February 10, 2022 • 51 mins
1883 brings the harsh reality of the journey west to life - Jefferson and the cast from 1883 reflect on the intensity of shooting this epic story.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hey, everyone, Welcome back to the Official Yellowstone Podcast, presented
by Win Las Vegas. Thank you so so so much
for tuning in. Thank you for all your kind words
about this podcast, the comments, the reviews. That really means
the world to us, especially because this is the final
episode of the podcast. It has been such an incredible journey.
(00:28):
I've been so lucky to have you with me. This
has been a huge learning experience for me, and it's
been such a pleasure to be a part of this
conversation and to continue these conversations that I've seen our
fans having for years. So as a fan of the
show and as a member of the Yellowstone community, I
just feel so lucky to have been a part of this,
and thank you for that. Today I've got a really
(00:51):
special episode for you. I have some amazing guests from
the broader, expanded world of Yellowstone Today. I feel so lucky,
tod I've deeper into the amazing show eighteen eighty three.
Yet this is my favorite show, maybe of the last decade.
If you're not watching the show yet, you need to
see it. Today I get to sit down with three
(01:12):
actors whose work I admire so much. Two of them
I had never met before, people whose work I had
admired from AFAR, and I'm so grateful to get the
chance to talk to them, to talk about their process,
to talk about how they approach this work, and talk
about the incredible experience of spending months and months in
eighteen eighty three working on this show. So I feel
(01:33):
so lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to
the iconic Sam Elliott. So we're going to speak to
mister Elliott. We're also speaking to his cohort on the show,
the incredible actor Lamonica Garrett who plays Thomas, as well
as my good personal friend, badass cowboy Eric Nelson who
plays Ennis. So I'm so grateful for these actors' times,
so glad to get the chance to talk to him today.
(01:55):
Stand by, we're going to be right back. I feel
incredibly honored to have with me in the studio today,
Sam Elliott, whose accomplishments are too many today are obviously
deserve their own podcast. Mister Elliott, thank you so so
much for being here, Thank you for having me. So,
(02:15):
I've seen the first two episodes of eighteen eighty three.
I've been a fan of your work for a long
time and This really feels like such an incredible extension
of a body of work that you've been working on
for a long time for your entire life. You're in
the incredibly well earned, inviewable position as an actor of
getting to choose, basically to work on whatever you want
(02:36):
to work on. What is it about eighteen eighty three
that drew you to this project?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, thanks for that number one. I haven't been doing
it my whole life, but I've been doing it for
fifty four years of my life, and I'm not in
that inviewable position of choosing to do I'll take that
one or I'll take that one. I just I have
a good fortune on my side, I think, and I've
(03:03):
been very lucky with what's come my way over those
fifty four years, this being no exception. You know, Taylor
reached out to me almost a year ago about doing
a little thing on Yellowstone, and I passed on it.
But during that time that he made that offer to me,
(03:25):
we started talking. I'd never crossed paths with him before,
I'd certainly seen his work. I'd seen stuff that he'd written,
I'd watched Sons of Ranarchy, on whom as an actor.
When I first discovered him as a writer, was in Sacario,
and I thought, Wow, how can one guy have so
(03:45):
many different talents going for him, But to get an
opportunity to work with Taylor and you know, do this
piece of work. You know it's It's always been for
me during that career about I shouldn't say always. In
the beginning, I would have done anything, But at some
(04:06):
point I made the conscious decision that if I wanted
to have a career, I needed to try to do
good work. And good work for me has always been
born on the page first. So it's always about the script.
And this guy we're talking about is a brilliant writer,
is a genius of sorts. I suspect, and that's why
(04:29):
I'm here.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Something I admire about Taylor's writing so much as he
holds these these two seemingly incompatible things at the same time.
There's the kind of legend of the West, the sort
of myth, the idea of it, the narrative, and then
there's the often brutal reality of it. And I think
(04:51):
that you embody that in your performance in this show
So Holy. Your character has seen so much of the
West and has come face to face with both of
those things, the dream and the nightmare, the sort of
heaven and the hell, and it really even in the
first two episodes of the show, from scene to scene,
there's these scenes that happen on an epic scale, these
(05:15):
huge shootouts, these massive, kind of legendary scenes with a
legendary quality, and then also stuff that is so intimate
and human and personal and happens on such a kind
of small scale, the micro and the macro. Will you
talk about navigating both of those extremes on set, going
(05:37):
from these big set pieces hundreds of horses, to then
the very quiet, interpersonal stuff that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
To me is what makes Shay a human. But you know,
and who knows whether those great, big, as you refer
to set pieces are really the way it was. You know,
there's no doubt that Hell's half Acre was, you know,
well named down there where we started this thing, and
(06:07):
that a lot of shit went on there, There's no
doubt about that. But who knows where the myth and
where the reality you know, diverge or cunnverge or whatever.
There's certainly Taylor's vision that was a violent vout, violent time.
It was certainly certainly physically different in terms of certainly
(06:29):
physically difficult in terms of just life in general back
in those days. She's a troubled character. You know, he's
a troubled man, I think probably in the beginning because
he's a vetteran of the Civil War. You know, he
(06:51):
and Thomas both and James as well, they're all vets
of the Civil War. So they're troubled in the beginning.
And the fact that Shane he loses his wife and
daughter and burns his house down in the very beginning,
you know. And then the other thing about having charge
of all of these immigrants on this wagon train. You know,
(07:15):
whether he gravitated toward that because of you looking for
some stability or some diversion from what troubles him or what,
I'm not sure. But he suffers that, he suffers the
losses of those characters along the way. Every time an
immigrant rise, you see that it cuts him to the bone.
(07:37):
And at the same time he's willing to pull a
pistol out and shoot some guy on ahead because he
s told somebody's bacon. He's like, he's a complex man,
and he's on his own journey. You know, he's on
a journey to the ocean. I don't tell you tell
you why, but that's where he's heading. He's been to
Oregon before, but he's he's taking himself back and he's
(07:58):
taking these people along the way that he's on his
own journey to Oregon as well.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, it really seems like that responsibility, the weight that
he carries of protecting this innocence. Right, he's seen the
opposite of innocence. He's seen the devil to a certain extent,
he's seen the evil that men do to each other.
And then the way he's drawn to the responsibility to
protect these innocence I think is fascinating. It it's fascinating
(08:28):
to see how that animates him. Right when we first
see him, he's almost ready to end his life. It
almost feels like he's ready to move on, he's done
with it. But then over the course of it, we
see him animated and sort of re awoken by this responsibility.
So will you talk a little bit. I mean, I
(08:48):
can't help but notice in some ways, obviously there's obviously
huge divergences, but in some ways your responsibility leading this show,
taking a weight on yourself to beleep physically demanding job
you're in the middle of West Texas. It's exhausting and difficult.
What's your relationship to that responsibility, the responsibility of leading
(09:12):
and carrying this show, and then how that relates to
and mirrors Shay's responsibility.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Wow, Wow, you're a smart man. I don't feel like
I'm carrying the show on my own shoulders. Well, we
all have a hand in it, whether we're on the
(09:37):
crew or we're on the cast, or what we're up to.
But there is a comparison to draw there. I can
appreciate that. I'm just I have a job to do,
and the better I can do my job, the job
I was hired to do, I feel like, the better
(10:00):
the final product is going to be. You know, I
think that probably is so obvious and I shouldn't even
have said it that way. And I think it's probably
the same with Chet. You know, the better he is
at protecting those souls that are in his charge, and
the better he's going to feel about himself. And that's
(10:23):
one of the things about you know, there's a lot
of there's a lot of loss. There's a lot of
tragedy along the way. You'll see if you stick with
this thing. There's bodies littered along you know, there's a
graveyard along the Oregon Trail. From previous ones, they crossed
a number of graveyards and the trails littered with bodies,
(10:50):
and you know, I think in the end that that's
what makes Shave make his final decision, and it does.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It really feels you're exactly right that it's in the
same way that you don't carry that weight alone. You
carry a tremendous burden, but you also share it with
an incredible ensemble cast. So will you talk about working
with other actors, all of whom are you know, stars
like this sort of the shared responsibility, especially as it
(11:18):
relates to you and Thomas Lamonica Garrett, because from the
very first moment we see the two of you, the
history between you is so rich. There's this kind of
incredible relationship. Will you talk about working with Lamonica and
how you guys together fleshed out that that rich relationship.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
We're still fleshing. You know, That's the great thing is
we're still fleshing. We're going to be at this until
the mid January. Lamonica and I I knew in Lea
Monica's work, but I never met Lamonica before. When we
first crossed paths on a gun range, you know, shooting,
(11:57):
shooting gun, shooting live animal, AMMO, shooting blanks, shooting, which
opens up a whole other question, but I think it's
safe to save that. Lamonica and I really hit it off,
like immediately, and I think today, you know, we call
each other brother and we differently we love each other,
(12:19):
and we've we've brought something to that relationship within the
show that makes it ultra special to me. They're brothers
in arms. Lemonica rode with the Buffalo soldiers, such as
a cavalry unit in the Civil War. Taylor says that
(12:45):
Shay was with them at some point, which I doubt
all the photographs I've ever seen the Buffalo soldiers, there
weren't any white guys with them. Lamonica or Thomas pulls
Shaye out of shooting himself on the head a number
(13:05):
of times he does that daily. There's a point down
the road where Thomas says to Shay, I stop you
from committing suicide every morning. Oh there's that. And you know,
it's just having these two characters in the eighteen hundreds
(13:25):
sharing the same tint and sharing this journey that they're on,
to me is a wonderful thing. I'm more excited about
that maybe than anything in this thing in terms of
character and so forth.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It's funny because the show, the show, both eighteen eighty
three and Yellowstone revolve around families, but then I think
also continue to question and examine that family structure. Yeah right,
it feels like you also find these credible, incredible characters
who are kind of bereft of family, who have experienced
loss and are seeking these new family structures, are seeking
(14:04):
these new sort of you know, communities, these new sort
of modes of family. Will you talk just in the
last few minutes we have here, there's the image over
and over again between the first in the first couple
episodes of Heaven and Hell, the extreme dichotomy and making
these shows. Making eighteen eighty three, from everything I've heard,
(14:24):
has been an incredibly immersive experience. You're really out there,
You're really doing this stuff. Will you talk about a
moment that has felt like each of those extremes, a
moment of heaven and a moment of extreme difficulty of Hell.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Heaven would have been a day in Fort Worth when
we shot inside the White Elephant, when the barber came
and shadow my lap. Stephanie Knewer's her name. She came
in as a day player from La and just knocked
it out of the park for everyone. And that was
(15:03):
early on. In that moment, that whole thing, that whole
encounter with that girl was just you know, she's devastatingly beautiful,
and she's brilliant, and she's a wonderful actor, and she's
at the beginning of what I hope for her is
a long, long career. That's the heaven side of it.
