1883: The Road West (2022) Movie Script
- "1883" is...
- Gritty.
- Intense.
- Beautiful.
It's epic.
There's no question about it.
It's a young woman's
coming of age story.
- It's massive.
- Mind-boggling.
It's a journey.
There's excitement, danger,
unpredictability.
I don't care if I do
any other show
for the rest of my life.
I only do Westerns from now.
Those are the kind
of stories I like to tell,
and that's the way
I like to tell them.
The idea to make "1883"
actually came from
one of the studio executives
asking me about the back story
of John Dutton.
And I explained it to him
from the origin
of where they came,
and he thought that that in
and of itself was a TV show.
I was intrigued by the idea,
and so I wrote some flashbacks
that people have now seen
on "Yellowstone."
So Taylor called, he goes,
"Hey, man,
I want you to be in the show.
"I want you to be
in 'Yellowstone.'
Are you're interested in it?"
And he says, "I got this idea."
"We're gonna do a flashback,
"and you're gonna play
the original Dutton
"who founded
the Yellowstone ranch.
You're also gonna have
a wife in this."
He says, "Do you think
Faith would be interested
in playing your wife
in the flashbacks?"
If you go in the handbook
of directors,
you're not supposed to hire
a husband and wife
to do a movie together.
It's historically failed
every time,
but you're also not supposed
to film kids or horses, so.
We both watch the show,
so we were excited
to have that invitation
and didn't know quite
what to expect.
Then I spoke with Sam Elliott
about doing something
in the space.
- I got a call from him.
- "I got something to show you,"
and he sent me
this series of scripts,
and there was no saying no,
because it spoke to me.
The character spoke to me.
The show speaks to me.
You know what I'm doing here?
Looking for a reason.
You wanna be my reason?
I had not found
the connective tissue
between this origin story
of James Dutton
and this road to redemption
story of Sam Elliott.
I had not found the bridge.
And the actress Isabel May
read for me
for another TV series,
and it dawned on me
that she was the bridge.
I called the network,
and I said, I found our lead,
and I haven't written a word,
and you're just gonna
have to trust me.
This is something different
altogether,
'cause you're seeing it through
the eyes of a young woman.
And I don't think
that's ever been done before.
Not in this way.
We are seeing things through
an 18-year-old girl's eyes.
And it's a very different
vision of the West
because you see it,
sort of her innocence
and her magic that she's able
to show us this world
that has sex and violence
and despair,
but also hope.
To play a character
that narrates her own story
as well as every
other character story,
it's extremely humbling.
Freedom is riding wild
over untamed land
with no notion any moment exists
beyond the one you are living.
It's pretty phenomenal, right?
If you just sort of look
at a big family tree,
it takes us back
many generations
and that survival
and fighting for the land
and doing what's right
and protecting your family
are these similar themes
that were handed down
generation to generation
until we get the John Dutton.
- Good shot.
- Yep.
James is John's great, great,
great grandfather.
You can see the bloodline.
You can see the strength
in the bloodline.
You can see the backbone
that this family has
and the power that they have,
and their concern
for each other.
I believe in you,
and I believe in that boy,
and I believe in our daughter.
That's all.
That's why it's so important
to the Dutton family
present day
to fight for his land.
And, like, you see
how fierce they are,
fighting for what's theirs.
God!
"1883" is a journey
of an unlikely group of people
fighting against
the forces of nature,
the malice of humankind
in search of change
and a new home.
It's about freedom.
It's about the American dream,
which, you know,
it's become this synonymous
with the idea of freedom,
about the beauty of it
and the ugliness of it,
and all the beautiful things
people will do for their freedom
and then also all the ugly
things they do for it.
I can be a good wife.
Stop. Quit it.
The thing about "1883,"
it's a tale that's been told.
It's a tale that
we're all familiar with,
the Oregon Trail.
But it's never been done like
Taylor's done it on the page.
You think we're fools
just because we...
- You have no horses, no guns.
- You can't ride.
You are a fucking fool.
History is doomed
to repeat itself
because it's never taught
accurately.
As a storyteller,
my job is to try
and hold a mirror up to nature
and reflect back the world
as it was.
I think that it's truth
through fiction.
- There's a grittiness to it.
- There's an authenticity to it.
It feels real.
The struggles are all real.
The people are all real.
We're traveling with
a caravan of immigrants.
It was incredible for me
because I am
an immigrant myself.
So I get to tell
a story of someone
who goes across the world
to follow their dream.
Most people who went West
saw ads in newspapers in Poland
and in Croatia and in Germany
and answered those ads
and saved up all their money,
sold everything they had,
and hired a group that would
take them on these wagons.
In the 1800s,
there's actually a large flight
of immigrants to America
because there's overpopulation.
And there was a high rate
of unemployment.
It's actually interesting
there has been a Texan...
A German Texan immigrant
who wrote letters,
like beautiful letters,
how beautiful Texas is
and everything,
and these letters were printed
in a German newspaper.
And many Germans
at the time read them,
and that was their decision
to come.
I think people dreamed of change
and creating something
and having land
and being free.
It's a free country.
That's a free country.
That is Comanche land.
Beyond it is no man's land,
and that's where we're going.
You ain't free yet.
And these people
didn't speak English,
had no notion of
what the Southwest was like
or the Great Plains were like.
Had no idea they were
horribly unprepared,
facing a whole new host
of diseases
that they've never been
exposed to,
elements they've never
been exposed to.
It was an extremely dangerous,
dangerous journey.
- I'll push her.
- Now get to the back.
This is what happened.
This is the journey
that our ancestors took,
and it was horrifying
and extremely difficult.
- It's nothing new.
- It's happened back then.
It's happening now.
We're all immigrants
in this country,
and this journey...
it's so compelling,
and it tells a story that
just... it's gut-wrenching
but it's truthful.
And there's a lot of people
in this journey
that haven't been represented
in other westerns.
I don't think that there is
a more misrepresented group
in American cinema
than the Native American.
And what little I can do
to correct
that historical perspective
in fiction, I'm gonna do.
When historians write books
about native people,
a lot of times
they put us in this box, right?
And they say, oh,
they were hunter-gatherers,
or they lived
according to this way.
It completely removes the idea
that we were also individuals.
We had our own
individual tastes,
our own individual attractions.
And that's kind of the way
the storytelling has gone
in Hollywood for a long time.
One of the most
interesting things
is the number one cause
of death on these wagon trains
was people falling off a wagon
and getting run over.
The number two cause of death
was accidental discharge
of firearms.
Number three, it was drowning
in river crossing.
Number seven
was Native Americans.
I think in all the stuff
that we learned growing up
was the number one fear
was Native Americans.
And nine times out of ten,
they were trying to help.
I made the Native American
community a promise
that I was gonna tell
their story truthfully.
And so, every opportunity
I get to do it,
I try to fulfill that promise.
It's rare to have the kind of
story that we have been handed,
to be honest with you.
And I think for all of us,
we feel the responsibility
to do the best job that we can
to bring these characters
to life
the way they were written.
There's three classic
struggles in these westerns.
It's man against man,
man against himself,
man against the environment.
In those struggles,
we're all in this in spades.
Let's go.
"1883" is the origin story
of the Dutton family.
The Duttons come
from Tennessee originally.
There's a number of people
who moved West
out of desperation
from the South.
And America was unique
in the fact
that, wherever you were
that you failed,
you could simply move west
to a new place
and reinvent yourself
and reinvent your life.
The main characters
are Tim McGraw,
who plays obviously
James Dutton.
We have Faith Hill,
who plays Margaret Dutton.
We have Isabel May,
who plays Elsa.
