Updated
Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Aug 21
Billy Bob Thornton Says Texas Embraced Taylor Sheridan, Who Now Owns 250,000 Acres
Updated
Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Aug 21

Billy Bob Thornton Says Texas Embraced Taylor Sheridan, Who Now Owns 250,000 Acres

3 articles · Updated · Hollywood Reporter · Aug 21

Summary

  • Billy Bob Thornton said Hollywood "wasn't nice" to Taylor Sheridan, while Texas and its ranching community accepted him "100 percent" because "he's not phoning it in."
  • Sheridan spent years struggling in Los Angeles as an actor and said he was homeless twice, sleeping in his car for six months before shifting to screenwriting.
  • That pivot changed his career: after writing the pilot for Mayor of Kingstown in 2011, Sheridan said every major network and agency wanted meetings.
  • Success from shows including Yellowstone, Landman and Special Ops: Lioness helped him return to Texas, where he now owns more than 250,000 acres including the Four Sixes and Bosque ranches.
  • Sheridan says life in Texas now feeds his work, giving him stories and dialogue he did not find in Los Angeles as he builds his TV empire from ranch-based meetings.

Insights

Will Sheridan's strict refusal to fictionalize real Texas ranch workers ultimately jeopardize his rapidly expanding television universe?
How did a once-homeless actor transform into a television mogul who single-handedly revived the Western genre?