(15:28):
I think the hell of it is just dealing with
the elements more than anything. There were times when it
was like one hundred and eight degrees down there in
Fort Worth when we first started. We're out in the
sun all day long. We're wearing wolfs jackets, and the
immigrants are wearing layers and layers of wool clothes. And
(15:48):
then we go up to Montana and it's fucking freezing cold,
and I mean cold, and I don't have a lot
of clothes on. I'm wearing like a pair of pants
and a jacket through most of the things in a
vest and a shirt. We got layered up up there,
of course, but there were times when it rains just
(16:09):
enough to get wet, and then it started ice up,
and I just remember thinking, after fuck, man, am I
going to die on this trail? I wondered that a
few times. I wondered if I was up to the
physicality of this thing when.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
We started it.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
As I read the script and Taylor's character description he
was forty five years old, said hey, Taylor, man, I'm
almost twice that age. You know, well not quite, but
I said, I'm way too old for this thing. And
he said, no, I write everybody at forty five. Bullshit.
(16:52):
He promised me one thing he promised me when we
started this thing. He says, you're going to hate me
by the end of the show. And he was talking
about the elements. He was talking about how difficult it
was going to be, and you know it is. I've
worked harder probably on other shows, or just as hard,
not for such a length at time. Excuse me as this,
(17:17):
but it's the price to pay to be on the
Oregon Trail and to tell this story. And in the end,
if you know, that's what we all keep focused on,
because we're all out there suffering this stuff. You know,
it's not just a cast, it's the crew, it's everybody,
the company, everybody just keeps talking about, you know, the
(17:38):
fews that are lucky enough to see some of it.
Not everybody sees it. Although we did screen, they did
screen the first two hours for the company when we
were oh god, maybe that was in Emma really as well,
it's important for him to see the work, to see
what we're all doing out here. But in the end,
(17:59):
you know, if we feel like we did justice to
Taylor's script, then we caught it somehow, like it, like
he envisioned it, like David Glasser envisioned it, like all
of them, and you know, the creative people envisioned it,
then well worth a little suffering.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, I can't. I'm so struck by the way that
those journeys run parallel to each other, the journey of
at a cast of hundreds, because there's the entire wagon train,
a cast of hundreds, a crew of three hundred, four
hundred people from all over the country coming together to
(18:42):
tell a story to a certain extent about coming together
to go on a journey. And it really every I
hate to say it because you're in the middle of it,
but every every sort of difficulty, every every hard time
from the outside, from a comfortable seat on the outside,
(19:04):
can't help but flavor the whole thing and give the
show a truly, I think, unparalleled feeling of immersion and authenticity.
It's incredible to see, it's spectacular to see. It's a
feat that I think can't be overstated. And I just
want to say thank you, first of all for coming
(19:24):
to talk with me today. I so appreciate it, and
thank you for this journey you've been on, because those
of us who are viewing it from the outside, it's
really a once in a lifetime experience as a viewer.
So thank you, so so much.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
It's some pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Mister Elliott is obviously an incredible actor, but I'm also
just so so grateful, so lucky to have the opportunity
to get to know him as a person. That's someone
I've been learning from watching his work for years, So
getting to talk to him about it, getting to dive
into his experience of working on the show a little bit,
just teaches me so much about the kind of actor
I want to be. So I'm so so grateful for
(20:06):
his time. We're going to take a quick break and
then we're going to be back with Lamonica Garrett, who
plays Thomas on eighteen eighty three. I feel incredibly lucky
to have with me in the studio today, Loamonica Garrett,
Lamnica plays Thomas on eighteen eighty three. Thank you so
so much for being.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Here, man, thanks for having me. This is great.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
We've seen the first two episodes of the show. Something
that strikes me immediately about it as we were just saying,
making this show must feel like really traveling back in time.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Yeah, it's the first thing I noticed when I got
the Cowboy camp, when I got to Taylor's ranch and
I got in there and I didn't have Wi Fi
and I didn't have cable, and I was like, all right,
no cable, but it's you know, it's football season. I
need to watch my Niners and couldn't do that. So
didn't have cable, didn't have cell signals, didn't have it.
So we just went back in time in that aspect.
(20:59):
And it's just everywhere we travel to the next location,
no cable, next location, this it's just one location, no TV,
like we're really in it, and no cell service.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Got a call home, call the family, you know, and
that's that.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
The hotels were at and the barns and the ranches
were living in. And then when you go to the
shooting locations, you're out in the middle of nowhere, so
you're just dead to the world, you.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Know, for the whole day, sometimes the whole night.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
And right now you're in Las Vegas for about forty
eight hours promoting the show. In between shooting it, did
you spend that entire time just catching up on football games?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Just game, the game, the game.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I wish I had that kind of time.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
It was nice getting here like a remote control, I
got cable, I could watch some games.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
But it as soon as we got here, it was interviews.
It was interviews.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
My family came, I had friends in town, so I
made sure everybody was checked in, and then it was
time to get ready for the premiere.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
And that was that.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
And walk up this morning and interviews, interviews, and now
we're done in a minute, and we're back on a plane,
and yeah, start studying some more lines and get back
to work tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I can't believe it, and I feel so incredibly grateful
that in the middle of all of that, you're taking
this time to talk to us.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
It's amazing man. Yeah, this is dope.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Thank you so much for being here. Something that I
can't help but notice characterizers. I think a lot of
Tailor's writing is these extremes, Right, is the kind of
legend of the West, the myth, the idea we have
of it? Yeah, the idea we've seen in movies and
television since we were young, and then the brutal reality
the truth of it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
In the first two episodes I've seen the first two
episodes of the show, both of those things are really exemplified.
And your character, Thomas, it feels like, it feels like,
to a certain extent, has seen the worst of what
humanity has to offer, and it sort of is sort
of very disenchanted with that idea of the myth of
the West.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Will you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:56):
To me, Thomas he's the soul of the show. He's
the humanity of the show. When life, you know, being
a black man in the eighteen hundreds, it was hard
for Thomas. It was hard for everybody back then. It
was a hard way of life back then, but for
some more than others.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And Thomas he.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Has a way about him where he he sees hope
in places where he shouldn't see it, like Shae has.
He balances Shaye Sam's character. You know, they have this
great relationship, but Thomas has this way of looking at
life like it is what it is, but I know
it can be better, and I believe it can be better.
And that's the hope that drives us all to keep going,
(23:36):
to keep waking up in the morning, and to keep
putting one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You mentioned Sam Elliott's character Shay. From the very first
time we see the two of you on screen together,
it feels like there's this incredibly rich history. It feels
like the two of you have a relationship that's gone
on for years. Will you talk about the process of
finding that history together with Sam.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah. When I first met Sam, we were at the RAM.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
It was like a week end to cowboy camp and
Sam spotted me at the saloon and you know, see
a people, and he comes over. He puts his hands
on my shoulder and he's like, man, we're gonna we're
gonna be great together. And any nerves I had or
you're about to work with Sam Elliott, all that went
out the door and we just embraced each other we
were inseparable, and that led into filming and it just
(24:23):
it went amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And the characters Thomas and.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Shaye they served together back in the Civil War, like
he was a Buffalo soldier, Shae was a captain. And
when the war was over that they didn't really like
what the Buffalo soldiers assignments, their new responsibilities were. They
didn't sign up for that. So they went right, you know,
they took off. They became Pingerton agents. And now the
(24:47):
right hand knows what the leftist doing with Thomas and
say like they considered a campfire for an hour or
two and not say a word, but so much as
said in silence with them two, like they just they
get each other.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
They're protective over each other, and they have a it's
an equal friendship and equal relationship, and it's just it's
fun to it's fun to play off Sam, but it's
really nice to watch.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It's also amazing. You're totally right that so much of
their communication feels like it's nonverbal. You know, there's so
many sort of quiet moments both of extreme gravity but
also of humor between the two of them. There's so
many looks they share with each other that become these
you could really a story told in a look.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
There.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Something I am really struck by with your performance that
I think is remarkable. You spoke a minute ago about
you know, meeting sam Ellie at this legend, this someone
who I feel personally very intimidated by. But something I
see in your performance is this incredible feeling.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Of ease, of physical ease.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You're obviously a very powerful physical presence, You're incredibly sort
of physically powerful presence in these scenes, but you also
have such an easy kind of minimalism, and that's an
incredible gift as an actor to go back and forth
between these extremes, right these gunfights, these huge, high pressure,
tense moments, but still be able to find this sort
(26:06):
of quiet breath that you find. That's a remarkable. I'm
learning so much from watching you as an actor.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I appreciate that, man, I really do thank.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Because you have such It's so hard. These are very
it's a lot of pressure. It's maybe the biggest television
show ever made. You're surrounded by hundreds of crew, millions
of dollars of filmmaking infrastructure. Me I feel like all
I ever feel on set is tension. I feel my
body just freezing up, feeling his tension, and it feels
(26:39):
like something you guys have found together as a as
a cast, is you found this incredible ability to feel
ease and comfort while there's a tremendous amount of pressure
on you.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Sam has that way about him where he just he
he's a common presence in reality with everyone that's around us.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
You know.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
There was a there was a scene in the in
the second episode where Thomas and She are trying to
recruit a couple of cowboys and they're sitting at the
table with us and some of the background players.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
There was a woman.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
She was supposed to pour water in our in our
glasses and I don't know if she knew that ahead
of time, but she was nervous. They told her on
the spot, like hey, can you fill them up? And
you could see her hand was shaking like this, you're
about to fill up Sam Elliott's.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Cup, you know, day on set.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, and her hand was shaking and it was like,
you know, they said action and she came and she
she spilled it and it over, It came over and
it was all over the table.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And she was just she was a mess.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
And Sam was like and someone come, you know, clean
this up, and it was like, all right, cool, Sam
gets up.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
No one sees this but me.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
I'm kind of looking over and he walks over to
her and he embraces her and just tells her something
and the biggest smile came over her face, steadied the hand,
and every take she did after.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
That it was just solid, solid, solid, and that was
a great job. Great job.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Sam has that effect with everybody, and that's Sam as
the person. Thomas and Shay's relationship, the calm and the
ease that they have. Shae can be a bit temperamental,
he could be a hot head, he could be impulsive.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Thomas is the cool, calm and collected.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
He balances Shaye out so and he's the one that
tells Shay straight like, look, when you got to have
that friend in your life that you might not you
might not want to hear what they have to say,
but it's the truth. And he tells him straight up.