Sam Elliott plays Shea.
And then La Monica Garrett
plays Thomas.
Elsa Dutton is a daughter
of the patriarch
and matriarch
of the Dutton family.
At this time,
we have two children, Elsa,
and then we have John.
I wanted to be John Dutton
'cause he was a boy,
and he loves the outside.
I love the outside too.
Elsa, she's very naive.
She's experienced
very few things.
They lived on a little farm.
She'd seen the same people
her entire life,
and she was bored.
She was desperate to get out.
This child is spirited,
and she's hard-headed
and strong,
but she's also very smart.
Elsa is extremely independent
at a time when a young woman
is not allowed to be
independent in such a way.
There are certain things
that we weren't allowed
to say or voice.
And as the journey continues,
she sheds that civilized
kind of costume
and starts to flourish
because she loves this world
so much
and what it has to offer.
There's a fair chance
you're too pretty for me.
If you are, rather know now
so I don't waste my time.
Maybe you're too pretty
for me.
Right away, Ennis is just
fully blown away by Elsa...
Aside from her beauty,
her wit, her brashness.
And I think she's the first girl
that ever makes
Ennis speechless.
Oh, my gosh, you're forward.
Part of the storyline is,
you know,
they were escaping poverty
and looking for a better life.
And I think there's more to it
than that in my mind
for James Dutton.
During the series, you find
out that I was a captain
in the Civil War
for the Confederacy,
put in a position
that he didn't want to be in.
Tim's character was one
of those who was drafted
and conscripted into the army.
And then endured, you know,
years in a prison of war camp
and then came home
to a destroyed homeland
and had lost faith
in that society.
He had a lot of pain
and PTSD from that.
I mean, you see it
in the flashbacks,
and you see little glimpses
of who James is,
and you know that he's not
as hard as he comes across.
He really cares about people,
but you also know that
his family's the number one
concern that he has.
He dreamed of a better place.
He dreamed of a life
where he could dictate
his own fortune or failure.
And his family trusted him.
In my work as I become
more invested in the people
that we're trying to help
as the journey goes on.
You know, I'm always
there for my family,
and I'm always concerned
about my family,
but I think as the show goes on,
you realize that James cares
more about people
than you think he does.
It's better to double
the latigo with him.
Girl, I've forgotten more
about horses
than you'll ever know.
Margaret, at the age of 17,
was a nurse in the Civil War.
That would change your life,
basically.
It would give you
a perspective of life
that a 17-year-old in this day
and age could never imagine.
I mean, she is really
this sort of strong-willed,
powerful woman of the West.
She's raising a young boy
and a young, you know, daughter
who's becoming a woman.
And obviously has to manage
all of that while she sort of
takes this family
on this very treacherous,
dangerous journey
across America.
Her heart, she becomes
stronger and stronger
and stronger
as the journey goes on.
The moment our first daughter
was born,
I'm a mom for the rest
of my life, period.
I mean, that is the first thing.
That's the last thing.
That's the middle thing.
That's everything.
My character is most concerned
about what is this
going to do to my family?
- Look after your brother.
- I will.
- "Yes, ma'am."
- I said I will.
I know what you said.
What you didn't say
is "Yes, ma'am."
Women don't say that
to each other.
- Oh, so you're a woman now?
- Aren't I?
Elsa has always viewed
her mother
as restraining her
from, you know,
being able to fully embrace
all that life has to offer.
And so, therefore, she kinda
has it out for her mom.
Margaret and Elsa have such
a contentious relationship,
as most teenage daughters
and moms do.
Then she sees her mother
in a different light
because there's clearly a past
that she's unaware of.
Her mother can ride
a horse beautifully.
And so she kind of starts
to understand
my mother was something else
in the past,
and she gave that up,
and maybe
she gave that up for me.
That's the biggest part of
James and Elsa's relationship,
that he understands her,
and he understands
the passion that she has.
And not only because
it's a reflection of him,
but it's a reflection
of Margaret as well.
She loves like Margaret.
She fights like me.
Having Sam Elliot come
on board was just incredible
because I think
he embodies everything
that the character of Shea
should be.
When I think of Westerns,
I think him and Clint Eastwood.
Like that's just what it is.
Of course, my wife
gets weak-kneed
every time she's around him.
I don't know a woman yet
that hasn't been weak-kneed
around Sam Elliott.
And I told my mama that I was
working with Sam Elliott.
She's like, "Oh my God, you're
working with Sam Elliott."
Shea is on a mission
to get back to Oregon.
Then at the same time,
he has something in him
that wants to help these
other people get there as well.
He knows that
it's rife with hardship.
There's no question about that.
And a lot of them
aren't gonna make it,
but he's driven to get those
that are tough enough
to survive to Oregon.
He is a troubled man
for a lot of different reasons.
First off, he was in the war.
You know, he's suffers
from that.
He loses his family,
and I think that's
the biggest burden
that he carries with him
throughout the show.
You know, Taylor talked to me
about Shea rode
with the Buffalo soldiers,
which was an all-Black group
of soldiers.
Shea is very heavy-handed with
everyone other than Thomas.
And... I don't know.
I get very emotional
talking about the relationship
of Shea and Thomas.
They're close.
Theye like brothers.
Thomas's story
is not unfamiliar
to a lot of Black cowboys
back then.
He's a former slave.
At 12 years old,
he went inside the house,
and the slave owner was
passed away, natural causes.
So Thomas just gets on a horse
and just goes off
and figures out life.
All that happened in between
then has helped shaped
who he was, his integrity.
And he met Shea during the war.
He was a soldier.
There were brothers-in-arms
in the war.
Began fighting together
in the Civil War.
So they've been fighting
together for some 20 years.
And that's how the bond
with them, you know,
became so strong.
It's like an 1800s odd couple.
What in the hell
is a "toilette"?
It's French for shitter.
When did you learn French?
Don't know French. It's just
the French word for shitter.
Two men who grow old together
trying to survive
and protect each other.
And so, relationships like
that that have so much history,
they don't have to say too much.
- Thomas, he's a kind person.
- He's an honest person.
And he's a very loyal person.
To me, he's the humanity
of the show.
He's the soul of the show.
And he's the enforcer
of the show.
So it's not a show where it's,
you know, "Yes, sir, no, sir."
Yes... it's, if you look
at him wrong
or if you cross his moral code,
he's gonna kill you.
Get everything that was hers.
- Nothing was hers.
- It was his, and he's a thief.
Get everything that was hers.
It was like it's a different
Black cowboy take.
And I'm so glad Taylor,
you know, he chose me
to bring that to life.
Both Sam and La Monica
are character builders,
and they really want
to understand what's motivated
the actions of the character
in the screenplay.
The show "Lonesome Dove,"
Danny Glover played
the role of Deets.
And Deets, the real-life Deets
on the Goodnight-Loving Trail,
was Bose Ikard.
And I found out he was buried
right there in Weatherford.
So me and a few cast mates,
we went to the cemetery,
and it just... it moved me.
And it's, you know,
it's a story I'm very proud
to be a part,
telling, you know,
a story about Black cowboys.
He goes back to the truth.
The Westerns of post-Civil War
that painted
these matinee idol characters
in these false roles
and painted a really inaccurate
picture of the American West.
To tell the story truthfully
and really show
the American West
or a version of it accurately,
then you have to look
at those relationships,
and you have to re-examine
a version
that Hollywood portrayed
that was wrong.
You know, I think
my favorite moment
is this incredible scene that
we have Billy Bob Thornton
walking down main street
in the middle of the 1800s.
And I look to the left,
and I see Billy Bob Thornton.
