Taylor Sheridan Reacts to WGA Staffing Requests: Writers Room ‘Haven’t Worked’ for Me
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Taylor Sheridan is sticking to his singular vision for his Paramount empire.
The “Yellowstone” creator and Oscar-nominated screenwriter told The Hollywood Reporter that he is not a fan of personally working with writers’ rooms for TV shows.
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“The freedom of the artist to create must be unfettered,” Sheridan said. “If they tell me, ‘You’re going to have to write a check for $540,000 to four people to sit in a room that you never have to meet,’ then that’s between the studio and the guild. But if I have to check in creatively with others for a story I’ve wholly built in my brain, that would probably be the end of me telling TV stories.”
Sheridan noted that at first, his plan was to “Greg Berlanti it,” citing the mega-producer behind The CW’s DC Universe as well as a slew of other content. However, his frustration with writers’ rooms and working with other showrunners led to him taking the lead on every series he creates.
“[I thought] I would write, cast and direct the pilots, and then we would bring in someone as a showrunner to run a writers room and I could check in and guide them. That plan failed,” Sheridan said. “There were some things that none of us foresaw.”
Sheridan later let go of the writers for “Tulsa King” and showrunner (and “Boardwalk Empire” alum) Terence Winter; similarly, Sheridan fired the writers behind “Special Ops: Lioness.”
“My stories have a very simple plot that is driven by the characters as opposed to characters driven by a plot — the antithesis of the way television is normally modeled,” the “Wind River” writer said. “I’m really interested in the dirty of the relationships in literally every scene. But when you hire a room that may not be motivated by those same qualities — and a writer always wants to take ownership of something they’re writing — and I give this directive and they’re not feeling it, then they’re going to come up with their own qualities. So for me, writers rooms, they haven’t worked.”
Sheridan writes all of the “Yellowstone” franchise episodes, which includes prequels “1883” and “1923.”
“If you don’t grow up in this [ranching] world, and if you’re not a history fanatic, how do you write ‘1883’?” Sheridan said. “How does a room do that? It doesn’t.”
He added, “I’ve written many episodes in eight to 10 hours.”
Sheridan’s producing partner David Glasser noted that “Taylor writes scripts like you or I have a cup of coffee. He’s written 60 scripts for ‘Yellowstone’ — most people don’t do that their entire career. It’s because of his excitement for the material.”
Paramount Media Networks president and CEO chief Chris McCarthy said, “You can’t teach or hope that someone cares more than Taylor. So anytime that he wants to step in, it’s only to make it better and to push our partners to achieve greatness.”
Paramount does not give any notes on Sheridan’s scripts, as the showrunner confirmed.
“I get paid whether they’re good or bad, but that’s not really winning,” he said. “’I’m one of those people that’s incapable doing something that’s not tethered to 100 percent of my passion. I cannot do ‘OK’ at a job.”
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