Taylor Sheridan couldn’t care less about what critics have to say about his projects.
For years, the Yellowstone creator, 56, has faced criticism for how women are portrayed in his shows. Sheridan was ripped apart for Demi Moore’s limited screen time in the debut season of his standalone Western drama Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton. “This is not how you use a movie star,” one critic wrote at the time.
However, appearing on Sunday’s episode of The Bill Simmons podcast, Sheridan insisted that Moore was aware her season one storyline would be brief when she signed on. Her character Cami became more essential in the second season when she took over her billionaire husband’s (Jon Hamm) oil company after his death.
“The critics are going to come after me,” Sheridan told Simmons. “I’m underutilizing [Moore], can’t write for women, all this nonsense. Then I’m going to kill your husband and you’re going to have to run the oil company.
“The critics and me — I don’t care what they think, and it annoys the s*** out of them that I don’t care,” he added, admitting that “there are things that I do that rage-bait them a bit, and this is one of them. F*** ’em, honestly.”
Following a career as a character actor, Sheridan transitioned into directing and writing in the 2010s with his directorial debut, the horror-mystery film Vile.
In 2018, he premiered his smash hit Western drama Yellowstone, which has gone on to spawn numerous spin-offs, including 1883, 1923, Marshals and Dutton Ranch.
Despite the overwhelming success and positive viewer reception of his series, they have yet to be recognized at the Emmys.
Thornton surmised that the reason Sheridan’s work is overlooked by the Television Academy has to do with his perceived politics.
“I think some people assume Taylor is some sort of right-wing guy or something, and he’s really not,” the actor, 70, told Variety in January. “Even with this show being about the oil business, he just shows you what it’s like. He’s not saying ‘Rah, rah, rah for oil.’
“It’s just the people who work in this business or who are affected by this business, the people on the periphery and within the families in the business; this is what happens. These are the kinds of problems and joys and triumphs and whatever happens in this world. It’s a world of gambling, and you never know what’s going to happen. But I think people got the wrong idea about that.”
Addressing the subject matter of his projects, Sheridan told Simmons: “I’m pretty common and I’m going to tell stories that common people are going to understand. That’s most of America.
“You’re not going to win no Emmys with me, but I’m not trying to win Emmys. That’s not my goal,” he added.
“My goal is to sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare the s*** out of them, excite them. That’s what I want to do, because that’s what I want from a show.”
