Taylor Sheridan is convinced that he is the only man who can write Western soap operas
I’ve been a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s feature films, like Sicario (which he wrote but did not direct) and Wind River (writer/director), but I’ve never gotten into his TV shows, like Yellowstone, Tulsa King or Mayor of Kingstown. I get that Sheridan is a hot property though, and he’s Paramount’s rainmaker, a guy who can get any show or any script greenlit. The problem seems to be that Sheridan has big problems delegating, which wouldn’t be such a big deal if he was only show-running one TV show. Unfortunately, he’s currently writing, directing, producing and show-running multiple shows. Instead of pulling his head out of his ass and understanding that if he wants this money train to keep rolling, he needs to hire qualified and talented people to help him, Sheridan simply shuts down and argues that his way is best, no one can understand his vision and his characters, and he doesn’t need a writers room or a story coordinator or a showrunner not named Taylor Sheridan. Some highlights from his Hollywood Reporter cover story:
The original plan: “The plan was I would Greg Berlanti it,” Sheridan says, referring to the prolific producer of The CW’s DC Universe shows. “I would write, cast and direct the pilots, and then we would bring in someone as a showrunner to run a writers room and I could check in and guide them. That plan failed. There were some things that none of us foresaw.”
He is the only writer in the world who writes character-driven stories!! “My stories have a very simple plot that is driven by the characters as opposed to characters driven by a plot — the antithesis of the way television is normally modeled. I’m really interested in the dirty of the relationships in literally every scene. But when you hire a room that may not be motivated by those same qualities — and a writer always wants to take ownership of something they’re writing — and I give this directive and they’re not feeling it, then they’re going to come up with their own qualities. So for me, writers rooms, they haven’t worked.”
He’s not going to compromise: “I spent the first 37 years of my life compromising. When I quit acting, I decided that I am going to tell my stories my way, period. If you don’t want me to tell them, fine. Give them back and I’ll find someone who does — or I won’t, and then I’ll read them in some freaking dinner theater. But I won’t compromise. There is no compromising.”
He cares about the quality of his shows: “I get paid whether they’re good or bad, but that’s not really winning. I’m one of those people that’s incapable doing something that’s not tethered to 100 percent of my passion. I cannot do ‘OK’ at a job.”
He’s currently writing Tulsa King, Lioness & Yellowstone episodes all by himself: “If you don’t grow up in this [ranching] world, and if you’re not a history fanatic, how do you write 1883? How does a room do that? It doesn’t.”
On the WGA’s efforts to convince studios to hire a minimum number of writers for each scripted show. “The freedom of the artist to create must be unfettered. If they tell me, ‘You’re going to have to write a check for $540,000 to four people to sit in a room that you never have to meet,’ then that’s between the studio and the guild. But if I have to check in creatively with others for a story I’ve wholly built in my brain, that would probably be the end of me telling TV stories.”
Whether he works with story coordinators: And the script starts and ends with you? They go straight to the actors? Sheridan considers this for a moment. “They tell me there’s a story coordinator,” he says, “but I don’t know who that is.” (Somewhere, a Yellowstone story coordinator reads this and sadly hangs their head.)
What’s so funny, to me, is Taylor Sheridan is absolutely convinced that he alone can do all of this, that he’s the only one capable of writing these shows the way they need to be written, that no one else could capture his “unique” voice in writing… a Western soap opera. It truly never occurred to him to simply take the time and effort to read writing samples and go out of his way to hire talented writers who understand the material, the history and the vibe. Anyway, Sheridan claims that if the WGA gets what it wants (more writers being employed and paid fairly), then he’ll quit the business. LOLZ.
From one of his former script coordinators:
Yes, I was the Script Coordinator on 4 seasons of those shows. 👀
— Stacy Milbourn (@sbrelowzero) June 21, 2023
THR's TV Producer of the Year, Taylor Sheridan, says he can write episodes of hit TV shows in just 8-to-10 hours – and that Paramount never gives him notes. “Taylor writes scripts like you or I have a cup of coffee,” says his producing partner https://t.co/91n1Qu4oUf pic.twitter.com/KNx9YaYcRn
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) June 21, 2023
Cover courtesy of THR.
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