Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone success gave him a special position within the television industry. He is currently serving as the creator of at least six big television productions, including the final season of his breakthrough series. Sheridan doesn’t handle the load very well as he revealed to Joe Rogan about his hectic work schedule that gave him just 4 hours of sleep for months.
At one particular point, he also took up the directing responsibilities of Those Who Wish Me Dead, which starred Angelina Jolie. Sheridan revealed that juggling his time between the film and the series was a mountain of a task that “killed” him.
Taylor Sheridan Was Pushed Beyond His Limits Working On One Angelina Jolie Film
Taylor Sheridan ran a tight ship for his Yellowstone series. The series had no pre-written script and Sheridan wrote the script only as the filming of a particular season progressed. Both Paramount and the stars of the show trusted the creator’s process and it worked really well for the series.
However, it posed another problem for Sheridan. The work pressure kept burdening the creator due to this process. It was at this time that Sheridan committed to his third film, Those Who Wish Me Dead. It starred Angelina Jolie, Nicholas Hoult, Aidan Gillen, Jon Bernthal, and Yellowstone‘s Finn Little.
During his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the 1923 creator shared his challenges during this time. He shared that the filming for the project began in May 2019 in New Mexico. During this time, he also had to deliver on the Yellowstone scripts.
He shared that after completing the night shoot of his film on Fridays, he would be back home after 7 in the morning and take a nap till 2. He would then write the episode script of Yellowstone Season 2 on that Saturday and Sunday, working late at night till 1 or 2.
He shared that he had to do this for 10 episodes, which means 10 weeks in a row. Sheridan shared with Joe Rogan:
I was directing a movie with Angie, Angelina Jolie in New Mexico, and they had a start date that, by God, they were gonna start, it didn’t matter they didn’t have scripts, they were gonna start.
We would do a night-shoot Friday night and finish about 7 in the morning. And I come home and sleep till 2 and wake up, have coffee and write the script Saturday until 1, 2 in the morning. Wake up Sunday, do it again, finish the script, send it off… I did it 10 episodes. I did it 10 weeks in a row. F**king killed me.
Sheridan also revealed that he had to take nutritional supplements during this period to keep him healthy. He added that he worked an insane 14 to 16 hours per day during this time, almost catching the “movie flu”.
Taylor Sheridan Still Juggles Multiple Roles In Multiple Series
Yellowstone gave Taylor Sheridan immense success and he joined forces with his Wind River star Jeremy Renner for another Paramount series, Mayor of Kingstown. The success of Yellowstone also led to the spin-off series 1883, which showed how the Montana Ranch came into the possession of the Duttons.
Sheridan served multiple roles in all three series, serving as the creator, producer, writer, showrunner, and even the director of episodes. He was also the writer-creator of other shows like Yellowstone spin-off 1923, Special Ops: Lioness, and Tulsa King. Sheridan explained his insane working schedule to Joe Rogan during the podcast:
When I go direct, if I go on a six-month, which I’m about to, a six-month, seven-month run of directing every single day… where I have to make decisions from 6am until 9 o’clock at night, then I got to watch footage till midnight, I get 3, 4 hours of sleep a night for 6 months. I’m a f**king wreck after 6 months.
Sheridan’s Yellowstone will soon come to an end but he’s already planning to replace it with several other spin-off shows. He is also the creator of another show in development starring Billy Bob Thornton, titled Landman. In January, he optioned S.C. Gwynne’s book Empire of the Summer Moon to make it into a film (via Deadline).
Yellowstone is now available for streaming on Peacock, while Those Who Wish Me Dead is now available for streaming on Hulu and Max.