I look a little bit further,
there's Tim McGraw,
Sam Elliott,
and La Monica Garrett,
and I thought this is
a pretty good group
to walk into a bar with.
You know, you saw
"Reservoir Dogs" growing up,
you saw "Tombstone."
They all had that walk
where it was just these bad
dudes going to find trouble.
So I got to play out
those childhood dreams
of walking down that dusty road
to a gunfight in the saloon.
And it just happened to be with
all these icons next to me,
but it was...
yeah, it was amazing.
Billy Bob Thornton,
he's this easy-going guy.
He's kinda unassuming.
We get inside the saloon,
and he just turns it on to this
stone-cold killer and sheriff.
Order this business
on the Trinity.
So I'm supposed to stop
and have a line with Sam
right before the end
of the scene.
And I got so caught up into
watching Billy Bob perform,
I just walked right past Sam,
just blew right by
and didn't say my line,
walked out the door.
And I looked at Sam and goes,
"Sam, I'm sorry.
I know I'm supposed
to give a line, and I forgot."
And he goes, "I noticed."
He's a powerful actor,
Billy Bob,
and when he comes in at work,
it's hard to take your eye
off of him.
Another incredible moment
is this Civil War sequence
that we have.
And out of nowhere,
Tom Hanks just shows up...
Full beard, in character,
and a really powerful scene
between him and Tim McGraw.
It starts with Antietam,
and it starts
with an original picture
from the battleground scene
and morphs out of the original
picture into a live shot.
And everybody's dead.
His whole company
has been wiped out.
Captain.
Tom and I have been friends
for such a long time,
but no matter how good
a friend you are,
when you're sitting there in
a scene that's that emotional,
and then you turn,
and you see Tom Hanks walk up
in a Union uniform,
look at you, and say, "Captain,"
I just fell apart.
And then he sat beside me
as I'm crying,
and he puts his hand
on my shoulder.
Yeah, that's a great scene.
And of course, Tom,
you know, Tom was average.
When actors like this
are willing to come play
for a day or two,
of course now you're working
with some of the greatest
actors who've ever worked.
It's just a privilege.
I've done a lot of shows,
and I've never seen
anything this big.
We did scenes in Fort Worth
with hundreds of extras,
businessmen going to work
in the 1800s,
two bar guys having fight.
We have huge scenes out in
sort of wild open with bandits.
We have everything
that you can imagine.
We have 30-something wagons,
and it takes two to four
horses to pull them.
And I'm running from snow
and rain and schedule
and everything else.
- It's epic.
- There's no question about it.
I'm not gonna compare it
to anything
because I've never done
anything like this.
"Yellowstone,"
at any given time,
we might have 40 horses on set.
On this, at any given time,
we have 180,
and we have a cattle herd.
Ironically, we are having to
actually have a trail drive
in order to film a trail drive.
And it's a challenge.
- We have goats.
- We have chickens.
We have 60 wranglers, cowboys
just working the horses
to make sure everyone is safe.
We have 80 trucks and drivers
to move the whole company.
I mean, this is bigger
than a Beyonc tour.
This is "Game of Thrones"
on the Prairie.
We began the shooting
in Texas in August.
So it was about 104,
103 degrees.
There was sweat in places
I didn't know sweat can be.
I got wool on,
and wool is not Texas-friendly
in the summertime.
On top of the bandolier,
the belt, the guns,
like, ten-pound leather chaps,
like,
everything is weighed down.
And my horse,
he looks like a utility camp.
First, we were in 98-degree
sweating, hot weather.
And three weeks later, we were
in ten-degree weather.
You know, we were out there
last week in Montana
with snow cap mountains
in the middle of a field.
Me, Sam, and Tim are on top
of our horses on the mountain.
And there was like a blizzard
that came through,
like you couldn't see
your hand in front of you.
The wind was blowing.
There've been times
where I was so cold out here,
I didn't think I could
tough it out too long.
And the thing that
brought me out of it
and continues to bring me out
of it is just looking around
and seeing these mountain
ranges everywhere,
and you think, my God,
how lucky we are to be here
number one, but number two,
how lucky we are
to be here making a film.
You never really know
what you're gonna get
from Mother Earth that day.
And that adds to
the grand scheme
and the look of the show,
but it also adds to the thrill
as an actor
to get to experience
such spontaneity
on set every single day.
The methodology of Taylor
is to make everything
look like a ten-hour movie.
It's so big and so beautiful,
but there's a word
that is so important to him,
and that is "authenticity."
I'm interested in the truth,
even though it's fiction...
As accurately retelling an event
or a world as I possibly can.
Everything is
historically accurate.
Every building, every structure,
every wagon, everything.
We strive to do everything
period correct.
We spent a lot of time
in research together,
all the information we can.
So when the camera's tight
on a cast member,
that he has the right equipment
on his horse
for the time period.
I went to school for film
and watched countless movies,
countless westerns
where everything was wrong.
And you know, just me being
an indigenous person,
I would feel kind of ticked off
if I saw,
you know, that we weren't
accurately portrayed.
So when it comes
to finding the props,
I am trying to do my absolute
best on sourcing them from,
you know, the proper places
and making sure that they are,
in fact, you know,
if it's a Lakota bow case
that it's
an actual Lakota bow case.
The language that
the Native Americans speak
has to be authentic.
The beads that they wear
have to be authentic.
The wagons, the horse breeds,
the cattle breeds.
And I think these days
audiences respect it,
actors feel it.
After you've done all your
work on the text and character,
you finally get
to put on the clothes.
And I think that's kind of
your superhero cape in a way.
If you look at the costumes,
we made them all.
We didn't call
some costume house
and get a bunch of "Little
House on the Prairie" stuff.
Every dress, every suit,
every jacket,
everything was custom-made
by Janie and her team.
I am very familiar
with this period
because I designed "Deadwood,"
the series,
which was living in 1876.
And then, I designed the movie,
which was in 1886,
but no two shows are alike.
"1883" is the West.
And during this time, there were
a lot of cowboys in Texas.
And that was one of the aspects
that I love
doing the research for.
When she put this coat on me
the first time, I squealed.
Yeah, I'm in love
with my costume.
I love the costumes,
and the attention to detail
is microscopic.
You see these people,
and then suddenly,
wow, we're really here.
It's like a time machine.
This was a great opportunity
to do a period piece.
And period makeup
is a lot of fun.
You look at a lot
of the old Westerns,
and you see makeup on them.
Taylor definitely
wanted this raw.
He said, "I want dirty sweaty."
There is some makeup
that is being applied to them.
The trick with it
is to make it look
like they're not
wearing any makeup.
So the start of the show,
they're on a train.
And that's the only time
that they're kind of have a,
what I'd call a beauty look
about them.
But once they start getting out
onto the wagon train,
we're gonna try to
keep them dirty looking.
These departments,
from our production designer
to our prop master, everybody,
they had to come together
and build a world
in a very short period of time.
Nothing existed.
We created it all.
We wanted to avoid the clichs
and do things that are
a little bit unusual
that you haven't seen in
so many westerns.
Cary White,
our production designer,
this is his wheelhouse.
And he was able to come up
with some really,
really smart ideas.
The building right next to us
was built in 1939, 1940.
We constructed
a complete faade around it
and turned it into
a real building of 1883.
But also put Styrofoam cornices
on a lot of these buildings
up on the top of them
that gives them
a much more Victorian look.
And the whole thing
tied together
when we put the dirt in.
It really just came alive.
They brought in layers
and layers and layers of dirt.
And it's all compacted and then
top dressed appropriately
to make it all safe for
the animals that we have here.
I think we went
a solid two months prep
to shoot for four days
on house half-acre.
