November 27, 2022 • 61 mins
Jen and Jefferson debrief on season 5 episode 4 and what it was like heeling calves for branding. Then, Piper Perabo (“Summer Higgins”) shares how Taylor Sheridan wrote the role of Summer based on her real-life experience of being arrested for civil disobedience. She shares her affinity for fly fishing and how working on Yellowstone opened her up to the large indigenous community in the state of Montana and the sport of horse cutting.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hey guys, how you doing. Welcome back to the Official
Yellowstone Podcast. I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving. I
hope you got to spend it with family. I hope
it wasn't quite as contentious as dinner around the Dutton
dinner table. I hope it was a little more peaceful,
less stuff was thrown. I am so glad that you
(00:33):
are able to join us again season five of Yellowstone.
It's getting crazy already, it's getting nuts, it's getting explosive,
and we have an awesome show for you today. So
stay right there and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Jen.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How was your Thanksgiving? Where'd you spend it?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I spent my Thanksgiving in Texas. We were out here
for reasons, you know, maybe show related, maybe not, and
I ended up staying out here. I have acquired a camper, Jeff.
I am very excited about the camper. So I was
here getting the campers sort of fixed up, and I
hung out with my buddy Lindyed, who needed an extra hand.
(01:27):
So that's what I did. What about you, Jeff, I
feel like you had an eventful one.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I had an eventful one, but I just want to
I want to dig in real quick. Here, so tell
us about your buddy Lindy, because Lindy is a bit
of a legend.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's right, Jeff, thank you so much for starting what
I planned to start, which is basically a promo to
get her on the show. So Lindy, Lindy Birch is
Anybody who knows the cutting horse world knows Lindy Birch.
She's one of the best cutting horse trainers of all time.
I cannot give the list of the things that she
(02:01):
has accomplished because there are so many.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
She's amazing. She's really a walking, living, breathing legend. Yeah,
she's still competing, is that right.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
She's still competing and at an incredibly high level. She
has no interest in stopping. And she's really one of
the most inspiring, inspiring people I've ever met. And I
can't I can't wait for her to listen to this
episode when it airs, so Spot you can't cut any
(02:31):
of this.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Out She's got. She's also an incredible contradiction because she's
got the sort of rough, rough and tough edges of
a teeter, but also the incredible sort of kindness, generosity, refinement,
and sort of elegance of some of them. More verbally
verbally capable Yellowstone character.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
She refinement is the word.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I mean. She's incredibly she she's a voracious reader, and
her taste in wine is so expensive that I will
never be able to purchase her wine as a gift.
I thought thirty dollars was very expensive for a bottle
(03:18):
of wine. That was like, I'm really gonna splurge here, and.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, I want to impress the people at this party.
I'm going to show up with a thirty dollars bottle
of wine. That's exactly how I feel.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh no, I don't give thirty dollars bottles of wine away.
I give like twelve dollars bottles of wine away myself.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
The thirty dollars bottles of wine.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's for mama's superstash.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And then drink the whole thing over the course of
an evening and start talking to my television. She yeah, yeah,
she would never touch a thirty dollars bottle of wine.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Listen. Also, one thing I just want to I want
to check out real quick that you buzzed past when
I asked you how your Thanksgiving was. Is you've got
a camper, You've got an RV talk us through.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
It, okay, So how this all came about is we
were shooting Yellowstone and you weren't there. And by the way,
no more jokes about how it was so much better
without you. It was very sad without you. And the
audience is sad. Everyone's sad. And there was a lightning
storm and for people who don't know, when there's lightning,
(04:16):
you can't shoot for like a half hour from that
moment of lightning.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
So we were on hold basically.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And because we're shooting out on this ranch, you're not
allowed to walk from one place to the other because
you can get electrocuted. So I was stuck with Bingham
in his car, which isn't a horrible place to be,
and I was tired. It was late at night, and
he goes, why don't you go get in the camper
that he has on the back of the truck, And
I thought, no, I'll get a little claustrophobic. And I
went back there and it is the coolest thing I've
ever seen.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
It's made by Capri campers, and so I started working
with the guy who owns Capri, who is the nicest
guy in the world. They custom build all of these things.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And I'm a.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Huge road tripper, and now I can I can live
out my dreams of sleeping in my car.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
This is incredible, this nomad lifestyle, because this is it.
It's kind of you know, it's interesting the more sort
of professional cowboys I talk to, the more folks that
compete in the cutting world and the reigning world and
the rodeo world. So much of this lifestyle is like
being a touring musician. You're traveling around the country to compete.
(05:28):
You're traveling around the country. There's this kind of beautiful,
sort of circus mentality. It's not so different from being
an actor, which can also be a very sort of
nomadic lifestyle. You know, So what a cool thing. You're
really embracing it.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, And I was just going to say, like Jeff,
like that nomadic lifestyle does parallel so much with actors,
and I feel like in this same way. I don't know,
this is really a question for you. I found the
more nomadic I become, the more you work, the harder
for it is for me to sort of be home.
That it sort of changes, or at least there's this
(06:03):
incredibly weird re entry period when I get back.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Do you ever experience that, Jeff, I think.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That means that you're like an actual sort of you know,
crazy person cowboy rodeo nomad. I think that means this
stuff is actually like in your blood, at a part
of you, because to be honest, I spend a lot
of my time on the road simultaneously very grateful to
be working, which is a miracle and a blessing, and
I feel very lucky, but also just wishing I was
(06:34):
back home because I miss my, you know, I miss
my my beautiful partner, I miss our little cat, I
miss our crumbling house in Brooklyn. Yeah. So personally I
don't quite have the call of the wild that you're expressing,
but maybe maybe one day.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I definitely it was definitely a moment where I was
watching the Chloe'szow movie Nomad, which is amazing and for
anybody who wasn't seen it, you should see it. And
there's a great book that it Yeah, Medland Yeah, sorry sorry,
I like to get titles wrong.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And as I was watching it, I really thought, oh,
this looks like heaven.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
H Francis McDorman. It's one of the greats.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Francis should be on our show.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Absolutely. Yeah, Francis, I feel like after the Helen Mirra
and Harrison Ford announcement, it's very fun trying to put together,
you know, pairs of Duttons for future iterations of the show.
Because Francis McDorman, you know, Matthew McConaughey, Francis McDorman, the Rock.
(07:42):
I think that's exactly right. That's a match we've all
been waiting to see you. So listen this week episode
four of season five of Yellowstone.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Yeah, Jeff, where do you think we should start?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, let's start where the episode starts, which is Beth,
Beth facing the consequences of her impetuous decisions in episode three.
So the episode opens with with Beth in.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Jail, right sitting on the mattress. There's that great interaction
between her and the other woman in that cell that
I just I sort of, I don't know, I thought
that moment was pretty wonderful.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, it's amazing watching Beth. You know, you find out
pretty quickly Beth kind of finds her people there are
you know, it seems sometimes like Beth wants to fight everybody,
but as she sort of you know, is a tornado
careening through life, she does bump into her people sometimes,
and it's always fun to see people that she sort
of takes a quick liking to.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, and she also she also, I feel like she
has she has this quality where she is such a
clear She's one of the most clearly defined characters I've
ever seen on television, and yet she's entirely mercurial and
sort of we find out who she is based on
these interactions, and we'll get to it later in the episode.
(09:06):
But you know that that moment later in the episode
in the car with the little girl, you know, reflects this.
We see this other side of Beth and it changes
on a dime. And Kelly Riley also has this like
incredibly mercurial nature, which is why she's such a brilliant
actor in the first place.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, and that's what I think. That's You're exactly right
that that's also like Beth also is growing and changing
over the course of five seasons. And I think her
relationship to Carter, her relationship to Rip, her sort of
experience this season of parsing through her memories and looking
back at a long life of of you know, careening
(09:48):
from target to target, destroying everything in her path. It
really feels like this season she's examining that and you know,
nothing articulates that that one under n eighty degree switch
more than beating the shit out of this woman last night,
which gets her thrown into jail and then waking up
and having sort of a nice, pleasant, kind of you know,
pre coffee conversation with her cellmate. Yeah, so so and
(10:13):
so so Beth wakes up in jail, and then, of course,
who does it fall to to uh to rescue her
from jail? Uh the last person in the world who
wants her out of jail, the person in the world
who probably most wants her to stay in jail, right,
which is of course Jamie. Uh. So it falls to
Jamie to Uh to bail out his sister.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I I, I mean, maybe I'm crazy here, but I
sometimes I really have a soft spot for Jamie and Uh.
I find that I find that dynamic really really fascinating
and incredibly painful.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, it's excruciating. It's watching somebody who it feels like
his whole life, he's kind of tried as hard as
he can to do right by his family, but over
and over again he wants up at odds with his father,
with his sister, you know, he he It really does
feel like he has this moral compass, this sort of
strong personal code, and he maybe does authentically have the
(11:13):
same goal as Beth, the same goal as JD, but
he approaches it from a completely different sort of tactical
perspective and that puts him at odds with them over
and over again.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I love the I don't know if it was the
cop or the sheriff or whoever. You know, he says
he saved him a lot of paperwork, which I feel
like is is something that Taylor hits on a lot
and is a theme throughout this whole episode in terms
of just like avoiding red tape or like not and
not avoiding it in a way that's like malicious, but
it's just like there's there's so much red tape that
(11:47):
gets in the way of just immediate process and I
and I think that Taylor offers up really good arguments
for and against it, and he does that with Senator
Perry at one point in the episode where you know,
you know, John fires his entire team, right we see
later in the episode, and it's sort of great. And
his whole thing about like not going to the educator's
(12:09):
luncheon because there's no educators there it's a Thursday. But
then when he sits down with Perry, she sort of
makes an argument as to why some of that stuff
does matter, you know, and kind of gives him a
lecture on you know, not a lecture, but she teaches
him a bit about temperance.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, this is a fascinating episode for John's you know,
short political career, because it feels like exactly as you're describing.
He starts by sort of ripping down this red tape
by sort of you know, undoing some of what he
might describe as administrative bloat, you know, him and Clara
sort of cutting a swath through the many hangers on
(12:47):
attached to the office of the governor. And then he
has this really yeah, this beautiful conversation with you know,
I think Governor Perry is maybe the only politician that
John would ever listen to. Like. Governor Perry is the
only politician that John is willing to sit down with
and can actually sort of get through to him. And
she says to him, she says this, this this governorship
(13:12):
is as much your legacy as the ranch is, right,
And that feels like a really interesting moment and a
bit of a transition and a change in the way
that John is looking at this. It seemed, you know,
in episode one of this season, John says, Hey, the
only thing that matters every decision we're going to make,
we're going to make on the basis of protecting our ranch,
(13:33):
you know, which is like the definition of political corruption.
He's like, Hey, I'm the governor, and all I care
about is my own property.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
No, and she throws on this thing to like that
ties into that where she says, you know, it comes
up whether or not he can you know that basically
he can pardon Beth, that now that you know he's
had Hancho, there are a lot of things that he
can do, but that it would be political suicide. And
(14:02):
it feels like a potential promise of problems to come,
because we know that the Duttons do get themselves in
quite a bit of hot water. That that is something
that could be very helpful for his family, But in
a way, it would be the end, you know, of
(14:24):
his of his legitimacy, And I don't My sense is
that John probably doesn't give a crap about his political career,
but I do think that he cares about things and
people and Montana.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
And and I do think that the Dutton name means.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Something, you know, not to get too crucible, but his name,
you know, the honor of his name.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Absolutely, yeah, and the land itself. It feels like this
is an episode where he's starting his he's recognizing that
his responsibility broadens beyond just his own ranch, and he
has a responsibility to the ranches that surround his, to
the sort of citizens of Montana, to the land of
the state itself. And that's a fascinating question for John
(15:08):
since the beginning of the show is who does he
have a responsibility to? Is it just his kids? Is
it just his kids and his grandkids? But along the way,
we've seen him go out of his way to help
the people around him, to sort of stand up for
and protect this way of life. It's funny you say
that the Duttons have a way of getting into hot water.