He tells them what it is and they just they
bounce off each other.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Well like that.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
It's amazing to identify, Yes, that Sam Elliott is this
incredibly professional, easy, cool, calm presence and in some ways
it's your job to provide that for his character. Yeah,
it's your job to steady out his character. Thank you
so so much for taking the time to do this.
I'm incredibly grateful. I've seen the first two episodes, and
I think your journey, Thomas's journey is the one I'm
(28:55):
most looking forward to seeing more of.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
So I love that. Man, Thanks for having me. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I love talking to Lamonica, getting the opportunity to know
him and his work. He's incredible in eighteen eighty three,
one of my favorite characters on the show. Can't wait
to see more when we get back. We're gonna chat
with my friend Eric Nelson today. I feel incredibly lucky,
incredibly blessed to have with us in the studio. Eric Nelson.
Eric Nelson plays Innis on eighteen eighty three. Eric has
(29:24):
become a fast friend of mine, and I'm incredibly grateful
for his time. So Eric, thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Jeff, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Man.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
I couldn't be more grateful to be here with you, especially,
and it's kind of nice that we got to warm
up a little before. It's not like we're meeting right
now we've been able to hang out and actually work
together and have some fun. So I couldn't be happier
right now.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
And so you correct me if I'm wrong. You've been
working on eighteen eighty three. You're in the thick of it.
How long now have you guys been shooting for?
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Well, the whole thing started in the very first week
of August, started with a cowboy camp before we jumped
into filming, which I actually was at for three weeks.
I got to have an extra week before the rest
of the cast got there, just one on one with Taylor,
which was incredible, and then the whole cast got there
(30:14):
the next week and we pumped it out for two
more weeks and then started filming I think that next Monday.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
So it talk to me about this concept of cowboy
camp is pretty familiar to me. It talk to me
about your experience riding before the show, and your experience
riding now, what have you learned? What have you been
working on?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
So it's funny because when I auditioned for the show,
of course they were like, you know, riding skills is
a big plus. You gotta be you know, we're looking
for actors who can ride, so I was like, dude,
been riding my whole life. You know, I got this
in the bag, you know, just trust me. And I
wasn't lying. Both my parents were into horses, and I
grew up around them. But I think because they loved
(30:54):
horses so much, it made me go a different direction
because I was like, well, I want my thing. And
then and so I wasn't foreign to the whole riding,
but I hadn't been riding my whole life. I wrote
as a kid a little bit and that was about it.
And then got the audition and busted my butt with
a trainer and literally yeah yeah, literally sores red, but
(31:19):
the whole thing to make sure that I was on
par for by the time I got to see Taylor.
And I thought I was good by the time I
saw Taylor. And the first day I get on a
horse in front of Taylor, He's like, you're doing it
all wrong. He's like, you're not. You got to post
your trot, you got to you know, all these things.
And so I'm like, I have a lot to learn, still,
wake up call.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
It feels like the more I learned, the more I
realized I don't know it. You know, a horsemanship cowboying.
That's kind of a lifelong pursuit, and it feels like
the more you learn, the more there is to.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
Learn, exactly. So he wasted no time. We rode all
day every day and it's you know, we're in the
middle of the summer in Texas, so it's one hundred
and ten degrees and we are outside and we are
in pants, and at points he's like, you know, I
want you to wear your show chaps, and the layers
just kept coming on as it kept getting hotter. So
(32:08):
because I think he was really trying to mentally and
physically prepares for what was ahead filming wise, and it
did just that. I mean, having had those those weeks
with him and probably some of the best horse trainers
and riders in the world with us every day was
just the most incredible help an actor could have gotten
(32:29):
to play a role like this on television. So by
the time we started filming, at least in my own head,
I felt like I was a seasoned cowboy. I just
had to convince myself of that because of you know,
what was on the table.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, you're right. So your character Innis, particularly Innis is
hired Innis and Wade or hired by Sam Elliott's character
Shay to basically handle the cows for this wagon train.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So you guys, you base are working with cows all
day every day.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Yes, my my scene partner is a cow all all day. No,
but yeah, I mean we are. I spend probably ninety
percent of the show on a horse, maybe seventy or
eighty percent, but a good amount of time on a
horse and a good amount of time pushing cattle. And
(33:25):
it's you know, it's interesting because so much of what
we do is personal connections with other actors and we're
feeding off emotions and you know, there's so much of
that for Ennis, but there's also so much time when
it's just Nis and nature or Ennis and you know,
horses and cows and you know, just being in this environment,
(33:47):
so being able to kind of keep grounded and settled
and you know, surrounding yourself with that, uh, with something
I haven't gotten to do a lot as an actor
in any other project. You know, the horses and the
animals and the world were in were just as big
of a part as you know, Tim mcgral, Sam Elliott,
And that really.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Feels almost unique to eighteen eighty three in the world
of television, even because they have created a humongous epic story,
like a story with almost impossible scale, with hundreds of horses, cows,
(34:27):
this massive wagon train, a huge ensemble cast that the
scale of the show. As I watch it, my breath
is taken away over and over again by the scale
of it. And you're right that that has an incredibly
immersive effect. To a certain extent, you can't help but
be grounded in that reality because they've gone to such
(34:50):
painstaking lengths to literally surround you with that reality. Will
you talk about this sort of the immersive experience of
working on the show, of shooting the show.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
I mean, it's unbelievable because whether you feel ready or
not for it, you're in it, you know when, And
it makes you think how these people actually did this
in the late eighteen hundreds with these huge wagon camps
and the whole thing, And we're crossing rivers and up
and down mountains, and we're actually doing it on the show.
I mean, when we've got wagons crossing through the Brass
(35:24):
River that was done. We had to on horseback push
cattle through these you know, rivers, and there are days
when the current is very strong, and there are days
when the wind is insane, and you know, you can't
predict what's going to happen with Texas weather or Montana weather,
to be honest, So a lot of that environment was
(35:47):
just it lended itself to be as real and authentic
as it could be. Because when it looks like we're
a hot mess in the water and can't get the
cows to do what we want to do and the
wagons are tipping over and the chaos is happening, it's
written that that's what's supposed to happen, but it's actually happening,
you know, like we couldn't act that if we wanted to.
(36:10):
And that's what you know, Taylor's gift is. It's it's
pulling out the authenticity and it's there. I mean, you'll
see some of the stuff they that we had to
do with these animals. It's none of it is hollywood
ized in any way whatsoever we were doing it.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I think, I think you're totally right. What Taylor's gift
is is kind of I think of it as this contradiction.
So it's that stuff. It's this huge, immersive, authentic, mythic
epic world, and then it's these incredibly human, intimate, quiet
(36:47):
personal moments alongside that. And when I watch your work
on the show, that feels like it really characterizes your
performance too. Right, So you're participating in these huge cattle drives,
You're in this this kind of mythic version of the West,
but then also you have these quiet moments, you have
these sort of quiet personal moments. Will you talk about that?
(37:08):
Will you talk about the contrast going from being on
horseback surrounded by one hundred cows to having these these lovely, quiet,
sort of romantic moments. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Absolutely, I mean it's it's the greatest gift as an actor.
I feel like to really be able to tap into
every string of emotion in a journey. And that's what
we were handed on a silver platter. And so to
go from you know, the big chaotic moments of of
(37:38):
of pushing these cows and wagons and everything through the
crazy current of a river, to being one on one
in a field, you know, with another actor and just
really having that intimacy. It makes it feel like I'm
doing a different movie all the time. Like you know,
so oftentimes we get on and you know you're going
(38:01):
to the same studio every day. You're doing the same
thing every day, and you know, it almost becomes redundant
at times. There is in no way for that to
be possible in eighteen eighty three because of what you're saying,
because of how drastically different scene from scene is, because
of not only the atmosphere and you know, the everything
(38:22):
that comes along with that, but the way it's written,
and you know, it's it's just been incredible to be
on that journey and it keeps it fresh, and it
keeps you super focused and super on your toes and
not really knowing what to expect, which in itself is
an exciting thing as an actor.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
And it feels like that really also characterizes the authentic West, right.
It's it's it's incredibly sort of punishing, difficult, beautiful, brutal work,
and alongside that, it's these quiet, beautiful, still silent moments,
you know.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
And the cool thing about Taylor is he's not afraid
to let the camera's role, as I'm sure you've seen
for a lot longer than I have, even is you know,
he really likes those moments. And so there's there's one
point in one of the episodes I guess I can't
really say, but.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
You can go ahead and say, and they can cut
it if they need to.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
Okay, there's there's this point where is about we ride
up on all these left goods of immigrants and travelers
that couldn't take what they wanted to across the river,
you know, a piano, big luggage, anything that they couldn't
physically get across because it would weigh them down or whatever.
