The Past & Future West - Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Isabel May talk 1883

Summary

Episode Summary: "The Past & Future West - Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Isabel May talk 1883"

Podcast: The Yellowstone Official Podcast
Hosts: Jefferson White ("Jimmy") and Jen Landon ("Teeter")
Guests: Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May
Release Date: January 13, 2022

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Introduction

In this special episode of The Yellowstone Official Podcast, hosts Jefferson White and Jen Landon delve deep into the making of the acclaimed series 1883, the prequel to Yellowstone. They are joined by prominent cast members Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May, who share their experiences and insights about portraying the Dutton family’s journey westward during the American expansion of the late 1800s.

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Interview with Tim McGraw

Casting and Joining 1883

Tim McGraw discusses how he was approached by Taylor Sheridan to join the series. Initially hesitant about committing to such an intense project, he was captivated by Sheridan's compelling scripts:

Tim McGraw (03:22): "Taylor called... five minutes later, Taylor called."

He emphasizes his longstanding fandom of Yellowstone and how this opportunity felt like a dream come true.

Immersive Filming Experience

Tim reflects on the rigorous filming conditions, highlighting the authenticity required to depict the harsh realities of the west:

Tim McGraw (03:45): "We left... in a 60 mile an hour dust storm..."

He shares anecdotes about transitioning from shooting in West Texas to the premiere event in Las Vegas, underscoring the physical demands of the role.

Character Deep Dive: James Dutton

Delving into his character, Tim portrays James Dutton as a man haunted by his past, seeking redemption and a better future for his family:

Tim McGraw (05:04): "James is PTSD... trying to outrun ghosts."

He discusses the complexity of James, shaped by experiences like the Civil War and Reconstruction, driving him to seek an untainted life for his family.

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Interview with Faith Hill

Working as a Real-life Couple

Faith Hill shares the unique dynamic of portraying Margaret Dutton alongside her husband, Tim McGraw. They strive to maintain authenticity by not rehearsing or reading lines together outside of set:

Faith Hill (14:15): "We want to bring Margaret and James to life..."

This approach helps them distinguish their real-life relationship from their on-screen characters, enhancing the performance's genuineness.

Immersive Challenges on Set

Faith highlights the demanding nature of filming 1883, emphasizing the commitment to authenticity in portraying the era's hardships:

Faith Hill (20:45): "It's as realistic as you can possibly get..."

She speaks about enduring extreme weather conditions and the physical toll of the production, such as handling corsets and rigorous cowboy camps.

Character Development: Margaret Dutton

Faith discusses her character’s resilience and the strength drawn from her family, mirroring her real-life support system with Tim and their daughters:

Faith Hill (23:41): "We become a family... having the same experience."

She underscores the importance of portraying a strong, supportive figure amidst the series' brutal setting.

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Interview with Isabel May

New Actor's Experience on 1883

Isabel May offers insights into her journey as a relatively new actress joining a high-profile series. She expresses gratitude for the opportunity to work alongside seasoned actors like Tim McGraw and Faith Hill:

Isabel May (42:56): "He's the kindest human being I've ever met."

Her admiration for Sam Elliott and the collaborative environment on set highlights the supportive atmosphere within the cast.

Learning New Skills: Horse Riding

Discussing the technical challenges, Isabel recounts her rapid training in horse riding and wagon driving to authentically portray Elsa Dutton:

Isabel May (43:27): "I started riding with Deidre Rodriguez..."

Her dedication to mastering these skills showcases her commitment to bringing authenticity to her character.

Character Development: Elsa Dutton

Isabel delves into Elsa's character, portraying her as a beacon of hope and resilience amidst the series' harsh realities:

Isabel May (34:55): "She's rising to this challenge... stepping into newfound freedom."

She emphasizes the balance between Elsa’s innocence and her strength, reflecting the broader themes of the series.

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Key Insights and Conclusions

This episode offers a profound look into the making of 1883, highlighting the immersive experiences and emotional depths the cast delves into to bring authenticity to their roles. Tim McGraw and Faith Hill emphasize the balance between their real-life relationship and their characters' dynamics, enhancing the series' emotional resonance. Isabel May's journey as a newcomer underscores the dedication and adaptability required to portray such a complex narrative faithfully.

The discussions reveal the meticulous effort behind depicting the duality of the American West—the romantic allure juxtaposed with its brutal reality. The cast's commitment to embodying their characters' struggles and triumphs contributes significantly to the series' critical acclaim and immersive storytelling.

Overall, the episode provides listeners with an intimate understanding of the challenges and triumphs involved in creating 1883, celebrating the dedication of its cast and the visionary guidance of Taylor Sheridan.

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Notable Quotes:

• Tim McGraw (05:04): "James is PTSD... trying to outrun ghosts."
• Faith Hill (20:45): "It's as realistic as you can possibly get..."
• Isabel May (34:55): "She's rising to this challenge... stepping into newfound freedom."

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For more insightful discussions and behind-the-scenes looks into the world of Yellowstone and 1883, subscribe to The Yellowstone Official Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your preferred platform.

