Taylor Sheridan, the writer and producer behind ‘Yellowstone‘ and its sprawling franchise, finally opened up about why he quit acting years before he became one of the most powerful names in television. It all comes down to a pay fight on ‘Sons of Anarchy.’
While speaking on ‘The Howard Stern Show‘ this week, the 56-year-old called the moment the worst professional hit he ever took, and also the best thing that ever happened to him. Sheridan played Deputy David Hale on FX’s biker drama starting in 2008, appearing in about 10 episodes per season during the first two years of the show. The series was doing well for FX, but his paycheck told a different story.
Why Taylor Sheridan Walked Away From ‘Sons of Anarchy’
Sheridan said he was making scale pay and had to leave the set every day to work another job just to make rent. Once season two wrapped, he decided he’d had enough. He asked for a raise going into season three, around $20,000 an episode, which was what other supporting series regulars on the show were making.
Related: “I Don’t Care What They Think”: Taylor Sheridan Shuts Down ‘Yellowstone’ Critics With Blunt Response
The response he got, in his telling, was blunt and dismissive. He says a business affairs executive told him the studio didn’t need to pay him more because there were fifty guys just like him and he could be replaced by the next morning. His attorney tried to fight it, but the message stuck with him.
Sheridan said that moment convinced him his own industry didn’t respect him. So instead of taking the deal, he walked away. The show wrote his character out in a big way when Hale was killed off in the season three premiere in September 2010, run over during a drive-by shooting.
How the ‘Sons of Anarchy’ Exit Led to ‘Sicario’ and ‘Yellowstone’
That negotiation didn’t just end Sheridan’s time on ‘Sons of Anarchy,’ it changed the direction of his whole career. He told Stern he gave up acting completely once he understood where the actual power in Hollywood lives. He felt he had hit the ceiling of what he could do as an actor, so he stopped trying to make that work and started writing his own stories instead.
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The switch paid off fast. Sheridan wrote the screenplay for Denis Villeneuve’s Oscar-nominated 2015 film ‘Sicario,’ then followed it with ‘Hell or High Water‘ and ‘Wind River,’ the three films people now call his American frontier trilogy. A few years after that came ‘Yellowstone,” the Kevin Costner western that turned into a massive franchise of spinoffs and prequels, making Sheridan one of the busiest creators working in TV.
Taylor Sheridan’s Return to Acting on His Own Terms
Sheridan never fully quit acting, though; he just stopped depending on it. He’s given himself small parts in his own shows, playing horse trainer Travis Wheatley on ‘Yellowstone‘ (including a storyline with Bella Hadid in season five), Cody Spears on ‘Lioness,’ and Charles Goodnight on ‘1883.’ On his own shows, at least, nobody gets to tell him he’s replaceable.
Looking back on it, Sheridan didn’t soften how it felt at the time. “Call it pride or ego or integrity,” he told Stern, before saying the whole experience is what pushed him to go after control of his own work.
This interview came right after another one on ‘The Bill Simmons Podcast,‘ where Sheridan went after studio executives more broadly, saying they don’t understand the business and brushing off his critics. Put the two conversations together, and the pattern is clear: the same industry that once treated him as disposable now mostly plays by his rules.
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