And one of the things left is this piano in
(39:42):
Isabelle's character walks over to it, and James Landry Abery
and I are kind of on our horses watching what,
you know, what is she doing? And she sits and
plays Moonlight Sonata and Isabelle of course memorized the entire
thing perfectly, and it is a lot. I think it's
like a five to six minute song. And she goes
to Taylor and she's like, this is about a six
(40:03):
minute piece. I know it. I can play, but you know,
for camera's sake and for the show's like, should we
just do like a couple seconds or thirty to a minute.
And He's like, absolutely not, We're doing the entire thing,
and I want this moment, the whole thing and so
we're sitting there watching her play this, and there's such
a emotional heavy weight on it because she's playing this
(40:24):
beautiful piece knowing that once we cross that river, anything
could happen. You know, life as we know it now
is over. We're entering into a new territory of unknown uncertainty,
and honestly, you know, we're the moment we're over there,
we are so much more vulnerable to the world. And
(40:44):
so there's this heaviness to this beautiful song and he
lets the whole thing go, and I just think it's
such a powerful moment because all this craziness happening, and
then you just hear Moonlight Sonata and it's her playing
and James and I are doing everything in our power
not to cry ball listening to her do it. And
so that's just one of those many moments in the
(41:05):
show that like really hit hard, and to me was
you know, it just spoke volumes of the world that
they were in and contrasting to it as well, so.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
That really, I mean, it speaks to the sort of quiet,
still heartbreaking, kind of melancholic sort of nature of the
West at times. There's obviously in the show heart pounding
action sequences from the very first episode. The show starts
out with a series of blistering action sequences, some of
(41:39):
my favorite action sequences I've ever seen on camera. And
then there's a sort of third character to a lot
of this, which is this what I think of is
the sort of joy and comedy, right, So I think
of your work with James Landriaberts, who plays Wade. You
guys have this rapport, right, you have this friendship, this
(42:01):
relationship they can only really come from years spent together,
just the two of you and a herd of cattle.
So you talk a little bit about developing that relationship
with James, about the relationship between your characters innoc and Wade,
and what that process was like as you guys work
together almost every day.
Speaker 5 (42:17):
Absolutely, it's funny because you know, we is such a
heavy and dark world. Eighteen eighty three is an intense,
you know, emotionally driven series. And when I first read
the scripts and I'm reading through and it's funny. Originally
I was up for the role of Wade, and so
I taped for Wade and they wrote back within like
thirty seconds, Oh no, no, no, he's right for Redison. So
(42:38):
I did Nis, and then once I really dove into
the scripts with Nis and mine, who's you know, I've
felt much more connected to anyway. I was like, Okay,
this guy is a beacon of light and all this
crazy darkness, this guy needs to bring. You know, if
there's gonna be some chuckles in this show, I think,
you know, Ennis is the guy to do it, or
(42:59):
at least a smile on your face throughout this craziness.
And so James and I started developing a great friendship
throughout Cowboy Camp, and you know, we are the Ennis
and Wade relationship is real, and it actually is James
and I's relationship. We're so opposite but yet pull the
best qualities out of each other on and off screen.
(43:21):
And so it worked so well, and I'm so blessed
that that I got him as a partner throughout most
of this and it just lended itself to to you know,
these characters and to the you know rapport that they
have throughout the series. And had we not had that
opportunity in Cowboy Camp to get close and spend all
(43:42):
day every day with each other, I don't know if
we would have found that as quickly as we did,
but like you said it, you know it. It's a
nice uplifting feel throughout this show, I feel, and it's
been a lot of fun to explore. And the funny
part is Tim McGraw and I became super good friends,
(44:04):
and he's so much of a goofball and a big
brother and always doing pranks on me, and like, really
you'll see throughout the series that I give him a
lot of reasons to not necessarily like me or you know,
he's he plays the father and as a father does
he's very protective of his daughter, and so it lends
(44:25):
itself to a lot of you know, friction between him
and I and he takes that on and off screen.
He's so serious and intense and strong and grounded on
the show, but in real life he's so the opposite.
I mean, he's strong and grounded, but he's just always
always trying to make people laugh. And I mean he
would tip me off my chair or he would like
just like stare at me for thirty seconds before we
(44:47):
film the scene just to make me uncomfortable. But it's
just funny to see how, you know, people can be
completely opposite of their character, and that's a great example,
but on the flip side, James and I are pretty
sim learn to ours and that carried on and off,
so it could go either way.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
It's funny, I mean, and this show, like I think,
another quality that Taylor has in his writing that feels
like a particular gift he has is immediately quickly creating
these relationships that feel like they're decades old, you know.
So he puts these characters on screen that from the
very first time you see them together, you understand their
(45:24):
rich history, You understand sort of where they've come from
and how much time they've spent together. And I think
that's very evident with Innocent Wade, it's very evident with
La Monica Garrett and Sam Elliott's characters that the sort
of history that they have together, I think is immediately
apparent the second you first see them on screen. And
then also, you know, in the case of eighteen eighty three,
(45:48):
there's the incredible gift of Tim McGraw on faith Hill
obviously being a family in real life and you're obviously
yourself a family man. Will you talk about, you know,
a family is one of the endurings of eighteen eighty
three and of Yellowstone. Will you talk about, you know,
things you've learned from filming, about what family means, things
(46:10):
you've taken from your own personal life as a father
and as a husband and brought to set. We just
talk about that experience.
Speaker 5 (46:16):
A little absolutely well. First and foremost effect that Tim
and Faith get to do this together is just out
of this world, I think for the fans of them personally.
And then you know what they bring to this show
is they raise it to a level that I just
blew me away from day one. And like you said,
(46:38):
that that chemistry and that love and that family that
they already have just transcends and follows right onto our
set and that just I mean so smart for Taylor
to do that, and it just worked so well. And
as you know, a married man myself, my wife is
an actress, you know to and she's actually here, I now,
(47:00):
hi it that would be a dream come true, you know,
to get to go on this journey with with you know,
your spouse and just get to play these characters that
are so unlike yourself, but yet you still get to
use so much of your uh developed love and chemistry
(47:20):
and relationship for each other on on a show. And
we've been fortunate enough to do that before, but not
not in this capacity on such a long running thing.
But you know, you can, you can act, and you
can develop these characters enrichments. But if you can start
(47:41):
with that already there and then get to that point,
it's like where do you go? You just keep going
up as opposed to starting and getting there. But like
you said, I think the way Taylor has developed these
characters and what the text does without even us opening
our mouths is bring it all the way up here
(48:01):
before we even started. And so that's been such a
gift to have it already laid out. When you read
these scripts.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
It's like you see the show, you see the movie,
you see it before ever even opening your mouth, And
that's been, you know, the greatest gift as far as
you know, developing you know, the relationships that we have
in the show.
Speaker 5 (48:25):
And it's just made it that much easier. And it's
kind of sad because now since I started the show,
I've read a few other scripts that people have sent
and I'm just like, it's hard to read now. It's
just has the bar so high. I'm just like, how
can I not compare anything else to history? We get spoiled.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Yeah, I think you're also right that it really has
a lot to do with casting, and that also is
another gift that Taylor has that David Glasser has our
executive producer, and the John Papsidera, the casting office that
cast both eighteen eighty three and Yellowstone has is if
you match the right person with the right part, a
lot of the work is done for you, you know. And Eric,
it's abundantly clear to me that you're the right person
(49:04):
in the right part. And I'm so so so grateful
to be your friend. I'm so so grateful to get
to know your work. I'm so excited to watch more
of your work. I can't wait to see all your
work on eighteen eighty three and beyond. So thank you again, brother,
so much for being here.
Speaker 5 (49:17):
Thank you, thank you. This has been an absolute pleasure,
my man. And look forward to seeing you tonight. And
thanks for having me. You're killing it. Can't wait for
next next well, I guess I guess we'll both will
premiere on Sunday next week, and you'll have another episode
coming out next Sunday, So I'm just gonna have to
have a big party and watch them both.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
That's right back and back here's brother.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Thanks again, Thanks so much, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
This has been an incredible journey. I feel so fortunate
to have had the opportunity to uh, to go through
this with you, to work on this podcast. I'm so
grateful to the team at the WIN who have been
so kind, so generous in accommodating us and making this
whole thing possible. To everybody I got the chance to
(50:06):
talk to, I'm so grateful for your time. You've taught
me so much. You've taught me so much about acting,
about filmmaking, and also just about life. So thank you
so much for taking the time to talk to me,
and to those of you out there listening. You guys
are the reason we get to do any of this.
Yellowstone has obviously changed my life in so many ways,
(50:26):
and it's because of you. It's because of you, guys,
that we get to keep making this stuff, that we
get to keep having these incredible, sort of life changing,
once in a lifetime experiences. So thank you, thank you,
thank you for listening to the podcast. If you want
to hear more, if you're not sick of me yet,
just let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate.
The Official Yellowstone Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(50:48):
wherever you get your podcasts. The Official Yellowstone Podcast is
hosted by me Jefferson White and produced by One on
one Podcast Studios in Paramount Network. Thank You, Thank You,
thank you, and good Night.
Hey, everyone, Welcome back to the Official Yellowstone Podcast, presented
by Win Las Vegas. Thank you so so so much
for tuning in. Thank you for all your kind words
about this podcast, the comments, the reviews. That really means
the world to us, especially because this is the final
episode of the podcast. It has been such an incredible journey.
(00:28):
I've been so lucky to have you with me. This
has been a huge learning experience for me, and it's
been such a pleasure to be a part of this
conversation and to continue these conversations that I've seen our
fans having for years. So as a fan of the
show and as a member of the Yellowstone community, I
just feel so lucky to have been a part of this,
and thank you for that. Today I've got a really
(00:51):
special episode for you. I have some amazing guests from
the broader, expanded world of Yellowstone Today. I feel so lucky,
tod I've deeper into the amazing show eighteen eighty three.