Transcript

[Jefferson White]

Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the official Yellowstone Podcast presented by Wynn Las Vegas. Thank you so much for tuning in, and thank you for all your kind words about the podcast. Now, today's episode is a special one. As some of you guys may know, Wynn Las Vegas threw a huge event for the new Yellowstone Origin Story, 1883. And I was lucky enough to sneak my way in. So the cast was in town for this premiere event. And I feel so honored that I got a chance to sit down to them and talk to them about their work on this show. So this one was especially sort of incredible for me. Cause these are actors who I've never met before. They're artists who I've admired from afar for a long time. And so the opportunity to talk to them about the process of working on this show, this huge, epic, kind of unprecedented television event. We're talking about one of the biggest television shows ever made. And if you've seen any footage from it, it shows. Like, the scale of this thing is incredible. And the chance to talk to these actors in the middle of the process of making it was such a gift. So just for context, a lot of these actors, they worked on Friday. They flew to Las Vegas for the premiere event on Saturday. I talked to them on Sunday, and then they flew back to 1883 Sunday night. So the opportunity to talk to them in that little window, that little window into their process as they're making this thing was an utterly unique opportunity that I feel so grateful for. So we're going to get right to it. We're going to Talk with Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May, the incredible actors who bring to life the very first Dutton family who ventured west as part of the American expansion in the late 1800s. Right after this. I feel incredibly honored. What a pleasure. What a joy. Thank you so, so much for being here. We've got Tim McGraw in the studio. Tim obviously plays James DUTTON on why 1883. On 1883. And we're so, so grateful. Thank you for being here.

[Tim McGraw]

Thank you, man. I'm a big fan of yours, man. I really enjoy your work and big fan of your character and the things that you do on there. I mean, everybody falls in love with Jimmy.

[Jefferson White]

That's okay. I seek to be pitiable. If nothing else, I feel like that's. Some guys are tough. Some guys are just pathetic enough to garner some sympathy.

[Tim McGraw]

No, I think you're tough as well.

[Jefferson White]

So you were just saying just to jump back in. You were just saying right now it's a Sunday. You were shooting On Friday.

[Tim McGraw]

Friday.

[Jefferson White]

And you go back to work tomorrow? Tomorrow.

[Tim McGraw]

Monday I'll be up at probably 3:30 in the morning getting ready to work.

[Jefferson White]

So you went from. From West Texas where y'all are working to the wind, Las Vegas back to West Texas to go back to work?

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah, I mean it literally when we, we left in the middle of nowhere in the panhandle of Texas in a 60 mile an hour dust storm, shooting bad guys, running horses over rough terrain, horses jumping yucca plants and, you know, the whole, the whole thing and going wide ass open and. Can I say ass on this show?

[Jefferson White]

Absolutely.

[Tim McGraw]

Okay, good.

[Jefferson White]

Please do.

[Tim McGraw]

Wide ass open and chasing these bad guys. And we get on a plane, fly here. And I've had three showers since then. And this morning I took a Q tip in my ear and was just cleaning my inner. Still was dust in my ears. So I had dust in places that I don't even want to mention there was dust. Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

What I can't. What's incredible is how immersive the experience of making this show is. There are so many parallels between the real journey that your characters are on and the experience of making it. You can't fake a dust storm like that.

[Tim McGraw]

No, no, exactly. And you know, you find out because the west has been so romanticized, you know, and all the westerns that you see have been so romanticized, and everybody thinks, oh, I would love to have lived in that era. Like, no, you, you probably wouldn't. And, you know, you're on this wagon train and you're heading north and west and you think that, you know, we can make it, we can do this. And I told Faith when we first started shooting this, after the first, you know, week or two of shooting, you're learning to drive wagons and you're going through cowboy camp and all that stuff. I said, you know what, I probably would have made it a week. And I would have said, you know, the first river we got to, I would have said, you know, this looks like a good place. You know, let's just stop and build a house here and just relax. I ain't crossing that river. You know, it's because we, you know, in this show we crossed two or three rivers. I mean, it's wagons going across rivers, it's people drowning. I mean, it's. It's pretty incredible and intense, the fortitude that these people had to do this. I mean, it's pretty incredible.

[Jefferson White]

I find exactly as you just said, there's kind of two competing ideas of the west. And I think this is something that Taylor writes so compellingly. Sort of as is stated over and over again in the first pilot, there's the hell and the heaven, there's the dream and the nightmare. There's this kind of image we have of the romantic west and then the brutal reality of the day to day difficulty of living out west. And something that I admire so much about your performance is it really whipsaws back and forth between those two extremes. From the first time we see you, you're driving a wagon, firing guns over your shoulder.

[Tim McGraw]

I killed people the first episode. Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

And then just 20, 30 minutes later, this incredibly intimate, small, personal scene with just you and your wife in the tub. Those two extremes, as an actor, those two things are so difficult to hold it once.

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

And I just so admire how your, your performance is so simple when it needs to be and so commanding and powerful when it needs to be. That's an incredible gift.

[Tim McGraw]

Thank you. I mean, well, it's the writing, right? You're an actor, a great actor, and I'm an actor. And I don't call myself an actor, I'm a musician. But it all comes down to the material. I mean, everything is driven by the material that you pick. I wasn't looking for a series to do by any means. I wasn't looking to dedicate five months of my life, six days a week, 12, 14 hours a day, out in the elements. I wasn't looking to do that. But when you get Taylor, as you know, is such a brilliant writer. I mean, he's one of the. When he sent these scripts to us, it literally was the best thing I'd ever read. The best thing I'd ever read. And I'm a huge Yellowstone fan. I've been a Yellowstone fan since the very first night of the very premiere of the very first episode and was hooked ever since and never stopped watching. So when we got this opportunity to do this, I mean, it all happened because Taylor called last year. I say last year. With the last couple of years, as everybody knows, it's time. Time has become this sort of vortex that you get lost in. My agent called, said, hey, Taylor Sheridan wants to call you. Can I give him, can I give him your number? I mean, what a question to ask. Can I give Taylor Sheridan your number? I'm like, nah, nah, nah, don't give you my number.

[Jefferson White]

Could it be an email?

