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- "1883" is... - Gritty.

- Intense. - Beautiful.

It's epic. There's no question about it.

- It's a young woman's coming of age story.

- It's massive. - Mind-boggling.

- It's a journey.

- There's excitement, danger, unpredictability.

- I don't care if I do any other show

for the rest of my life.

I only do Westerns from now.

- Those are the kind of stories I like to tell,

and that's the way I like to tell them.

[sweeping dramatic music]

* *

The idea to make "1883"

actually came from one of the studio executives

asking me about the backstory of John Dutton.

And I explained it to him

from the origin of where they came,

and he thought that that in and of itself was a TV show.

I was intrigued by the idea, and so I wrote some flashbacks

that people have now seen on "Yellowstone."

- So Taylor called, he goes,

"Hey, man, I want you to be in the show.

"I want you to be in 'Yellowstone.'

Are you're interested in it?"

And he says, "I got this idea.

"We're gonna do a flashback,

"and you're gonna play the original Dutton

"who founded the Yellowstone ranch.

You're also gonna have a wife in this."

He says, "Do you think Faith would be interested

in playing your wife in the flashbacks?"

* *

- If you go in the handbook of directors,

you're not supposed to hire a husband and wife

to do a movie together.

It's historically failed every time,

but you're also not supposed to film kids or horses, so.

- We both watch the show,

so we were excited to have that invitation

and didn't know quite what to expect.

- Then I spoke with Sam Elliott

about doing something in the space.

* *

- I got a call from him. "I got something to show you,"

and he sent me this series of scripts,

and there was no saying no,

because it spoke to me.

The character spoke to me. The show speaks to me.

* *

You know what I'm doing here?

Looking for a reason.

You wanna be my reason?

- I had not found the connective tissue

between this origin story of James Dutton

and this road to redemption story of Sam Elliott.

I had not found the bridge.

And the actress Isabel May read for me

for another TV series,

and it dawned on me that she was the bridge.

I called the network, and I said, I found our lead,

and I haven't written a word,

and you're just gonna have to trust me.

* *

- This is something different altogether,

'cause you're seeing it through the eyes of a young woman.

And I don't think that's ever been done before.

Not in this way.

- We are seeing things through an 18-year-old girl's eyes.

And it's a very different vision of the West

because you see it, sort of her innocence

and her magic that she's able to show us this world

that has sex and violence and despair,

but also hope.

- To play a character that narrates her own story

as well as every other character story,

it's extremely humbling.

Freedom is riding wild over untamed land

with no notion any moment exists

beyond the one you are living.

- It's pretty phenomenal, right?

If you just sort of look at a big family tree,

it takes us back many generations

and that survival and fighting for the land

and doing what's right and protecting your family

are these similar themes

that were handed down generation to generation

until we get the John Dutton.

[tense country music]

* *

- Good shot. - Yep.

- James is John's great, great, great grandfather.

- You can see the bloodline.

You can see the strength in the bloodline.

You can see the backbone that this family has

and the power that they have,

and their concern for each other.

I believe in you, and I believe in that boy,

and I believe in our daughter. That's all.

- That's why it's so important to the Dutton family

present day to fight for his land.

And, like, you see how fierce they are,

fighting for what's theirs.

[gunfire, screaming]

- [screams]

[crying] God!

- "1883" is a journey of an unlikely group of people

fighting against the forces of nature,

the malice of humankind

in search of change and a new home.

* *

- It's about freedom.

It's about the American dream, which, you know,

it's become this synonymous with the idea of freedom,

about the beauty of it and the ugliness of it,

and all the beautiful things

people will do for their freedom

and then also all the ugly things they do for it.

I can be a good wife.

- Stop. Quit it.

The thing about "1883," it's a tale that's been told.

It's a tale that we're all familiar with,

the Oregon Trail.

But it's never been done like Taylor's done it on the page.

- You think we're fools just because we--

- You have no horses, no guns. You can't ride.

You are a fucking fool.

* *

- History is doomed to repeat itself

because it's never taught accurately.

As a storyteller, my job is to try

and hold a mirror up to nature

and reflect back the world as it was.

I think that it's truth through fiction.

- There's a grittiness to it. There's an authenticity to it.

It feels real.

The struggles are all real. The people are all real.

We're traveling with a caravan of immigrants.