Yet this is my favorite show, maybe of the last decade.
If you're not watching the show yet, you need to
see it. Today I get to sit down with three
(01:12):
actors whose work I admire so much. Two of them
I had never met before, people whose work I had
admired from AFAR, and I'm so grateful to get the
chance to talk to them, to talk about their process,
to talk about how they approach this work, and talk
about the incredible experience of spending months and months in
eighteen eighty three working on this show. So I feel
(01:33):
so lucky to have had the opportunity to talk to
the iconic Sam Elliott. So we're going to speak to
mister Elliott. We're also speaking to his cohort on the show,
the incredible actor Lamonica Garrett who plays Thomas, as well
as my good personal friend, badass cowboy Eric Nelson who
plays Ennis. So I'm so grateful for these actors' times,
so glad to get the chance to talk to him today.
(01:55):
Stand by, we're going to be right back. I feel
incredibly honored to have with me in the studio today,
Sam Elliott, whose accomplishments are too many today are obviously
deserve their own podcast. Mister Elliott, thank you so so
much for being here, Thank you for having me. So,
(02:15):
I've seen the first two episodes of eighteen eighty three.
I've been a fan of your work for a long
time and This really feels like such an incredible extension
of a body of work that you've been working on
for a long time for your entire life. You're in
the incredibly well earned, inviewable position as an actor of
getting to choose, basically to work on whatever you want
(02:36):
to work on. What is it about eighteen eighty three
that drew you to this project?
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Well, thanks for that number one. I haven't been doing
it my whole life, but I've been doing it for
fifty four years of my life, and I'm not in
that inviewable position of choosing to do I'll take that
one or I'll take that one. I just I have
a good fortune on my side, I think, and I've
(03:03):
been very lucky with what's come my way over those
fifty four years, this being no exception. You know, Taylor
reached out to me almost a year ago about doing
a little thing on Yellowstone, and I passed on it.
But during that time that he made that offer to me,
(03:25):
we started talking. I'd never crossed paths with him before,
I'd certainly seen his work. I'd seen stuff that he'd written,
I'd watched Sons of Ranarchy, on whom as an actor.
When I first discovered him as a writer, was in Sacario,
and I thought, Wow, how can one guy have so
(03:45):
many different talents going for him, But to get an
opportunity to work with Taylor and you know, do this
piece of work. You know it's It's always been for
me during that career about I shouldn't say always. In
the beginning, I would have done anything, But at some
(04:06):
point I made the conscious decision that if I wanted
to have a career, I needed to try to do
good work. And good work for me has always been
born on the page first. So it's always about the script.
And this guy we're talking about is a brilliant writer,
is a genius of sorts. I suspect, and that's why
(04:29):
I'm here.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Something I admire about Taylor's writing so much as he
holds these these two seemingly incompatible things at the same time.
There's the kind of legend of the West, the sort
of myth, the idea of it, the narrative, and then
there's the often brutal reality of it. And I think
(04:51):
that you embody that in your performance in this show
So Holy. Your character has seen so much of the
West and has come face to face with both of
those things, the dream and the nightmare, the sort of
heaven and the hell, and it really even in the
first two episodes of the show, from scene to scene,
there's these scenes that happen on an epic scale, these
(05:15):
huge shootouts, these massive, kind of legendary scenes with a
legendary quality, and then also stuff that is so intimate
and human and personal and happens on such a kind
of small scale, the micro and the macro. Will you
talk about navigating both of those extremes on set, going
(05:37):
from these big set pieces hundreds of horses, to then
the very quiet, interpersonal stuff that.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
To me is what makes Shay a human. But you know,
and who knows whether those great, big, as you refer
to set pieces are really the way it was. You know,
there's no doubt that Hell's half Acre was, you know,
well named down there where we started this thing, and
(06:07):
that a lot of shit went on there, There's no
doubt about that. But who knows where the myth and
where the reality you know, diverge or cunnverge or whatever.
There's certainly Taylor's vision that was a violent vout, violent time.
It was certainly certainly physically different in terms of certainly
(06:29):
physically difficult in terms of just life in general back
in those days. She's a troubled character. You know, he's
a troubled man, I think probably in the beginning because
he's a vetteran of the Civil War. You know, he
(06:51):
and Thomas both and James as well, they're all vets
of the Civil War. So they're troubled in the beginning.
And the fact that Shane he loses his wife and
daughter and burns his house down in the very beginning,
you know. And then the other thing about having charge
of all of these immigrants on this wagon train. You know,
(07:15):
whether he gravitated toward that because of you looking for
some stability or some diversion from what troubles him or what,
I'm not sure. But he suffers that, he suffers the
losses of those characters along the way. Every time an
immigrant rise, you see that it cuts him to the bone.
(07:37):
And at the same time he's willing to pull a
pistol out and shoot some guy on ahead because he
s told somebody's bacon. He's like, he's a complex man,
and he's on his own journey. You know, he's on
a journey to the ocean. I don't tell you tell
you why, but that's where he's heading. He's been to
Oregon before, but he's he's taking himself back and he's
(07:58):
taking these people along the way that he's on his
own journey to Oregon as well.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Yeah, it really seems like that responsibility, the weight that
he carries of protecting this innocence. Right, he's seen the
opposite of innocence. He's seen the devil to a certain extent,
he's seen the evil that men do to each other.
And then the way he's drawn to the responsibility to
protect these innocence I think is fascinating. It it's fascinating
(08:28):
to see how that animates him. Right when we first
see him, he's almost ready to end his life. It
almost feels like he's ready to move on, he's done
with it. But then over the course of it, we
see him animated and sort of re awoken by this responsibility.
So will you talk a little bit. I mean, I
(08:48):
can't help but notice in some ways, obviously there's obviously
huge divergences, but in some ways your responsibility leading this show,
taking a weight on yourself to beleep physically demanding job
you're in the middle of West Texas. It's exhausting and difficult.
What's your relationship to that responsibility, the responsibility of leading
(09:12):
and carrying this show, and then how that relates to
and mirrors Shay's responsibility.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Wow, Wow, you're a smart man. I don't feel like
I'm carrying the show on my own shoulders. Well, we
all have a hand in it, whether we're on the
(09:37):
crew or we're on the cast, or what we're up to.
But there is a comparison to draw there. I can
appreciate that. I'm just I have a job to do,
and the better I can do my job, the job
I was hired to do, I feel like, the better
(10:00):
the final product is going to be. You know, I
think that probably is so obvious and I shouldn't even
have said it that way. And I think it's probably
the same with Chet. You know, the better he is
at protecting those souls that are in his charge, and
the better he's going to feel about himself. And that's
(10:23):
one of the things about you know, there's a lot
of there's a lot of loss. There's a lot of
tragedy along the way. You'll see if you stick with
this thing. There's bodies littered along you know, there's a
graveyard along the Oregon Trail. From previous ones, they crossed
a number of graveyards and the trails littered with bodies,
(10:50):
and you know, I think in the end that that's
what makes Shave make his final decision, and it does.
Speaker 1 (10:57):
It really feels you're exactly right that it's in the
same way that you don't carry that weight alone. You
carry a tremendous burden, but you also share it with
an incredible ensemble cast. So will you talk about working
with other actors, all of whom are you know, stars
like this sort of the shared responsibility, especially as it
(11:18):
relates to you and Thomas Lamonica Garrett, because from the
very first moment we see the two of you, the
history between you is so rich. There's this kind of
incredible relationship. Will you talk about working with Lamonica and
how you guys together fleshed out that that rich relationship.
Speaker 2 (11:36):
We're still fleshing. You know, That's the great thing is
we're still fleshing. We're going to be at this until
the mid January. Lamonica and I I knew in Lea
Monica's work, but I never met Lamonica before. When we
first crossed paths on a gun range, you know, shooting,
(11:57):
shooting gun, shooting live animal, AMMO, shooting blanks, shooting, which
opens up a whole other question, but I think it's
safe to save that. Lamonica and I really hit it off,
like immediately, and I think today, you know, we call
each other brother and we differently we love each other,
(12:19):
and we've we've brought something to that relationship within the
show that makes it ultra special to me. They're brothers
in arms. Lemonica rode with the Buffalo soldiers, such as
a cavalry unit in the Civil War. Taylor says that
(12:45):
Shay was with them at some point, which I doubt
all the photographs I've ever seen the Buffalo soldiers, there
weren't any white guys with them. Lamonica or Thomas pulls
Shaye out of shooting himself on the head a number
(13:05):
of times he does that daily. There's a point down
the road where Thomas says to Shay, I stop you
from committing suicide every morning. Oh there's that. And you know,
it's just having these two characters in the eighteen hundreds
(13:25):
sharing the same tint and sharing this journey that they're on,
to me is a wonderful thing. I'm more excited about
that maybe than anything in this thing in terms of
character and so forth.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
It's funny because the show, the show, both eighteen eighty
three and Yellowstone revolve around families, but then I think
also continue to question and examine that family structure. Yeah right,
it feels like you also find these credible, incredible characters
who are kind of bereft of family, who have experienced
loss and are seeking these new family structures, are seeking
(14:04):
these new sort of you know, communities, these new sort
of modes of family. Will you talk just in the
last few minutes we have here, there's the image over
and over again between the first in the first couple
episodes of Heaven and Hell, the extreme dichotomy and making
these shows. Making eighteen eighty three, from everything I've heard,
(14:24):
has been an incredibly immersive experience. You're really out there,
You're really doing this stuff. Will you talk about a
moment that has felt like each of those extremes, a
moment of heaven and a moment of extreme difficulty of Hell.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Heaven would have been a day in Fort Worth when
we shot inside the White Elephant, when the barber came
and shadow my lap. Stephanie Knewer's her name. She came
in as a day player from La and just knocked
it out of the park for everyone. And that was
(15:03):
early on. In that moment, that whole thing, that whole
encounter with that girl was just you know, she's devastatingly beautiful,
and she's brilliant, and she's a wonderful actor, and she's
at the beginning of what I hope for her is
a long, long career. That's the heaven side of it.
