The ‘Yellowstone’ creator opened up about his pre-fame struggles in a new interview
Credit: Emerson Miller
NEED TO KNOW
- Taylor Sheridan was “homeless twice” while he was in Hollywood trying to make it as an actor
- He recalled sleeping in his car for six months as he explained why he chose to do that rather than “give up” on his dream
- Even now, with several hit shows under his belt, Sheridan said he’s “still so averse to having to ever owe anybody anything”
Taylor Sheridan is looking back on his pre-fame struggles while pursuing his dreams.
The Yellowstone creator reflected on his early years in Hollywood, trying to make it as an actor in a new profile for Town & Country published on Thursday, Aug. 20.
“I was homeless twice,” he told the outlet. “I lived in my car.” He would sometimes escape to Ojai, Calif., which he said was “somewhere where I could safely sleep” in his car. “I did that for six months,” he recalled. “I could have decided at any point, ‘I’m going to go get a full-time job and I’m going to give up this dream.’ And I chose to sleep in my car over that.”
After a three-season run on Sons of Anarchy, Sheridan, 57, pivoted to writing. He first found success with 2016’s Hell or High Water. “When I sold that first screenplay, I bought a little house on an acre on a river in Wyoming,” he told the outlet.
Credit: FX
“We moved there, and I wrote a check for it. Then, as I would start to have more success, I would buy a little bit more land beside it and get a couple horses. I’m still so averse to having to ever owe anybody anything.”
Sheridan was also an acting coach in Los Angeles before he pivoted to focus on behind-the-camera work. The Madison star Beau Garrett recalled that she worked with him two decades ago, “when I was a struggling actress, and he was also a struggling actor, and he was also an acting coach.”
“I had no money,” Garrett said at a Paramount+ event in April celebrating Sheridan. “A good friend of ours put me in touch with Taylor and said, ‘He’s a fantastic coach. Trust him, he’s also really affordable.’ I loved him immediately.”
His background as an acting coach remains an asset. “He’s an incredible acting coach, still,” Nicole Kidman said at the event, a panel that featured her, Garrett, Michelle Randolph, Ali Larter and Zoe Saldaña.
“You can call him and have one call with him, and he’ll give you four words at how to play the scene,” said the Lioness star.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
Sheridan’s approach to writing is also what sets him apart. “You’re not going to win no Emmys with me, but I’m not trying to win Emmys. That’s not my goal. My goal is to sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare the s— out of them, excite them. That’s what I want to do, because that’s what I want from a show,” he said on The Bill Simmons Podcast in June.
“I knew when I started writing [I wanted] to simply not do what everyone else was doing,” he explained. “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.”
Credit: Emerson Miller
“I’m pretty common, and I’m going to tell stories that common people are going to understand,” he continued. “That’s most of America.”
“The critics and me … I don’t care what they think, and it annoys the s— 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. F— ‘em, honestly.”
Read the full article here