- It was incredible for me

because I am an immigrant myself.

So I get to tell a story of someone

who goes across the world to follow their dream.

- Most people who went West

saw ads in newspapers in Poland

and in Croatia and in Germany and answered those ads

and saved up all their money, sold everything they had,

and hired a group that would take them on these wagons.

- In the 1800s,

there's actually a large flight of immigrants to America

because there's overpopulation.

And there was a high rate of unemployment.

- It's actually interesting there has been a Texan--

a German Texan immigrant who wrote letters,

like beautiful letters,

how beautiful Texas is and everything,

and these letters were printed in a German newspaper.

And many Germans at the time read them,

and that was their decision to come.

I think people dreamed of change

and creating something and having land

and being free.

It's a free country.

- That's a free country.

That is Comanche land.

Beyond it is no man's land,

and that's where we're going. You ain't free yet.

- And these people didn't speak English,

had no notion of what the Southwest was like

or the Great Plains were like.

Had no idea they were horribly unprepared,

facing a whole new host of diseases

that they've never been exposed to,

elements they've never been exposed to.

It was an extremely dangerous, dangerous journey.

* *

- I'll push her. Now get to the back.

- [groaning]

[grunting]

- [screaming]

- This is what happened.

This is the journey that our ancestors took,

and it was horrifying and extremely difficult.

- It's nothing new. It's happened back then.

It's happening now.

We're all immigrants in this country,

and this journey... it's so compelling,

and it tells a story that just--it's gut-wrenching

but it's truthful.

And there's a lot of people in this journey

that haven't been represented in other westerns.

- I don't think that there is a more misrepresented group

in American cinema than the Native American.

And what little I can do to correct

that historical perspective in fiction, I'm gonna do.

- When historians write books about native people,

a lot of times they put us in this box, right?

And they say, oh, they were hunter-gatherers,

or they lived according to this way.

It completely removes the idea

that we were also individuals.

We had our own individual tastes,

our own individual attractions.

And that's kind of the way the storytelling has gone

in Hollywood for a long time.

- One of the most interesting things

is the number one cause of death on these wagon trains

was people falling off a wagon

and getting run over.

The number two cause of death

was accidental discharge of firearms.

Number three, it was drowning in river crossing.

Number seven was Native Americans.

I think in all the stuff that we learned growing up

was the number one fear was Native Americans.

And nine times out of ten, they were trying to help.

- I made the Native American community a promise

that I was gonna tell their story truthfully.

And so, every opportunity I get to do it,

I try to fulfill that promise.

* *

- It's rare to have the kind of story that we have been handed,

to be honest with you. And I think for all of us,

we feel the responsibility

to do the best job that we can

to bring these characters to life

the way they were written.

- There's three classic struggles in these westerns.

It's man against man, man against himself,

man against the environment.

In those struggles, we're all in this in spades.

Let's go.

* *

- "1883" is the origin story of the Dutton family.

The Duttons come from Tennessee originally.

- There's a number of people who moved West

out of desperation from the South.

And America was unique in the fact

that, wherever you were that you failed,

you could simply move west to a new place

and reinvent yourself and reinvent your life.

- The main characters are Tim McGraw,

who plays obviously James Dutton.

We have Faith Hill, who plays Margaret Dutton.

We have Isabel May, who plays Elsa.

Sam Elliott plays Shea.

And then LaMonica Garrett plays Thomas.

- Elsa Dutton is a daughter of the patriarch

and matriarch of the Dutton family.

- At this time, we have two children, Elsa,

and then we have John.

- I wanted to be John Dutton 'cause he was a boy,

and he loves the outside.

I love the outside too.

- Elsa, she's very naive.

She's experienced very few things.

They lived on a little farm.

She'd seen the same people her entire life,

and she was bored. She was desperate to get out.

- This child is spirited,

and she's hard-headed and strong,

but she's also very smart.

- Elsa is extremely independent

at a time when a young woman

is not allowed to be independent in such a way.

There are certain things that we weren't allowed

to say or voice. And as the journey continues,

she sheds that civilized kind of costume

and starts to flourish

because she loves this world so much

and what it has to offer.

- There's a fair chance you're too pretty for me.

If you are, rather know now so I don't waste my time.

- Maybe you're too pretty for me.