(15:28):
I think the hell of it is just dealing with
the elements more than anything. There were times when it
was like one hundred and eight degrees down there in
Fort Worth when we first started. We're out in the
sun all day long. We're wearing wolfs jackets, and the
immigrants are wearing layers and layers of wool clothes. And
(15:48):
then we go up to Montana and it's fucking freezing cold,
and I mean cold, and I don't have a lot
of clothes on. I'm wearing like a pair of pants
and a jacket through most of the things in a
vest and a shirt. We got layered up up there,
of course, but there were times when it rains just
(16:09):
enough to get wet, and then it started ice up,
and I just remember thinking, after fuck, man, am I
going to die on this trail? I wondered that a
few times. I wondered if I was up to the
physicality of this thing when.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
We started it.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
As I read the script and Taylor's character description he
was forty five years old, said hey, Taylor, man, I'm
almost twice that age. You know, well not quite, but
I said, I'm way too old for this thing. And
he said, no, I write everybody at forty five. Bullshit.
(16:52):
He promised me one thing he promised me when we
started this thing. He says, you're going to hate me
by the end of the show. And he was talking
about the elements. He was talking about how difficult it
was going to be, and you know it is. I've
worked harder probably on other shows, or just as hard,
not for such a length at time. Excuse me as this,
(17:17):
but it's the price to pay to be on the
Oregon Trail and to tell this story. And in the end,
if you know, that's what we all keep focused on,
because we're all out there suffering this stuff. You know,
it's not just a cast, it's the crew, it's everybody,
the company, everybody just keeps talking about, you know, the
(17:38):
fews that are lucky enough to see some of it.
Not everybody sees it. Although we did screen, they did
screen the first two hours for the company when we
were oh god, maybe that was in Emma really as well,
it's important for him to see the work, to see
what we're all doing out here. But in the end,
(17:59):
you know, if we feel like we did justice to
Taylor's script, then we caught it somehow, like it, like
he envisioned it, like David Glasser envisioned it, like all
of them, and you know, the creative people envisioned it,
then well worth a little suffering.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
It's amazing.
Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yeah, I can't. I'm so struck by the way that
those journeys run parallel to each other, the journey of
at a cast of hundreds, because there's the entire wagon train,
a cast of hundreds, a crew of three hundred, four
hundred people from all over the country coming together to
(18:42):
tell a story to a certain extent about coming together
to go on a journey. And it really every I
hate to say it because you're in the middle of it,
but every every sort of difficulty, every every hard time
from the outside, from a comfortable seat on the outside,
(19:04):
can't help but flavor the whole thing and give the
show a truly, I think, unparalleled feeling of immersion and authenticity.
It's incredible to see, it's spectacular to see. It's a
feat that I think can't be overstated. And I just
want to say thank you, first of all for coming
(19:24):
to talk with me today. I so appreciate it, and
thank you for this journey you've been on, because those
of us who are viewing it from the outside, it's
really a once in a lifetime experience as a viewer.
So thank you, so so much.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
Thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
It's some pleasure to be here.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Mister Elliott is obviously an incredible actor, but I'm also
just so so grateful, so lucky to have the opportunity
to get to know him as a person. That's someone
I've been learning from watching his work for years, So
getting to talk to him about it, getting to dive
into his experience of working on the show a little bit,
just teaches me so much about the kind of actor
I want to be. So I'm so so grateful for
(20:06):
his time. We're going to take a quick break and
then we're going to be back with Lamonica Garrett, who
plays Thomas on eighteen eighty three. I feel incredibly lucky
to have with me in the studio today, Loamonica Garrett,
Lamnica plays Thomas on eighteen eighty three. Thank you so
so much for being.
Speaker 3 (20:24):
Here, man, thanks for having me. This is great.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
We've seen the first two episodes of the show. Something
that strikes me immediately about it as we were just saying,
making this show must feel like really traveling back in time.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Yeah, it's the first thing I noticed when I got
the Cowboy camp, when I got to Taylor's ranch and
I got in there and I didn't have Wi Fi
and I didn't have cable, and I was like, all right,
no cable, but it's you know, it's football season. I
need to watch my Niners and couldn't do that. So
didn't have cable, didn't have cell signals, didn't have it.
So we just went back in time in that aspect.
(20:59):
And it's just everywhere we travel to the next location,
no cable, next location, this it's just one location, no TV,
like we're really in it, and no cell service.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
Got a call home, call the family, you know, and
that's that.
Speaker 4 (21:13):
The hotels were at and the barns and the ranches
were living in. And then when you go to the
shooting locations, you're out in the middle of nowhere, so
you're just dead to the world, you.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Know, for the whole day, sometimes the whole night.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
And right now you're in Las Vegas for about forty
eight hours promoting the show. In between shooting it, did
you spend that entire time just catching up on football games?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Just game, the game, the game.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
I wish I had that kind of time.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
It was nice getting here like a remote control, I
got cable, I could watch some games.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
But it as soon as we got here, it was interviews.
It was interviews.
Speaker 4 (21:46):
My family came, I had friends in town, so I
made sure everybody was checked in, and then it was
time to get ready for the premiere.
Speaker 3 (21:52):
And that was that.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
And walk up this morning and interviews, interviews, and now
we're done in a minute, and we're back on a plane,
and yeah, start studying some more lines and get back
to work tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
I can't believe it, and I feel so incredibly grateful
that in the middle of all of that, you're taking
this time to talk to us.
Speaker 3 (22:09):
It's amazing man. Yeah, this is dope.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Thank you so much for being here. Something that I
can't help but notice characterizers. I think a lot of
Tailor's writing is these extremes, Right, is the kind of
legend of the West, the myth, the idea we have
of it? Yeah, the idea we've seen in movies and
television since we were young, and then the brutal reality
the truth of it.
Speaker 3 (22:33):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
In the first two episodes I've seen the first two
episodes of the show, both of those things are really exemplified.
And your character, Thomas, it feels like, it feels like,
to a certain extent, has seen the worst of what
humanity has to offer, and it sort of is sort
of very disenchanted with that idea of the myth of
the West.
Speaker 5 (22:54):
Will you talk about that a little bit?
Speaker 3 (22:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (22:56):
To me, Thomas he's the soul of the show. He's
the humanity of the show. When life, you know, being
a black man in the eighteen hundreds, it was hard
for Thomas. It was hard for everybody back then. It
was a hard way of life back then, but for
some more than others.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
And Thomas he.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
Has a way about him where he he sees hope
in places where he shouldn't see it, like Shae has.
He balances Shaye Sam's character. You know, they have this
great relationship, but Thomas has this way of looking at
life like it is what it is, but I know
it can be better, and I believe it can be better.
And that's the hope that drives us all to keep going,
(23:36):
to keep waking up in the morning, and to keep
putting one foot in front of the other.
Speaker 1 (23:40):
You mentioned Sam Elliott's character Shay. From the very first
time we see the two of you on screen together,
it feels like there's this incredibly rich history. It feels
like the two of you have a relationship that's gone
on for years. Will you talk about the process of
finding that history together with Sam.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah. When I first met Sam, we were at the RAM.
Speaker 4 (24:00):
It was like a week end to cowboy camp and
Sam spotted me at the saloon and you know, see
a people, and he comes over. He puts his hands
on my shoulder and he's like, man, we're gonna we're
gonna be great together. And any nerves I had or
you're about to work with Sam Elliott, all that went
out the door and we just embraced each other we
were inseparable, and that led into filming and it just
(24:23):
it went amazing.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
And the characters Thomas and.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Shaye they served together back in the Civil War, like
he was a Buffalo soldier, Shae was a captain. And
when the war was over that they didn't really like
what the Buffalo soldiers assignments, their new responsibilities were. They
didn't sign up for that. So they went right, you know,
they took off. They became Pingerton agents. And now the
(24:47):
right hand knows what the leftist doing with Thomas and
say like they considered a campfire for an hour or
two and not say a word, but so much as
said in silence with them two, like they just they
get each other.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
They're protective over each other, and they have a it's
an equal friendship and equal relationship, and it's just it's
fun to it's fun to play off Sam, but it's
really nice to watch.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
It's also amazing. You're totally right that so much of
their communication feels like it's nonverbal. You know, there's so
many sort of quiet moments both of extreme gravity but
also of humor between the two of them. There's so
many looks they share with each other that become these
you could really a story told in a look.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
There.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Something I am really struck by with your performance that
I think is remarkable. You spoke a minute ago about
you know, meeting sam Ellie at this legend, this someone
who I feel personally very intimidated by. But something I
see in your performance is this incredible feeling.
Speaker 5 (25:40):
Of ease, of physical ease.
Speaker 1 (25:44):
You're obviously a very powerful physical presence, You're incredibly sort
of physically powerful presence in these scenes, but you also
have such an easy kind of minimalism, and that's an
incredible gift as an actor to go back and forth
between these extremes, right these gunfights, these huge, high pressure,
tense moments, but still be able to find this sort
(26:06):
of quiet breath that you find. That's a remarkable. I'm
learning so much from watching you as an actor.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
I appreciate that, man, I really do thank.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
Because you have such It's so hard. These are very
it's a lot of pressure. It's maybe the biggest television
show ever made. You're surrounded by hundreds of crew, millions
of dollars of filmmaking infrastructure. Me I feel like all
I ever feel on set is tension. I feel my
body just freezing up, feeling his tension, and it feels
(26:39):
like something you guys have found together as a as
a cast, is you found this incredible ability to feel
ease and comfort while there's a tremendous amount of pressure
on you.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Sam has that way about him where he just he
he's a common presence in reality with everyone that's around us.
Speaker 3 (26:59):
You know.