It's really like hot water kind of seems like Beth's
(15:29):
natural habitat. Yes, you know, like Beth kind of thrives
in hot water. So it is fun to see, as usual,
his children careening about creating these issues that he's going
to have to decide whether he'll use his political office
to save them or various other means. You know. So John,
as he listens and sort of absorbs wisdom from Governor Perry,
(15:53):
he's also got this incredible This is an episode where
so Casey and Monica's son, newborn son, is buried in
this episode, and that plotline has been so you know, challenging, painful.
It's been obviously a real crucible four Casey and Monica,
but also there's a ripple effect, you know, I think
(16:15):
all the characters close to them are feeling the effects
of this, and Monica particularly, you know, Monica and John
have had such a contentious relationship over five seasons. Now
there's this beautiful conversation between Monica and John which feels
like maybe for the first time, they're connecting in a
(16:36):
more sort of instinctual, kind of human animal level. And
John says to Monica about her son, her departed son,
all he saw of this planet was you, and all
he knew was you loved him.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
That made me cry that, I mean, even you just
saying it, I got a little overclumped.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
That was like, I mean, that's an example of like
just Taylor at his best always, you know, just he
gets to the heart of things in such a profound
way and tying into that, he also shares this like
sort of sentiment, which is so true.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I forget which character says it, but that grief isn't
you know, that grief isn't meant to be shared. And
there's a few there's a sort of theme that runs
on in this in the episode, which is how isolating
grief is, you know, even if a bunch of people
lose the same person. And I can speak from my
own experience, like having lost somebody incredibly close to me,
you know, when I was very young and having family,
(17:43):
we all grieved this person, but it was it was
so isolating. There's and and I remember feeling that astutely
as a kid, that grief is a totally solo experience
and that celebration is a group experience. And Taylor, you know,
Taylor says comfort, you know, he talks about using comfort
(18:08):
and and I thought that was really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, it's another example of the way the show will
kind of sore up to these lofty heights, these situations
context they're so complicated as to be unrelatable, you know,
John's the governor of Montana, trying to save his billion
dollar ranch. But then it also takes you down to
these the thing that is so fundamental to the human
(18:35):
experience loss change, Like that's something that everybody watching the
show relates to, all of us making the show. Yeah,
there's this kind of fundamental, deep down in your heart
sort of feeling that that this writing and you know
that this story also really taps into I found myself
very affected by it as well.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Absolutely, And the same way that like Taylor hits on
this theme of like let's just call it cutting through
the bullshit. You know, whenever he when he hits these
moments that you just talked about, it also reminds you
that the other stuff is bullshit. He's cutting through bullshit
on so many levels. And also like, if you know
(19:17):
Taylor is a person, he is somebody who cuts through bullshit,
like you know, there's there's no artifice there.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
And but those.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Again we talked about that moment in the hospital sort
of cutting through you know, showing you what your priorities are,
you know, the moment in the hospital with Monic at
the end of the episode before and then this.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, yeah, very very powerful affecting sequence, and then you know,
you always know what Taylor, The highs are always going
to be followed by brutal lows, but then after the lows,
he usually gives you a nice pickup. So I love
how this episode. This episode ends with John, you know,
(20:03):
exhibiting some really class A one political corruption and basically
releasing Summer from jail into his own custody.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Where then Beth has a run in with her I
believe in the kitchen as she's like, which is just
like a fun and fabulous moment filled with zingers.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, those two actors are so fun. We got to
talk to Piper a little bit this week, but it's
so fun. I love those scenes with Beth in Summer.
And this episode also promises a lot more to come
because Summer being out of jail and staying at the house,
yes means you know that those two are going to
be butting heads.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
So in this episode, there's this big hole sequence which
it's when.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
We're pushing cows. There's a sequence where we're pushing cows
down the road. There's cars sort of stopped in the middle.
We're going to go help a rancher with his branding
and This honestly should be another episode for another day.
That was about a fourteen hour day maybe more. In Wisdom, Montana.
We had one hundred and fifty pairs, so we had
(21:16):
three hundred cattle. Those were cows that needed to be branded, tagged, castrated,
and vaccine inoculated.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Right, all of that happened. It was a huge epic.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Day in one of and Wisdom, Montana is one of
the most beautiful places in the world that will never
be become trendy the way Joshua Tree or Martha has
because the elements are brutal.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, what an incredible was this? Was this your first
time branding.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I had I've been to a branding before. I have
some friends who have a ranch in Mexico and I
sort of kind of stood by an helped out with
that because I wanted to get a sense for that.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
We were we were branding.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Full grown cows that time, and this this was my
first time branding though, And it was actually my first
time healing and dragging the cows, so it was my
first time healing too. And fun fact, I did I
knew that we would be branding for real. I did
not know that we would be tagging and castrating for real,
and these were cows. Again, just to make it clear
(22:28):
to the audience and to Peta, these were animals that
needed to have this happen. We had professionals there doing
the heavy working, like the castration.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
But we roll on. Take one.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I have flanked that calf to the ground, so you
know it's uh, it's balls are near my eyes and uh,
all of a sudden, I see balls flying, testicles flying
through the air and and a look of shock and
maybe awe was on my face.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And yeah, and you're describing them, I'm you're using a
lot of terms that are a little bit inside baseball
as a sort of as a person who's now spent
you know, five years really digging into this and has
friends who have a ranch in Mexico. So I'm just
going to do a little cowboy glossary for you real quick.
So healing means you're up on a horse, you take
a lasso, throw it and catch the back two feet
(23:20):
of a cow. In this case, a calf dragging means
you then pull that rope taut and your horse walks
away from the calf such that it's pulled to the
ground and sort of tugged along by your by your
horse kind of it's sort of stretched out on the ground.
Flanking means a couple of cowboys grab that little calf
(23:42):
who isn't so little, weighs, you know, two hundred two
hundred and fifty pounds and sort of do a kind
of tag team jiu jitsu move where you flip it
to the ground and pin its legs. It's a very
it's an extremely sort of mixed martial arts style of movement.
So that's healing, dragging and flanking. And then you actually,
(24:04):
I think you dug into the literal cast rating pretty accurately.
Insufficient detail.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I like to lead into that, Taylor writes in the script.
And it is true that the whole thing happens. You know,
they are branded, castrated, and vaccinated in about fifteen seconds.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
And that is true.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
And it's a well oiled machine.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
It's super it's super fast.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yes, yeah, it's a pretty remarkable thing to witness. And
these guys, these cowboys that do this, you know who
we do it alongside, have done this their whole lives.
You know, this is something that when we were down,
I went down and helped with the branding at the
sixes in the spring and guys, you bring out your
nine year old kids, you know, who are going to
(24:52):
flank for the first time six year olds. People. This
is a sort of tradition. It's a part of this
way of life that people have been doing for more
than one hundred years. You know, this is a particularly
you know, the science has changed and improved in some ways.
They're being inoculated with, you know, incredibly advanced veterinary science
to protect them against disease and keep these cows healthy.
A lot of what you're doing this for is to
(25:12):
keep these cows healthy as they age and get older.
And it's also really it's you know, it's the definition
of free range cattle. They live most of their lives
just out in these massive pastures, but every now and then, yeah,
every now and then you got to go grab them
and uh and give them some medicine. Yeah, And people
have been doing that for like one hundred and fifty
eight years or longer.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And for the people who bucked at it when they like,
when I talk to them about, you know, what we
were doing, and you know, I was like, would you
rather the cows live indoors in small, little filthy you
know pens that they can't move around in like this
is this is it's momentary discomfort for sort of a
really a healthier, better way of life.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, it's a really it's very it's funny, it's a
it's both extremely advanced veterinary technology and it at the
end of the day boils down to grabbing a two
hundred and fifty pound calf and trying to wrestle it
onto the ground, which is boy, let me tell you,
if all goes well, it's a well oiled machine of those.
(26:17):
If one of those little guys gets back up on
his feet at the wrong time, it gets MESSI real fast.
So this episode, yeah, a lot of cowboy shit, a
lot of pretty incredible cowboy shit, which is very, very
exciting to see. Also the reintroduction of our dear friend
Piper Perabou as Summer and I actually had the opportunity
(26:38):
to chop it up with Piper a little bit before
we get into all of that. We're going to step
aside really fast, so don't go away. We feel so
so so lucky to have with us, to have with
(26:58):
us in the house today. You know her as Summer
Higgins on Yellowstone as long as many other characters through
a long, storied, fascinating career that I can't wait to
dig into. Thank you so, so so much for being here.
We're here with Piper Paraboll. How you doing, Hi, Jack good?
How are you great? I feel so honored. Thank you
(27:18):
so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
That's so nice of you to say, it's so nice
to be here.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
So episode season five, episode four, we get the triumphant
return of Summer. It's been a year, you know, a
year has passed since the last time we saw Summer.
She's spent a year in jail.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Because of Beth Dutton, because because of who.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That's exactly right, Piper was. Summer was a sort of
a little bit of collateral damage in an elaborate scheme
of Beth's in season four and really suffered the consequences
of it. And it's it's a little ironic because Beth
starts this episode out in jail. Beth starts in season five,
episode four, out in jail. She does like one night
(28:06):
and she throws in it it's bullshit, Summer did a year.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I know. Summer's harder than she looks, you know what
I mean. She may not have red hair, but she
really is.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
She's remarkably resilient, and it's a fascinating character. And you'll
please forgive me because this is a sort of pet
fascination of mine. Is the sort of the ways in
which the narrative of the show and the story of
the show line up with and don't line up with reality,
the sort of fact of making the show who we
are as people and where that does and doesn't intersect
(28:40):
with these characters. So Summer, you know, comes into Yellowstone
like a tornado in season four. She's this this force
of nature that we're introduced to in season four. And
in practical terms, what that means is that you, Piper,
are coming into this show. You're coming into this world
that has been well established. There's a sort of whole
(29:03):
you know, it's like showing up at a new school, you.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Know, exactly as like a junior in high school, not
like as a freshman. You know, everybody knows each other,
they know each other's like fat story secrets. There's a
lot of like cafeteria talk that's already happened, and Summer
knows nothing. Like Summer decides to fuck with the Duttons
on day one, which, like you wouldn't do if you
went to this high school. You know, she picked the
wrong family exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
All the cool kids are sitting together at lunch and
Summer shows up. And what I think is amazing is
and a very distinct challenge is not only does Summer
show up in season four of this behemoth show, she
also shows up in a place of power, with a
lot of with a tremendously secure sense of self and
a sort of confidence and assertive energy. She doesn't limp
(29:51):
into her first day at school exactly like you just said.
She comes in picking fights. She comes in with a
really sort of strong moral compass and a belief system
that she that is, you know, impervious to you know,
these huge, huge forces that are attacking hers. And that
is also the case for you, obviously, for you, Piper,
(30:12):
like you joined the fourth season of this show as
a sort of newcomer to the show, but not but
as a sort of veteran and expert actor, as like
an actor with an incredible, distinct, unique, you know, impressive
career of your own prior to joining the show. So
will you just talk a little bit about your career
(30:34):
prior to Yellowstone For folks who are meeting you now
for the first time, Will you just give us a
little bit of your your background?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Sure? Sure.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I'm an actor. I'm originally from Dallas. I grew up
in New Jersey, and then I went to college for
acting in Ohio, Appalachian, Ohio, and then and now I've
been working for like twenty twenty five years. I did
a bunch of movies. Like when I was young, I
did this movie called kyote Ugly about dancing on a bar.