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah, can he just text you and then you can transfer? No, no, of course I said yes, give Taylor my number. And thinking that it was probably one of those lunch conversations where give Me, Tim's number. I'll call him. And you never call. I thought it was one of those kind of things. And then, sure enough, five minutes later, Taylor called. And you know Taylor and the energy that he brings to everything that he does. So right off the bat, he's like, hey, Tim, it's Taylor. I'm a big fan. Do you watch Yellowstone? I go, yeah, I'm a huge fan. He goes, I want you to be on the show. He said, would you make a cameo on our show? And of course, right off the bat, my instinct was like, well, yeah, I'm like, of course I will. But, you know, I don't want to be some singing. A singing cowboy that comes through a bunkhouse and gets taken to the train station at the end of the episode. Give me something cool to do and I'll be glad to do it. And he goes, I have an idea, but give me a week. So a week later, he calls. Sure enough. And I thought that would really. I thought that would be the end of the conversation. I didn't think I'd hear back from him. A week later, he calls. This is the idea. You're going to do a flashback. You're going to be the original Dutton that discovered Yellowstone, and it's going to be in the 1880s. And I go, I'm in. Then he said, can you ride? And I said, yeah, I can ride. I grew up riding. I grew up riding horse, so I can. Yeah, I can ride. He says, all right, good. Gave me the dates to show up. So we show up. And the very first morning I show up, I actually saw you guys. And I don't know if you knew it, but I was playing a wrangler part. I was out there because the cattle that. We were staying on the ranch where the cattle was. So every morning I would get up at 6, because we had to be in, like, quarantine for, like, a week before we could start shooting. So we were staying on the ranch, the Two Feathers Ranch that was right next door to Yellowstone. So the guy who was running the cattle said, hey, you want to get up and run the cattle with us over to the Yellowstone set? So me and Faith got up every morning at 6, moved the cattle over to the Yellowstone set, and you guys would be filming, and we were out there herding the cattle. And you guys never knew it was us. We'd see y'all out there working, and we were out there herding the cattle the whole time. And it was a lot of fun. But the very first scene, we Shot. I show up at 5 in the morning. Taylor says, okay, here's what's going to happen. You're going to get on this horse and you're going to have five guys with you, and you're going to haul ass across this valley and you're going to chase these bad guys and start shooting. And then you're going to run into the woods with these bad guys and you're going to have a shootout in the woods. And I'm like, okay, let's go. So we got on the horse and the very first, very first shot on the horse, and we just haul ass just wide open across that well, you know, the valley there. Haul ass across the valley shooting bad guys. And I'm like, got off the horse. And I was grinning from ear to ear. I said, if I never do anything else in my life, I want to do this. I want to do this. So we, we did a couple of flashback episodes, and one has shown already, and I don't know if I supposed to.

[Jefferson White]

You can say whatever you want. They can edit it.

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah. And so we do another flashback. He then he called back a week later, says, you're going to have a wife in this. He said, do you think Faith would be interested in doing this? And of course, I'm scared to death of my wife. So it took me a couple of days to even ask her. So I asked Faith, I said, you think you want baby? Do you think you'd want to play my wife? And she goes, yeah, hell yeah, I'm in. Let's do it. So we shot the episodes, and maybe a month after we finished shooting, Taylor called. He goes, look, I showed the scenes to the network, and I think they want to buy a series of a prequel. And knowing Taylor, he already had that in his mind, you know. You know, Taylor, he's a few steps ahead. He was way ahead of us anyway. And I said, yeah, I mean, you know, of course you go through all the business questions which we won't get into. It's like, all right, let's get the deal worked out. Let's see some scripts and all that stuff. And of course, we're in. And then he started sending scripts. And when I read the scripts, it's like, there's no way I'm not going to do this. Faith and I both, there's no way. We're not going to do this. And then when Sam Elliott got involved, I mean, how do you take this script? Taylor Sheridan being a huge Yellowstone fan, and then Sam Elliott's going to Be acting with you. That's a box that you can't get out of, you don't want to get out of. How do you say no to any of that? I mean, it's been a fantastic experience. It's been tough. I mean, it's been a hard shoot out in the elements the whole time. Riding hard. We've done some really hard riding, which I love. I love being on the horse and I love doing these scenes learning to drive a wagon, which I don't. Luckily I don't have to do very much because that's really hard. Really hard. Faith's gotten really good at it because she drives a wagon a lot. So it's been incredible. And the cast, the ensemble, it's really an ensemble cast. And from the smallest part to the biggest parts, everybody has brought their A game to this. And I think it shows up on screen.

[Jefferson White]

I think it absolutely does. And I mean, it's incredible to hear about that process because what strikes me of that is in part that Taylor, because you came onto these flashbacks on Yellowstone, Taylor had the opportunity to write these roles in 1883 to be so perfectly suited to you and to Faith because in watching it, it feels like it could not be more perfectly cast. And that's in part because it was writt to suit you guys and written to suit your specific skill set and also to create a family and a love story on screen. To have the incredible gift of a real family and a real love story going into that. Will you talk a little bit about that process? The process of working with your wife?

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah. I mean, you know, here's the funny thing is we read, when we get the scripts, we would lay in bed at night and she would read an entire script to me. Then I would read the next script out loud to her. But what we never have done and still don't do is we don't read our parts to each other. We don't rehearse our lines with each other because what we don't want to bring, we want to bring our relationship to the screen because we've been married for 25 years. And so that's part of Margaret and Jane's relationship as well. But we don't read them together because we want to not bring so much of Tim and Faith to it. We want to bring Margaret and James to life so we don't run our lines until we show up on set and do our scenes. And because we want it to be authentic. And we want it to be authentic to James and Margaret, not Tim And Faith.