Speaker 4 (27:00):
There was a there was a scene in the in
the second episode where Thomas and She are trying to
recruit a couple of cowboys and they're sitting at the
table with us and some of the background players.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
There was a woman.
Speaker 4 (27:11):
She was supposed to pour water in our in our
glasses and I don't know if she knew that ahead
of time, but she was nervous. They told her on
the spot, like hey, can you fill them up? And
you could see her hand was shaking like this, you're
about to fill up Sam Elliott's.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
Cup, you know, day on set.
Speaker 4 (27:26):
Yeah, and her hand was shaking and it was like,
you know, they said action and she came and she
she spilled it and it over, It came over and
it was all over the table.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
And she was just she was a mess.
Speaker 4 (27:37):
And Sam was like and someone come, you know, clean
this up, and it was like, all right, cool, Sam
gets up.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
No one sees this but me.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
I'm kind of looking over and he walks over to
her and he embraces her and just tells her something
and the biggest smile came over her face, steadied the hand,
and every take she did after.
Speaker 3 (27:54):
That it was just solid, solid, solid, and that was
a great job. Great job.
Speaker 4 (27:58):
Sam has that effect with everybody, and that's Sam as
the person. Thomas and Shay's relationship, the calm and the
ease that they have. Shae can be a bit temperamental,
he could be a hot head, he could be impulsive.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Thomas is the cool, calm and collected.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
He balances Shaye out so and he's the one that
tells Shay straight like, look, when you got to have
that friend in your life that you might not you
might not want to hear what they have to say,
but it's the truth. And he tells him straight up.
He tells them what it is and they just they
bounce off each other.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Well like that.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
It's amazing to identify, Yes, that Sam Elliott is this
incredibly professional, easy, cool, calm presence and in some ways
it's your job to provide that for his character. Yeah,
it's your job to steady out his character. Thank you
so so much for taking the time to do this.
I'm incredibly grateful. I've seen the first two episodes, and
I think your journey, Thomas's journey is the one I'm
(28:55):
most looking forward to seeing more of.
Speaker 3 (28:56):
So I love that. Man, Thanks for having me. I
appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (29:01):
I love talking to Lamonica, getting the opportunity to know
him and his work. He's incredible in eighteen eighty three,
one of my favorite characters on the show. Can't wait
to see more when we get back. We're gonna chat
with my friend Eric Nelson today. I feel incredibly lucky,
incredibly blessed to have with us in the studio. Eric Nelson.
Eric Nelson plays Innis on eighteen eighty three. Eric has
(29:24):
become a fast friend of mine, and I'm incredibly grateful
for his time. So Eric, thank you so much for
being here.
Speaker 5 (29:29):
Jeff, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
Man.
Speaker 5 (29:32):
I couldn't be more grateful to be here with you, especially,
and it's kind of nice that we got to warm
up a little before. It's not like we're meeting right
now we've been able to hang out and actually work
together and have some fun. So I couldn't be happier
right now.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
And so you correct me if I'm wrong. You've been
working on eighteen eighty three. You're in the thick of it.
How long now have you guys been shooting for?
Speaker 5 (29:53):
Well, the whole thing started in the very first week
of August, started with a cowboy camp before we jumped
into filming, which I actually was at for three weeks.
I got to have an extra week before the rest
of the cast got there, just one on one with Taylor,
which was incredible, and then the whole cast got there
(30:14):
the next week and we pumped it out for two
more weeks and then started filming I think that next Monday.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
So it talk to me about this concept of cowboy
camp is pretty familiar to me. It talk to me
about your experience riding before the show, and your experience
riding now, what have you learned? What have you been
working on?
Speaker 5 (30:33):
So it's funny because when I auditioned for the show,
of course they were like, you know, riding skills is
a big plus. You gotta be you know, we're looking
for actors who can ride, so I was like, dude,
been riding my whole life. You know, I got this
in the bag, you know, just trust me. And I
wasn't lying. Both my parents were into horses, and I
grew up around them. But I think because they loved
(30:54):
horses so much, it made me go a different direction
because I was like, well, I want my thing. And
then and so I wasn't foreign to the whole riding,
but I hadn't been riding my whole life. I wrote
as a kid a little bit and that was about it.
And then got the audition and busted my butt with
a trainer and literally yeah yeah, literally sores red, but
(31:19):
the whole thing to make sure that I was on
par for by the time I got to see Taylor.
And I thought I was good by the time I
saw Taylor. And the first day I get on a
horse in front of Taylor, He's like, you're doing it
all wrong. He's like, you're not. You got to post
your trot, you got to you know, all these things.
And so I'm like, I have a lot to learn, still,
wake up call.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
It feels like the more I learned, the more I
realized I don't know it. You know, a horsemanship cowboying.
That's kind of a lifelong pursuit, and it feels like
the more you learn, the more there is to.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
Learn, exactly. So he wasted no time. We rode all
day every day and it's you know, we're in the
middle of the summer in Texas, so it's one hundred
and ten degrees and we are outside and we are
in pants, and at points he's like, you know, I
want you to wear your show chaps, and the layers
just kept coming on as it kept getting hotter. So
(32:08):
because I think he was really trying to mentally and
physically prepares for what was ahead filming wise, and it
did just that. I mean, having had those those weeks
with him and probably some of the best horse trainers
and riders in the world with us every day was
just the most incredible help an actor could have gotten
(32:29):
to play a role like this on television. So by
the time we started filming, at least in my own head,
I felt like I was a seasoned cowboy. I just
had to convince myself of that because of you know,
what was on the table.
Speaker 1 (32:46):
Yeah, you're right. So your character Innis, particularly Innis is
hired Innis and Wade or hired by Sam Elliott's character
Shay to basically handle the cows for this wagon train.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Is that right?
Speaker 5 (32:57):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
So you guys, you base are working with cows all
day every day.
Speaker 5 (33:02):
Yes, my my scene partner is a cow all all day. No,
but yeah, I mean we are. I spend probably ninety
percent of the show on a horse, maybe seventy or
eighty percent, but a good amount of time on a
horse and a good amount of time pushing cattle. And
(33:25):
it's you know, it's interesting because so much of what
we do is personal connections with other actors and we're
feeding off emotions and you know, there's so much of
that for Ennis, but there's also so much time when
it's just Nis and nature or Ennis and you know,
horses and cows and you know, just being in this environment,
(33:47):
so being able to kind of keep grounded and settled
and you know, surrounding yourself with that, uh, with something
I haven't gotten to do a lot as an actor
in any other project. You know, the horses and the
animals and the world were in were just as big
of a part as you know, Tim mcgral, Sam Elliott,
And that really.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
Feels almost unique to eighteen eighty three in the world
of television, even because they have created a humongous epic story,
like a story with almost impossible scale, with hundreds of horses, cows,
(34:27):
this massive wagon train, a huge ensemble cast that the
scale of the show. As I watch it, my breath
is taken away over and over again by the scale
of it. And you're right that that has an incredibly
immersive effect. To a certain extent, you can't help but
be grounded in that reality because they've gone to such
(34:50):
painstaking lengths to literally surround you with that reality. Will
you talk about this sort of the immersive experience of
working on the show, of shooting the show.
Speaker 5 (35:01):
I mean, it's unbelievable because whether you feel ready or
not for it, you're in it, you know when, And
it makes you think how these people actually did this
in the late eighteen hundreds with these huge wagon camps
and the whole thing, And we're crossing rivers and up
and down mountains, and we're actually doing it on the show.
I mean, when we've got wagons crossing through the Brass
(35:24):
River that was done. We had to on horseback push
cattle through these you know, rivers, and there are days
when the current is very strong, and there are days
when the wind is insane, and you know, you can't
predict what's going to happen with Texas weather or Montana weather,
to be honest, So a lot of that environment was
(35:47):
just it lended itself to be as real and authentic
as it could be. Because when it looks like we're
a hot mess in the water and can't get the
cows to do what we want to do and the
wagons are tipping over and the chaos is happening, it's
written that that's what's supposed to happen, but it's actually happening,
you know, like we couldn't act that if we wanted to.
(36:10):
And that's what you know, Taylor's gift is. It's it's
pulling out the authenticity and it's there. I mean, you'll
see some of the stuff they that we had to
do with these animals. It's none of it is hollywood
ized in any way whatsoever we were doing it.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
I think, I think you're totally right. What Taylor's gift
is is kind of I think of it as this contradiction.
So it's that stuff. It's this huge, immersive, authentic, mythic
epic world, and then it's these incredibly human, intimate, quiet
(36:47):
personal moments alongside that. And when I watch your work
on the show, that feels like it really characterizes your
performance too. Right, So you're participating in these huge cattle drives,
You're in this this kind of mythic version of the West,
but then also you have these quiet moments, you have
these sort of quiet personal moments. Will you talk about that?
(37:08):
Will you talk about the contrast going from being on
horseback surrounded by one hundred cows to having these these lovely, quiet,
sort of romantic moments. Yeah.
Speaker 5 (37:17):
Absolutely, I mean it's it's the greatest gift as an actor.
I feel like to really be able to tap into
every string of emotion in a journey. And that's what
we were handed on a silver platter. And so to
go from you know, the big chaotic moments of of
(37:38):
of pushing these cows and wagons and everything through the
crazy current of a river, to being one on one
in a field, you know, with another actor and just
really having that intimacy. It makes it feel like I'm
doing a different movie all the time. Like you know,
so oftentimes we get on and you know you're going
(38:01):
to the same studio every day. You're doing the same
thing every day, and you know, it almost becomes redundant
at times. There is in no way for that to
be possible in eighteen eighty three because of what you're saying,
because of how drastically different scene from scene is, because
of not only the atmosphere and you know, the everything
(38:22):
that comes along with that, but the way it's written,
and you know, it's it's just been incredible to be
on that journey and it keeps it fresh, and it
keeps you super focused and super on your toes and
not really knowing what to expect, which in itself is
an exciting thing as an actor.
Speaker 1 (38:41):
And it feels like that really also characterizes the authentic West, right.