- [laughs]

- Right away, Ennis is just fully blown away by Elsa--

aside from her beauty,

her wit, her brashness.

And I think she's the first girl

that ever makes Ennis speechless.

Oh, my gosh, you're forward.

- Part of the storyline is, you know,

they were escaping poverty and looking for a better life.

And I think there's more to it

than that in my mind for James Dutton.

During the series, you find out that I was a captain

in the Civil War for the Confederacy,

put in a position that he didn't want to be in.

- Tim's character was one of those who was drafted

and conscripted into the army.

And then endured, you know, years in a prison of war camp

and then came home to a destroyed homeland

and had lost faith in that society.

- He had a lot of pain and PTSD from that.

I mean, you see it in the flashbacks,

and you see little glimpses of who James is,

and you know that he's not as hard as he comes across.

He really cares about people, but you also know that

his family's the number one concern that he has.

- He dreamed of a better place.

He dreamed of a life where he could dictate

his own fortune or failure.

And his family trusted him.

- In my work as I become more invested in the people

that we're trying to help as the journey goes on.

You know, I'm always there for my family,

and I'm always concerned about my family,

but I think as the show goes on,

you realize that James cares more about people

than you think he does.

- It's better to double the latigo with him.

- Girl, I've forgotten more about horses

than you'll ever know.

Margaret, at the age of 17,

was a nurse in the Civil War.

That would change your life, basically.

It would give you a perspective of life

that a 17-year-old in this day and age could never imagine.

- I mean, she is really this sort of strong-willed,

powerful woman of the West.

She's raising a young boy

and a young, you know, daughter who's becoming a woman.

And obviously has to manage all of that while she sort of

takes this family on this very treacherous,

dangerous journey across America.

- Her heart, she becomes stronger and stronger

and stronger as the journey goes on.

- The moment our first daughter was born,

I'm a mom for the rest of my life, period.

I mean, that is the first thing.

That's the last thing. That's the middle thing.

That's everything. My character is most concerned

about what is this going to do to my family?

Look after your brother. - I will.

- "Yes, ma'am." - I said I will.

- I know what you said.

What you didn't say is "Yes, ma'am."

- Women don't say that to each other.

- Oh, so you're a woman now? - Aren't I?

Elsa has always viewed her mother

as restraining her from, you know,

being able to fully embrace all that life has to offer.

And so, therefore, she kinda has it out for her mom.

- Margaret and Elsa have such a contentious relationship,

as most teenage daughters and moms do.

- Then she sees her mother in a different light

because there's clearly a past that she's unaware of.

Her mother can ride a horse beautifully.

And so she kind of starts to understand

my mother was something else in the past,

and she gave that up,

and maybe she gave that up for me.

- That's the biggest part of James and Elsa's relationship,

that he understands her,

and he understands the passion that she has.

And not only because it's a reflection of him,

but it's a reflection of Margaret as well.

She loves like Margaret. She fights like me.

- [grunts]

- Having Sam Elliot come on board was just incredible

because I think he embodies everything

that the character of Shea should be.

- When I think of Westerns, I think him and Clint Eastwood.

Like that's just what it is.

- Of course, my wife gets weak-kneed

every time she's around him. I don't know a woman yet

that hasn't been weak-kneed around Sam Elliott.

And I told my mama that I was working with Sam Elliott.

She's like, "Oh my God, you're working with Sam Elliott."

- [chuckles]

Shea is on a mission to get back to Oregon.

Then at the same time, he has something in him

that wants to help these other people get there as well.

He knows that it's rife with hardship.

There's no question about that.

And a lot of them aren't gonna make it,

but he's driven to get those

that are tough enough to survive to Oregon.

He is a troubled man for a lot of different reasons.

First off, he was in the war.

You know, he's suffers from that.

He loses his family,

and I think that's the biggest burden

that he carries with him throughout the show.

You know, Taylor talked to me about Shea rode

with the Buffalo soldiers,

which was an all-Black group of soldiers.

Shea is very heavy-handed with everyone other than Thomas.

And...I don't know.

I get very emotional

talking about the relationship of Shea and Thomas.

They're close. Theye like brothers.

- Thomas's story is not unfamiliar

to a lot of Black cowboys back then.

He's a former slave.

At 12 years old, he went inside the house,

and the slave owner was passed away, natural causes.