(31:03):
Or if you're not as old as me, maybe you
saw me in a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen
where I'm like one of a family of twelve and
Steve Martin's my dad, so cool. And I did a
show for five years called Covert Affairs where I played
a spy and we traveled all over the world. We
actually filmed in thirty five countries. So I had done
a bunch of stuff. But I had and I had
(31:24):
actually worked and I actually, you know, did a action
movie with Cole Hauser. So I knew Cole Hauser from
the old days and what a badass he is. And
so actually, in some ways he and Kelly are two
of the most he and he and Kelly are two
(31:46):
I know, I knew from stories how kind of what
an elegant gentleman Kevin Costner was. So although I'm intimidated
by his talent, I wasn't like physically afraid. Whereas if
you've never met Kell, you or cool, maybe you're like
a little bit like e. But I knew, like I'd
worked with Cole before, so I kind of knew what
(32:07):
I was getting into. So I just had Kelly to
contend with. And I love Cole Hauser man, Like we
work together on this action movie called The Cave where
we're cave explorers of the cave exploring to you, and
like in Romania, we had a real ball. I mean,
he's a real you know, he's a real Tornado. And
(32:29):
so it was fun to be around Cole again and
fun to have like a good buddy on the show
when I started out.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Oh yeah, that's crucial when you're the new kid at school,
it's amazing if somebody else transferred there first, you know
you've had Yeah, yeah, you've got your friend at the
school already.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, he's a good friend to have.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
What it also sounds like, so it sounds like you
have an incredible an incredibly varied sort of background. So
you said you were born in Dallas, You're born in Texas,
you grow up and go to school in New Jersey
and then to college in Ohio. So sort of from
the beginning you've been traveling and experiencing all these different
(33:07):
slices of life around the country.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, and I think that's also what acting is too.
They don't really prepare you for that when you're in school,
but it's really about you have to learn how to
live on the road. I mean, you know that, Like
I've lived out in my suitcase for the last ten
months of this year, so it's like you really have
to be, you know, able to take care of yourself
and like, you know, bring along your books and your
granola bars and you're tequila and I get going.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, exactly, just the essentials, granola bars and tequila. You said, wow,
Covert Affairs, you guys filmed in thirty five countries.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Yeah. That actually is where I met my husband, Stephen Kay,
who is one of the executive producers and directors of Yellowstone.
He was hired as the producing director on COVID Affairs
and on the first season we had only shot all
the like foreign shoots on Green screen, which kind of
looks like shit. And Steve was like, let's get it
(34:01):
this down to like an indie film and go to
Hong Kong and go to Istanbul and go to Buenos
Aires and Paris and Berlin and Stockholm. Like it was fun,
really fun and fun to do it together.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, what a beautiful thing. That's amazing. So it was
a sort of family that that's a really especially if
you're going to travel, Like you said, it's better to travel,
it's better to live a nomad lifestyle with somebody else,
with somebody else the center of gravity and with you. Yeah,
and what it mean. So I guess a theme that
I've returned to over and over again in this podcast
(34:34):
and just in my life for the past five years
of working on this show is that for me, working
on Yellowstone has been, more than anything else, such a
huge sort of learning experience. It's been stepping into this
life that I never would have seen otherwise. I had
never set foot in Montana, I had never set foot
in Texas. Yeah, And so we are entering these worlds
(34:56):
in the same way that perhaps Summer is on the show.
So she comes there with a very keen sense of
self already. But the thing that I really find fascinating
about the character that makes her a lot more than
just a sort of archetype or a stereotype is her
willingness to listen to and engage with the ideas that
she's presented with at the Dutton Ranch.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Yeah, I think that's what I think. John Dutton's commitment
to his ideals and his willingness to throw down for
what he believes in is kind of what they initially
connect on. And I think that's really cool. You know,
when I first met Taylor Sheridan, he and I don't
(35:40):
have all the same beliefs, but you know, we had
a beer together and talked about movies and stories and
the world and what we think is working and what
we think isn't. And I can really respect a guy
who's willing to work, not just fight for what he wants,
but work hard for what he wants. So there's a
(36:00):
lot of like talking and listening that has to happen
that's not always the train station, you know what I mean.
And so I think that's kind of what John and
Summer have in common too.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, that's that's a really smart way to put it,
and a fascinating lens through which to examine that relationship
and the way it mirrors the real life process of
working on the show, because the sort of seeming incompatibility
of people like Summer and John Dutton, which is played
for humor on the show, but it's also sort of
(36:33):
at the heart of the conflict there, you know, and
we see how it drives Beth absolutely fucking crazy. And yeah,
and part of that might be that they're very they
have a very similar commitment and passion applied to two
completely different sort of ideological like frameworks.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Totally, and I think that Ben. I think Beth and Summer,
if they could listen to each other, would get along
a lot better, you know what I mean. It's just
that John and Summer listen to each other, and Beth
just pulls the kitchen knife on somebody.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah, Beth's not quite ready to have that conversation yet
that feels like it's a testament to John's maturity. John
doesn't John doesn't get defensive, you know, he doesn't really
have anything to prove. He seems very secure in his
sense of self, whereas Beth is.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
You know, Beth pulls a kitchen knife before she knows
who you are.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
In most cases, you know, in most cases, Beth pulls
a kitchen knife, which is absolutely you know, it's what
we love about her too.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
One of the things I love about her.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, And I think a fascinating sort of you know,
mirror here is in order to make Yellowstone, a bunch
of us who come from all over the place. You know,
I grew up in Iowa and now I live in
New York City. You were born in Texas, grew up
in New Jersey, went to school in Ohio, and now
you find yourself in Montana. A bunch of us from
(37:56):
all over the place, from a lot of different backgrounds,
show up in Montana, tasked with the tremendous responsibility of
you know, telling this story. And the common ground we
often find is a shared passion, a shared commitment to craft,
(38:19):
a shared sort of appreciation and respect and willingness to listen.
And like, film sets are such a funny environment. There's
so many people from different backgrounds, with different skills, different
personality types, like the kind of personal.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Yeah, it's really collaborative art film. It's not like when
you're a pager and you can just stand there and
you can begin when you want and when you want, Like,
it's very collaborative making a TV show. But I think
one of the things that's so fortunate for us is
that we make it in Montana, and when I'd never
been to Montana until this show, and when you see
I mean, I'm a I fly fish. So when I
finally saw the bitter Root River for the first time,
(38:57):
I can really understand what people are defending and standing
up for, you know what I mean, those rivers and
that that country, that part of our country is really
rare and beautiful, and so of course people would stand
strong for something like that, whether you're Native and you're
talking about your tribal lands, or whether you're a rancher
and you're talking about your ranch. I can really understand
(39:18):
where the conflict comes from, because who wouldn't defend something
as kind of awesome as Montana? Do you fly Fish?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
No?
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Oh, come with us, bro.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I have I think I you know, it's a lifestyle.
It's a sort of comprehensive, holistic lifestyle. You're describing having
done it since you were a kid. It's too late
for me, Piper, I missed it now.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
No, no, no, I only learned to flyfish like a
few years ago, and and I did it with Greg
the first ad, not this past season, but the one before. Gilmout. Yeah,
he had rented his house on an arm of the
bitter Root River, so he invited Steven had to go
over there and work out schedule for an episode. And
(40:04):
Steve was like, we should come. It's right on the
right on the route, and so we brought our rods
and then when they finished their meeting, we took six
packs and walk. It was July by then, so you
could just put on shorts and sneakers and walk into
the river you know, you're at like thigh deep, and
tie your six pack to the tree in the river
where you're fishing, and you fish, and then when you
(40:27):
get thirsty, your beers already cold. Bro it's in the river.
So I mean then after that, I was like, wait,
where are we living on the river, But come fishing
with us. It's so fun.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
That's amazing. I think of all the characters on Yellowstone
who the audience would expect to be serious fly fishers,
You're gonna surprise them and you're gonna delight them, because
that's amazing. That also just shows something that I admire
so much. That I aspire to is to go to
(40:58):
these new places and fully immerse yourself as you're describing,
fully immerse yourself wherever you are. I think that's an
act of respect, it's an act of love for a
place to have the sort of courage and vulnerability to say,
I'm gonna fucking wade out into that river. That's a
(41:20):
beautiful It's a depth of experience. And I think something
that we're you know, a question about this lifestyle, about
this sort of nomadic lifestyle, is we get a breadth
of experience. We go to a lot of places. I've
stayed in hotels in a lot of cities. Yeah, but
what you're describing is also a depth of engagement. It's
(41:41):
a sort of meaningful, rich, full engagement with a place,
and that's beautiful. I just admire that so much. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
I think that when you do that kind of engagement,
like you know, when you fly fish, the fly that
you're putting on the line, you have to know what
time of year and what time of day it is
because the larva the like insect eggs on the surface
of the water and the bugs at different times a day.
That's how you're choosing what fly you're using, So you
(42:14):
have to go to a fly shop, and who you
really want to talk to is the old guys who've
lived there for a long time, who could say like
Terrest real season, you might want to switch to this
or Poople Haze is really hitting right now. But by
going to the fly shop and talking to the old
guys about fly fishing, yeah, you learn about fly fishing,
but even better, you learn about the old guys, you know,
and they're saying like, well, we you know, we get
(42:35):
our game processed at this place, or we get our
beer over here, or you know what I mean, Like, oh, well,
there's a fundreds are for the school fairs. It's going
to happen on the rodeo grounds. Like that's how you
kind of get into the community, is like some activity
that the place is known for, or at least that's how.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
I get in. That That is truly remarkable, And I
forgive me for once again commenting that what you're describing
there is also sort of the kind of openness and
willingness to engage that Summer exhibits in her, sort of
willingness to listen to John Dutton, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. I really want you to come
fly fishing with us next season.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
I will fuck it up. You'll the sort of beautiful
trenk you're describing, I'm gonna it's all I've ever done
is ruin. People are so nice to me, they say, oh,
come along and you know, have a good time. And
all I ever do is fuck up somebody's perfectly pleasant afternoon.
So I'll spare you that.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
Have you ever read that book A River runs through it?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah, yeah, I read it in Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Any Yellowstone fan that's like between seasons that needs a
like a taste. I feel like that's like a good
hold you over. But once you read that book, I
don't know how you could not fly fish.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Okay, we're gonna step aside real quick, so don't go away.
We'll be right back to step away from the show
for a minute. Will you just tell you is there
anything you've learned or experienced through your time in Montana
(44:13):
that's become important to you? Like, how has you know
we've we endeavor not to change the state in our
participation there, How has the state changed you?
Speaker 3 (44:22):
There are two big ways. One is I was really
unaware of the Indigenous communities and the Native communities in
that part of the country. And Moe brins Planny, who's
on the show with us, he is the liaison between
Yellowstone and the Native communities in Montana, and so being
a friend of his is a fast way to sort
(44:44):
of learn about all that's going on and you know,
how we interact and with those communities. And then also
I didn't know about cutting on horseback, you know, that
was I knew how to ride Western, but I had
never even heard the word cutting. And so Jay Greens
was in the bunk house is also great you know,
(45:06):
horseman rider, and so he started teaching me the season
in Utah, I think that I went. I might even
even been before I started. He started teaching me how
to cut and that kind of work working horseback riding
I didn't really know anything about. And I think that's
really cool. So like when we were all down in
(45:26):
Texas for the reshoots and we were with at Taylor's place,
just like hearing people talk about cutting and the roper
boots and like there's just like a whole language of
working cowboys that doesn't always get into the full you know,
like in a show that's less accurate than Yellowstone. They
don't really get into all the like Yellowstone does get
(45:49):
into all that because Taylor wants it to be so authentic.
But I think until Yellowstone, I hadn't heard all these
words about a work how cowboys really work. It was
like guitars and like there's sleeping with like a pot
of beans, but I don't really know like what they did.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
I do sleep with a pot of beans every night
as part of my process.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
These cowboys like all have a guitar and then they're
all like heating up a pot of beans and then
they're like by themselves, yeah, and the stars and they're
crying and they like sleep on their coat.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
And I was like, that's beautiful too. I think that's
I'm an option what you just said? Uh yeah. And
it's funny because Taylor talks about how he Taylor. You know,
there there is a lot of minutia in the show.
There's a lot of these sort of details about this
world that a lot of people, myself included, we're not
familiar with prior to Yellowstone. One thing I admire about
Taylor is that he also writes it from an insider's perspective.
(46:39):
There's not a ton of explanation. You'll see something happening,
and he's writing it for the folks that already know
what's happening. Like Taylor is writing these jokes and these
sort of and you know, he's exploring this world, the
cutting horse world, the reining world, performance horses, cow horses, roping, wrangling, rodeo.
He is exploring that from inside of it, as opposed
(47:03):
to starting from the outside. You know, it's not it's
not necessarily an initiation in the way he's writing it.