I mean, the stuff
that they've done
is just so incredibly epic.
I like to get on set early and
walk around some of these sets
just to put yourself
in that world.
So it makes it easy to find
the emotion in the scene.
This show
would not be possible
without everyone
that you don't see.
It is not a walk in the park.
It is hard work, and it's
fucking awesome.
Can I say that?
- Sure can.
- I just did.
I don't rehearse
with my actors.
There's no way for me to inform
them what this way of life is.
You just have to do it.
I just take them out
and put them to work.
The purpose of cowboy camp
is to get actors comfortable
enough on the horses
that they weren't nervous
when they were riding.
The better I can make them
as a rider,
the more they understand
the thing they're acting out,
the better the performances,
the more authentic the scenes
look, then it looks real.
Cowboy camp is the actors
get here about 8:00,
and then we start
just exposing them
to real-life situations in 1883.
Cowboy camp was probably
the most helpful thing
in the world.
- Good morning, guys.
- Morning.
How's everybody doing?
And we all got to spend
a couple of weeks together,
just riding horses and roping
and herding cattle.
And here comes
Taylor walking up like
he's the first one out there.
And he'll never ask you
to do anything
that he doesn't do
as far as being on a horse.
We take them down
and have them work cattle.
We have them part them out
and sort them.
Roping, horseback riding,
herding cows.
We take them down to the pond
and have them swim horses
so we can prepare them
for the river crossings
that are coming up
in the script.
Most of us learned
how to drive wagons,
which is dangerous, by the way.
Climbing up rocks,
going through lakes and rivers,
and steering cattle.
I'm learning how
to ride a horse,
and I'm swinging
the rope around.
We're shooting guns back
to riding horses, lassoing.
We just played little games
where you put, for example,
an egg on a spoon
and have to ride
straight back and forth.
And whoever does it
the fastest wins.
So it was really fun.
You had to carry the egg
on a spoon,
but I dropped it every time.
So some people were getting
a little crafty,
and when they get
further away from us,
their thumb would ease
over the eggs,
so you really can't see
what's going on and like,
wait a minute, like you got
glue on that or something?
Like, you know, what's going on?
I'd heard Taylor cheated
when he does it.
That he puts his thumb
on the egg.
I'm not saying that that's true.
I'm just saying that I've heard
that Taylor cheated.
There's no proof of cheating,
but it is suspected.
You know, everyone was
very competitive,
but in a supportive way
to somewhat degree.
Everything that we have done,
we've learned how to do it
properly
by the best of the best.
For all the talent,
they're trying to get them
comfortable
with driving and riding.
So then, when they get
on camera,
it becomes
second nature to them.
Everyone will remember
their lines and not panic,
so they look the part.
They feel the part.
They can be the cowboy.
A lot of what we're doing now
is day in and day out,
so this becomes second nature.
So when we're going
through the script,
that's what you could focus on
and not have to worry about
where my hands are,
and where's the gun?
You must know how to do it
the right way.
Otherwise, it's just
kind of watered down,
and it just feels wrong.
Cowboy camp gets you ready
for the show.
You're not showing up
and putting some dirt
and makeup on.
Before you ever do that,
you're falling off of a horse.
Your back is hurting.
As a cowboy in 1883,
you didn't have
nice cushiony saddles.
You know, you didn't have
all the fancy modern equipment
that you have today.
Oh, it's bare-bones.
It's bare knuckles.
This is my first time
on an 1880s saddle.
A hundred years ago,
if you went across country
from New York to California,
this is the way you went.
This is rougher than heck.
I'll tell you it's
a lot harder than it looks.
I mean, you see those wagon
drivers kind of leaning over.
I mean, oh man,
it did a number on your back.
There's an experience of time.
You know, you realize old people
traveled like this 5,000 miles,
and you understand
what a journey like this means.
This training creates
an authentic cowboy
because you're... you know,
the blisters are real.
The cuts are real.
You know, I'm running into
barbed wire fences on my horse.
I've been to like Hell Week
and camps and football,
and this is
a whole different beast.
When they get off at night,
they feel like their legs
are melted.
They got cramps in their thighs.
They got cramps in their calves.
They go, "My butt's sore."
Yeah, probably is.
You ain't never sat
on a saddle that long.
They're grinding us
into the ground.
I mean, by the time
we finished riding horses,
I'm like completely
soaked through.
Like, it's kinda gross.
I feel bad for everyone
that has to smell us.
Cowboy camp was this
incredible bonding experience
between all of the talent.
Everybody gets to
come out there.
They don't know each other.
And they start to sort of work
together and understand
what their characters
are gonna be,
where are they going,
and how hard this
is gonna really be.
Cowboy camp is extremely
important for teamwork.
We're all trying
to build chemistry as actors.
And there's nothing
more team-orientated
than getting 28 cattle,
I mean, over hills
and through alleyways
for miles and miles.
So if you're not communicating
to your teammates,
then it's not gonna work.
The only way to survive
at that time
was to be collaborative,
and people would go out of
their way to help one another
without expecting anything.
Well, it's the only way
that you can survive
in an environment like that.
You become a group, you know,
'cause we will be
on this journey for half a year
and go through hell.
We're all doing this together.
So we're all dedicated to it.
And that's been extraordinary
to watch.
It's about to be a family.
It's about to be all of us
against the world.
So against nature, literally.
So we all have
to trust each other.
We have to, you know,
hold each other accountable
and just being out here period,
being on the ranch together
and bonding,
and like... it's great for what
we're about to encounter.
From a production standpoint,
I've never seen
so many different departments
have to coordinate
so many different details.
I have never worked on
a company this big in my life.
Then you got cattle that,
you know,
one day they might be like,
we don't feel like doing
what you tell us to do today.
And they're running
in 50 different directions.
I think
it's borderline miraculous
that the show has come together
because it's taken a lot
of people and a lot of work.
And you know, it's just
impressive what this team
has been able to do.
This is unique
and very special.
And the production
scale is huge.
For me, I don't feel it because
it still feels so personal.
Taylor creates
such an incredible world
with his writing that
it's so easy to get lost in it.
You got it. You got him, son.
My most favorite scene is
a scene with Tim.
I had to hunt with my dad,
and it was blood from the deer.
It's your first kill,
so I got to blood you.
To shoot a deer and do
the whole blooding situation
and explain to him
why we did it and what it means
and how we have to
thank the animal
for giving us
sustenance in life...
To be able to do
that was pretty special for me.
It felt cool.
It felt really cool.
And you can see
the similarities
with "Yellowstone."
There are certainly similarities
to John Dutton and James,
and you can see the tradition
that started it.
I think absolutely fans
will find Easter eggs through
this whole thing,
and I'm excited.
And I think it'll be
a fun journey for people
to pick them out.
Well, I would ask you,
was there ever a time
that you went out on Easter
and found only one Easter egg?
Look, I think the journey
we're about to go on
in the rest of the episodes
is pretty magical, right?
We've just gotten started.
I'm thrilled for people
to see Elsa's journey
because it's quite
a dramatic one.
It's not what you would
expect whatsoever.
I think all of us are pushed
to what we think
will be our limit.
We're just on the trail,
and we'll see who survives.
Every episode brings a new
level of excitement and danger,
and unpredictability.
So just find
a huge box of tissues,
nice bucket of popcorn,
the biggest TV you can find,
and enjoy.
I could barely get through it
without just falling apart.
I couldn't do it.
I'm literally snot crying.
I feel that the audience
is going to get
very connected
to these characters,
and heartbreak is coming,
as you would imagine.
And some catharsis is coming,
and some beauty's coming,
and you know, I can't say
much more than that.
