Taylor Sheridan Has No Regrets About Rage-Baiting Critics, Reveals He Deliberately Sidelined Demi Moore

Highlights Taylor Sheridan admits he intentionally rage-baits critics with his storytelling choices Yellowstone creator blasts studio execs as unqualified marketing types running Hollywood Sheridan told Paramount: “This is not a democracy” when negotiating his creative deal Taylor Sheridan built one of the most dominant television empires in recent memory, and he wants you to know he did it without taking a single note from anyone. The Yellowstone creator unloaded on studio and network brass during an appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast , where he stopped by ostensibly to promote his new book How Not to Die in Prison , co-written with Tom Nelson . But the conversation quickly became something else entirely. Sheridan said that when he moved from being an actor to being a writer, he wanted to do things differently. “I knew when I started writing [I wanted] to simply not do what everyone else was doing. 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,” he said. Taylor Sheridan at the 2017 Hollywood Film Awards, at The Beverly Hilton on November 5, 2017. Credit: Sara De Boer/startraksphoto.com And the people he blames for enabling those shortcuts? The executives signing the checks. Sheridan argued that the number of notes given by people who aren’t creative is stifling productions and extending timelines because of “endless rewrites.” “It didn’t used to be this way when Steve McQueen was a movie star at Paramount and Bobby Evans ran the studio because writers were turned loose. Directors were turned completely loose,” he said. “By the way, the studio executives and the network executives — these are marketing executives, for the most part. Or maybe they studied law or whatever. Then they came, got a job in the mailroom at CAA or WME, and hated that shit. So then they ended up as an intern at some network. Then, through attrition, they find themselves the head of development.” Director Taylor Sheridan attends the ‘Wind River’ photocall during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival. On May 20 2017. Credit: Tanka V/depositphotos.com His verdict on what those executives actually know about story? Nothing. Sheridan explained that executives “get terrified and panicked that the audience won’t get it, because they actually have no storytellers.” “Our business, at this point, is truly governed by these executives because they’re the ones that are going to determine whether or not your script is going to go into production. They’re going to try and control every element of that.” Sheridan made clear early in his Paramount partnership that such control would not apply to him. Taylor Sheridan at the Premiere Screening of ‘Sons of Anarchy’. Paramount Theater, Hollywood, CA on August 24, 2008. Credit