He's writing it as an expert, you know.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah, he it's almost like he's writing it for his
at his level, and you're welcome to follow along if
you can keep up. Yeah, which least I prefer that
in a way as an audience well and.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
As a participant. Yeah, it's a very fun thing to
be treated like an expert. He's writing it for experts,
and so you go, oh shit, I better figure it out.
And that's our you know, our characters, both your character
and mine, started on this show as outsiders, you know,
outside of I.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Remember when they taped you to the saddle.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, and just throughout, like for the last five years,
there's been so many things I'll read the script and
I'll be like, oh, man, I'm I think I'm supposed
to know what the fuck that means. There's so many
names in the script. There's somebody like pieces of like horse,
you know, various horse, you know, periphera like put like
little bits. Yeah, that I'm supposed to understand what they mean,
and I'm still I'm still catching it up to it
(48:00):
Yeah exactly, So, So yeah, amazing. I mean, what an
incredible thing. I'm also amazed to hear that you're of
all the people in the cast who would the audience
might expect to have gotten into cutting and to be
sort of practicing like in this kind of you are
somebody who, even though that's not necessarily asked a view
on the show, it's so clear that you have chosen
(48:23):
to like dig deep into this stuff and sort of
learn as much as you can about this world. And
I think that's incredibly admirable. So, Piper, when did you
first meet Taylor Sheridan? How did you come to work
on the show? Talk us through talk us through that?
Speaker 3 (48:42):
So it's sort of a little bit round about, but
my husband Stephen k who you know who, who's an
EP on the show and also directs a bunch away.
He's running and hold on.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Guest, this is like w WE. It's like there's a
fight going on. And oh wait a second, that's Stephen
Kay's intro music. Boom, You're coming down the ramp. It's weird, Steven.
I hope you'll join us. I hope you'll join us
sometime to talk about your experience of all this and
(49:16):
contradict Kuiper's experience.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
It's creepy that you wouldn't have invited me, but.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
The producers, the producers have tried to keep you away
from this for so long. I've been fighting to get
you on the show. The producers. I think you're a
live wire.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, yeah, you are a live wire. That's actually true.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
My man is baking a gluten free pie right now.
If that's not you know, anarchic chaos, I don't know
what is.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
For all the kids. This is a little something for
the kids. Yeah all right, brother, But I'm letting you
guys talk. I don't want to, you know, horn in
on her your time.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
It's great to hear from you. Man. Well, we'll get
you in another time or now that he's gone, Piper,
Now he's gone.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
He he He directed Taylor wait boo? Was it Sons
or a Shield? He directed Steven my husband, directed Taylor
Sheridan in Sons of Anarchy when Taylor was an actor,
and they became, oh, I've got to come up. And
so they became friends. And when Taylor started writing, actually
(50:36):
Stephen read an early draft of Hell or High Water
when it was called Comancheria, and they started hi about writing.
And so then Stephen came in to direct in season two.
And I think the reason Taylor trusted him, it's just
my guest, but because he knew Stephen already as a director.
And uh, anyway, so that's how it starts. And then
(50:57):
and even though they're different, they're kind of similar learn
a way too, you know, the kind of old school
dude's old school men. And then and then I came
to visit Stephen in Utah when you guys were filming,
and Taylor and Nick had us over the house for dinner.
And I had just been arrested in DC for protesting
(51:21):
the nomination of Brett cavan On to the Supreme Court.
I went, I interrupted Chuck Grassley in the Senate Judiciary
hearing and protest like there was like three hundred women
that day that were all you can sit in a
Senate Judiciary hearing, you can sit for like ten minutes,
and then the next twenty people online like the twenty
people are it's not that big of a hearing room,
So twenty people are ushered out, and then twenty more
(51:43):
people get to sit in and listen to the hearing.
And so all these women, who mostly women who didn't
want Kavin on the Supreme Court, had organized to get online.
And so I was. I had been online like since
before pre dawn, waiting and and then you stand up
and you start saying why you oppose the nomination, and
(52:04):
you're arrested for civil disobedience. And I was arrested with
hundreds of women that day, but that had just happened.
And then I flew to Utah to have dinner with
Stephen and Nick and Taylor, and it came up at
dinner and Taylor was like, wait what And I started saying, oh,
I was arrested in civil disobedience and he was like
(52:24):
go through the whole thing, like who calls you to
go there? Like what's your goal? What's the security? Like
what kind of jail? How much what's the bail? Like
he wanted all of a sudden the writer was there,
you know, and he like, dinner kind of screeches to
a halt, and he's got eight hundred questions about when
you're arrested in a city in America on civil disobedience
(52:46):
and so and then he was like, I'm in politics
and fucking DC and you know, he gets like on
his check. But it was cool. And even though I
don't know how he feels about Kavanaugh, that didn't come up.
He was more interested in kind of the story of it,
and then about I don't know, like a month or
so later, he said to Stephen, I'm going to write
(53:07):
her a part about a woman who gets arrested for protest.
And that's where Summer came from.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Wow, so you actually got arrested as part of a
protest action, went to Utah, had dinner with Taylor. You guys.
He dug into the details of it, and then created
the role of Summer based around a sort of similar
experience a woman being arrested for a protest action. Right.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
It was cool because actually that was the first time
I'd ever been arrested. First of all, disobedience and so
I knew all that stuff because I was so nervous
to get arrested, Like I wrote Steven's number on my
arm and sharpie in case they took everything, Like how
do I get you know, how do I what if
I get scared? I can't remember my husbands one of heer.
I had bail money cash in one pocket and then
(53:53):
bail money in case somebody else didn't have money in
the other pocket, and like the cell phone, the battery,
my number because they take almost everything, you know, and
I mighty, but I was really I'm like a girl scout,
you know. I was like really prepared to get arrested.
And so Taylor was really into that.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
That's amazing. What what tremendous courage and then also what
a sort of incredible seed for this character and what
it also like incredibly sort of you know, Summer has
been I have no doubt that some people listening to
this as you know, big fans of Beth. You know,
maybe maybe.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
People are not fans of Summer. I know they're not.
And like I sort of admire Tailor even more because
you know that a lot of the Yellowstone crowd is
gonna be likes this bitch. You know what I mean
this like coastal environmentalist blah blah blah. But also it's like,
you know, Yellowstone needs conflict. That's what makes it so
good is all the warring factions. And and because I
(54:55):
really care about our civil rights, our right to vote,
writes a bodily autonomy, writes a marriage. It's so fun
that a great American writer wrote me the part of
an activist, Like that's the only time it's ever done that,
you know, and come together like that fun.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
That's Brad. It's incredible. And it also I think it's
incredible a thing of Tailor's which is that you know,
he writes these characters that maybe could be easily dismissed
under certain circumpry, or some percentage of the audience almost
wants to easily dismiss. They want to say exactly what
you just said, Oh, this lady from the coast this
(55:36):
you know, she's comment in here, what does she know?
Or a character like for instance, Rainwater in season one,
who the audience might have wanted to conveniently easily dismiss.
And then Taylor sticks with these characters. Over time, they
grow more and more complicated. You come to see their perspective.
The characters themselves are listening and learning and sort of
(55:58):
it really helps, I think, challenge the kind of good
guy bad guy paradigm that is so reductive, and it
helps to make all of these characters. I think that
Summer's role on the show. Summer has herself, you know,
our relationship to her has grown and changed and will
continue to grow and change. But she also helps. She's
(56:20):
changed John Dutton, She's changed Beth. Like coming into contact
with these people with differing viewpoints, differing ideologies, differing experiences,
coming into contact with them gives everybody an opportunity to
grow and learn and sort of become more complicated than
just these cardboard cutout black and white very easily dismissed
(56:43):
good guys and bad guys.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
You know, yeah, I think that's so cool, and like
that's like, you know, maybe what we could do as
a nation.
Speaker 1 (56:53):
One hundred percent listen to each other. If John Dutton
and Summer can listen to each other can find some
common ground, then so can we. You know, if people
from such a Summer can.
Speaker 3 (57:04):
Have a one night stand, maybe all the.
Speaker 1 (57:06):
Stand, that's what America needs. America needs to have a
one big, messy one night stand.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
I'm big one night stand. Yeah, nobody else cares on
the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
Then exactly, relax, get a little bit of attention now.
And also, I think, you know, as as the season
moves forward, I'm very excited for the audience to get
to see more of summer. It feels like the episode
we've just seen, episode four is a little sneak peak
of what's to come.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
So it's just the beginning. It's just the beginning, and
I can't I know, I'm not allowed to say what happens,
but it gets so hardcore. I mean, people are going
to go not Stuard. It's so out of control. I
literally sent a picture to my mom after one day
of shooting and I'm like, I can't tell you everything,
(57:54):
but this is happening. And I was like, oh my god,
like so so crazy. What happens?
Speaker 1 (58:00):
Mom? It gets it gets intense, Mom, just keep getting
prepare yourself. I also, you know, cover your eyes, Mom.
I have to warn anytime some shit happens to Jimmy.
I have to warn my whole family really explicitly. I
have to be like, okay, but you know, I don't
know a bit about you. I'm always playing these characters
who generally speaking, deserve to get the shit kicked out
(58:20):
of them, and then do so. My poor grandma, it's
like she's got My grandma has seen everything conceivably bad
happen to me. She's watched me get stabbed, like thrown
off cliffs, exploded, shot. Sorry, grandma, my grandma.
Speaker 3 (58:36):
My grandma was not with the funny war. But my grandma.
I when I had an episode of television come on,
she would invite like her older lady friends to come
over to watch the show. And she can't remember everything,
but I would call her like half an hour before
the show comes on the air, and I'll be like, okay,
so this is the bad guy. This is like the
guy I'm gonna have an affair with, this is the criminal.
(58:57):
And so she would like be like, okay, I got it.
And then she liked to watch the show with her friends.
When some character comes to well, I wouldn't trust him
because she likes to know everything.
Speaker 1 (59:07):
Oh my god, you were feeding or you were feeding
or the inside info. That's incredibly the insider. It's so cute,
that's so funny.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
It must be so hard to do this podcast and
know all the secrets and like not slip.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
You know what's what makes it a lot easier. Never
setting foot in Montana one time this whole season, you know,
it really makes it a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (59:33):
That's crazy, that's crazy, that's right.
Speaker 1 (59:37):
Yeah, yeah, it's been way easier to keep the keep
a handle on the spoilers. When Jimmy is you.
Speaker 3 (59:43):
Didn't see it, you didn't see it go down.
Speaker 1 (59:45):
I didn't see it go down.
Speaker 3 (59:46):
Crazy shit goes down this season so great, I mean crazy.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
I think that's an amazing place to leave it. I
think that's an amazing place to uh, to tease our audience.
There is some amazing shit going down. Piper. I am
so grateful for your time. We all are.
Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
Thank you so much. Thanks for talking with me. It
was really fun. What I'm going to make you come
fly fish with me?
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
I will, yeah, I'll ruin at least one perfectly pleasant afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
You bring the six pack and nothing, I'll be ruined.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
As always, we appreciate you spending time with us here.
It is such an honor. We love talking to you,
we love hearing from you. This whole thing is kind
of an extension of conversations that we see you having
on social media, so make sure you subscribe so you
never miss a new episode of the Official Yellowstone Podcast.
You can listen to the Official Yellowstone Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(01:00:48):
wherever you get your podcasts, m
Hey guys, how you doing. Welcome back to the Official
Yellowstone Podcast. I hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving. I
hope you got to spend it with family. I hope
it wasn't quite as contentious as dinner around the Dutton
dinner table. I hope it was a little more peaceful,
less stuff was thrown. I am so glad that you
(00:33):
are able to join us again season five of Yellowstone.
It's getting crazy already, it's getting nuts, it's getting explosive,
and we have an awesome show for you today. So
stay right there and we'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Jen.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How was your Thanksgiving? Where'd you spend it?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
I spent my Thanksgiving in Texas. We were out here
for reasons, you know, maybe show related, maybe not, and
I ended up staying out here. I have acquired a camper, Jeff.
I am very excited about the camper. So I was
here getting the campers sort of fixed up, and I
hung out with my buddy Lindyed, who needed an extra hand.