So Thomas just gets on a horse

and just goes off and figures out life.

All that happened in between then has helped shaped

who he was, his integrity.

And he met Shea during the war. He was a soldier.

- There were brothers-in-arms in the war.

- Began fighting together in the Civil War.

So they've been fighting together for some 20 years.

- And that's how the bond with them, you know,

became so strong. It's like an 1800s odd couple.

- What in the hell is a "toilette"?

- It's French for shitter.

- When did you learn French?

- Don't know French. It's just

the French word for shitter.

- Two men who grow old together trying to survive

and protect each other.

And so, relationships like that that have so much history,

they don't have to say too much.

- Thomas, he's a kind person. He's an honest person.

And he's a very loyal person.

To me, he's the humanity of the show.

He's the soul of the show.

And he's the enforcer of the show.

So it's not a show where it's, you know, "Yes, sir, no, sir."

Yes--it's, if you look at him wrong

or if you cross his moral code,

he's gonna kill you.

Get everything that was hers.

- Nothing was hers. It was his, and he's a thief.

- Get everything that was hers.

It was like it's a different Black cowboy take.

And I'm so glad Taylor,

you know, he chose me to bring that to life.

- Both Sam and LaMonica are character builders,

and they really want to understand what's motivated

the actions of the character in the screenplay.

- The show "Lonesome Dove,"

Danny Glover played the role of Deets.

And Deets, the real-life Deets

on the Goodnight-Loving Trail,

was Bose Ikard.

And I found out he was buried right there in Weatherford.

So me and a few castmates, we went to the cemetery,

and it just--it moved me.

And it's, you know,

it's a story I'm very proud to be a part,

telling, you know, a story about Black cowboys.

- He goes back to the truth.

The Westerns of post-Civil War

that painted these matinee idol characters

in these false roles

and painted a really inaccurate picture of the American West.

To tell the story truthfully and really show

the American West or a version of it accurately,

then you have to look at those relationships,

and you have to re-examine a version

that Hollywood portrayed that was wrong.

* *

- You know, I think my favorite moment

is this incredible scene that we have Billy Bob Thornton

walking down main street in the middle of the 1800s.

- And I look to the left, and I see Billy Bob Thornton.

I look a little bit further, there's Tim McGraw,

Sam Elliott, and LaMonica Garrett,

and I thought this is a pretty good group

to walk into a bar with.

- You know, you saw "Reservoir Dogs" growing up,

you saw "Tombstone." They all had that walk

where it was just these bad dudes going to find trouble.

So I got to play out those childhood dreams

of walking down that dusty road

to a gunfight in the saloon.

And it just happened to be with all these icons next to me,

but it was... yeah, it was amazing.

Billy Bob Thornton, he's this easy-going guy.

He's kinda unassuming.

We get inside the saloon,

and he just turns it on to this stone-cold killer and sheriff.

- Order this business on the Trinity.

- So I'm supposed to stop and have a line with Sam

right before the end of the scene.

And I got so caught up into watching Billy Bob perform,

I just walked right past Sam, just blew right by

and didn't say my line, walked out the door.

And I looked at Sam and goes, "Sam, I'm sorry.

I know I'm supposed to give a line, and I forgot."

And he goes, "I noticed."

- He's a powerful actor, Billy Bob,

and when he comes in at work,

it's hard to take your eye off of him.

- Another incredible moment is this Civil War sequence

that we have.

And out of nowhere,

Tom Hanks just shows up--

full beard, in character, and a really powerful scene

between him and Tim McGraw.

- It starts with Antietam,

and it starts with an original picture

from the battleground scene

and morphs out of the original picture into a live shot.

And everybody's dead.

His whole company has been wiped out.

- Captain.

- Tom and I have been friends for such a long time,

but no matter how good a friend you are,

when you're sitting there in a scene that's that emotional,

and then you turn,

and you see Tom Hanks walk up in a Union uniform,

look at you, and say, "Captain,"

I just fell apart.

And then he sat beside me as I'm crying,

and he puts his hand on my shoulder.

Yeah, that's a great scene.

And of course, Tom, you know, Tom was average.

[laughter]

- When actors like this are willing to come play

for a day or two, of course now you're working

with some of the greatest actors who've ever worked.

It's just a privilege.

[soldiers shouting]

- I've done a lot of shows,

and I've never seen anything this big.