[Jefferson White]

And it has that incredible quality of. So I can't help but notice over and over again, in 1883, there's these. Yeah, the question of sort of youth and naivete and inexperience versus experience and sort of lived years of difficulty. And that's embodied on two ends of the spectrum with Sam Elliott's charact and Isabel May's character. And then you and Faith, Margaret and James in the middle of that represent kind of both at once. Your characters have lived difficult lives. Especially in those flashbacks. It's revealed exactly how difficult and punishing and brutal your life has been.

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah, well, you get it. You get a sense of who James is. But because of the flashbacks in the second episode during the Civil War, and in my mind, when I'm developing my character and thinking about who James is and what drives him, to me, James didn't want to be in that war. He didn't believe in what the cause was, and he was forced to be in it. And then he. Then he goes into a battle and loses a thousand men. And to me, it's. James is ptsd. I mean, that's clearly part of his character, clearly part of his psyche. And I think probably after the war, you know, he was in prison for three years after the war, during Reconstruction and the devastation that it wrought. He wanted, I think, James motivation was to get his family to an untainted part of the world. And that's really what he wanted to do. And he was out. He was trying to outrun ghosts. He was trying to get past some of the ghosts that he had in his life. And I don't think he ever is going to get past that. But it was pretty incredible character and a complex character. And as an actor, when you get a chance to play somebody so complex, so deep and so troubled and be able to show that in your eyes and to show that in the character that you play, it's rare that you get the opportunity to do that and then you get the opportunity to do it. You know, after being in the music business for over 30 years, be married for 25 years, and at a point in our lives where probably it should be winding down to get the opportunity to do something like this together as husband and wife, I mean, how rare is that for something like that to come along at this point in your career?

[Jefferson White]

And it really feels like I can't help but map that onto the journey of James and Margaret. To a certain extent, they've done one thing. They've lived one life, and now they're embarking on this new journey, this incredibly hopeful sort of aspirational journey. They're seeking, this dream.

[Tim McGraw]

Yes.

[Jefferson White]

I think the thing I am so struck by, in part in your performance, is he's haunted. He's seen terrible things. He's seen hell. He's stood in hell. But you still find it feels like what redeems him to a certain extent is the joy and curiosity, the spontaneous moments of joy that he finds in his wife and in his family.

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah, and his daughter.

[Jefferson White]

Yes, exactly. Yes.

[Tim McGraw]

And his daughter. I think that. I think James looks at his daughter as his hope for redemption for all the things that he's had to live through. And Isabel May, who plays my daughter Elsa, just brings such a light and a spark and a hope to this whole process. And the thing I like about this is it's not romanticized. There is a romanticism to it, because the west in itself and the journey, there's a romantic sort of version of that. But what Taylor has written is the. Is the struggle and the hardship and taking sort of the veneer off of this journey. It's not this, like, great. You know, people watch westerns and they think, oh, I would have loved to have lived in that time. When you see this, you're like, I don't know that. I told Faith after a couple of weeks of shooting, you know, honey, I think in real life, I would have probably went a week. And when we got to the first river, I would have said, you know, this looks like a really good place to settle down. I think nothing wrong with this right here. Let's stay here.

[Jefferson White]

We're all out of time. I just want to say thank you again. I'm so. As an actor, I'm learning so much from your performance on this show. As a fan of yours and just as a fan of Yellowstone, you bring something utterly unique and an incredible sort of. Something incredible to this series that absolutely. It sort of couldn't exist without you. So thank you so much.

[Tim McGraw]

Thank you. And I think, you know, I think I feel grateful that Taylor and the studio took a chance to cast Faith and I in this role and just really load us up and think, all right, here you go, guys. We're banking on you. I mean, and that's. That's a heavy burden. And what we didn't want to do is let anybody down. And secondly, you guys, we didn't want to let you guys down because we're such fans of what y'all do and of the show Yellowstone that we didn't want anybody in the cast of Yellowstone to look at this show and think, ah, they're not representing us as well as they should, and that's what we didn't want to do.

[Jefferson White]

You're representing us better than we could ever hope to represent ourselves. So thank you so much.

[Tim McGraw]

Thank you, sir.

[Jefferson White]

Man. Appreciate it.

[Tim McGraw]

Thank you. My pleasure.

[Jefferson White]

I really, I can't help but be struck by how humble and generous Mr. McGraw is. May we all aspire to be so grounded and kind should we ever achieve even a fraction of the things he's achieved. I need to step aside for a minute. And when we come back, we're going to sit down with the incomparable Faith Hill. I feel incredibly lucky, incredibly honored, incredibly thankful to have with me in the studio today Faith Hill. Faith plays Margaret Dutton. Thank you so much for being here.

[Faith Hill]

Gosh, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to meet you. You're adorable.

[Jefferson White]

Thank you. Pitiable. I go for pitiable. You know, I go for pitiable. Sort of pathetic. That's right.

[Faith Hill]

No, you're definitely not that slide.

[Jefferson White]

You guys are in the middle of an incredible whirlwind. You're in the middle of making the show.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

You worked on Friday. You work again Monday, and today it's. It's. We're pushing into the afternoon on Sunday.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jefferson White]

And the experience of making the show, it's an incredibly immersive one. You're really out there. You're in the middle of the wilderness of West Texas. Will you just talk about the immersive experience of making this thing?

[Faith Hill]

Well, yes. It's. We are. We are living 1883 in all of its glory and grit and guts and everything. I mean, can I say that?

[Jefferson White]

Absolutely.

