When Taylor Sheridan was asked how he managed to get so many big names in a series, he replied, “Truth? I called [Harrison Ford] and said come down to my ranch, and he flew down. I did the same with Helen [Mirren].” You have to have some serious clout in Hollywood to get Ford to jump in a plane when you call before a discussion has even taken place, or wine gets poured.
Sheridan added that Ford flew down in his own plane and asked to read a script. The former, however, famously doesn’t write that far ahead and often doesn’t let the actors know what’s coming. In fact, in a roundtable interview for “1923” that I attended with Mirren, she said the “1923” cast only had scripts for the first three episodes in their hands when they began shooting.
Sheridan didn’t have anything to show Ford, either, and for good reason. He explained to Deadline:
“[Ford] goes, can I read a script? I said, you can when it’s written, but it ain’t written yet, and you got to commit to it now. I need to know who I’m writing for. I’m done wondering who I’m writing for, and I have to go try to chase the person I had in my mind, and I can’t get the person because they’re doing some f****** Netflix show. I don’t do that s*** anymore.”
Mirren said something similar in the roundtable interview, explaining that Cara Dutton was written for her the same way Jacob Dutton was written for Ford because Sheridan “likes to write for the actor and the personality of the actor that is going to play the role.”