Taylor Sheridan is the television mastermind behind Yellowstone and its ever-growing catalog of spinoffs. However, the critically acclaimed creator isn’t like anyone else in Hollywood. Notably, he refused to work in a writers’ room, breaking traditional rules for screenplay by letting his characters drive the plot. Despite becoming a staple of the TV Western landscape, Sheridan’s earlier claim to fame was a decidedly non-Western show.
Kurt Sutter’s Sons of Anarchy stirred Sheridan in a completely different direction and changed his life. The Yellowstone creator played a recurring role in the early seasons. Though it wasn’t exactly a pleasant experience, it marked the beginning of Sheridan’s career as a writer, which would eventually lead to him to his current television empire.
Sons of Anarchy Was Taylor Sheridan’s Breakout Role As an Actor
Sons of Anarchy was a pivotal show in Sheridan’s professional life. Having struggled as an actor in West Hollywood, Sutter’s series about a group of outlaw bikers gave Sheridan his first real break. His first television appearance traces back to Walker, Texas Ranger in 1995, followed by a series of minor roles in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman and Star Trek: Enterprise. He also made a guest appearance as Danny Boyd in Veronica Mars Season 2, Episode 8 in 2005, but it was Sons of Anarchy where Sheridan first secured a recurring role: Deputy Chief David Hale. Though a member of Charming’s own law enforcement and one of the good guys, Hale was portrayed as a sort of antagonist to Wayne Unser, who was helping SAMCRO with their numerous illegal dealings. The character appeared in a total of 21 episodes and abruptly left the show in Season 3.
The plan was always to become a big movie star, then move back to a ranch and just do movies with Martin Scorsese when I felt like it.
Playing Deputy Chief David Hale was supposed to be a breakthrough and an important milestone in the advancement of Sheridan’s acting career. For a more personal reason, the role was also a dream come true for Sheridan, whose first option had always been to make it as an actor. “The plan was always to become a big movie star, then move back to a ranch and just do movies with Martin Scorsese when I felt like it,” the Yellowstone creator told The Hollywood Reporter. Despite not holding hands with SAMCRO, Hale was still a fan-favorite character, but when the then-struggling actor found out he was paid less than others on the show, tensions began to rise. Sheridan later did make a few exceptions, acting in his own shows and appearing on NCIS: International, but the departure from Sons of Anarchy was the point when he decided to let go of his acting dream.
In 2021, Sheridan opened up about the real reason behind his Sons of Anarchy exit. “At that time, they were offering me what I thought was a very unfair wage,” the actor told Deadline. According to Sheridan, he was paid “less than virtually every other person on the show.” Despite being one of the recurring characters, he was unable to pay all his bills without a second job, and the financial aspect soon became a problem. Sutter, on the other hand, has stated that Sheridan left to pursue other projects.
“So, the business affairs attorney, who I won’t name, here’s what he told my attorney who said, “look, there’s kids on the Cartoon Network making more than you’re offering this guy.” The guy goes, “I know and you’re right that he probably deserves to make more, but we’re not going to pay him more because guess what, he’s not worth more. That’s what he’s worth. There’s 50 of him. He is 11 on the call sheet. That’s what that guy is, and that’s all he’s ever going to be.” And that’s really when I quit. It wasn’t so much over money. It was so much more that that’s how the business saw me.”
Sheridan realized being the 11th on the call sheet was never going to work in the long term, so he quit, which allowed him to pick up screenwriting and find a more fulfilling path. The truth was a bitter pill to swallow, but the end of one dream was only the start of a real empire. “I decided right there that I didn’t want to be 11 on the call sheet for the rest of my life,” Sheridan said. The end of a dream was the beginning of another. The then-actor quit the gig at Sons of Anarchy and turned to writing, and he sold his first script without much effort.
The first thing I ever wrote [the pilot for Mayor of Kingstown in 2011] got me meetings at every major network, at every agency. I had multiple people trying to buy it.
Sheridan credited Hollywood for teaching him the hard lesson. “I was a fair actor, but that’s all I’ll ever be,” the actor admitted in the interview with The Hollywood Reporter. With only $800 in his banks, the then-struggling actor started writing his first script and discovered that he had a talent. The decision then led to numerous shows and, later on, Yellowstone, which was often compared to Sons of Anarchy by fans of both shows. “The first thing I ever wrote [the pilot for Mayor of Kingstown in 2011] got me meetings at every major network, at every agency. I had multiple people trying to buy it,” the writer-director recalled. His time at Sons of Anarchy changed his life, and it goes a little far from pushing him in the right direction.
Because of Sons of Anarchy, Taylor Sheridan Is Careful With On-screen Deaths
Sheridan doesn’t hold back on gruesome deaths. His latest show, Landman, is the perfect example. Within one short season, the series has featured oil well explosions, metal tube accidents, more explosions, and brutal attacks. Sons of Anarchy is notorious for killing off characters in a shockingly brutal manner. While it made Sheridan fearless when delivering on-screen deaths, the fate of his own character also cemented that he’d never repeat the same mistake the show made. Even though his character died more than a decade ago, Sheridan still had a hard time forgetting it. “I was killed in a f*ck-you car crash!” Sheridan recalled of Hale’s poorly written death in Sons of Anarchy, which concluded his time on the show.
Kevin Costner’s departure from Yellowstone forced John Dutton’s character arc into a specific direction. Sheridan had to do something quick, but even then, he refused to give Costner the same treatment. “I don’t do f*ck-you car crashes,” the show creator promised. He stressed that he paid no attention to Costner’s liking. “Whether [Dutton’s fate] inflates [Costner’s] ego or insults is collateral damage that I don’t factor in with regard to storytelling.” John Dutton was never meant to survive the show, but Costner’s departure made it happen sooner than Sheridan would have liked, which changed the course of Yellowstone Season 5. “It truncates the closure of his character,” the show creator said, adding that it “doesn’t alter it.” John Dutton’s death came as quickly as Season 5B’s premiere.
Yellowstone and Sons of Anarchy Share Similar DNA
Since its release, many viewers have noticed the uncanny resemblance between Yellowstone and Sons of Anarchy, with some even suspecting Sheridan took a dig at Sutter’s biker show when the Duttons defended themselves against a group of bikers from California in “Going Back to Cali.” Sheridan also cast some Sons of Anarchy actors for Yellowstone (notably the actor who played Chibs’ daughter). However, the real similarities between the two shows are in the writing.
Sheridan is big on writing character-driven shows that diverge from the traditional plot-driven method of writing. His inspiration didn’t come from nowhere. Sutter has expressed his interest in exploring characters in his writing. “The most exciting part of writing, the reason I love what I do, is when the characters start talking to each other, and it no longer becomes my story,” the Sons of Anarchy creator told Collider. When asked where his inspiration came from, Sutter said the same thing Sheridan said about “life” being the inspiration. Sutter also wasn’t much of a fan of fixed structures. His method of writing for television involved “having things come out organically” as he told CableFax, where Sheridan determined characters’ arcs while working with the actors.
