Taylor Sheridan has built one of the most-watched television empires on the planet, and he wants everyone to know he did it without chasing trophies or taking notes from the people who sign his paychecks.
The “Yellowstone” creator unloaded on studio and network brass during an appearance on “The Bill Simmons Podcast,” where he turned up to promote his new book “How Not to Die in Prison,” co-written with Tom Nelson. Sheridan, who has two series on the Emmy ballot this year, the freshman drama “The Madison” and the sophomore season of “Landman,” spoke with the sports podcaster about doing the opposite of what the industry had told him to.
“I knew when I started writing [I wanted] to simply not do what everyone else was doing,” he said on the episode. “What everyone else was doing was taking shortcuts, essentially breaking all the very basic fundamental rules of storytelling, because they couldn’t figure out their story. With a movie, you’re supposed to show me what’s happening. The camera is supposed to move the story. The dialogue is supposed to tell me how the people in this world feel about what’s happening or what they hope to do or what they wish they hadn’t done or had done.”
Sheridan got specific about some of the criticism he anticipated for “Landman,” the Paramount+ drama in which Demi Moore spent most of the first season near a swimming pool. Sheridan admitted that she was told up front that she would essentially be an extra in Season 1 before moving into a central role in Season 2, and he knew exactly how that would play out. “The critics are going to come after me. I’m underutilizing [Moore], can’t write for women, all this nonsense. Then I’m going to kill your husband and you’re going to have to run the oil company. The critics and me — I don’t care what they think, and it annoys the shit out of them that I don’t care. I’ll be the first to tell you that there are things that I do that rage-bait them a bit, and this is one of them. Fuck ’em, honestly.”