We did scenes in Fort Worth with hundreds of extras,

businessmen going to work in the 1800s,

two bar guys having fight.

We have huge scenes out in sort of wild open with bandits.

We have everything that you can imagine.

- We have 30-something wagons,

and it takes two to four horses to pull them.

And I'm running from snow and rain and schedule

and everything else.

- It's epic. There's no question about it.

I'm not gonna compare it to anything

because I've never done anything like this.

* *

- "Yellowstone," at any given time,

we might have 40 horses on set. On this, at any given time,

we have 180, and we have a cattle herd.

Ironically, we are having to actually have a trail drive

in order to film a trail drive. And it's a challenge.

- We have goats. We have chickens.

We have 60 wranglers, cowboys just working the horses

to make sure everyone is safe.

We have 80 trucks and drivers to move the whole company.

I mean, this is bigger than a Beyoncé tour.

This is "Game of Thrones" on the Prairie.

- We began the shooting in Texas in August.

So it was about 104, 103 degrees.

There was sweat in places I didn't know sweat can be.

- I got wool on,

and wool is not Texas-friendly in the summertime.

On top of the bandolier, the belt, the guns,

like, ten-pound leather chaps,

like, everything is weighed down.

And my horse, he looks like a utility camp.

- First, we were in 98-degree sweating, hot weather.

And three weeks later, we were in ten-degree weather.

You know, we were out there last week in Montana

with snowcap mountains in the middle of a field.

- Me, Sam, and Tim are on top of our horses on the mountain.

And there was like a blizzard that came through,

like you couldn't see your hand in front of you.

The wind was blowing.

- There've been times where I was so cold out here,

I didn't think I could tough it out too long.

And the thing that brought me out of it

and continues to bring me out of it is just looking around

and seeing these mountain ranges everywhere,

and you think, my God,

how lucky we are to be here number one, but number two,

how lucky we are to be here making a film.

- You never really know what you're gonna get

from Mother Earth that day.

And that adds to the grand scheme

and the look of the show,

but it also adds to the thrill as an actor

to get to experience such spontaneity

on set every single day.

- The methodology of Taylor is to make everything

look like a ten-hour movie. It's so big and so beautiful,

but there's a word that is so important to him,

and that is "authenticity."

- I'm interested in the truth, even though it's fiction--

as accurately retelling an event

or a world as I possibly can.

Everything is historically accurate.

Every building, every structure,

every wagon, everything.

- We strive to do everything period correct.

We spent a lot of time in research together,

all the information we can.

So when the camera's tight on a cast member,

that he has the right equipment on his horse

for the time period.

- I went to school for film and watched countless movies,

countless westerns where everything was wrong.

And you know, just me being an indigenous person,

I would feel kind of ticked off if I saw,

you know, that we weren't accurately portrayed.

So when it comes to finding the props,

I am trying to do my absolute best on sourcing them from,

you know, the proper places and making sure that they are,

in fact, you know, if it's a Lakota bow case

that it's an actual Lakota bow case.

- The language that the Native Americans speak

has to be authentic.

The beads that they wear have to be authentic.

The wagons, the horse breeds, the cattle breeds.

And I think these days audiences respect it,

actors feel it.

- After you've done all your work on the text and character,

you finally get to put on the clothes.

And I think that's kind of your superhero cape in a way.

- If you look at the costumes, we made them all.

We didn't call some costume house

and get a bunch of "Little House on the Prairie" stuff.

Every dress, every suit, every jacket,

everything was custom-made by Janie and her team.

- I am very familiar with this period

because I designed "Deadwood," the series,

which was living in 1876.

And then, I designed the movie, which was in 1886,

but no two shows are alike.

"1883" is the West.

And during this time, there were

a lot of cowboys in Texas.

And that was one of the aspects

that I love doing the research for.

- When she put this coat on me the first time, I squealed.

Yeah, I'm in love with my costume.

- I love the costumes,

and the attention to detail is microscopic.

You see these people, and then suddenly,

wow, we're really here. It's like a time machine.

- This was a great opportunity to do a period piece.

And period makeup is a lot of fun.

You look at a lot of the old Westerns,

and you see makeup on them.

Taylor definitely wanted this raw.

He said, "I want dirty sweaty."

There is some makeup that is being applied to them.

