Awards season is in full swing, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were announced on Wednesday morning, and there were definitely some surprises. One shocker was the inclusion of Yellowstone in the major category of the ensemble in a television drama alongside Succession, Squid Game, The Morning Show and The Handmaid’s Tale. “There’s no bigger compliment to an actor than being recognized by their peers,” show creator Taylor Sheridan said in a statement to Variety. “Congratulations to our incredibly talented cast on this wonderful and well-deserved nomination.”
Despite its massive fanbase, Yellowstone has not been a part of major awards conversations for its four-season run. Sheridan addressed this in an interview with the New York Times, explaining that he isn’t bothered by it. “I don’t care if critics hate it and I don’t care if they like it,” he admitted. “I’m not resentful. I just simply do not care. I’m not making it for them; I’m making it for people who live that life. The audience has expanded beyond that because, you know, a lot of people love westerns.”
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Despite an 85% critics’ score on the Rotten Tomatoes aggregate, Sheridan feels like Yellowstone is unfairly criticized. “I think one of the reasons the critics haven’t responded to Yellowstone is that I’m breaking a lot of story rules,” Sheridan mused. “I’ll jump the plot ahead for no reason whatsoever except that I wanted to and it’s entertaining. The people who get it eat it up, and the people that try to look at it with a critical eye see a mess. But that’s what I love about Yellowstone, the way that it flows from being campy to melodramatic to intensely dramatic to violent. It’s every old western and new western and soap opera thrown together in a blender. And yes, I think it infuriates and confounds some people who study storytelling. They don’t understand why this thing’s such a hit.”
However, Sheridan knows exactly why Yellowstone has such devoted fans. “Here’s why: It’s wickedly acted and the location is fantastic, and we’re peeking into a world that no one really knows,” Sheridan said. “I am chewing the scenery and having a blast doing it, and the actors are having a blast as well. It is powerhouse actors getting to say some real chewy stuff.”
