Key Takeaways
- Billy Bob Thornton says Hollywood “wasn’t nice” to Taylor Sheridan, while Texas’ ranch community embraced him because his cowboy identity is “the real thing.”
- Sheridan endured homelessness and lived in his car before leaving acting for screenwriting, eventually building a TV empire around hits including Yellowstone, Landman, Lioness, and Tulsa King.
- Sheridan now writes and edits from his 600-acre Bosque Ranch near Fort Worth, and Paramount+ has confirmed that more Landman is coming.
Taylor Sheridan may run one of television's biggest empires now, but Billy Bob Thornton says Hollywood wasn't exactly rolling out the red carpet before the Landman creator found his lane—and his people—in Texas.
"Hollywood wasn't nice to Taylor," Thornton told Town & Country for a new profile of the 56-year-old writer, director and producer. According to the Landman star, Sheridan's experience as an outsider helped fuel the career that eventually produced Yellowstone, Landman, Lioness, Tulsa King and a sprawling collection of other hits.
"There's something about being an outsider that drives you," Thornton said. "I think the ranch community in Texas accepted Taylor 100 percent because he's not phoning it in."
Thornton, who plays oil-company fixer Tommy Norris on Landman, also pushed back against any suggestion that Sheridan's cowboy identity is Hollywood cosplay. "He doesn't go to the tourist cowboy shop and get an outfit," he said. "This is the real thing."
Sheridan's road there was considerably rougher than his current résumé suggests. Before becoming one of television's most prolific creators, he spent years trying to survive as an actor in Los Angeles and told Town & Country that he was homeless twice.
"I lived in my car," Sheridan said, recalling that he sometimes drove to Ojai, California, because it gave him "somewhere where I could safely sleep."
"I did that for six months," he added. "I could have decided at any point, 'I'm going to go get a full-time job, and I'm going to give up this dream.' And I chose to sleep in my car over that."
Sheridan eventually landed a recurring role on Sons of Anarchy before leaving acting behind and turning to screenwriting. Hell or High Water helped change his trajectory, and the eventual success of Yellowstone gave him the leverage to build something far removed from traditional Hollywood.
He returned to his native Texas and bought Bosque Ranch, a 600-acre property outside Fort Worth that now serves as a home, workplace, and gathering spot for actors entering his universe.
That distance from Los Angeles isn't accidental. Sheridan previously said he has little interest in returning to Hollywood, telling The Bill Simmons Podcast, "The only way you're getting me back to Los Angeles is if it secedes from the union and I'm drafted into the Army to take it back."
His frustration extends to the industry's creative machinery. Sheridan has blasted network executives for excessive notes and rewrites, while making clear that awards aren't his priority.
"You're not going to win Emmys with me, but I'm not trying to win Emmys," he said in June. "My goal is to sit somebody on their couch and move them, make them think, make them laugh, scare them, excite them."
That approach has certainly worked for Landman. Paramount+ executive Jane Wiseman recently confirmed that Sheridan is writing more of the oil drama, calling his shows a crucial part of the streamer's foundation and saying the company intends to continue serving the "Taylorverse."
Wiseman also made the future explicit: "We have more Landman coming."
These days, Sheridan says he rarely leaves Bosque Ranch. He tends to his horses in the morning, works out, then writes and edits from facilities built on the property.