(01:27):
So that's what I did. What about you, Jeff, I
feel like you had an eventful one.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
I had an eventful one, but I just want to
I want to dig in real quick. Here, so tell
us about your buddy Lindy, because Lindy is a bit
of a legend.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's right, Jeff, thank you so much for starting what
I planned to start, which is basically a promo to
get her on the show. So Lindy, Lindy Birch is
Anybody who knows the cutting horse world knows Lindy Birch.
She's one of the best cutting horse trainers of all time.
I cannot give the list of the things that she
(02:01):
has accomplished because there are so many.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
She's amazing. She's really a walking, living, breathing legend. Yeah,
she's still competing, is that right.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
She's still competing and at an incredibly high level. She
has no interest in stopping. And she's really one of
the most inspiring, inspiring people I've ever met. And I
can't I can't wait for her to listen to this
episode when it airs, so Spot you can't cut any
(02:31):
of this.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Out She's got. She's also an incredible contradiction because she's
got the sort of rough, rough and tough edges of
a teeter, but also the incredible sort of kindness, generosity, refinement,
and sort of elegance of some of them. More verbally
verbally capable Yellowstone character.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
That's correct.
Speaker 4 (02:54):
She refinement is the word.
Speaker 2 (02:56):
I mean. She's incredibly she she's a voracious reader, and
her taste in wine is so expensive that I will
never be able to purchase her wine as a gift.
I thought thirty dollars was very expensive for a bottle
(03:18):
of wine. That was like, I'm really gonna splurge here, and.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Yeah, I want to impress the people at this party.
I'm going to show up with a thirty dollars bottle
of wine. That's exactly how I feel.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Oh no, I don't give thirty dollars bottles of wine away.
I give like twelve dollars bottles of wine away myself.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
The thirty dollars bottles of wine.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
That's for mama's superstash.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
And then drink the whole thing over the course of
an evening and start talking to my television. She yeah, yeah,
she would never touch a thirty dollars bottle of wine.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
Listen. Also, one thing I just want to I want
to check out real quick that you buzzed past when
I asked you how your Thanksgiving was. Is you've got
a camper, You've got an RV talk us through.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
It, okay, So how this all came about is we
were shooting Yellowstone and you weren't there. And by the way,
no more jokes about how it was so much better
without you. It was very sad without you. And the
audience is sad. Everyone's sad. And there was a lightning
storm and for people who don't know, when there's lightning,
(04:16):
you can't shoot for like a half hour from that
moment of lightning.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
So we were on hold basically.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
And because we're shooting out on this ranch, you're not
allowed to walk from one place to the other because
you can get electrocuted. So I was stuck with Bingham
in his car, which isn't a horrible place to be,
and I was tired. It was late at night, and
he goes, why don't you go get in the camper
that he has on the back of the truck, And
I thought, no, I'll get a little claustrophobic. And I
went back there and it is the coolest thing I've
ever seen.
Speaker 4 (04:44):
It is absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
It's made by Capri campers, and so I started working
with the guy who owns Capri, who is the nicest
guy in the world. They custom build all of these things.
Speaker 4 (04:57):
And I'm a.
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Huge road tripper, and now I can I can live
out my dreams of sleeping in my car.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
This is incredible, this nomad lifestyle, because this is it.
It's kind of you know, it's interesting the more sort
of professional cowboys I talk to, the more folks that
compete in the cutting world and the reigning world and
the rodeo world. So much of this lifestyle is like
being a touring musician. You're traveling around the country to compete.
(05:28):
You're traveling around the country. There's this kind of beautiful,
sort of circus mentality. It's not so different from being
an actor, which can also be a very sort of
nomadic lifestyle. You know, So what a cool thing. You're
really embracing it.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Yeah, And I was just going to say, like Jeff,
like that nomadic lifestyle does parallel so much with actors,
and I feel like in this same way. I don't know,
this is really a question for you. I found the
more nomadic I become, the more you work, the harder
for it is for me to sort of be home.
That it sort of changes, or at least there's this
(06:03):
incredibly weird re entry period when I get back.
Speaker 4 (06:09):
Do you ever experience that, Jeff, I think.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
That means that you're like an actual sort of you know,
crazy person cowboy rodeo nomad. I think that means this
stuff is actually like in your blood, at a part
of you, because to be honest, I spend a lot
of my time on the road simultaneously very grateful to
be working, which is a miracle and a blessing, and
I feel very lucky, but also just wishing I was
(06:34):
back home because I miss my, you know, I miss
my my beautiful partner, I miss our little cat, I
miss our crumbling house in Brooklyn. Yeah. So personally I
don't quite have the call of the wild that you're expressing,
but maybe maybe one day.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
I definitely it was definitely a moment where I was
watching the Chloe'szow movie Nomad, which is amazing and for
anybody who wasn't seen it, you should see it. And
there's a great book that it Yeah, Medland Yeah, sorry sorry,
I like to get titles wrong.
Speaker 4 (07:03):
And as I was watching it, I really thought, oh,
this looks like heaven.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
H Francis McDorman. It's one of the greats.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Francis should be on our show.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Absolutely. Yeah, Francis, I feel like after the Helen Mirra
and Harrison Ford announcement, it's very fun trying to put together,
you know, pairs of Duttons for future iterations of the show.
Because Francis McDorman, you know, Matthew McConaughey, Francis McDorman, the Rock.
(07:42):
I think that's exactly right. That's a match we've all
been waiting to see you. So listen this week episode
four of season five of Yellowstone.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
Yeah, Jeff, where do you think we should start?
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Well, let's start where the episode starts, which is Beth,
Beth facing the consequences of her impetuous decisions in episode three.
So the episode opens with with Beth in.
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Jail, right sitting on the mattress. There's that great interaction
between her and the other woman in that cell that
I just I sort of, I don't know, I thought
that moment was pretty wonderful.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah, it's amazing watching Beth. You know, you find out
pretty quickly Beth kind of finds her people there are
you know, it seems sometimes like Beth wants to fight everybody,
but as she sort of you know, is a tornado
careening through life, she does bump into her people sometimes,
and it's always fun to see people that she sort
of takes a quick liking to.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
Yeah, and she also she also, I feel like she
has she has this quality where she is such a
clear She's one of the most clearly defined characters I've
ever seen on television, and yet she's entirely mercurial and
sort of we find out who she is based on
these interactions, and we'll get to it later in the episode.
(09:06):
But you know that that moment later in the episode
in the car with the little girl, you know, reflects this.
We see this other side of Beth and it changes
on a dime. And Kelly Riley also has this like
incredibly mercurial nature, which is why she's such a brilliant
actor in the first place.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Yeah, and that's what I think. That's You're exactly right
that that's also like Beth also is growing and changing
over the course of five seasons. And I think her
relationship to Carter, her relationship to Rip, her sort of
experience this season of parsing through her memories and looking
back at a long life of of you know, careening
(09:48):
from target to target, destroying everything in her path. It
really feels like this season she's examining that and you know,
nothing articulates that that one under n eighty degree switch
more than beating the shit out of this woman last night,
which gets her thrown into jail and then waking up
and having sort of a nice, pleasant, kind of you know,
pre coffee conversation with her cellmate. Yeah, so so and
(10:13):
so so Beth wakes up in jail, and then, of course,
who does it fall to to uh to rescue her
from jail? Uh the last person in the world who
wants her out of jail, the person in the world
who probably most wants her to stay in jail, right,
which is of course Jamie. Uh. So it falls to
Jamie to Uh to bail out his sister.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
I I, I mean, maybe I'm crazy here, but I
sometimes I really have a soft spot for Jamie and Uh.
I find that I find that dynamic really really fascinating
and incredibly painful.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, it's excruciating. It's watching somebody who it feels like
his whole life, he's kind of tried as hard as
he can to do right by his family, but over
and over again he wants up at odds with his father,
with his sister, you know, he he It really does
feel like he has this moral compass, this sort of
strong personal code, and he maybe does authentically have the
(11:13):
same goal as Beth, the same goal as JD, but
he approaches it from a completely different sort of tactical
perspective and that puts him at odds with them over
and over again.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I love the I don't know if it was the
cop or the sheriff or whoever. You know, he says
he saved him a lot of paperwork, which I feel
like is is something that Taylor hits on a lot
and is a theme throughout this whole episode in terms
of just like avoiding red tape or like not and
not avoiding it in a way that's like malicious, but
it's just like there's there's so much red tape that
(11:47):
gets in the way of just immediate process and I
and I think that Taylor offers up really good arguments
for and against it, and he does that with Senator
Perry at one point in the episode where you know,
you know, John fires his entire team, right we see
later in the episode, and it's sort of great. And
his whole thing about like not going to the educator's
(12:09):
luncheon because there's no educators there it's a Thursday. But
then when he sits down with Perry, she sort of
makes an argument as to why some of that stuff
does matter, you know, and kind of gives him a
lecture on you know, not a lecture, but she teaches
him a bit about temperance.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Yeah, this is a fascinating episode for John's you know,
short political career, because it feels like exactly as you're describing.
He starts by sort of ripping down this red tape
by sort of you know, undoing some of what he
might describe as administrative bloat, you know, him and Clara
sort of cutting a swath through the many hangers on
(12:47):
attached to the office of the governor. And then he
has this really yeah, this beautiful conversation with you know,
I think Governor Perry is maybe the only politician that
John would ever listen to. Like. Governor Perry is the
only politician that John is willing to sit down with
and can actually sort of get through to him. And
she says to him, she says this, this this governorship
(13:12):
is as much your legacy as the ranch is, right,
And that feels like a really interesting moment and a
bit of a transition and a change in the way
that John is looking at this. It seemed, you know,
in episode one of this season, John says, Hey, the
only thing that matters every decision we're going to make,
we're going to make on the basis of protecting our ranch,
(13:33):
you know, which is like the definition of political corruption.
He's like, Hey, I'm the governor, and all I care
about is my own property.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
No, and she throws on this thing to like that
ties into that where she says, you know, it comes
up whether or not he can you know that basically
he can pardon Beth, that now that you know he's
had Hancho, there are a lot of things that he
can do, but that it would be political suicide. And
(14:02):
it feels like a potential promise of problems to come,
because we know that the Duttons do get themselves in
quite a bit of hot water. That that is something
that could be very helpful for his family, But in
a way, it would be the end, you know, of
(14:24):
his of his legitimacy, And I don't My sense is
that John probably doesn't give a crap about his political career,
but I do think that he cares about things and
people and Montana.
Speaker 4 (14:37):
And and I do think that the Dutton name means.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Something, you know, not to get too crucible, but his name,
you know, the honor of his name.
Speaker 1 (14:46):
Absolutely, yeah, and the land itself. It feels like this
is an episode where he's starting his he's recognizing that
his responsibility broadens beyond just his own ranch, and he
has a responsibility to the ranches that surround his, to
the sort of citizens of Montana, to the land of
the state itself. And that's a fascinating question for John
(15:08):
since the beginning of the show is who does he
have a responsibility to? Is it just his kids? Is
it just his kids and his grandkids? But along the way,
we've seen him go out of his way to help
the people around him, to sort of stand up for
and protect this way of life. It's funny you say
that the Duttons have a way of getting into hot water.
It's really like hot water kind of seems like Beth's
(15:29):
natural habitat. Yes, you know, like Beth kind of thrives
in hot water. So it is fun to see, as usual,
his children careening about creating these issues that he's going
to have to decide whether he'll use his political office
to save them or various other means. You know. So John,
as he listens and sort of absorbs wisdom from Governor Perry,
(15:53):
he's also got this incredible This is an episode where
so Casey and Monica's son, newborn son, is buried in
this episode, and that plotline has been so you know, challenging, painful.
It's been obviously a real crucible four Casey and Monica,
but also there's a ripple effect, you know, I think
(16:15):
all the characters close to them are feeling the effects
of this, and Monica particularly, you know, Monica and John
have had such a contentious relationship over five seasons. Now
there's this beautiful conversation between Monica and John which feels
like maybe for the first time, they're connecting in a
(16:36):
more sort of instinctual, kind of human animal level. And
John says to Monica about her son, her departed son,
all he saw of this planet was you, and all
he knew was you loved him.