[Faith Hill]

Sorry. I mean, it's kind of not really ladylike, but it's the truth. It's. Yeah, it's about realistic as you can possibly get in 2021 going back to 1883. Taylor, you know him well, and he made it very clear to us that he wanted this to be as authentic as it possibly could be. And it was going to be hard. Hard work. Not afraid of that. Grew up. My parents raised us to be hard workers, always. Tim as well. And Tim and I have been in the business for over 30 years, probably longer than you're young. Okay, never mind. Don't even answer that question. Don't even look at me right now. So we've been in the business longer than you been alive, I'm sure. And we've worked hard, you know, really hard. This is another level I Think Tim would probably say that he's never done anything harder, mentally or physically. However it takes it, it. It's necessary in order to bring this story to life in the way that it was written. Hopefully we are doing that, you know, justice. And I have to be honest, when we walked, when we came into the hotel, we were all kind of like, oh, hotel, wow. So this is. This is what it's. This is what it feels like to.

[Jefferson White]

This is the future.

[Faith Hill]

This is the future. And that sounds insane coming from me, who I've. We've seen just about the interior of every hotel in the world, honestly. But that's how immersed we have been in filming this show. Yeah. So when we go back this afternoon and then back into it tomorrow, I might be a little sad for a minute. I won't have a bathtub. I really was so excited when I got in the bathtub. Am I saying too much on this show? I apologize. Please forgive me. I am a really decent person, but, wow. I just feel comfortable.

[Jefferson White]

Everything you say, any moment you spend speaking is an incredible break for our audience, who is so sick of hearing me speak.

[Faith Hill]

I doubt that. Very seriously. I doubt that.

[Jefferson White]

So you're talking about the difficult. The sort of sometimes punishing difficult nature of making the show, and you mentioned ago something that gives you strength in that and helps you through it is you have each other. The cast has each other.

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

You and Tim have each other. Will you talk about how you sort of draw strength from your collaborators? How you draw strength from having your husband there? Will you talk about that a little?

[Faith Hill]

Yeah, absolutely. You've gotten to meet most everyone here. Right. The cast is amazing, and you know full well that it. It's just. You become a family and you do work off of one another, and you are going through the exact same thing. It's not like we're shooting, you know, someone shooting in some glamorous, glorious spot in 1883, and the rest is not. We are all in this together, doing it at the same time and having the same experience. And it's. That's helpful. You know, there's strength in numbers for sure. Tim and I have been married for 25 years. We've done a lot of things together. We've spent pretty much the last three years together. I don't think we've been apart for a single day. Oh, my God. How are we even still together? I don't know. I'm just kidding. But it's kind of true, actually. We have been to. I don't think we've been apart for the last two or three years because of COVID and lots of other things. When we. When we had the opportunity to do this, to film this show together, we've never done anything on screen like this. We could. Could not pass it up. The writing was just off the chart. It was extraordinary. One of the best things either one of us had ever read, honestly. So we made a commitment to one another because we do live together, have three daughters, married for 25 years. All these things. What can we do? So we make this a unique experience that we share together for the first time. So we don't rehearse our scenes together. We don't read the lines together. We don't run our lines together. What happens on set is the first time that we really play. He is James. I'm Margaret. So that's when we're James and Margaret is on set. And not anytime outside of it. Not even to practice or. We don't even discuss it. We don't even discuss what our thoughts are about, what we are about to do, what's coming up. We just decided that was the best way to deal with. Because it's difficult when you been with someone for so long. You know, we wanted to be as authentic as possible, so.

[Jefferson White]

And what's. What's incredible about that is you. First of all, it's hard to fake that kind of love. It's hard to fake that kind of deep, deep sort of love that's been established over decades.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

And what's amazing, what's also really hard to fake, is spontaneity. It's hard to fake spontaneous, authentic curiosity. And something that strikes me about your performance, the two of you, is both of those kind of incompatible things at once. A deep love established over decades. And also this incredible spark of joy and spontaneity that you find in each other as these characters experience new things. They're discovering new sides of each other as they travel out west in the same way that you and Tim are discovering new sides of each other as you work together. That's true on this. On this incredible undertaking.

[Faith Hill]

That's true. You are so good at this, by the way. Can I just stop for one second and say, my God, you are really good at this.

[Jefferson White]

It's terrible. I do enjoy it, but it also, I think, and everybody on set has expressed a desire to live up to this opportunity, a desire to live up to the responsibility that's been placed on your shoulders. And in this moment, I feel like I feel an incredible need to live up to the opportunity you've given me to speak with you in the middle of what sounds like the busiest six months in history.

[Faith Hill]

I don't know about that, but. No, we do feel an enormous responsibility. You know what that feels like? But we all do feel like, whew. We want it to be amazing. We want it to be. We want to bring these people to life in a way that they're written because they're written so beautifully. And particularly Elsa, who plays our daughter, oldest daughter, Isabel. May is the actor. My God, I've never read a part for a young woman. A woman, period. But a young woman, ever like that, like it's written for her. And the first time when we read the script, I thought, my God, this will change this actor's life. It just will. And she is extraordinary in this. In this show. She really is. It has been a joy to watch. And it's been a joy to watch everyone, actually. There's just. Just so many great actors. Everybody. You know, it takes a village. All the people that you don't get to speak to or see in. In an interview, all the ones that are responsible for showing us how to do the things the right way and teaching us how to ride and tie. And dress. And dress. Let's talk about the dress. My God, the corsets. Cannot wait. I cannot wait. I will miss it all. I will not miss that. I will not miss the corset. My God. I don't know how the women did it, God bless them, but it takes a village. And it's just. We've learned so much from everyone. The wranglers, the. The stuntmen and women, the set design, costuming. You know how it is. I mean, you do. When you reach that moment, you walk on to that, into that space that it's helpful, you know, it's helpful then to become what you need to become.

