Taylor Sheridan is his own master, delivering epic pieces of the wild, wild West with iconic plotlines beyond anyone’s craziest imagination. The currently ongoing 1923 is yet another addition to the list, with a mastermind and creative visionary like Harrison Ford starring among the prominent characters to continue the Dutton prequel saga.
In fact, when it comes to working with Sheridan, even Ford put down his only rule that he ostensibly carries forward in pretty much every single one of his pieces: Asking for rewrites where he felt the dialogue didn’t feel appropriate for his character—something that Kevin Costner inevitably couldn’t do for his Yellowstone lore with Sheridan.
Harrison Ford put down his only rule while working with Taylor Sheridan
One of the biggest reasons why Taylor Sheridan managed to become such a big name in Hollywood within such minimal time is his epic scripts. For one, not only is the writer’s mind in that respective field simply unparalleled, especially when it comes to the wild, wild West, but he also has a rather unique way of bringing it all about.
But while that’s that, there’s also a problem here: While Sheridan ostensibly has it all sorted out in his mind, the scripts are actually written by him very close to the shoot of the episodes. That being mentioned, when the legendary Harrison Ford hopped on board to join his world through 1923, he was also told the entire script wasn’t written yet.
And yet, for some reason, Ford, who notably rarely does television, accepted the offer without a script. And that’s not all. Apparently, the Indiana Jones star prefers to modify the dialogue when the words don’t fit in the mouth of his character the way they should. “I’m a guy who says, ‘If the words don’t fit my mouth, we’ve got to change the words,’” Ford claims.
However, when it came down to this particular show from the Sheridan-verse, Ford agreed to put down his rule because even the showrunner is famous for not doing rewrites. He shared how they got around that issue to The Hollywood Reporter:
Once in a while, we’d have an issue with that. But life doesn’t do rewrites. You get a shot at something, and that’s what happened. I really committed to saying Taylor’s words because it’s fun for me to puzzle it out.
For what it’s worth, we’re glad that happened because so far, all of this seems to be going perfectly for Harrison Ford: He is currently ruling the screens with the ongoing season two of 1923 in a (mostly) critically commended storyline, so it might as well be deemed a win-win situation for both.
Kevin Costner ostensibly didn’t feel the same way when it came to Yellowstone
On the one hand, while the famous Star Wars alum settled on joining the Sheridan-verse without a script all the while putting down his rule for rewrites, on the other hand, former Yellowstone star Kevin Costner wasn’t all that keen on flexibility and trusting the process when it came to that matter with his said show with Sheridan, according to reports.
Per Vulture, one of the reasons why Costner left Yellowstone in the first place was because he was not given a complete script in hand for season 5, as he revealed to GQ. That’s not all; Puck News even reported that the actor made a hefty list of demands, including the right to approve or potentially reject all of the scripts for the said season before walking away altogether.
That said, it’s unarguable that things didn’t quite work out for Costner and Sheridan, and one reason behind it was ostensibly the rewriting issue. But while the Dances with Wolves star couldn’t bend the knee, Ford agreed to do it and ended up becoming part of a saga that not only garnered him acclaim but multiple awards nods and wins too, so that’s that as well.
1923 can currently be streamed on Paramount Plus while Yellowstone is available for streaming on Prime Video.
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