Speaker 2 (16:51):
That made me cry that, I mean, even you just
saying it, I got a little overclumped.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
It.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
That was like, I mean, that's an example of like
just Taylor at his best always, you know, just he
gets to the heart of things in such a profound
way and tying into that, he also shares this like
sort of sentiment, which is so true.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
I think the.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
I forget which character says it, but that grief isn't
you know, that grief isn't meant to be shared. And
there's a few there's a sort of theme that runs
on in this in the episode, which is how isolating
grief is, you know, even if a bunch of people
lose the same person. And I can speak from my
own experience, like having lost somebody incredibly close to me,
you know, when I was very young and having family,
(17:43):
we all grieved this person, but it was it was
so isolating. There's and and I remember feeling that astutely
as a kid, that grief is a totally solo experience
and that celebration is a group experience. And Taylor, you know,
Taylor says comfort, you know, he talks about using comfort
(18:08):
and and I thought that was really beautiful.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, it's another example of the way the show will
kind of sore up to these lofty heights, these situations
context they're so complicated as to be unrelatable, you know,
John's the governor of Montana, trying to save his billion
dollar ranch. But then it also takes you down to
these the thing that is so fundamental to the human
(18:35):
experience loss change, Like that's something that everybody watching the
show relates to, all of us making the show. Yeah,
there's this kind of fundamental, deep down in your heart
sort of feeling that that this writing and you know
that this story also really taps into I found myself
very affected by it as well.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Absolutely, And the same way that like Taylor hits on
this theme of like let's just call it cutting through
the bullshit. You know, whenever he when he hits these
moments that you just talked about, it also reminds you
that the other stuff is bullshit. He's cutting through bullshit
on so many levels. And also like, if you know
(19:17):
Taylor is a person, he is somebody who cuts through bullshit,
like you know, there's there's no artifice there.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
And but those.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Again we talked about that moment in the hospital sort
of cutting through you know, showing you what your priorities are,
you know, the moment in the hospital with Monic at
the end of the episode before and then this.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, yeah, very very powerful affecting sequence, and then you know,
you always know what Taylor, The highs are always going
to be followed by brutal lows, but then after the lows,
he usually gives you a nice pickup. So I love
how this episode. This episode ends with John, you know,
(20:03):
exhibiting some really class A one political corruption and basically
releasing Summer from jail into his own custody.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Where then Beth has a run in with her I
believe in the kitchen as she's like, which is just
like a fun and fabulous moment filled with zingers.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, those two actors are so fun. We got to
talk to Piper a little bit this week, but it's
so fun. I love those scenes with Beth in Summer.
And this episode also promises a lot more to come
because Summer being out of jail and staying at the house,
yes means you know that those two are going to
be butting heads.
Speaker 4 (20:47):
So in this episode, there's this big hole sequence which
it's when.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
We're pushing cows. There's a sequence where we're pushing cows
down the road. There's cars sort of stopped in the middle.
We're going to go help a rancher with his branding
and This honestly should be another episode for another day.
That was about a fourteen hour day maybe more. In Wisdom, Montana.
We had one hundred and fifty pairs, so we had
(21:16):
three hundred cattle. Those were cows that needed to be branded, tagged, castrated,
and vaccine inoculated.
Speaker 4 (21:26):
Right, all of that happened. It was a huge epic.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Day in one of and Wisdom, Montana is one of
the most beautiful places in the world that will never
be become trendy the way Joshua Tree or Martha has
because the elements are brutal.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
Yeah, what an incredible was this? Was this your first
time branding.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
I had I've been to a branding before. I have
some friends who have a ranch in Mexico and I
sort of kind of stood by an helped out with
that because I wanted to get a sense for that.
Speaker 4 (22:02):
We were we were branding.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
Full grown cows that time, and this this was my
first time branding though, And it was actually my first
time healing and dragging the cows, so it was my
first time healing too. And fun fact, I did I
knew that we would be branding for real. I did
not know that we would be tagging and castrating for real,
and these were cows. Again, just to make it clear
(22:28):
to the audience and to Peta, these were animals that
needed to have this happen. We had professionals there doing
the heavy working, like the castration.
Speaker 4 (22:35):
But we roll on. Take one.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I have flanked that calf to the ground, so you
know it's uh, it's balls are near my eyes and uh,
all of a sudden, I see balls flying, testicles flying
through the air and and a look of shock and
maybe awe was on my face.
Speaker 1 (22:57):
And yeah, and you're describing them, I'm you're using a
lot of terms that are a little bit inside baseball
as a sort of as a person who's now spent
you know, five years really digging into this and has
friends who have a ranch in Mexico. So I'm just
going to do a little cowboy glossary for you real quick.
So healing means you're up on a horse, you take
a lasso, throw it and catch the back two feet
(23:20):
of a cow. In this case, a calf dragging means
you then pull that rope taut and your horse walks
away from the calf such that it's pulled to the
ground and sort of tugged along by your by your
horse kind of it's sort of stretched out on the ground.
Flanking means a couple of cowboys grab that little calf
(23:42):
who isn't so little, weighs, you know, two hundred two
hundred and fifty pounds and sort of do a kind
of tag team jiu jitsu move where you flip it
to the ground and pin its legs. It's a very
it's an extremely sort of mixed martial arts style of movement.
So that's healing, dragging and flanking. And then you actually,
(24:04):
I think you dug into the literal cast rating pretty accurately.
Insufficient detail.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
I like to lead into that, Taylor writes in the script.
And it is true that the whole thing happens. You know,
they are branded, castrated, and vaccinated in about fifteen seconds.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
And that is true.
Speaker 1 (24:26):
And it's a well oiled machine.
Speaker 4 (24:28):
It's super it's super fast.
Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yes, yeah, it's a pretty remarkable thing to witness. And
these guys, these cowboys that do this, you know who
we do it alongside, have done this their whole lives.
You know, this is something that when we were down,
I went down and helped with the branding at the
sixes in the spring and guys, you bring out your
nine year old kids, you know, who are going to
(24:52):
flank for the first time six year olds. People. This
is a sort of tradition. It's a part of this
way of life that people have been doing for more
than one hundred years. You know, this is a particularly
you know, the science has changed and improved in some ways.
They're being inoculated with, you know, incredibly advanced veterinary science
to protect them against disease and keep these cows healthy.
A lot of what you're doing this for is to
(25:12):
keep these cows healthy as they age and get older.
And it's also really it's you know, it's the definition
of free range cattle. They live most of their lives
just out in these massive pastures, but every now and then, yeah,
every now and then you got to go grab them
and uh and give them some medicine. Yeah, And people
have been doing that for like one hundred and fifty
eight years or longer.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
And for the people who bucked at it when they like,
when I talk to them about, you know, what we
were doing, and you know, I was like, would you
rather the cows live indoors in small, little filthy you
know pens that they can't move around in like this
is this is it's momentary discomfort for sort of a
really a healthier, better way of life.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, it's a really it's very it's funny, it's a
it's both extremely advanced veterinary technology and it at the
end of the day boils down to grabbing a two
hundred and fifty pound calf and trying to wrestle it
onto the ground, which is boy, let me tell you,
if all goes well, it's a well oiled machine of those.
(26:17):
If one of those little guys gets back up on
his feet at the wrong time, it gets MESSI real fast.
So this episode, yeah, a lot of cowboy shit, a
lot of pretty incredible cowboy shit, which is very, very
exciting to see. Also the reintroduction of our dear friend
Piper Perabou as Summer and I actually had the opportunity
(26:38):
to chop it up with Piper a little bit before
we get into all of that. We're going to step
aside really fast, so don't go away. We feel so
so so lucky to have with us, to have with
(26:58):
us in the house today. You know her as Summer
Higgins on Yellowstone as long as many other characters through
a long, storied, fascinating career that I can't wait to
dig into. Thank you so, so so much for being here.
We're here with Piper Paraboll. How you doing, Hi, Jack good?
How are you great? I feel so honored. Thank you
(27:18):
so much for joining us.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
That's so nice of you to say, it's so nice
to be here.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
So episode season five, episode four, we get the triumphant
return of Summer. It's been a year, you know, a
year has passed since the last time we saw Summer.
She's spent a year in jail.
Speaker 3 (27:39):
Because of Beth Dutton, because because of who.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
That's exactly right, Piper was. Summer was a sort of
a little bit of collateral damage in an elaborate scheme
of Beth's in season four and really suffered the consequences
of it. And it's it's a little ironic because Beth
starts this episode out in jail. Beth starts in season five,
episode four, out in jail. She does like one night
(28:06):
and she throws in it it's bullshit, Summer did a year.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
I know. Summer's harder than she looks, you know what
I mean. She may not have red hair, but she
really is.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
She's remarkably resilient, and it's a fascinating character. And you'll
please forgive me because this is a sort of pet
fascination of mine. Is the sort of the ways in
which the narrative of the show and the story of
the show line up with and don't line up with reality,
the sort of fact of making the show who we
are as people and where that does and doesn't intersect
(28:40):
with these characters. So Summer, you know, comes into Yellowstone
like a tornado in season four. She's this this force
of nature that we're introduced to in season four. And
in practical terms, what that means is that you, Piper,
are coming into this show. You're coming into this world
that has been well established. There's a sort of whole
(29:03):
you know, it's like showing up at a new school, you.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
Know, exactly as like a junior in high school, not
like as a freshman. You know, everybody knows each other,
they know each other's like fat story secrets. There's a
lot of like cafeteria talk that's already happened, and Summer
knows nothing. Like Summer decides to fuck with the Duttons
on day one, which, like you wouldn't do if you
went to this high school. You know, she picked the
wrong family exactly.
Speaker 1 (29:26):
All the cool kids are sitting together at lunch and
Summer shows up. And what I think is amazing is
and a very distinct challenge is not only does Summer
show up in season four of this behemoth show, she
also shows up in a place of power, with a
lot of with a tremendously secure sense of self and
a sort of confidence and assertive energy. She doesn't limp
(29:51):
into her first day at school exactly like you just said.
She comes in picking fights. She comes in with a
really sort of strong moral compass and a belief system
that she that is, you know, impervious to you know,
these huge, huge forces that are attacking hers. And that
is also the case for you, obviously, for you, Piper,
(30:12):
like you joined the fourth season of this show as
a sort of newcomer to the show, but not but
as a sort of veteran and expert actor, as like
an actor with an incredible, distinct, unique, you know, impressive
career of your own prior to joining the show. So
will you just talk a little bit about your career
(30:34):
prior to Yellowstone For folks who are meeting you now
for the first time, Will you just give us a
little bit of your your background?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Sure? Sure.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
I'm an actor. I'm originally from Dallas. I grew up
in New Jersey, and then I went to college for
acting in Ohio, Appalachian, Ohio, and then and now I've
been working for like twenty twenty five years. I did
a bunch of movies. Like when I was young, I
did this movie called kyote Ugly about dancing on a bar.
(31:03):
Or if you're not as old as me, maybe you
saw me in a movie called Cheaper by the Dozen
where I'm like one of a family of twelve and
Steve Martin's my dad, so cool. And I did a
show for five years called Covert Affairs where I played
a spy and we traveled all over the world. We
actually filmed in thirty five countries. So I had done
a bunch of stuff. But I had and I had
(31:24):
actually worked and I actually, you know, did a action
movie with Cole Hauser. So I knew Cole Hauser from
the old days and what a badass he is. And
so actually, in some ways he and Kelly are two
of the most he and he and Kelly are two
(31:46):
I know, I knew from stories how kind of what
an elegant gentleman Kevin Costner was. So although I'm intimidated
by his talent, I wasn't like physically afraid. Whereas if
you've never met Kell, you or cool, maybe you're like
a little bit like e. But I knew, like I'd
worked with Cole before, so I kind of knew what
(32:07):
I was getting into. So I just had Kelly to
contend with. And I love Cole Hauser man, Like we
work together on this action movie called The Cave where
we're cave explorers of the cave exploring to you, and
like in Romania, we had a real ball. I mean,
he's a real you know, he's a real Tornado. And
(32:29):
so it was fun to be around Cole again and
fun to have like a good buddy on the show
when I started out.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
Oh yeah, that's crucial when you're the new kid at school,
it's amazing if somebody else transferred there first, you know
you've had Yeah, yeah, you've got your friend at the
school already.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
Yeah, he's a good friend to have.
