Actor Sam Elliott is regarded as one of the most talented actors in the industry who is also known for his full mustache and deep & sonorous voice. The actor appeared in the Western drama miniseries 1883 created by Taylor Sheridan. The miniseries serves as the first of several prequels of Sheridan’s Yellowstone and goes into detail of how Duttons came to own the land which is now known as Yellowstone Ranch.
The ten-episode long limited series was released in December 2021 and to introduce the prequel to the audience of Yellowstone viewers, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill appeared on Yellowstone. The stars appeared as James and Margaret Dutton in a flashback scene. 1883 followed the story of the post-Civil War generation of the Dutton family and their journey to Fort Worth, Texas before settling in Montana. Sam Elliott starred as Shea Brennan and had a very surprising opinion when it came to Yellowstone.
Sam Elliott explains why he is NOT a fan of Yellowstone
Sam Elliott who portrayed the character of Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross in 2003’s Hulk appeared on WFT with Marc Maron where he shared that despite starring in the prequel of Yellowstone, he is not quite a fan of the show. He said,
“I’m not a Yellowstone fan. I don’t watch Yellowstone. I love Kevin Costner. There’s a lot of good people on the cast, a few of them I’ve worked with before—nothing against any of them—but it’s just too much like f***king Dallas or something for me.”
The actor had spoken to The Taste of Country where he mentioned that the show had ‘tainted’ the spinoff show 1883 in which he stars as Shea Brennan. He added,
“On some level, I can’t stand. Because I think 1883 stands alone and will. Once it comes out, people are gonna say, ‘Oh yeah. The only connection there is that it got John Dutton to Montana.”
Sam Elliott noted that Yellowstone is all over 1883 and they are tainted by it, which is something he cannot stand. In an interview with THR, Elliott shared his experience of working on the show and said it’s been wonderful and grueling at the same time. He appreciated the showrunner by stating that Taylor Sheridan is a brilliant writer and inspiring on so many levels.
Sam Elliott describes Yellowstone prequel 1883 as a ’10-hour story’
During his conversation with THR about the prequel show, he shared that he has been in the game for a long time and he had never worked on something like that in terms of scope and size. Sam Elliott shared,
“Our directors on this thing were cinematographers that Taylor bumped up from Yellowstone. So they understand what they are looking for through the lens. It does not look like a television show by any means. They are not making a television show here, even though they say they are. It is a 10-hour story.”
Talking about being a part of the Western genre more, Elliott mentioned that it keeps coming to him and he is comfortable in it adding that his family hails from West Texas for three generations. He noted that even though he was the only one who was not born in Texas, the Western genre speaks to him greatly.
The actor was asked if he wishes to return to the superhero genre after portraying Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross in 2003’s Hulk, Sam Elliott noted that he thinks he is old for that. But he also mentioned that he is open to doing anything as long as it is good.