[Jefferson White]

Yeah, it's a really. The immersive nature of the environment applies to the cast, obviously, but it also applies to the whole crew. The whole crew is out there in West Texas. It sounds like in dust storms pretty often.

[Faith Hill]

Oh, my God.

[Jefferson White]

The punishing elements.

[Faith Hill]

The punishing elements have been. Yeah. Unforgiving, to say the least. And we've seen some beautiful, beautiful parts of the country. You know, I mean, Montana is extraordinary state in itself. And just the landscape. There's just so much to see.

[Jefferson White]

Is.

[Faith Hill]

Like I said the other day, we were filming outside of Livingston, Montana. Have you guys filmed?

[Jefferson White]

I've stayed in Livingston before. Yeah.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah. I really love it. It's such a great Little town, isn't it? Yeah, but there's just so much beauty to take in. It's like I said to someone on set, I said, my eyes cannot. And my eyes and my brain, I can't equate. I wish there was a way to register it and film it as what I'm seeing. Because photography with your phone or a camera, just cannot capture. You can look straight in front of you. There's one, you know, seen. You can look to the left of you, and it's an entire. It looks like an entirely different state or a different place. Do you know what I mean? It's like. It's just so beautiful. Same in Texas. I never, ever thought I'd say this about Texas. Forgive me, Texas people. I do love Texas, actually, so much. But there's a beauty in that place as well. We're in the Panhandle. It's flat as it can be, but the wind is crazy. Like, how in the hell is there so much wind, like, flying through these planes? I don't know, but I will share something. Really. Maybe it's not. Maybe you appreciate this, but when there's a little downtime. This. This last week before we came out here, I had a little bit of downtime in between scenes. Downtime, meaning a couple of hours. I literally went out into the field that we were working in because there's so many things I'd never seen. Like, I don't want to say weeds, but plants and whatnot. And I think this is legal that I did this. Yeah. Yeah, it is. Yeah, it was. Oh, my God, I'm going to be so much drunk. I just went out and I was in full costume and just started cutting things because I thought, oh, my God, that'd be so beautiful at Christmas. And a vase, because Christmas is coming and not been home and we have three daughters. And, like, I gotta get to decorate. And so I thought I'll just use. You know, I'll use that. That's beautiful. I'll use that. That little brush or tree or whatever it is. So I have the back of our truck filled up with all these things.

[Jefferson White]

Bringing some Texas home with you.

[Faith Hill]

That's right. May spray paint a couple of them. I don't know. We'll see it really.

[Jefferson White]

It's funny you speak about the kind of getting out there, getting to Montana and not being able to take it all in and feeling this sense of sort of wonder. And that's amazing because the characters are experiencing exactly the same thing. The characters are heading on this journey to a Place they've never seen before. A place that is. That fills them with this wonder, with this kind of incredible possibility, this feeling of possibility.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

You were talking a minute ago about Isabel May's performance. What's remarkable is that at the core of this show, there's a family.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah, right.

[Jefferson White]

There's the Duttons at the core of this show. And the way that you talk about loving this journey for Isabelle's sake, sort of believing in her journey, watching her go on this journey and wanting to support her, wanting to sort of, you know, help her as she's on that journey, that really maps directly onto the experience of Margaret sort of trying to help her daughter navigate these new experiences for the first time. And Isabel speaks the same way about you and speaks the same way about you and Tim. Absolutely. She. It seems so clear that you guys have been such an incredible support system for each other in the same way that this family is a support system for each other in the same way that you, as actors, are going on this new journey, this incredibly difficult and punishing new journey into uncertain territory. That's exactly what the characters are experiencing.

[Faith Hill]

Yeah, they are. Yeah, you're right.

[Jefferson White]

And it really. It leads to this authentic feel that I think could not. There's really no other way to capture it. So I guess all of that is to say that the difficulty of it, the sort of strenuous, punishing brutality of the west, comes through on camera in a way that sort of couldn't be captured without that suffering. And the beauty of it is the same. The sort of. The joy of it, the incredible, immersive paradise of it is the same way. So just. Thank you so, so much for taking the time. Thank you. It's such an honor to have you here in the middle of such a whirlwind. So thank you.

[Faith Hill]

Thank you for making the time.

[Jefferson White]

Today has already been such an honor for me speaking to Faith and Tim. But that's not all. When we come back, I feel so, so lucky to steal some time with the incredibly talented Isabel May. I feel so honored today to have with me in the studio Isabel May. Isabel, thank you so, so, so much for being here.

[Isabel May]

Thank you for having me.

[Jefferson White]

You guys are in the middle of a pretty, pretty absurd weekend. So you were working on Friday. You go back to work on Monday. We've got you on Sunday afternoon. How do you feel? What a whirlwind this must have been.

[Isabel May]

My eyeballs hurt. They want a little out of my head, just a little bit. But I'm having a blast because I'm with people that I love, and this is. It's really, really nice to celebrate something that we've been working so hard on.

[Jefferson White]

And you. You were just saying a second ago that you. You really thrive in nature. You thrive in wide open spaces. Will you talk a little bit about the experience of working on 1883? The kind of immersive experience.