It's it's it's incredibly sort of punishing, difficult, beautiful, brutal work,
and alongside that, it's these quiet, beautiful, still silent moments,
you know.
Speaker 5 (39:00):
And the cool thing about Taylor is he's not afraid
to let the camera's role, as I'm sure you've seen
for a lot longer than I have, even is you know,
he really likes those moments. And so there's there's one
point in one of the episodes I guess I can't
really say, but.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
You can go ahead and say, and they can cut
it if they need to.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
Okay, there's there's this point where is about we ride
up on all these left goods of immigrants and travelers
that couldn't take what they wanted to across the river,
you know, a piano, big luggage, anything that they couldn't
physically get across because it would weigh them down or whatever.
And one of the things left is this piano in
(39:42):
Isabelle's character walks over to it, and James Landry Abery
and I are kind of on our horses watching what,
you know, what is she doing? And she sits and
plays Moonlight Sonata and Isabelle of course memorized the entire
thing perfectly, and it is a lot. I think it's
like a five to six minute song. And she goes
to Taylor and she's like, this is about a six
(40:03):
minute piece. I know it. I can play, but you know,
for camera's sake and for the show's like, should we
just do like a couple seconds or thirty to a minute.
And He's like, absolutely not, We're doing the entire thing,
and I want this moment, the whole thing and so
we're sitting there watching her play this, and there's such
a emotional heavy weight on it because she's playing this
(40:24):
beautiful piece knowing that once we cross that river, anything
could happen. You know, life as we know it now
is over. We're entering into a new territory of unknown uncertainty,
and honestly, you know, we're the moment we're over there,
we are so much more vulnerable to the world. And
(40:44):
so there's this heaviness to this beautiful song and he
lets the whole thing go, and I just think it's
such a powerful moment because all this craziness happening, and
then you just hear Moonlight Sonata and it's her playing
and James and I are doing everything in our power
not to cry ball listening to her do it. And
so that's just one of those many moments in the
(41:05):
show that like really hit hard, and to me was
you know, it just spoke volumes of the world that
they were in and contrasting to it as well, so.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
That really, I mean, it speaks to the sort of quiet,
still heartbreaking, kind of melancholic sort of nature of the
West at times. There's obviously in the show heart pounding
action sequences from the very first episode. The show starts
out with a series of blistering action sequences, some of
(41:39):
my favorite action sequences I've ever seen on camera. And
then there's a sort of third character to a lot
of this, which is this what I think of is
the sort of joy and comedy, right, So I think
of your work with James Landriaberts, who plays Wade. You
guys have this rapport, right, you have this friendship, this
(42:01):
relationship they can only really come from years spent together,
just the two of you and a herd of cattle.
So you talk a little bit about developing that relationship
with James, about the relationship between your characters innoc and Wade,
and what that process was like as you guys work
together almost every day.
Speaker 5 (42:17):
Absolutely, it's funny because you know, we is such a
heavy and dark world. Eighteen eighty three is an intense,
you know, emotionally driven series. And when I first read
the scripts and I'm reading through and it's funny. Originally
I was up for the role of Wade, and so
I taped for Wade and they wrote back within like
thirty seconds, Oh no, no, no, he's right for Redison. So
(42:38):
I did Nis, and then once I really dove into
the scripts with Nis and mine, who's you know, I've
felt much more connected to anyway. I was like, Okay,
this guy is a beacon of light and all this
crazy darkness, this guy needs to bring. You know, if
there's gonna be some chuckles in this show, I think,
you know, Ennis is the guy to do it, or
(42:59):
at least a smile on your face throughout this craziness.
And so James and I started developing a great friendship
throughout Cowboy Camp, and you know, we are the Ennis
and Wade relationship is real, and it actually is James
and I's relationship. We're so opposite but yet pull the
best qualities out of each other on and off screen.
(43:21):
And so it worked so well, and I'm so blessed
that that I got him as a partner throughout most
of this and it just lended itself to to you know,
these characters and to the you know rapport that they
have throughout the series. And had we not had that
opportunity in Cowboy Camp to get close and spend all
(43:42):
day every day with each other, I don't know if
we would have found that as quickly as we did,
but like you said it, you know it. It's a
nice uplifting feel throughout this show, I feel, and it's
been a lot of fun to explore. And the funny
part is Tim McGraw and I became super good friends,
(44:04):
and he's so much of a goofball and a big
brother and always doing pranks on me, and like, really
you'll see throughout the series that I give him a
lot of reasons to not necessarily like me or you know,
he's he plays the father and as a father does
he's very protective of his daughter, and so it lends
(44:25):
itself to a lot of you know, friction between him
and I and he takes that on and off screen.
He's so serious and intense and strong and grounded on
the show, but in real life he's so the opposite.
I mean, he's strong and grounded, but he's just always
always trying to make people laugh. And I mean he
would tip me off my chair or he would like
just like stare at me for thirty seconds before we
(44:47):
film the scene just to make me uncomfortable. But it's
just funny to see how, you know, people can be
completely opposite of their character, and that's a great example,
but on the flip side, James and I are pretty
sim learn to ours and that carried on and off,
so it could go either way.
Speaker 1 (45:03):
It's funny, I mean, and this show, like I think,
another quality that Taylor has in his writing that feels
like a particular gift he has is immediately quickly creating
these relationships that feel like they're decades old, you know.
So he puts these characters on screen that from the
very first time you see them together, you understand their
(45:24):
rich history, You understand sort of where they've come from
and how much time they've spent together. And I think
that's very evident with Innocent Wade, it's very evident with
La Monica Garrett and Sam Elliott's characters that the sort
of history that they have together, I think is immediately
apparent the second you first see them on screen. And
then also, you know, in the case of eighteen eighty three,
(45:48):
there's the incredible gift of Tim McGraw on faith Hill
obviously being a family in real life and you're obviously
yourself a family man. Will you talk about, you know,
a family is one of the endurings of eighteen eighty
three and of Yellowstone. Will you talk about, you know,
things you've learned from filming, about what family means, things
(46:10):
you've taken from your own personal life as a father
and as a husband and brought to set. We just
talk about that experience.
Speaker 5 (46:16):
A little absolutely well. First and foremost effect that Tim
and Faith get to do this together is just out
of this world, I think for the fans of them personally.
And then you know what they bring to this show
is they raise it to a level that I just
blew me away from day one. And like you said,
(46:38):
that that chemistry and that love and that family that
they already have just transcends and follows right onto our
set and that just I mean so smart for Taylor
to do that, and it just worked so well. And
as you know, a married man myself, my wife is
an actress, you know to and she's actually here, I now,
(47:00):
hi it that would be a dream come true, you know,
to get to go on this journey with with you know,
your spouse and just get to play these characters that
are so unlike yourself, but yet you still get to
use so much of your uh developed love and chemistry
(47:20):
and relationship for each other on on a show. And
we've been fortunate enough to do that before, but not
not in this capacity on such a long running thing.
But you know, you can, you can act, and you
can develop these characters enrichments. But if you can start
(47:41):
with that already there and then get to that point,
it's like where do you go? You just keep going
up as opposed to starting and getting there. But like
you said, I think the way Taylor has developed these
characters and what the text does without even us opening
our mouths is bring it all the way up here
(48:01):
before we even started. And so that's been such a
gift to have it already laid out. When you read
these scripts.
Speaker 6 (48:09):
It's like you see the show, you see the movie,
you see it before ever even opening your mouth, And
that's been, you know, the greatest gift as far as
you know, developing you know, the relationships that we have
in the show.
Speaker 5 (48:25):
And it's just made it that much easier. And it's
kind of sad because now since I started the show,
I've read a few other scripts that people have sent
and I'm just like, it's hard to read now. It's
just has the bar so high. I'm just like, how
can I not compare anything else to history? We get spoiled.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
Yeah, I think you're also right that it really has
a lot to do with casting, and that also is
another gift that Taylor has that David Glasser has our
executive producer, and the John Papsidera, the casting office that
cast both eighteen eighty three and Yellowstone has is if
you match the right person with the right part, a
lot of the work is done for you, you know. And Eric,
it's abundantly clear to me that you're the right person
(49:04):
in the right part. And I'm so so so grateful
to be your friend. I'm so so grateful to get
to know your work. I'm so excited to watch more
of your work. I can't wait to see all your
work on eighteen eighty three and beyond. So thank you again, brother,
so much for being here.
Speaker 5 (49:17):
Thank you, thank you. This has been an absolute pleasure,
my man. And look forward to seeing you tonight. And
thanks for having me. You're killing it. Can't wait for
next next well, I guess I guess we'll both will
premiere on Sunday next week, and you'll have another episode
coming out next Sunday, So I'm just gonna have to
have a big party and watch them both.
Speaker 1 (49:38):
That's right back and back here's brother.
Speaker 5 (49:40):
Thanks again, Thanks so much, Jeff.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
This has been an incredible journey. I feel so fortunate
to have had the opportunity to uh, to go through
this with you, to work on this podcast. I'm so
grateful to the team at the WIN who have been
so kind, so generous in accommodating us and making this
whole thing possible. To everybody I got the chance to
(50:06):
talk to, I'm so grateful for your time. You've taught
me so much. You've taught me so much about acting,
about filmmaking, and also just about life. So thank you
so much for taking the time to talk to me,
and to those of you out there listening. You guys
are the reason we get to do any of this.
Yellowstone has obviously changed my life in so many ways,
(50:26):
and it's because of you. It's because of you, guys,
that we get to keep making this stuff, that we
get to keep having these incredible, sort of life changing,
once in a lifetime experiences. So thank you, thank you,
thank you for listening to the podcast. If you want
to hear more, if you're not sick of me yet,
just let us know and we'll do our best to accommodate.
The Official Yellowstone Podcast is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
(50:48):
wherever you get your podcasts. The Official Yellowstone Podcast is
hosted by me Jefferson White and produced by One on
one Podcast Studios in Paramount Network. Thank You, Thank You,
thank you, and good Night.
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