- Gritty.
- Intense.
- Beautiful.
It's epic.
There's no question about it.
It's a young woman's
coming of age story.
- It's massive.
- Mind-boggling.
It's a journey.
There's excitement, danger,
unpredictability.
I don't care if I do
any other show
for the rest of my life.
I only do Westerns from now.
Those are the kind
of stories I like to tell,
and that's the way
I like to tell them.
The idea to make "1883"
actually came from
one of the studio executives
asking me about the back story
of John Dutton.
And I explained it to him
from the origin
of where they came,
and he thought that that in
and of itself was a TV show.
I was intrigued by the idea,
and so I wrote some flashbacks
that people have now seen
on "Yellowstone."
So Taylor called, he goes,
"Hey, man,
I want you to be in the show.
"I want you to be
in 'Yellowstone.'
Are you're interested in it?"
And he says, "I got this idea."
"We're gonna do a flashback,
"and you're gonna play
the original Dutton
"who founded
the Yellowstone ranch.
You're also gonna have
a wife in this."
He says, "Do you think
Faith would be interested
in playing your wife
in the flashbacks?"
If you go in the handbook
of directors,
you're not supposed to hire
a husband and wife
to do a movie together.
It's historically failed
every time,
but you're also not supposed
to film kids or horses, so.
We both watch the show,
so we were excited
to have that invitation
and didn't know quite
what to expect.
Then I spoke with Sam Elliott
about doing something
in the space.
- I got a call from him.
- "I got something to show you,"
and he sent me
this series of scripts,
and there was no saying no,
because it spoke to me.
The character spoke to me.
The show speaks to me.
You know what I'm doing here?
Looking for a reason.
You wanna be my reason?
I had not found
the connective tissue
between this origin story
of James Dutton
and this road to redemption
story of Sam Elliott.
I had not found the bridge.
And the actress Isabel May
read for me
for another TV series,
and it dawned on me
that she was the bridge.
I called the network,
and I said, I found our lead,
and I haven't written a word,
and you're just gonna
have to trust me.
This is something different
altogether,
'cause you're seeing it through
the eyes of a young woman.
And I don't think
that's ever been done before.
Not in this way.
We are seeing things through
an 18-year-old girl's eyes.
And it's a very different
vision of the West
because you see it,
sort of her innocence
and her magic that she's able
to show us this world
that has sex and violence
and despair,
but also hope.
To play a character
that narrates her own story
as well as every
other character story,
it's extremely humbling.
Freedom is riding wild
over untamed land
with no notion any moment exists
beyond the one you are living.
It's pretty phenomenal, right?
If you just sort of look
at a big family tree,
it takes us back
many generations
and that survival
and fighting for the land
and doing what's right
and protecting your family
are these similar themes
that were handed down
generation to generation
until we get the John Dutton.
- Good shot.
- Yep.
James is John's great, great,
great grandfather.
You can see the bloodline.
You can see the strength
in the bloodline.
You can see the backbone
that this family has
and the power that they have,
and their concern
for each other.
I believe in you,
and I believe in that boy,
and I believe in our daughter.
That's all.
That's why it's so important
to the Dutton family
present day
to fight for his land.
And, like, you see
how fierce they are,
fighting for what's theirs.
God!
"1883" is a journey
of an unlikely group of people
fighting against
the forces of nature,
the malice of humankind
in search of change
and a new home.
It's about freedom.
It's about the American dream,
which, you know,
it's become this synonymous
with the idea of freedom,
about the beauty of it
and the ugliness of it,
and all the beautiful things
people will do for their freedom
and then also all the ugly
things they do for it.
I can be a good wife.
Stop. Quit it.
The thing about "1883,"
it's a tale that's been told.
It's a tale that
we're all familiar with,
the Oregon Trail.
But it's never been done like
Taylor's done it on the page.
You think we're fools
just because we...
- You have no horses, no guns.
- You can't ride.
You are a fucking fool.
History is doomed
to repeat itself
because it's never taught
accurately.
As a storyteller,
my job is to try
and hold a mirror up to nature
and reflect back the world
as it was.
I think that it's truth
through fiction.
- There's a grittiness to it.
- There's an authenticity to it.
It feels real.
The struggles are all real.
The people are all real.
We're traveling with
a caravan of immigrants.
It was incredible for me
because I am
an immigrant myself.
So I get to tell
a story of someone
who goes across the world
to follow their dream.
Most people who went West
saw ads in newspapers in Poland
and in Croatia and in Germany
and answered those ads
and saved up all their money,
sold everything they had,
and hired a group that would
take them on these wagons.
In the 1800s,
there's actually a large flight
of immigrants to America
because there's overpopulation.
And there was a high rate
of unemployment.
It's actually interesting
there has been a Texan...
A German Texan immigrant
who wrote letters,
like beautiful letters,
how beautiful Texas is
and everything,
and these letters were printed
in a German newspaper.
And many Germans
at the time read them,
and that was their decision
to come.
I think people dreamed of change
and creating something
and having land
and being free.
It's a free country.
That's a free country.
That is Comanche land.
Beyond it is no man's land,
and that's where we're going.
You ain't free yet.
And these people
didn't speak English,
had no notion of
what the Southwest was like
or the Great Plains were like.
Had no idea they were
horribly unprepared,
facing a whole new host
of diseases
that they've never been
exposed to,
elements they've never
been exposed to.
It was an extremely dangerous,
dangerous journey.
- I'll push her.
- Now get to the back.
This is what happened.
This is the journey
that our ancestors took,
and it was horrifying
and extremely difficult.
- It's nothing new.
- It's happened back then.
It's happening now.
We're all immigrants
in this country,
and this journey...
it's so compelling,
and it tells a story that
just... it's gut-wrenching
but it's truthful.
And there's a lot of people
in this journey
that haven't been represented
in other westerns.
I don't think that there is
a more misrepresented group
in American cinema
than the Native American.
And what little I can do
to correct
that historical perspective
in fiction, I'm gonna do.
When historians write books
about native people,
a lot of times
they put us in this box, right?
And they say, oh,
they were hunter-gatherers,
or they lived
according to this way.
It completely removes the idea
that we were also individuals.
We had our own
individual tastes,
our own individual attractions.
And that's kind of the way
the storytelling has gone
in Hollywood for a long time.
One of the most
interesting things
is the number one cause
of death on these wagon trains
was people falling off a wagon
and getting run over.
The number two cause of death
was accidental discharge
of firearms.
Number three, it was drowning
in river crossing.
Number seven
was Native Americans.
I think in all the stuff
that we learned growing up
was the number one fear
was Native Americans.
And nine times out of ten,
they were trying to help.
I made the Native American
community a promise
that I was gonna tell
their story truthfully.
And so, every opportunity
I get to do it,
I try to fulfill that promise.
It's rare to have the kind of
story that we have been handed,
to be honest with you.
And I think for all of us,
we feel the responsibility
to do the best job that we can
to bring these characters
to life
the way they were written.
There's three classic
struggles in these westerns.
It's man against man,
man against himself,
man against the environment.
In those struggles,
we're all in this in spades.
Let's go.
"1883" is the origin story
of the Dutton family.
The Duttons come
from Tennessee originally.
There's a number of people
who moved West
out of desperation
from the South.
And America was unique
in the fact
that, wherever you were
that you failed,
you could simply move west
to a new place
and reinvent yourself
and reinvent your life.
The main characters
are Tim McGraw,
who plays obviously
James Dutton.
We have Faith Hill,
who plays Margaret Dutton.
We have Isabel May,
who plays Elsa.
Sam Elliott plays Shea.