The trick with it is to make it look

like they're not wearing any makeup.

So the start of the show, they're on a train.

And that's the only time that they're kind of have a,

what I'd call a beauty look about them.

But once they start getting out onto the wagon train,

we're gonna try to keep them dirty looking.

- These departments, from our production designer

to our prop master, everybody, they had to come together

and build a world in a very short period of time.

Nothing existed. We created it all.

- We wanted to avoid the clichés

and do things that are a little bit unusual

that you haven't seen in so many westerns.

- Cary White, our production designer,

this is his wheelhouse.

And he was able to come up with some really,

really smart ideas.

- The building right next to us was built in 1939, 1940.

We constructed a complete façade around it

and turned it into a real building of 1883.

But also put Styrofoam cornices on a lot of these buildings

up on the top of them

that gives them a much more Victorian look.

- And the whole thing tied together

when we put the dirt in. It really just came alive.

- They brought in layers and layers and layers of dirt.

And it's all compacted and then top dressed appropriately

to make it all safe for the animals that we have here.

- I think we went a solid two months prep

to shoot for four days on house half-acre.

- I mean, the stuff that they've done

is just so incredibly epic.

I like to get on set early and walk around some of these sets

just to put yourself in that world.

So it makes it easy to find the emotion in the scene.

- This show would not be possible

without everyone that you don't see.

It is not a walk in the park.

It is hard work, and it's...

fucking awesome.

Can I say that?

- Sure can. - I just did.

- I don't rehearse with my actors.

There's no way for me to inform them what this way of life is.

You just have to do it.

I just take them out and put them to work.

The purpose of cowboy camp

is to get actors comfortable enough on the horses

that they weren't nervous when they were riding.

The better I can make them as a rider,

the more they understand the thing they're acting out,

the better the performances,

the more authentic the scenes look, then it looks real.

- Cowboy camp is the actors get here about 8:00,

and then we start just exposing them

to real-life situations in 1883.

- Cowboy camp was probably

the most helpful thing in the world.

Good morning, guys. - Morning.

- How's everybody doing?

And we all got to spend a couple of weeks together,

just riding horses and roping and herding cattle.

- And here comes Taylor walking up like

he's the first one out there.

And he'll never ask you to do anything

that he doesn't do as far as being on a horse.

- We take them down and have them work cattle.

We have them part them out and sort them.

- Roping, horseback riding,

herding cows.

- We take them down to the pond and have them swim horses

so we can prepare them for the river crossings

that are coming up in the script.

- Most of us learned how to drive wagons,

which is dangerous, by the way.

- Climbing up rocks, going through lakes and rivers,

and steering cattle.

- I'm learning how to ride a horse,

and I'm swinging the rope around.

- We're shooting guns back to riding horses, lassoing.

- We just played little games where you put, for example,

an egg on a spoon

and have to ride straight back and forth.

And whoever does it the fastest wins.

So it was really fun.

- You had to carry the egg on a spoon,

but I dropped it every time.

- So some people were getting a little crafty,

and when they get further away from us,

their thumb would ease over the eggs,

so you really can't see what's going on and like,

wait a minute, like you got glue on that or something?

Like, you know, what's going on?

- I'd heard Taylor cheated when he does it.

That he puts his thumb on the egg.

I'm not saying that that's true.

I'm just saying that I've heard that Taylor cheated.

- There's no proof of cheating,

but it is suspected.

- You know, everyone was very competitive,

but in a supportive way to somewhat degree.

Everything that we have done, we've learned how to do it

properly by the best of the best.

- For all the talent, they're trying to get them

comfortable with driving and riding.

So then, when they get on camera,

it becomes second nature to them.

Everyone will remember their lines and not panic,

so they look the part.

They feel the part.

They can be the cowboy.

- A lot of what we're doing now is day in and day out,

so this becomes second nature.

So when we're going through the script,

that's what you could focus on

and not have to worry about where my hands are,

and where's the gun?

- You must know how to do it the right way.

Otherwise, it's just kind of watered down,

and it just feels wrong.

- Cowboy camp gets you ready for the show.

You're not showing up

and putting some dirt and makeup on.

Before you ever do that,

you're falling off of a horse. Your back is hurting.

- As a cowboy in 1883,

you didn't have nice cushiony saddles.

