traditional acting lessons.
Of course, Taylor went on to create the entire Yellowstone universe, in addition to writing a number of great movies like Hell Or High Water, Sicario, and more.
And Jennifer? An Academy Award winning actress with a few Golden Globes, a few SAG Awards, and plenty of other awards on the mantle.
Isabel May Originally Auditioned For ‘Mayor Of Kingstown’
Taylor Sheridan has also been on record saying 1883 star Isabel May (Elsa Dutton) reminded him of Jennifer Lawrence, and that she actually auditioned for his other show Mayor Of Kingstown, and landed the part of Elsa without ever reading for it. In fact, nobody ever did… it was her role from the beginning.
Much like Lawrence… she was a natural.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Taylor saw her Mayor Of Kingstown audition and he knew she’d be perfect for Elsa.
Without even trying, she got the job:
“Yes, I didn’t audition for her. I auditioned for a different project. Taylor was doing another project called Mayor of Kingstown, and in March 2021, something like that, he flew three girls out to Texas, including myself.
So I auditioned for that, and I was terribly wrong for it. So I don’t know what happened or what it was about myself or our interaction that sparked something in him, but Elsa came to life after our meeting. I take zero credit for it.
So he called two weeks later and said, ‘You’re Elsa Dutton. I want you to be Elsa Dutton. Please be Elsa Dutton.’ And I said, ‘Well, of course, I’ll be Elsa Dutton because you’re Taylor Sheridan and it’s my dream to work with you.’ So that’s what we did.”
And the rest of history.
Of course, Taylor nailed the casting since Elsa is pretty much the star of the show, as the narration runs through her and the story is framed through her eyes.
She also weighed in on working with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill:
“I think it’s been an absolute advantage. The fact that they have three daughters is an advantage as well. I have a little bit of a physical resemblance, but my personality also melds with their three daughters from what Faith has expressed to me.
So when you see some of the emotion that plays out, especially between Faith and Tim, it feels so real because how they feel about Elsa became so real. It became almost painfully real.
She became like a real daughter to them, I think, and they kind of became real parents to me as well. So I love them dearly, and the stars aligned perfectly. It was all meant to be.”
Of course, the next chapter of the Yellowstone prequels, 1923, will star Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren as the next leaders of the Dutton clan.
1923 is set to premiere December 18th on Paramount+.