And then La Monica Garrett
plays Thomas.
Elsa Dutton is a daughter
of the patriarch
and matriarch
of the Dutton family.
At this time,
we have two children, Elsa,
and then we have John.
I wanted to be John Dutton
'cause he was a boy,
and he loves the outside.
I love the outside too.
Elsa, she's very naive.
She's experienced
very few things.
They lived on a little farm.
She'd seen the same people
her entire life,
and she was bored.
She was desperate to get out.
This child is spirited,
and she's hard-headed
and strong,
but she's also very smart.
Elsa is extremely independent
at a time when a young woman
is not allowed to be
independent in such a way.
There are certain things
that we weren't allowed
to say or voice.
And as the journey continues,
she sheds that civilized
kind of costume
and starts to flourish
because she loves this world
so much
and what it has to offer.
There's a fair chance
you're too pretty for me.
If you are, rather know now
so I don't waste my time.
Maybe you're too pretty
for me.
Right away, Ennis is just
fully blown away by Elsa...
Aside from her beauty,
her wit, her brashness.
And I think she's the first girl
that ever makes
Ennis speechless.
Oh, my gosh, you're forward.
Part of the storyline is,
you know,
they were escaping poverty
and looking for a better life.
And I think there's more to it
than that in my mind
for James Dutton.
During the series, you find
out that I was a captain
in the Civil War
for the Confederacy,
put in a position
that he didn't want to be in.
Tim's character was one
of those who was drafted
and conscripted into the army.
And then endured, you know,
years in a prison of war camp
and then came home
to a destroyed homeland
and had lost faith
in that society.
He had a lot of pain
and PTSD from that.
I mean, you see it
in the flashbacks,
and you see little glimpses
of who James is,
and you know that he's not
as hard as he comes across.
He really cares about people,
but you also know that
his family's the number one
concern that he has.
He dreamed of a better place.
He dreamed of a life
where he could dictate
his own fortune or failure.
And his family trusted him.
In my work as I become
more invested in the people
that we're trying to help
as the journey goes on.
You know, I'm always
there for my family,
and I'm always concerned
about my family,
but I think as the show goes on,
you realize that James cares
more about people
than you think he does.
It's better to double
the latigo with him.
Girl, I've forgotten more
about horses
than you'll ever know.
Margaret, at the age of 17,
was a nurse in the Civil War.
That would change your life,
basically.
It would give you
a perspective of life
that a 17-year-old in this day
and age could never imagine.
I mean, she is really
this sort of strong-willed,
powerful woman of the West.
She's raising a young boy
and a young, you know, daughter
who's becoming a woman.
And obviously has to manage
all of that while she sort of
takes this family
on this very treacherous,
dangerous journey
across America.
Her heart, she becomes
stronger and stronger
and stronger
as the journey goes on.
The moment our first daughter
was born,
I'm a mom for the rest
of my life, period.
I mean, that is the first thing.
That's the last thing.
That's the middle thing.
That's everything.
My character is most concerned
about what is this
going to do to my family?
- Look after your brother.
- I will.
- "Yes, ma'am."
- I said I will.
I know what you said.
What you didn't say
is "Yes, ma'am."
Women don't say that
to each other.
- Oh, so you're a woman now?
- Aren't I?
Elsa has always viewed
her mother
as restraining her
from, you know,
being able to fully embrace
all that life has to offer.
And so, therefore, she kinda
has it out for her mom.
Margaret and Elsa have such
a contentious relationship,
as most teenage daughters
and moms do.
Then she sees her mother
in a different light
because there's clearly a past
that she's unaware of.
Her mother can ride
a horse beautifully.
And so she kind of starts
to understand
my mother was something else
in the past,
and she gave that up,
and maybe
she gave that up for me.
That's the biggest part of
James and Elsa's relationship,
that he understands her,
and he understands
the passion that she has.
And not only because
it's a reflection of him,
but it's a reflection
of Margaret as well.
She loves like Margaret.
She fights like me.
Having Sam Elliot come
on board was just incredible
because I think
he embodies everything
that the character of Shea
should be.
When I think of Westerns,
I think him and Clint Eastwood.
Like that's just what it is.
Of course, my wife
gets weak-kneed
every time she's around him.
I don't know a woman yet
that hasn't been weak-kneed
around Sam Elliott.
And I told my mama that I was
working with Sam Elliott.
She's like, "Oh my God, you're
working with Sam Elliott."
Shea is on a mission
to get back to Oregon.
Then at the same time,
he has something in him
that wants to help these
other people get there as well.
He knows that
it's rife with hardship.
There's no question about that.
And a lot of them
aren't gonna make it,
but he's driven to get those
that are tough enough
to survive to Oregon.
He is a troubled man
for a lot of different reasons.
First off, he was in the war.
You know, he's suffers
from that.
He loses his family,
and I think that's
the biggest burden
that he carries with him
throughout the show.
You know, Taylor talked to me
about Shea rode
with the Buffalo soldiers,
which was an all-Black group
of soldiers.
Shea is very heavy-handed with
everyone other than Thomas.
And... I don't know.
I get very emotional
talking about the relationship
of Shea and Thomas.
They're close.
Theye like brothers.
Thomas's story
is not unfamiliar
to a lot of Black cowboys
back then.
He's a former slave.
At 12 years old,
he went inside the house,
and the slave owner was
passed away, natural causes.
So Thomas just gets on a horse
and just goes off
and figures out life.
All that happened in between
then has helped shaped
who he was, his integrity.
And he met Shea during the war.
He was a soldier.
There were brothers-in-arms
in the war.
Began fighting together
in the Civil War.
So they've been fighting
together for some 20 years.
And that's how the bond
with them, you know,
became so strong.
It's like an 1800s odd couple.
What in the hell
is a "toilette"?
It's French for shitter.
When did you learn French?
Don't know French. It's just
the French word for shitter.
Two men who grow old together
trying to survive
and protect each other.
And so, relationships like
that that have so much history,
they don't have to say too much.
- Thomas, he's a kind person.
- He's an honest person.
And he's a very loyal person.
To me, he's the humanity
of the show.
He's the soul of the show.
And he's the enforcer
of the show.
So it's not a show where it's,
you know, "Yes, sir, no, sir."
Yes... it's, if you look
at him wrong
or if you cross his moral code,
he's gonna kill you.
Get everything that was hers.
- Nothing was hers.
- It was his, and he's a thief.
Get everything that was hers.
It was like it's a different
Black cowboy take.
And I'm so glad Taylor,
you know, he chose me
to bring that to life.
Both Sam and La Monica
are character builders,
and they really want
to understand what's motivated
the actions of the character
in the screenplay.
The show "Lonesome Dove,"
Danny Glover played
the role of Deets.
And Deets, the real-life Deets
on the Goodnight-Loving Trail,
was Bose Ikard.
And I found out he was buried
right there in Weatherford.
So me and a few cast mates,
we went to the cemetery,
and it just... it moved me.
And it's, you know,
it's a story I'm very proud
to be a part,
telling, you know,
a story about Black cowboys.
He goes back to the truth.
The Westerns of post-Civil War
that painted
these matinee idol characters
in these false roles
and painted a really inaccurate
picture of the American West.
To tell the story truthfully
and really show
the American West
or a version of it accurately,
then you have to look
at those relationships,
and you have to re-examine
a version
that Hollywood portrayed
that was wrong.
You know, I think
my favorite moment
is this incredible scene that
we have Billy Bob Thornton
walking down main street
in the middle of the 1800s.
And I look to the left,
and I see Billy Bob Thornton.