Speaker 1 (32:45):
What it also sounds like, so it sounds like you
have an incredible an incredibly varied sort of background. So
you said you were born in Dallas, You're born in Texas,
you grow up and go to school in New Jersey
and then to college in Ohio. So sort of from
the beginning you've been traveling and experiencing all these different
(33:07):
slices of life around the country.
Speaker 3 (33:10):
Yeah, and I think that's also what acting is too.
They don't really prepare you for that when you're in school,
but it's really about you have to learn how to
live on the road. I mean, you know that, Like
I've lived out in my suitcase for the last ten
months of this year, so it's like you really have
to be, you know, able to take care of yourself
and like, you know, bring along your books and your
granola bars and you're tequila and I get going.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, exactly, just the essentials, granola bars and tequila. You said, wow,
Covert Affairs, you guys filmed in thirty five countries.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
Yeah. That actually is where I met my husband, Stephen Kay,
who is one of the executive producers and directors of Yellowstone.
He was hired as the producing director on COVID Affairs
and on the first season we had only shot all
the like foreign shoots on Green screen, which kind of
looks like shit. And Steve was like, let's get it
(34:01):
this down to like an indie film and go to
Hong Kong and go to Istanbul and go to Buenos
Aires and Paris and Berlin and Stockholm. Like it was fun,
really fun and fun to do it together.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Yeah, what a beautiful thing. That's amazing. So it was
a sort of family that that's a really especially if
you're going to travel, Like you said, it's better to travel,
it's better to live a nomad lifestyle with somebody else,
with somebody else the center of gravity and with you. Yeah,
and what it mean. So I guess a theme that
I've returned to over and over again in this podcast
(34:34):
and just in my life for the past five years
of working on this show is that for me, working
on Yellowstone has been, more than anything else, such a
huge sort of learning experience. It's been stepping into this
life that I never would have seen otherwise. I had
never set foot in Montana, I had never set foot
in Texas. Yeah, And so we are entering these worlds
(34:56):
in the same way that perhaps Summer is on the show.
So she comes there with a very keen sense of
self already. But the thing that I really find fascinating
about the character that makes her a lot more than
just a sort of archetype or a stereotype is her
willingness to listen to and engage with the ideas that
she's presented with at the Dutton Ranch.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
Yeah, I think that's what I think. John Dutton's commitment
to his ideals and his willingness to throw down for
what he believes in is kind of what they initially
connect on. And I think that's really cool. You know,
when I first met Taylor Sheridan, he and I don't
(35:40):
have all the same beliefs, but you know, we had
a beer together and talked about movies and stories and
the world and what we think is working and what
we think isn't. And I can really respect a guy
who's willing to work, not just fight for what he wants,
but work hard for what he wants. So there's a
(36:00):
lot of like talking and listening that has to happen
that's not always the train station, you know what I mean.
And so I think that's kind of what John and
Summer have in common too.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Yeah, that's that's a really smart way to put it,
and a fascinating lens through which to examine that relationship
and the way it mirrors the real life process of
working on the show, because the sort of seeming incompatibility
of people like Summer and John Dutton, which is played
for humor on the show, but it's also sort of
(36:33):
at the heart of the conflict there, you know, and
we see how it drives Beth absolutely fucking crazy. And yeah,
and part of that might be that they're very they
have a very similar commitment and passion applied to two
completely different sort of ideological like frameworks.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Totally, and I think that Ben. I think Beth and Summer,
if they could listen to each other, would get along
a lot better, you know what I mean. It's just
that John and Summer listen to each other, and Beth
just pulls the kitchen knife on somebody.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Yeah, Beth's not quite ready to have that conversation yet
that feels like it's a testament to John's maturity. John
doesn't John doesn't get defensive, you know, he doesn't really
have anything to prove. He seems very secure in his
sense of self, whereas Beth is.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
You know, Beth pulls a kitchen knife before she knows
who you are.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
In most cases, you know, in most cases, Beth pulls
a kitchen knife, which is absolutely you know, it's what
we love about her too.
Speaker 3 (37:34):
One of the things I love about her.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Yeah, And I think a fascinating sort of you know,
mirror here is in order to make Yellowstone, a bunch
of us who come from all over the place. You know,
I grew up in Iowa and now I live in
New York City. You were born in Texas, grew up
in New Jersey, went to school in Ohio, and now
you find yourself in Montana. A bunch of us from
(37:56):
all over the place, from a lot of different backgrounds,
show up in Montana, tasked with the tremendous responsibility of
you know, telling this story. And the common ground we
often find is a shared passion, a shared commitment to craft,
(38:19):
a shared sort of appreciation and respect and willingness to listen.
And like, film sets are such a funny environment. There's
so many people from different backgrounds, with different skills, different
personality types, like the kind of personal.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
Yeah, it's really collaborative art film. It's not like when
you're a pager and you can just stand there and
you can begin when you want and when you want, Like,
it's very collaborative making a TV show. But I think
one of the things that's so fortunate for us is
that we make it in Montana, and when I'd never
been to Montana until this show, and when you see
I mean, I'm a I fly fish. So when I
finally saw the bitter Root River for the first time,
(38:57):
I can really understand what people are defending and standing
up for, you know what I mean, those rivers and
that that country, that part of our country is really
rare and beautiful, and so of course people would stand
strong for something like that, whether you're Native and you're
talking about your tribal lands, or whether you're a rancher
and you're talking about your ranch. I can really understand
(39:18):
where the conflict comes from, because who wouldn't defend something
as kind of awesome as Montana? Do you fly Fish?
Speaker 1 (39:27):
No?
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Oh, come with us, bro.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I have I think I you know, it's a lifestyle.
It's a sort of comprehensive, holistic lifestyle. You're describing having
done it since you were a kid. It's too late
for me, Piper, I missed it now.
Speaker 3 (39:44):
No, no, no, I only learned to flyfish like a
few years ago, and and I did it with Greg
the first ad, not this past season, but the one before. Gilmout. Yeah,
he had rented his house on an arm of the
bitter Root River, so he invited Steven had to go
over there and work out schedule for an episode. And
(40:04):
Steve was like, we should come. It's right on the
right on the route, and so we brought our rods
and then when they finished their meeting, we took six
packs and walk. It was July by then, so you
could just put on shorts and sneakers and walk into
the river you know, you're at like thigh deep, and
tie your six pack to the tree in the river
where you're fishing, and you fish, and then when you
(40:27):
get thirsty, your beers already cold. Bro it's in the river.
So I mean then after that, I was like, wait,
where are we living on the river, But come fishing
with us. It's so fun.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
That's amazing. I think of all the characters on Yellowstone
who the audience would expect to be serious fly fishers,
You're gonna surprise them and you're gonna delight them, because
that's amazing. That also just shows something that I admire
so much. That I aspire to is to go to
(40:58):
these new places and fully immerse yourself as you're describing,
fully immerse yourself wherever you are. I think that's an
act of respect, it's an act of love for a
place to have the sort of courage and vulnerability to say,
I'm gonna fucking wade out into that river. That's a
(41:20):
beautiful It's a depth of experience. And I think something
that we're you know, a question about this lifestyle, about
this sort of nomadic lifestyle, is we get a breadth
of experience. We go to a lot of places. I've
stayed in hotels in a lot of cities. Yeah, but
what you're describing is also a depth of engagement. It's
(41:41):
a sort of meaningful, rich, full engagement with a place,
and that's beautiful. I just admire that so much. Thanks.
Speaker 3 (41:52):
I think that when you do that kind of engagement,
like you know, when you fly fish, the fly that
you're putting on the line, you have to know what
time of year and what time of day it is
because the larva the like insect eggs on the surface
of the water and the bugs at different times a day.
That's how you're choosing what fly you're using, So you
(42:14):
have to go to a fly shop, and who you
really want to talk to is the old guys who've
lived there for a long time, who could say like
Terrest real season, you might want to switch to this
or Poople Haze is really hitting right now. But by
going to the fly shop and talking to the old
guys about fly fishing, yeah, you learn about fly fishing,
but even better, you learn about the old guys, you know,
and they're saying like, well, we you know, we get
(42:35):
our game processed at this place, or we get our
beer over here, or you know what I mean, Like, oh, well,
there's a fundreds are for the school fairs. It's going
to happen on the rodeo grounds. Like that's how you
kind of get into the community, is like some activity
that the place is known for, or at least that's how.
Speaker 1 (42:50):
I get in. That That is truly remarkable, And I
forgive me for once again commenting that what you're describing
there is also sort of the kind of openness and
willingness to engage that Summer exhibits in her, sort of
willingness to listen to John Dutton, right, yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Yeah, yeah, totally, totally. I really want you to come
fly fishing with us next season.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
I will fuck it up. You'll the sort of beautiful
trenk you're describing, I'm gonna it's all I've ever done
is ruin. People are so nice to me, they say, oh,
come along and you know, have a good time. And
all I ever do is fuck up somebody's perfectly pleasant afternoon.
So I'll spare you that.
Speaker 3 (43:33):
Have you ever read that book A River runs through it?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Yeah, yeah, I read it in Yeah yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Any Yellowstone fan that's like between seasons that needs a
like a taste. I feel like that's like a good
hold you over. But once you read that book, I
don't know how you could not fly fish.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
Okay, we're gonna step aside real quick, so don't go away.
We'll be right back to step away from the show
for a minute. Will you just tell you is there
anything you've learned or experienced through your time in Montana
(44:13):
that's become important to you? Like, how has you know
we've we endeavor not to change the state in our
participation there, How has the state changed you?
Speaker 3 (44:22):
There are two big ways. One is I was really
unaware of the Indigenous communities and the Native communities in
that part of the country. And Moe brins Planny, who's
on the show with us, he is the liaison between
Yellowstone and the Native communities in Montana, and so being
a friend of his is a fast way to sort
(44:44):
of learn about all that's going on and you know,
how we interact and with those communities. And then also
I didn't know about cutting on horseback, you know, that
was I knew how to ride Western, but I had
never even heard the word cutting. And so Jay Greens
was in the bunk house is also great you know,
(45:06):
horseman rider, and so he started teaching me the season
in Utah, I think that I went. I might even
even been before I started. He started teaching me how
to cut and that kind of work working horseback riding
I didn't really know anything about. And I think that's
really cool. So like when we were all down in
(45:26):
Texas for the reshoots and we were with at Taylor's place,
just like hearing people talk about cutting and the roper
boots and like there's just like a whole language of
working cowboys that doesn't always get into the full you know,
like in a show that's less accurate than Yellowstone. They
don't really get into all the like Yellowstone does get
(45:49):
into all that because Taylor wants it to be so authentic.
But I think until Yellowstone, I hadn't heard all these
words about a work how cowboys really work. It was
like guitars and like there's sleeping with like a pot
of beans, but I don't really know like what they did.
Speaker 1 (46:03):
I do sleep with a pot of beans every night
as part of my process.
Speaker 3 (46:07):
These cowboys like all have a guitar and then they're
all like heating up a pot of beans and then
they're like by themselves, yeah, and the stars and they're
crying and they like sleep on their coat.
Speaker 1 (46:16):
And I was like, that's beautiful too. I think that's
I'm an option what you just said? Uh yeah. And
it's funny because Taylor talks about how he Taylor. You know,
there there is a lot of minutia in the show.
There's a lot of these sort of details about this
world that a lot of people, myself included, we're not
familiar with prior to Yellowstone. One thing I admire about
Taylor is that he also writes it from an insider's perspective.
(46:39):
There's not a ton of explanation. You'll see something happening,
and he's writing it for the folks that already know
what's happening. Like Taylor is writing these jokes and these
sort of and you know, he's exploring this world, the
cutting horse world, the reining world, performance horses, cow horses, roping, wrangling, rodeo.
He is exploring that from inside of it, as opposed
(47:03):
to starting from the outside. You know, it's not it's
not necessarily an initiation in the way he's writing it.
He's writing it as an expert, you know.