[Isabel May]

Fully immersive. I know Taylor doesn't. When he says he wants to be authentic about something, he means it. And that's why I currently have underarm hair. It's not going away anytime soon, which isn't. I. I don't know. I'm actually kind of proud of it. I want to show it off a little bit because it took a while, but back away from the armpit hair into the terrain. Yeah, no, it's. It's been pretty remarkable. I mean, we were in Montana about. I can't even maybe three weeks ago, and we were there for three weeks, and it was one of the most beautiful places I've ever been in. In my life. And there's virtually no one there, and it was just mountain peaks and beautiful skies and stars and. And then you come here to Vegas, and it's just really disorienting, to say the least. Yeah.

[Jefferson White]

From the past. You came from the. You got on an airplane and flew from 1883 to 2021, basically.

[Isabel May]

Pretty much. That's exactly it. That's exactly.

[Jefferson White]

What a bizarre weekend.

[Isabel May]

It's very bizarre. Very bizarre. And we're currently moving locations, so we all had to pack and throw our crap in trailers and cars, and I don't know where I'm going after this. All I know is that I'm getting on a plane and they're putting me in some place.

[Jefferson White]

Well, I'm so grateful for you taking the time to do this in the midst of that whirlwind.

[Isabel May]

No, I don't know.

[Jefferson White]

You described a minute ago. One of the things, I think, that occurs throughout a lot of Taylor's writing and is very, very present in 1883 and really embodied in many ways by your character Elsa, is these extremes, right? There's this sort of extreme beauty of the west, the kind of romantic ideal of the west, the myth and then the reality, the sometimes brutal, punishing, difficult reality of the West. And when I think about you, you were just describing being in Montana, the sort of idyllic beauty, the kind of Edenic, amazing paradise that Montana can be, but then also, making this show can be incredibly difficult and punishing. Will you talk about. Yeah, Your process of acclimating to this kind of workflow to horses.

[Isabel May]

If I'm being completely honest, I rather enjoy it. Which I don't know if that makes me a masochist or something, but there's something really gratifying about kind of being miserable, but being miserable because that's the situation your character would be in. And therefore you're truly reacting the way that they would react and you're shivering the way they would shiver. And I'd prefer that to pretending to be cold and pretending to be sweating like crazy. And it has been really, really difficult. I mean, we were shooting at the start of this in 106 degree weather and layers and core sets and whatnot, and then jumping to 16 degree weather in Montana with, you know, up to 60 mile per hour winds. I mean, it's just been. Everything has been an extreme, but I don't think most actors get the opportunity to experience that. Everything is predominantly on sound stages and in front of green screens these days, you know. So, yeah, I think I'm rather fortunate. I'm cold and whatnot, but I'm fortunate.

[Jefferson White]

Yeah, those. Those real life circumstances ground you in the given circumstances of the narrative to a certain extent. Right?

[Isabel May]

Exactly.

[Jefferson White]

What an incredible gift it is, as you said, to sort of feel cold when your character feels cold, to feel hot and uncomfortable when your character feels hot and uncomfortable. And I just can't help but observe that the joy that you find in that, the sort of pleasure that you take in that, that sort of immersive experience is also mapped onto your character. She's rising to this challenge. I've seen the first two episodes. Your work is spectacular. It really feels like you ground. There's these extremes, right? There's Sam Elliott's character, Shae, on one end of a spectrum. He's seen the brutal truth of the West. He's lived through the hell of the West. And then there's your character, Elsa, on the opposite end of the spectrum, who is stepping into this world and rising to this new challenge and this newfound freedom. It feels like so much of what she articulates in the first two episodes is the feeling of incredible possibility, of hope, of freedom. Will you talk about the experience of as you step into that, being surround like those extremes to a certain extent, having these actors, these legends in their own right. Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, Sam Elliott, Billy Bob Thornton, these legends, as you experience this for the first time, I mean.

[Isabel May]

Okay, if I'm being frank, I didn't know who Faith Helen to McGraw were. They know that it's not a big mystery or anything like that. I don't listen to country music personally. My tastes are a little weird. I listen to jazz music and whatnot. So vastly different. But I. Yeah, I was introduced to them just as human beings, not as big stars. And I think they preferred that, and I certainly preferred it and made the. Our rel. I think it's just. It was such an organic kind of the love that we all have for one another kind of happened right away. It was so easy. It's almost unfair. Like, I'm. I'm. I don't know how we got so lucky, but we did. And. But. Okay. I didn't know who Sam Elliot was. Turn out to know who he is. And again, I didn't have any expectations for him either. I just wanted him to be a nice person. And my God, is he the kindest human being I think I've ever met. And it's weird. Talking about Sam Elliot is like. You just kind of want to cry because it's. You just fall in love with him. He's so compassionate. He treats everyone like gold. And. Oh, the legacy that, you know, he's created for himself is just. It's just pretty remarkable. Yeah. Man. What a guy.

[Jefferson White]

What a guy.

[Isabel May]

What a. What a guy.

[Jefferson White]

What a guy. Will you talk about your experience with horses? Were you new to riding at the beginning of all?

[Isabel May]

Oh, I've never been on a horse before. Were you on a horse? Had you ridden a lot?

[Jefferson White]

I had also. You see, it's funny, there's a lot of similarities here and then some key differences because I am an idiot.

[Isabel May]

Okay, cool.

[Jefferson White]

You know, that's. That's where our paths diverge. So you were new to this, and your character is quite good at it. From the very first time we see her on a horse, she. She's impressing everybody around her. Will you talk about preparing for that?

[Isabel May]

Yeah, I. Well, the minute. So I found out that I'd be a part of this around April and Taylor had yet to write the show, so all he said was, you're gonna ride horses a lot and you need to look like you know what you're doing. And so. Oh, God.

[Faith Hill]

Okay.