I look a little bit further,
there's Tim McGraw,
Sam Elliott,
and La Monica Garrett,
and I thought this is
a pretty good group
to walk into a bar with.
You know, you saw
"Reservoir Dogs" growing up,
you saw "Tombstone."
They all had that walk
where it was just these bad
dudes going to find trouble.
So I got to play out
those childhood dreams
of walking down that dusty road
to a gunfight in the saloon.
And it just happened to be with
all these icons next to me,
but it was...
yeah, it was amazing.
Billy Bob Thornton,
he's this easy-going guy.
He's kinda unassuming.
We get inside the saloon,
and he just turns it on to this
stone-cold killer and sheriff.
Order this business
on the Trinity.
So I'm supposed to stop
and have a line with Sam
right before the end
of the scene.
And I got so caught up into
watching Billy Bob perform,
I just walked right past Sam,
just blew right by
and didn't say my line,
walked out the door.
And I looked at Sam and goes,
"Sam, I'm sorry.
I know I'm supposed
to give a line, and I forgot."
And he goes, "I noticed."
He's a powerful actor,
Billy Bob,
and when he comes in at work,
it's hard to take your eye
off of him.
Another incredible moment
is this Civil War sequence
that we have.
And out of nowhere,
Tom Hanks just shows up...
Full beard, in character,
and a really powerful scene
between him and Tim McGraw.
It starts with Antietam,
and it starts
with an original picture
from the battleground scene
and morphs out of the original
picture into a live shot.
And everybody's dead.
His whole company
has been wiped out.
Captain.
Tom and I have been friends
for such a long time,
but no matter how good
a friend you are,
when you're sitting there in
a scene that's that emotional,
and then you turn,
and you see Tom Hanks walk up
in a Union uniform,
look at you, and say, "Captain,"
I just fell apart.
And then he sat beside me
as I'm crying,
and he puts his hand
on my shoulder.
Yeah, that's a great scene.
And of course, Tom,
you know, Tom was average.
When actors like this
are willing to come play
for a day or two,
of course now you're working
with some of the greatest
actors who've ever worked.
It's just a privilege.
I've done a lot of shows,
and I've never seen
anything this big.
We did scenes in Fort Worth
with hundreds of extras,
businessmen going to work
in the 1800s,
two bar guys having fight.
We have huge scenes out in
sort of wild open with bandits.
We have everything
that you can imagine.
We have 30-something wagons,
and it takes two to four
horses to pull them.
And I'm running from snow
and rain and schedule
and everything else.
- It's epic.
- There's no question about it.
I'm not gonna compare it
to anything
because I've never done
anything like this.
"Yellowstone,"
at any given time,
we might have 40 horses on set.
On this, at any given time,
we have 180,
and we have a cattle herd.
Ironically, we are having to
actually have a trail drive
in order to film a trail drive.
And it's a challenge.
- We have goats.
- We have chickens.
We have 60 wranglers, cowboys
just working the horses
to make sure everyone is safe.
We have 80 trucks and drivers
to move the whole company.
I mean, this is bigger
than a Beyonc tour.
This is "Game of Thrones"
on the Prairie.
We began the shooting
in Texas in August.
So it was about 104,
103 degrees.
There was sweat in places
I didn't know sweat can be.
I got wool on,
and wool is not Texas-friendly
in the summertime.
On top of the bandolier,
the belt, the guns,
like, ten-pound leather chaps,
like,
everything is weighed down.
And my horse,
he looks like a utility camp.
First, we were in 98-degree
sweating, hot weather.
And three weeks later, we were
in ten-degree weather.
You know, we were out there
last week in Montana
with snow cap mountains
in the middle of a field.
Me, Sam, and Tim are on top
of our horses on the mountain.
And there was like a blizzard
that came through,
like you couldn't see
your hand in front of you.
The wind was blowing.
There've been times
where I was so cold out here,
I didn't think I could
tough it out too long.
And the thing that
brought me out of it
and continues to bring me out
of it is just looking around
and seeing these mountain
ranges everywhere,
and you think, my God,
how lucky we are to be here
number one, but number two,
how lucky we are
to be here making a film.
You never really know
what you're gonna get
from Mother Earth that day.
And that adds to
the grand scheme
and the look of the show,
but it also adds to the thrill
as an actor
to get to experience
such spontaneity
on set every single day.
The methodology of Taylor
is to make everything
look like a ten-hour movie.
It's so big and so beautiful,
but there's a word
that is so important to him,
and that is "authenticity."
I'm interested in the truth,
even though it's fiction...
As accurately retelling an event
or a world as I possibly can.
Everything is
historically accurate.
Every building, every structure,
every wagon, everything.
We strive to do everything
period correct.
We spent a lot of time
in research together,
all the information we can.
So when the camera's tight
on a cast member,
that he has the right equipment
on his horse
for the time period.
I went to school for film
and watched countless movies,
countless westerns
where everything was wrong.
And you know, just me being
an indigenous person,
I would feel kind of ticked off
if I saw,
you know, that we weren't
accurately portrayed.
So when it comes
to finding the props,
I am trying to do my absolute
best on sourcing them from,
you know, the proper places
and making sure that they are,
in fact, you know,
if it's a Lakota bow case
that it's
an actual Lakota bow case.
The language that
the Native Americans speak
has to be authentic.
The beads that they wear
have to be authentic.
The wagons, the horse breeds,
the cattle breeds.
And I think these days
audiences respect it,
actors feel it.
After you've done all your
work on the text and character,
you finally get
to put on the clothes.
And I think that's kind of
your superhero cape in a way.
If you look at the costumes,
we made them all.
We didn't call
some costume house
and get a bunch of "Little
House on the Prairie" stuff.
Every dress, every suit,
every jacket,
everything was custom-made
by Janie and her team.
I am very familiar
with this period
because I designed "Deadwood,"
the series,
which was living in 1876.
And then, I designed the movie,
which was in 1886,
but no two shows are alike.
"1883" is the West.
And during this time, there were
a lot of cowboys in Texas.
And that was one of the aspects
that I love
doing the research for.
When she put this coat on me
the first time, I squealed.
Yeah, I'm in love
with my costume.
I love the costumes,
and the attention to detail
is microscopic.
You see these people,
and then suddenly,
wow, we're really here.
It's like a time machine.
This was a great opportunity
to do a period piece.
And period makeup
is a lot of fun.
You look at a lot
of the old Westerns,
and you see makeup on them.
Taylor definitely
wanted this raw.
He said, "I want dirty sweaty."
There is some makeup
that is being applied to them.
The trick with it
is to make it look
like they're not
wearing any makeup.
So the start of the show,
they're on a train.
And that's the only time
that they're kind of have a,
what I'd call a beauty look
about them.
But once they start getting out
onto the wagon train,
we're gonna try to
keep them dirty looking.
These departments,
from our production designer
to our prop master, everybody,
they had to come together
and build a world
in a very short period of time.
Nothing existed.
We created it all.
We wanted to avoid the clichs
and do things that are
a little bit unusual
that you haven't seen in
so many westerns.
Cary White,
our production designer,
this is his wheelhouse.
And he was able to come up
with some really,
really smart ideas.
The building right next to us
was built in 1939, 1940.
We constructed
a complete faade around it
and turned it into
a real building of 1883.
But also put Styrofoam cornices
on a lot of these buildings
up on the top of them
that gives them
a much more Victorian look.
And the whole thing
tied together
when we put the dirt in.
It really just came alive.
They brought in layers
and layers and layers of dirt.
And it's all compacted and then
top dressed appropriately
to make it all safe for
the animals that we have here.
I think we went
a solid two months prep
to shoot for four days
on house half-acre.
