EXCLUSIVE: Sam Elliott Opens Up About his New Show, 1883
The prequel to Taylor Sheridan’s hit show, Yellowstone, 1883 premiered on Paramount+ this past Sunday, December 19. To celebrate the two-episode premiere, we sat down with one of the stars of the show, the legendary Sam Elliott.
During our chat with the iconic actor, we talked him working alongside Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, his costar, LaMonica Garrett, what drew him to playing his character, Shea, and so much more. Check out what he had to saw below.
What was it like working with Tim McGraw and Faith Hill?
“I think there was a certain contingent of people that thought, ‘Hmm, these Country Western singers, they’re going to be actors.’ Well, they pulled it off. That’s how I feel about it. I think they’re both incredible in it, and I think they’ve gotten more incredible every episode. They’re definitely up to it. Tim, I think probably is the best horseman amongst the group, in terms of the men. I think there’s two or three women that are better horse people than any of us, but they’re lovely people.
They’re fun to work with. We’ve been hanging out a lot off the set, as well as on the set. It’s one of the great gifts of being in this business and doing films. You have these relationships, that sometimes, they transcend the film and they go on afterwards, and sometimes when they’re over, that’s it, you don’t see them again. It’s like a bunch of gypsies, but I love Tim and Faith, and I think the work they’ve done is just incredible.”
When we meet Shea, he’s just had so much tragedy in his life, and he is overcoming so much. What keeps him going when life is so hard?
“I think on some level, one of the things that keeps him going, and I think maybe it’s of the reasons that he has taken on this responsibility of being this wagon boss is to get these people to Oregon. Apart from that, Shea’s on a personal journey to get himself to Oregon. I won’t tell you why, but that’s why he’s going there. He’s heading for the ocean, which is a bizarre thing for some guy starting in Fort Worth, Texas, but he’s driven, and he wants to get there. I think that’s what really keeps him going, that and his relationship with Thomas [LaMonica Garrett], his compadre.”
You’re clearly not a newcomer to Western. You’ve been in a number of them. How would you say 1883 compares or differs from the westerns you’ve been in before?
“I think number one, is the girth of it. This is the biggest thing I’ve ever worked on, whether it’s a Western or a contemporary film, or television show. They’ve got a massive amount of money, which brings a massive amount of moving parts, whether they’re mechanical or human. It’s the biggest crew I’ve ever worked on. I’ve never worked on a show that had six cameras running at the same time. We’ve traveled. We’ve been all over the state of Texas, where working again right now. We went to Montana. We’re going to finish on the Oregon coast mid-January. It’s massive, and I think the mass of it is the thing that makes it most different.”
You can read the rest of our interview under the jump! The next new episode of 1883 will premiere on Paramount+ this coming Sunday, December 26.
Photo credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
What drew you to wanting to play Shea on the series?
“Oh, dear god. The words, what was on the page. You don’t often get a piece of material that is as powerful as the stuff that Taylor [Sheridan] writes. His dialogue is very spare. I think it’s more the way that I talk, or more the way that people talk, which makes it easier to deal with. It makes it more real. I think Taylor’s really a poem in a lot of levels, that there’s a voiceover that runs through this. The Isabel May character, Elsa. It’s really, I think, the backbone of this whole story, in that voiceover. Taylor talks about the land. He talks about human nature. He talks about so many different things. It’s Taylor’s dialogue. It’s just Taylor’s dialogue. I mean, when Sicario came out, I thought, “Who wrote this stuff, man?’ I heard Taylor. I knew him as an actor, but I never knew him as a writer until that came out, and I thought, ‘Jesus, this guy’s complex. This guy has quite a mind.’ Taylor’s a brilliant man, and certainly a brilliant writer. That’s what drew me to it. There’s a saying, “If it ain’t on a page, it ain’t on a stage,” and I’ve always believed that. Words mean everything.”
What has it been like working with Taylor Sheridan?
“I worked on another Western that a guy named Kevin Jarre wrote and started out directing, but his screenplay is what got everybody to come on board. I think I can safely say that, and that was Tombstone. The thing about this project, again, is the screenplay. Taylor’s work as a writer is brilliant, as far as I’m concerned. He is very poetic in his writings, and very spare. The dialogue’s very spare, unless he goes into one of his arias that he writes for some of us along the way. It’s a joy to do his dialogue.”