[Isabel May]

And. And I just started riding with a woman named Deidre Rodriguez. She's J. Rod's wife. She's amazing. And I rode with Buck and Boone. They're two beautiful sons. And we just. It eased into it that way. And then when I got to Texas, about three weeks before we started shooting, did cowboy camp, and that was an intensive that. That Was full blown. Okay. Now we're jumping into it and herding cows. And really what I try to do there is just observe the wranglers. Like, you know, Tammy Jo and Danica and all them. See how they carried themselves and how they interacted with their horses. I just stared at them all day. It was a little creepy, but I really wanted to kind of adopt their mannerisms. They are deeply knowledgeable. Just. They know how to speak to horses almost. They know they can speak their language. And that's what I think Elsa needed. Needs because we're still shooting and needed to be able to do is speak to her, to her horse. And I just. I hope that it worked.

[Jefferson White]

It did.

[Isabel May]

Thanks.

[Jefferson White]

And it's lucky that that's also. That's also another immersive element of working on these shows is that you're surrounded by people who are incredible at it.

[Isabel May]

Incredible.

[Tim McGraw]

Yeah.

[Isabel May]

I mean, insane.

[Jefferson White]

It's so funny. And you're totally right because I similarly, as I was first learning, I would feel like I was doing okay and realized then that my classmates and peers were like four year olds. I would turn over and see somebody's kid. Just outright me see Gus, Taylor Sheridan's son, just speeding.

[Isabel May]

Speeding past you. I mean, he. He's Taylor Sheridan's son, so you should be able to do that, you know, if. Yeah. Watching Taylor Wright is. I remember just the first day of cowboy camp and seeing him haul ass or. My bad. Whole butter. Oh, yes, good. Haul ass around the place. Okay. I don't know. I don't know what the rules are. Ass. And he. Yeah, he's an intimidating figure. But I don't know, I just think it was so much fun. And. Yeah, I didn't. I just got so lucky.

[Jefferson White]

Yeah. And that's all I could think. You're in process. You're working right now. Like, it's. It's hard to zoom out and have perspective on the whole process when you're in the middle of it.

[Isabel May]

Certainly. Yes. That's. Yeah, everyone keeps acting. It's been a little disorienting because we're acting like we're done sort of. But we're really, really not even close to. Well, we're getting there, but we're not close to done. So we have to finish shooting three episodes, something like that. And we're Right. We're shooting out of order. So everything's kind of discombobulated.

[Jefferson White]

Yeah. And it's hard to. Yeah, it's hard to. It's a strange thing to be asked to reflect on Your performance to reflect on your time on 1883, when you are in the middle of it.

[Faith Hill]

Yes, exactly.

[Jefferson White]

And you are focusing. And one of the incredible gifts of working on a show, as you articulated earlier, is that this world is all around you. At the end of the day, when you feel lost, when you feel discombobulated, you can look to your left and your right and the world will ground you again.

[Isabel May]

I mean, that's why I'm excited. You know, I said before that I'm not sure where we're going, but I actually do know where we're going. We're going to the four sixes.

[Jefferson White]

Oh, amazing.

[Isabel May]

Yes.

[Jefferson White]

So the main house, incredible real life, working capital.

[Isabel May]

And that's really in the middle of nowhere. So it's going to be very exciting to leave this place and enter that one. And I'm already looking for properties in Montana to disappear into. I heard that. I think his name, Mr. Luke Grimes, did something similar.

[Jefferson White]

Yeah, he moved up there.

[Isabel May]

Yeah, it's. Man, these just empty, isolated, beautiful landscapes. It's hard to, you know, detach from. You just want to sink into it.

[Jefferson White]

Yeah, it is. It really is that. That duality. Right. The myth of the west, the beautiful sort of idyllic myth of the west is still there. The promise of it. The promise of it is still there to a certain extent, alongside the many, many complications and challenges to that myth. You know, alongside the incredible difficulty in 1883 and today, the sort of crushing reality of that dream being challenged. Will you talk just really quickly about one moment on set that has felt like heaven? One moment that has lived up to your idea of the legend of the West? And then also maybe, if you've got it, one moment that felt like hell, that represented the other side, the sort of brutal, uncomfortable truth.

[Isabel May]

Yeah. I mean, it's hard not to give anything away because all of the. To answer those two questions, I'd be going all the way to episode nine or 10, you know, but probably in 102, the cool thing was seeing Billy Bob and. I know and Tim and Samonica have that scene in the. In the bar that was pretty epic. That's a total unforgiven tombstone, like, classic moment. That was really cool. And then I can't be specific about it, but my character experiences something very tragic. And we recently shot it, and it's. Yeah, it's strangely just draining. It was so hard to live. It's all. It's this probably the. It's very easy to live today. And then when you. When you sink into that world, you're like, oh, life is really hard. Life is really tragic and difficult. And I don't know, I just feel lucky that. That I'm here with people that I'm surrounded by, and I get to drive a car two places.

[Jefferson White]

You know, you're in the middle of that process still. You're headed back to the 1800s. And I so appreciate you taking this time, this brief interlude in the present. So thank you so, so, so much for your time.

[Faith Hill]

Thank you.

[Isabel May]

This is so fun. Thank you.

[Jefferson White]

Cheers. Thanks again. You know, today's show is kind of blown my mind. I feel so lucky, so grateful for the opportunity to talk with those actors. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. It's pretty obvious that I wouldn't be able to do this without you, so thank you. We drop new episodes every Thursday, so make sure to subscribe and tune in to the official Yellowstone Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts. The Official Yellowstone Podcast is hosted by me, Jefferson White and produced by One Podcast Studios and Paramount Network.