Speaker 3 (47:11):
Yeah, he it's almost like he's writing it for his
at his level, and you're welcome to follow along if
you can keep up. Yeah, which least I prefer that
in a way as an audience well and.
Speaker 1 (47:23):
As a participant. Yeah, it's a very fun thing to
be treated like an expert. He's writing it for experts,
and so you go, oh shit, I better figure it out.
And that's our you know, our characters, both your character
and mine, started on this show as outsiders, you know,
outside of I.
Speaker 3 (47:36):
Remember when they taped you to the saddle.
Speaker 1 (47:38):
Yeah, and just throughout, like for the last five years,
there's been so many things I'll read the script and
I'll be like, oh, man, I'm I think I'm supposed
to know what the fuck that means. There's so many
names in the script. There's somebody like pieces of like horse,
you know, various horse, you know, periphera like put like
little bits. Yeah, that I'm supposed to understand what they mean,
and I'm still I'm still catching it up to it
(48:00):
Yeah exactly, So, So yeah, amazing. I mean, what an
incredible thing. I'm also amazed to hear that you're of
all the people in the cast who would the audience
might expect to have gotten into cutting and to be
sort of practicing like in this kind of you are
somebody who, even though that's not necessarily asked a view
on the show, it's so clear that you have chosen
(48:23):
to like dig deep into this stuff and sort of
learn as much as you can about this world. And
I think that's incredibly admirable. So, Piper, when did you
first meet Taylor Sheridan? How did you come to work
on the show? Talk us through talk us through that?
Speaker 3 (48:42):
So it's sort of a little bit round about, but
my husband Stephen k who you know who, who's an
EP on the show and also directs a bunch away.
He's running and hold on.
Speaker 1 (48:54):
Guest, this is like w WE. It's like there's a
fight going on. And oh wait a second, that's Stephen
Kay's intro music. Boom, You're coming down the ramp. It's weird, Steven.
I hope you'll join us. I hope you'll join us
sometime to talk about your experience of all this and
(49:16):
contradict Kuiper's experience.
Speaker 3 (49:18):
It's creepy that you wouldn't have invited me, but.
Speaker 1 (49:22):
The producers, the producers have tried to keep you away
from this for so long. I've been fighting to get
you on the show. The producers. I think you're a
live wire.
Speaker 3 (49:32):
Yeah, yeah, you are a live wire. That's actually true.
Speaker 1 (49:36):
My man is baking a gluten free pie right now.
If that's not you know, anarchic chaos, I don't know
what is.
Speaker 5 (49:46):
For all the kids. This is a little something for
the kids. Yeah all right, brother, But I'm letting you
guys talk. I don't want to, you know, horn in
on her your time.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
It's great to hear from you. Man. Well, we'll get
you in another time or now that he's gone, Piper,
Now he's gone.
Speaker 3 (50:12):
He he He directed Taylor wait boo? Was it Sons
or a Shield? He directed Steven my husband, directed Taylor
Sheridan in Sons of Anarchy when Taylor was an actor,
and they became, oh, I've got to come up. And
so they became friends. And when Taylor started writing, actually
(50:36):
Stephen read an early draft of Hell or High Water
when it was called Comancheria, and they started hi about writing.
And so then Stephen came in to direct in season two.
And I think the reason Taylor trusted him, it's just
my guest, but because he knew Stephen already as a director.
And uh, anyway, so that's how it starts. And then
(50:57):
and even though they're different, they're kind of similar learn
a way too, you know, the kind of old school
dude's old school men. And then and then I came
to visit Stephen in Utah when you guys were filming,
and Taylor and Nick had us over the house for dinner.
And I had just been arrested in DC for protesting
(51:21):
the nomination of Brett cavan On to the Supreme Court.
I went, I interrupted Chuck Grassley in the Senate Judiciary
hearing and protest like there was like three hundred women
that day that were all you can sit in a
Senate Judiciary hearing, you can sit for like ten minutes,
and then the next twenty people online like the twenty
people are it's not that big of a hearing room,
So twenty people are ushered out, and then twenty more
(51:43):
people get to sit in and listen to the hearing.
And so all these women, who mostly women who didn't
want Kavin on the Supreme Court, had organized to get online.
And so I was. I had been online like since
before pre dawn, waiting and and then you stand up
and you start saying why you oppose the nomination, and
(52:04):
you're arrested for civil disobedience. And I was arrested with
hundreds of women that day, but that had just happened.
And then I flew to Utah to have dinner with
Stephen and Nick and Taylor, and it came up at
dinner and Taylor was like, wait what And I started saying, oh,
I was arrested in civil disobedience and he was like
(52:24):
go through the whole thing, like who calls you to
go there? Like what's your goal? What's the security? Like
what kind of jail? How much what's the bail? Like
he wanted all of a sudden the writer was there,
you know, and he like, dinner kind of screeches to
a halt, and he's got eight hundred questions about when
you're arrested in a city in America on civil disobedience
(52:46):
and so and then he was like, I'm in politics
and fucking DC and you know, he gets like on
his check. But it was cool. And even though I
don't know how he feels about Kavanaugh, that didn't come up.
He was more interested in kind of the story of it,
and then about I don't know, like a month or
so later, he said to Stephen, I'm going to write
(53:07):
her a part about a woman who gets arrested for protest.
And that's where Summer came from.
Speaker 1 (53:13):
Wow, so you actually got arrested as part of a
protest action, went to Utah, had dinner with Taylor. You guys.
He dug into the details of it, and then created
the role of Summer based around a sort of similar
experience a woman being arrested for a protest action. Right.
Speaker 3 (53:33):
It was cool because actually that was the first time
I'd ever been arrested. First of all, disobedience and so
I knew all that stuff because I was so nervous
to get arrested, Like I wrote Steven's number on my
arm and sharpie in case they took everything, Like how
do I get you know, how do I what if
I get scared? I can't remember my husbands one of heer.
I had bail money cash in one pocket and then
(53:53):
bail money in case somebody else didn't have money in
the other pocket, and like the cell phone, the battery,
my number because they take almost everything, you know, and
I mighty, but I was really I'm like a girl scout,
you know. I was like really prepared to get arrested.
And so Taylor was really into that.
Speaker 1 (54:12):
That's amazing. What what tremendous courage and then also what
a sort of incredible seed for this character and what
it also like incredibly sort of you know, Summer has
been I have no doubt that some people listening to
this as you know, big fans of Beth. You know,
maybe maybe.
Speaker 3 (54:33):
People are not fans of Summer. I know they're not.
And like I sort of admire Tailor even more because
you know that a lot of the Yellowstone crowd is
gonna be likes this bitch. You know what I mean
this like coastal environmentalist blah blah blah. But also it's like,
you know, Yellowstone needs conflict. That's what makes it so
good is all the warring factions. And and because I
(54:55):
really care about our civil rights, our right to vote,
writes a bodily autonomy, writes a marriage. It's so fun
that a great American writer wrote me the part of
an activist, Like that's the only time it's ever done that,
you know, and come together like that fun.
Speaker 1 (55:14):
That's Brad. It's incredible. And it also I think it's
incredible a thing of Tailor's which is that you know,
he writes these characters that maybe could be easily dismissed
under certain circumpry, or some percentage of the audience almost
wants to easily dismiss. They want to say exactly what
you just said, Oh, this lady from the coast this
(55:36):
you know, she's comment in here, what does she know?
Or a character like for instance, Rainwater in season one,
who the audience might have wanted to conveniently easily dismiss.
And then Taylor sticks with these characters. Over time, they
grow more and more complicated. You come to see their perspective.
The characters themselves are listening and learning and sort of
(55:58):
it really helps, I think, challenge the kind of good
guy bad guy paradigm that is so reductive, and it
helps to make all of these characters. I think that
Summer's role on the show. Summer has herself, you know,
our relationship to her has grown and changed and will
continue to grow and change. But she also helps. She's
(56:20):
changed John Dutton, She's changed Beth. Like coming into contact
with these people with differing viewpoints, differing ideologies, differing experiences,
coming into contact with them gives everybody an opportunity to
grow and learn and sort of become more complicated than
just these cardboard cutout black and white very easily dismissed
(56:43):
good guys and bad guys.
Speaker 3 (56:45):
You know, yeah, I think that's so cool, and like
that's like, you know, maybe what we could do as
a nation.
Speaker 1 (56:53):
One hundred percent listen to each other. If John Dutton
and Summer can listen to each other can find some
common ground, then so can we. You know, if people
from such a Summer can.
Speaker 3 (57:04):
Have a one night stand, maybe all the.
Speaker 1 (57:06):
Stand, that's what America needs. America needs to have a
one big, messy one night stand.
Speaker 3 (57:11):
I'm big one night stand. Yeah, nobody else cares on
the Supreme Court.
Speaker 1 (57:15):
Then exactly, relax, get a little bit of attention now.
And also, I think, you know, as as the season
moves forward, I'm very excited for the audience to get
to see more of summer. It feels like the episode
we've just seen, episode four is a little sneak peak
of what's to come.
Speaker 3 (57:31):
So it's just the beginning. It's just the beginning, and
I can't I know, I'm not allowed to say what happens,
but it gets so hardcore. I mean, people are going
to go not Stuard. It's so out of control. I
literally sent a picture to my mom after one day
of shooting and I'm like, I can't tell you everything,
(57:54):
but this is happening. And I was like, oh my god,
like so so crazy. What happens?
Speaker 1 (58:00):
Mom? It gets it gets intense, Mom, just keep getting
prepare yourself. I also, you know, cover your eyes, Mom.
I have to warn anytime some shit happens to Jimmy.
I have to warn my whole family really explicitly. I
have to be like, okay, but you know, I don't
know a bit about you. I'm always playing these characters
who generally speaking, deserve to get the shit kicked out
(58:20):
of them, and then do so. My poor grandma, it's
like she's got My grandma has seen everything conceivably bad
happen to me. She's watched me get stabbed, like thrown
off cliffs, exploded, shot. Sorry, grandma, my grandma.
Speaker 3 (58:36):
My grandma was not with the funny war. But my grandma.
I when I had an episode of television come on,
she would invite like her older lady friends to come
over to watch the show. And she can't remember everything,
but I would call her like half an hour before
the show comes on the air, and I'll be like, okay,
so this is the bad guy. This is like the
guy I'm gonna have an affair with, this is the criminal.
(58:57):
And so she would like be like, okay, I got it.
And then she liked to watch the show with her friends.
When some character comes to well, I wouldn't trust him
because she likes to know everything.
Speaker 1 (59:07):
Oh my god, you were feeding or you were feeding
or the inside info. That's incredibly the insider. It's so cute,
that's so funny.
Speaker 3 (59:16):
It must be so hard to do this podcast and
know all the secrets and like not slip.
Speaker 1 (59:22):
You know what's what makes it a lot easier. Never
setting foot in Montana one time this whole season, you know,
it really makes it a lot easier.
Speaker 3 (59:33):
That's crazy, that's crazy, that's right.
Speaker 1 (59:37):
Yeah, yeah, it's been way easier to keep the keep
a handle on the spoilers. When Jimmy is you.
Speaker 3 (59:43):
Didn't see it, you didn't see it go down.
Speaker 1 (59:45):
I didn't see it go down.
Speaker 3 (59:46):
Crazy shit goes down this season so great, I mean crazy.
Speaker 1 (59:52):
I think that's an amazing place to leave it. I
think that's an amazing place to uh, to tease our audience.
There is some amazing shit going down. Piper. I am
so grateful for your time. We all are.
Speaker 3 (01:00:04):
Thank you so much. Thanks for talking with me. It
was really fun. What I'm going to make you come
fly fish with me?
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
I will, yeah, I'll ruin at least one perfectly pleasant afternoon.
Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
You bring the six pack and nothing, I'll be ruined.
Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
As always, we appreciate you spending time with us here.
It is such an honor. We love talking to you,
we love hearing from you. This whole thing is kind
of an extension of conversations that we see you having
on social media, so make sure you subscribe so you
never miss a new episode of the Official Yellowstone Podcast.
You can listen to the Official Yellowstone Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(01:00:48):
wherever you get your podcasts, m
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