You know, you didn't have all the fancy modern equipment

that you have today.

Oh, it's bare-bones. It's bare knuckles.

- This is my first time on an 1880s saddle.

- A hundred years ago, if you went across country

from New York to California,

this is the way you went.

This is rougher than heck.

- I'll tell you it's a lot harder than it looks.

I mean, you see those wagon drivers kind of leaning over.

I mean, oh man, it did a number on your back.

- There's an experience of time.

You know, you realize old people

traveled like this 5,000 miles,

and you understand what a journey like this means.

- This training creates an authentic cowboy

because you're--you know, the blisters are real.

The cuts are real.

You know, I'm running into barbed wire fences on my horse.

- I've been to like Hell Week and camps and football,

and this is a whole different beast.

- When they get off at night,

they feel like their legs are melted.

They got cramps in their thighs.

They got cramps in their calves.

They go, "My butt's sore." Yeah, probably is.

You ain't never sat on a saddle that long.

- They're grinding us into the ground.

I mean, by the time we finished riding horses,

I'm like completely soaked through.

Like, it's kinda gross.

I feel bad for everyone that has to smell us.

- Cowboy camp was this incredible bonding experience

between all of the talent.

Everybody gets to come out there.

They don't know each other.

And they start to sort of work together and understand

what their characters are gonna be,

where are they going,

and how hard this is gonna really be.

- Cowboy camp is extremely important for teamwork.

We're all trying to build chemistry as actors.

And there's nothing more team-oriented

than getting 28 cattle, I mean, over hills

and through alleyways for miles and miles.

So if you're not communicating to your teammates,

then it's not gonna work.

- The only way to survive at that time

was to be collaborative,

and people would go out of their way to help one another

without expecting anything.

Well, it's the only way that you can survive

in an environment like that.

- You become a group, you know, 'cause we will be

on this journey for half a year

and go through hell.

- We're all doing this together.

So we're all dedicated to it.

And that's been extraordinary to watch.

- It's about to be a family.

It's about to be all of us against the world.

So against nature, literally.

So we all have to trust each other.

We have to, you know, hold each other accountable

and just being out here period,

being on the ranch together and bonding,

and like--it's great for what we're about to encounter.

- From a production standpoint,

I've never seen so many different departments

have to coordinate so many different details.

- I have never worked on a company this big in my life.

- Then you got cattle that, you know,

one day they might be like,

we don't feel like doing what you tell us to do today.

And they're running in 50 different directions.

- I think it's borderline miraculous

that the show has come together

because it's taken a lot of people and a lot of work.

And you know, it's just impressive what this team

has been able to do.

- This is unique and very special.

And the production scale is huge.

For me, I don't feel it because it still feels so personal.

- Taylor creates such an incredible world

with his writing that it's so easy to get lost in it.

You got it. You got him, son.

- My most favorite scene is

a scene with Tim.

I had to hunt with my dad,

and it was blood from the deer.

- It's your first kill, so I got to blood you.

To shoot a deer and do the whole blooding situation

and explain to him why we did it and what it means

and how we have to thank the animal

for giving us sustenance in life...

To be able to do that was pretty special for me.

- It felt cool.

It felt really cool.

- And you can see the similarities

with "Yellowstone."

There are certainly similarities

to John Dutton and James,

and you can see the tradition that started it.

- I think absolutely fans will find Easter eggs through

this whole thing, and I'm excited.

And I think it'll be a fun journey for people

to pick them out.

- Well, I would ask you, was there ever a time

that you went out on Easter and found only one Easter egg?

- Look, I think the journey we're about to go on

in the rest of the episodes is pretty magical, right?

We've just gotten started.

- I'm thrilled for people to see Elsa's journey

because it's quite a dramatic one.

It's not what you would expect whatsoever.

- I think all of us are pushed

to what we think will be our limit.

- We're just on the trail,

and we'll see who survives.

- Every episode brings a new level of excitement and danger,

and unpredictability.

So just find a huge box of tissues,

nice bucket of popcorn,

the biggest TV you can find, and enjoy.

- I could barely get through it without just falling apart.

I couldn't do it. I'm literally snot crying.

- I feel that the audience is going to get

very connected to these characters,

and heartbreak is coming, as you would imagine.

And some catharsis is coming,

and some beauty's coming,

and you know, I can't say much more than that.