I mean, the stuff
that they've done
is just so incredibly epic.
I like to get on set early and
walk around some of these sets
just to put yourself
in that world.
So it makes it easy to find
the emotion in the scene.
This show
would not be possible
without everyone
that you don't see.
It is not a walk in the park.
It is hard work, and it's
fucking awesome.
Can I say that?
- Sure can.
- I just did.
I don't rehearse
with my actors.
There's no way for me to inform
them what this way of life is.
You just have to do it.
I just take them out
and put them to work.
The purpose of cowboy camp
is to get actors comfortable
enough on the horses
that they weren't nervous
when they were riding.
The better I can make them
as a rider,
the more they understand
the thing they're acting out,
the better the performances,
the more authentic the scenes
look, then it looks real.
Cowboy camp is the actors
get here about 8:00,
and then we start
just exposing them
to real-life situations in 1883.
Cowboy camp was probably
the most helpful thing
in the world.
- Good morning, guys.
- Morning.
How's everybody doing?
And we all got to spend
a couple of weeks together,
just riding horses and roping
and herding cattle.
And here comes
Taylor walking up like
he's the first one out there.
And he'll never ask you
to do anything
that he doesn't do
as far as being on a horse.
We take them down
and have them work cattle.
We have them part them out
and sort them.
Roping, horseback riding,
herding cows.
We take them down to the pond
and have them swim horses
so we can prepare them
for the river crossings
that are coming up
in the script.
Most of us learned
how to drive wagons,
which is dangerous, by the way.
Climbing up rocks,
going through lakes and rivers,
and steering cattle.
I'm learning how
to ride a horse,
and I'm swinging
the rope around.
We're shooting guns back
to riding horses, lassoing.
We just played little games
where you put, for example,
an egg on a spoon
and have to ride
straight back and forth.
And whoever does it
the fastest wins.
So it was really fun.
You had to carry the egg
on a spoon,
but I dropped it every time.
So some people were getting
a little crafty,
and when they get
further away from us,
their thumb would ease
over the eggs,
so you really can't see
what's going on and like,
wait a minute, like you got
glue on that or something?
Like, you know, what's going on?
I'd heard Taylor cheated
when he does it.
That he puts his thumb
on the egg.
I'm not saying that that's true.
I'm just saying that I've heard
that Taylor cheated.
There's no proof of cheating,
but it is suspected.
You know, everyone was
very competitive,
but in a supportive way
to somewhat degree.
Everything that we have done,
we've learned how to do it
properly
by the best of the best.
For all the talent,
they're trying to get them
comfortable
with driving and riding.
So then, when they get
on camera,
it becomes
second nature to them.
Everyone will remember
their lines and not panic,
so they look the part.
They feel the part.
They can be the cowboy.
A lot of what we're doing now
is day in and day out,
so this becomes second nature.
So when we're going
through the script,
that's what you could focus on
and not have to worry about
where my hands are,
and where's the gun?
You must know how to do it
the right way.
Otherwise, it's just
kind of watered down,
and it just feels wrong.
Cowboy camp gets you ready
for the show.
You're not showing up
and putting some dirt
and makeup on.
Before you ever do that,
you're falling off of a horse.
Your back is hurting.
As a cowboy in 1883,
you didn't have
nice cushiony saddles.
You know, you didn't have
all the fancy modern equipment
that you have today.
Oh, it's bare-bones.
It's bare knuckles.
This is my first time
on an 1880s saddle.
A hundred years ago,
if you went across country
from New York to California,
this is the way you went.
This is rougher than heck.
I'll tell you it's
a lot harder than it looks.
I mean, you see those wagon
drivers kind of leaning over.
I mean, oh man,
it did a number on your back.
There's an experience of time.
You know, you realize old people
traveled like this 5,000 miles,
and you understand
what a journey like this means.
This training creates
an authentic cowboy
because you're... you know,
the blisters are real.
The cuts are real.
You know, I'm running into
barbed wire fences on my horse.
I've been to like Hell Week
and camps and football,
and this is
a whole different beast.
When they get off at night,
they feel like their legs
are melted.
They got cramps in their thighs.
They got cramps in their calves.
They go, "My butt's sore."
Yeah, probably is.
You ain't never sat
on a saddle that long.
They're grinding us
into the ground.
I mean, by the time
we finished riding horses,
I'm like completely
soaked through.
Like, it's kinda gross.
I feel bad for everyone
that has to smell us.
Cowboy camp was this
incredible bonding experience
between all of the talent.
Everybody gets to
come out there.
They don't know each other.
And they start to sort of work
together and understand
what their characters
are gonna be,
where are they going,
and how hard this
is gonna really be.
Cowboy camp is extremely
important for teamwork.
We're all trying
to build chemistry as actors.
And there's nothing
more team-orientated
than getting 28 cattle,
I mean, over hills
and through alleyways
for miles and miles.
So if you're not communicating
to your teammates,
then it's not gonna work.
The only way to survive
at that time
was to be collaborative,
and people would go out of
their way to help one another
without expecting anything.
Well, it's the only way
that you can survive
in an environment like that.
You become a group, you know,
'cause we will be
on this journey for half a year
and go through hell.
We're all doing this together.
So we're all dedicated to it.
And that's been extraordinary
to watch.
It's about to be a family.
It's about to be all of us
against the world.
So against nature, literally.
So we all have
to trust each other.
We have to, you know,
hold each other accountable
and just being out here period,
being on the ranch together
and bonding,
and like... it's great for what
we're about to encounter.
From a production standpoint,
I've never seen
so many different departments
have to coordinate
so many different details.
I have never worked on
a company this big in my life.
Then you got cattle that,
you know,
one day they might be like,
we don't feel like doing
what you tell us to do today.
And they're running
in 50 different directions.
I think
it's borderline miraculous
that the show has come together
because it's taken a lot
of people and a lot of work.
And you know, it's just
impressive what this team
has been able to do.
This is unique
and very special.
And the production
scale is huge.
For me, I don't feel it because
it still feels so personal.
Taylor creates
such an incredible world
with his writing that
it's so easy to get lost in it.
You got it. You got him, son.
My most favorite scene is
a scene with Tim.
I had to hunt with my dad,
and it was blood from the deer.
It's your first kill,
so I got to blood you.
To shoot a deer and do
the whole blooding situation
and explain to him
why we did it and what it means
and how we have to
thank the animal
for giving us
sustenance in life...
To be able to do
that was pretty special for me.
It felt cool.
It felt really cool.
And you can see
the similarities
with "Yellowstone."
There are certainly similarities
to John Dutton and James,
and you can see the tradition
that started it.
I think absolutely fans
will find Easter eggs through
this whole thing,
and I'm excited.
And I think it'll be
a fun journey for people
to pick them out.
Well, I would ask you,
was there ever a time
that you went out on Easter
and found only one Easter egg?
Look, I think the journey
we're about to go on
in the rest of the episodes
is pretty magical, right?
We've just gotten started.
I'm thrilled for people
to see Elsa's journey
because it's quite
a dramatic one.
It's not what you would
expect whatsoever.
I think all of us are pushed
to what we think
will be our limit.
We're just on the trail,
and we'll see who survives.
Every episode brings a new
level of excitement and danger,
and unpredictability.
So just find
a huge box of tissues,
nice bucket of popcorn,
the biggest TV you can find,
and enjoy.
I could barely get through it
without just falling apart.
I couldn't do it.
I'm literally snot crying.
I feel that the audience
is going to get
very connected
to these characters,
and heartbreak is coming,
as you would imagine.
And some catharsis is coming,
and some beauty's coming,
and you know, I can't say
much more than that.