Imagine calling one of Taylor Sheridan’s hit shows a “cowboy soap opera” right to the man himself.
There’s not a whole lot of people on planet earth that would have the gall to say something like that. But there is one, mustachioed man that probably wouldn’t care if he hurt someone’s feelings saying that: Sam Elliott. The legendary actor has popped up a couple of different times in the Taylor Sheridan Universe.
Judging by this story that Sheridan told today on The Howard Stern Show, he’s lucky he got the opportunity to do so.
It’s been very widely documented already that Taylor Sheridan prefers to get the actor or actress first, and then write the character for them second. He hasn’t always had that luxury, but as he’s stacked up hit show after hit show, Sheridan has earned that right.
He explained to Howard Stern how that process slowly shifted, saying:
“I do things differently now than I did in the beginning. I would write a script and then go try to find the actor that fits that role. I don’t do that anymore. What I do now – I did it with ‘1883,’ I did it with ‘1923’ with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren, I did it with ‘Lioness,’ I did it with ‘Landman,’ I did it with ‘The Madison.’
Before I wrote a word of ‘The Madison,’ I met with Michelle and I told her, ‘Here’s what I want to explore.’ So I was literally writing it for her. When you can do that, and I did it with Billy Bob on ‘Landman,’ I can get really specific now, right? Because I know exactly who I’m writing for.”
And that specificity comes through very clearly in every show that Taylor Sheridan writes on.
Funny enough, not every call that the Yellowstone co-creator makes goes over smoothly. In that same interview, Sheridan recalled having to win over Sam Elliott. The now 81-year-old actor apparently picked up the phone and was ready to bad mouth Sheridan’s biggest show before eventually accepting a role:
“With Sam Elliott, which I used him in ‘1883’… it’s funny because I called him and we talked and he’s like, ‘I don’t like that Yellowstone. That’s a cowboy soap opera.’
I said, ‘You’re right. I’m not asking you to be on that. That’s the punk rock me throwing middle fingers at the industry and a lot of other sh*t. This is gonna be the grown up me. I have a story I want to tell. Here’s the story, and here’s the arc of your character.’
I pitched it to him and he said, ‘That’s beautiful. I’d love to do that.’ I said, ‘Great, I’m gonna go write it for you.’ He’s one of the most delightful human beings I have ever met, and a wizard of an actor.”
Hilarious that Sam Elliott went from “I don’t care for your show” to “when do I show up for my part” all in one phone call. In fact, in other interviews, Sam used some more colorful language to describe Yellowstone:
“I’m not a Yellowstone fan, I don’t watch Yellowstone… I love Costner, there’s a lot of good people on the cast, a few of them I’ve worked with before, nothing against any of them but it’s just too much like f***ing ‘Dallas’ or something for me… too much sh*t. Too much of that for me.”
Granted, Elliott didn’t join Yellowstone, so he may still feel that way about Sheridan’s flagship series. Sam did end up joining the prequel show – 1883 – and currently stars in another one of the writer and director’s hits: Landman. If you were to ask Sam Elliott, he’d tell you those are definitely not a period piece soap opera and an oil drama soap opera.
