‘1923’: Reading Taylor Sheridan’s Scripts Made Harrison Ford Say ‘What the F***’
Harrison Ford is far from the first major star that Taylor Sheridan has landed for his shows, like 1923. The famous writer and filmmaker has worked with the likes of Kevin Costner and Sylvester Stallone over the years. In Sheridan’s Yellowstone prequel, 1923, Ford plays Jacob, the patriarch of the Dutton family. Jacob tries to keep his ranch alive in a modernizing world. Sheridan writes about real-life issues, and reading his scripts struck and chord with the actor
Harrison Ford owns an 800-acre property in Wyoming
Modernization is a major theme in the Yellowstone prequel, 1923. The Duttons are a family of ranchers living in a world that is slowly transforming away from an agrarian society. Inevitably there’s a darker side to the advances being made in 1923.
“Progress goes hand in hand with an exploration of the Mother Earth,” Banner Creighton actor Jerome Flynn stated in a video from Paramount+. Perhaps no one in the 1923 cast understands this quite as well as Harrison Ford.
Though Ford isn’t a rancher, he does own an 800-acre property outside of Jackson, Wyoming, where he and his wife, Calista Flockhart, frequently spend their time. “It’s a former ranch,” Ford told Yahoo Entertainment. “I don’t raise cattle on it, but I am the steward of that little chunk of nature, and it’s full of wildlife, streams, and woods. I enjoy being there.”
Taylor Sheridan’s scripts struck a chord with Harrison Ford
Back when Harison Ford first read Taylor Sheridan’s scripts for 1923, he found the words surprisingly relatable. “When Taylor and I first met face-to-face, there was no script because he didn’t want to write a script for people that are going to turn him down,” the actor explained while speaking to The Hollywood Reporter.
“But there are things in the scripts that I never would’ve anticipated that are emotionally consistent with things that have happened in my life. So when I was reading it, I was thinking, ‘What the f***?'”
“They’re little things. I’m not going to tell you what they are,” Ford added. “But he talks about turning a natural place into a city and the consequences to nature and for people that live there. He talks about it with real understanding and real complexity. I’m struck by how consistent it is with what I think — or what I might have thought were I a rancher with the same personality in 1923.”
Modern technology collides with the cowboy mentality in ‘1923’
Though 1923 certainly explores the dark side of modernization, it also discusses the introduction of modern conveniences. While in town, the Duttons are introduced to new inventions like the washing machine, as well as the idea that electricity will one day be available in every home.
“Modern technology of the 1920s is crashing down on this cowboy mentality,” said Robert Patrick, who plays Sheriff William McDowell in 1923, in the Paramount+ video. John Dutton Sr. actor James Badge Dale added, “It’s this collision of this old way of life meeting this new way of life, which everyone says is progress, but inevitably we always leave people behind.”
New episodes of 1923 air Sundays on Paramount+.
