The hit series Yellowstone finally made its long-awaited return to TV.
The show’s fans are excited to see how the show wraps up its final season.
But Yellowstone fans were caught completely off guard after Taylor Sheridan revealed one shocking detail about the hit show.
The last half of the final season of Yellowstone recently started, and fans were stunned at how the show’s creator, Taylor Sheridan, handled the exit of Kevin Costner.
But Sheridan had even more surprises for the show’s loyal fans.
It’s extremely hard work preparing for a season of Yellowstone
The Paramount Network series Yellowstone has finally started airing the second half of the show’s fifth and final season.
Yellowstone’s last episode before the November premier of the second half of season 5 aired on January 1, 2023.
The long delay left fans craving for the show to return after delays caused by the Hollywood writer’s strike.
The show became a sensation after it debuted in 2018 for its raw and gritty portrayal of the Cowboy lifestyle on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch.
Attention to detail is one of the reasons the series has become a success.
First off, the show, which takes place in Montana, is filmed on location in Montana.
And Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan features cowboys prominently in the series, so he wanted to ensure the actors knew what they were doing so their performance would seem authentic.
That’s why he created a cowboy boot camp on his ranch in Texas for the show’s actors to learn how to ride horses and learn the ropes of ranch work.
“Most Westerns you’ve ever seen, it’s a bunch of horses running in the distance together, and then it cuts to a bunch of actors sitting on fake horses; who wants to watch that?” Sheridan told CBS Sunday Morning. “That allows me to make a better product when filming it. I have happier actors and happier horses.”
Even actors on the show who know how to ride or have already been through the boot camp have to attend.
“To do this role, it requires serious saddle time,” Sheridan explained. “From different disciplines, whether it’s reining or whether it’s, you know, cutting, those are things you have to get in the saddle and do. Repetition is a big deal. Right now, it’s day two; I think my ears are sore. I’m that sore right now.”
Actors have gotten hurt training for Yellowstone
The actors on Yellowstone make riding look easy on TV but they put in hard work and sometimes pay the price physically to get to that point.
Actor Cole Hauser, who plays Rip Wheeler on the show, told the Whiskey Riff podcast that fellow actor Jefferson White, who plays Jimmy Hurdstrom, was injured while horseback riding.
“I mean . . . he went through hell, poor guy,” Hauser said. “He couldn’t ride really after day one because he had torn a piece of his . . . taint just by riding too much in one day. Yeah, it was bad; he was bleeding. It was horrible.”
Sheridan explained that the cowboy boot camp helps the show’s actors deliver a better performance.
“The purpose of cowboy camp is to get actors comfortable enough on the horses that they weren’t nervous when riding,” Sheridan said. “The better I can make them as a rider, the more they understand the thing they’re acting out.”
Yellowstone’s cast is putting in the hard work of learning to ride horses so they can deliver a realistic performance.
And sometimes they pay a very real price for all their hard work.