What do you like most about playing Shea?
“Oh, well, I somehow think, apart from all the action, the horseback riding, the shooting, and all the obvious stuff that guys or men might say, ‘Wow, I wish I could do that.’ It’s the ultimate thing, the ultimate male fantasy in some way for an actor is to play a cowboy. I think I can safely say that, because I’ve heard people tell me that over the years. Actors tell me that, but to be honest with you, I think my favorite stuff is the stuff I’m doing with the girls on the show. There was a girl named Stephanie Nur that came in for two days, when we were in Fort worth. She was a saloon girl, came over and sat on my lap, and whispered in my ear. We had a really interesting, a very short scene together that stuck with me, in fact it still sticks with me. I’ve got a scene with Isabel May coming up, and I’m so looking forward to that. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the picture. I had a scene with Gratiela Brancusi that it was equally powerful and touching to me. The stuff with the girls has been pretty special.”
Can you talk a little bit about Shea’s connection to Thomas and your relationship with LaMonica Garrett?
“It feels totally natural to me. It speaks volumes about both of these characters, they’re traveling with the guy from a totally different race in a period of time, when you would think that, ‘Eh, I don’t know about that. I’m not sure I believe that,’ but that relationship with LaMonica is one of my favorite elements of this entire thing. They’re brothers in arms, they were in the war together, or maybe didn’t ride together. Taylor [Sheridan] says he thinks maybe Shea rode with the Buffalo soldiers, where Thomas was, a unit that Thomas was in. I’m not sure that I believe that. I’ve seen a lot of pictures of those guys over the years, and there was never a white guy amongst them. Although, I appreciate the thought of it, but something threw them together, and Thomas is there taking care of Shea.
When I get with LaMonica, I look at those eyes and I look at that mask that is underneath that hat of his, and listen to that voice, he’s rock solid. He’s always rock solid in every bit of this stuff. Yeah, it works. I know that it’s working, but everything LaMonica’s doing is working. The relationship that he has with Gratiela, that’s another one that’s a little… You think, ‘Wow.” We’re going to go down that road now. They’re pulling that off.’ Thomas is an unbelievable character. I think LaMonica is really having a good time playing him.”
For you, what do you hope 1883 answers for fans of Yellowstone?
“How they got to Montana, how the Duttons got to Montana. That’s the only question it answers as far as I’m concerned. That, to me, is the only connection between this show and Yellowstone is how the Duttons got to Montana. Beyond that, it’s not Dallas in 1883, I know that.”
What do you think the show has to say about freedom and civilization, and also humanities relationship with nature?
“Well, all of these people are free to make this trip. They’re all free to go to Oregon. We talk a lot about that along the way. We talk about the fact that freedom really isn’t free. Those elements are just ingrained in the story, in the journey West that immigrants made, when they came to this country. I don’t think it skirts anything actually, but it reminds us of how we dealt with the Indians, how we dealt with the natives. Something that really, far as I’m concerned, has yet to be reconciled for the majority of them. I think those issues, in terms of how the country is or how healthy the country is, Taylor dealt with those issues. Maybe not in depth, but they’re dealt with. They’re dealt with in the dialogue. They’re dealt with in the pictures.
This thing is really about characters. It’s not about politics, and it’s not about that, but there are elements of it in there, that are ingrained in the characters.”
In your last few roles you’ve really started to play these really emotional characters. Is that a choice you’ve been making consciously, to find a bigger challenge emotionally? Or, that it happens to be part of the roles you’ve been taking the last few years?
“I think it just happened to be part of it, and maybe it’s old age. I don’t know. Maybe I’m more emotional now, than I was when I was a young man. I don’t know. There’s something to me that has always been appealing to see strengthen vulnerability in the same human being. If, that makes any sense? That’s certainly the case with Shea. That was certainly the case with the brother in A Star Is Born. There was a ragged edge there between Bradley [Cooper] and me, and our backstory with our dad and all that. That’s the same in this thing. There’s a backstory that Shea, he has to be a vulnerable character. I don’t seek a part out, because I can shed a tear in it, but if it’s part of the deal, then it really just happens. “