Sam Elliott is one of the biggest stars in the star-studded cast of the new Yellowstone prequel, 1883, and he comes to the show with huge credentials. In an interview with Taste of Country prior to the show’s launch, Elliott’s co-star, LaMonica Garrett, shares what it’s like to work one-on-one with the movie icon.
Elliott plays the character of Shea Brennan on 1883, which also stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill as James and Margaret Dutton. Their characters are the great-great-grandparents of Yellowstone‘s John Dutton (Kevin Costner), and the show follows the family’s journey West from Texas to Montana, where they will establish the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch that serves as the setting of the show.
Elliott plays Shea Brennan, a Pinkerton agent who is traveling with the wagon train, and Garrett plays his partner, Thomas, a former slave who served with Brennan in the Civil War and is also a Pinkerton agent. The two actors play many of their most important scenes together, and Garrett tells ToC that the Oscar-nominated actor is a pleasure to work with.
“I mean, Sam’s an icon,” he states. “You work with a Hollywood icon, you bring your game … you’ve gotta bring your A-game every day. Seeing how he shows up every day, his work ethic; he’s the first one there. He loves the process of filmmaking.”
So much so, in fact, that the veteran actor — whose films include Tombstone, Road House, A Star Is Born, Mask and many more — stays on the set even when his own scenes are over, watching every aspect of the production of the show.
“He has his apple box, and he sits in the middle of all the madness going on, no matter where we are, and he just sees everything. He just talks to everyone. He’s just that kind of human being.”
Garrett shares that Elliott’s status as a film legend often makes people nervous to be around him, including the woman who played a waitress in one 1883 scene in which she was supposed to come over and wait on Brennan and Thomas in a saloon.
“You could see her hand shaking, because this is Sam Elliott here, and he has that effect on people,” Garrett recalls. “When they said, ‘Action,’ she came, and her hand was shaking, and she kind of overspilled. And she was so distraught, like, ‘Oh my god, people are gonna hate me, I ruined everything.'”
While someone came to clean up the water, Elliott rose and went and talked to the distraught performer, offering her words of encouragement.
“Sam gets up — and no one sees this, I’m looking at it — Sam gets up and goes to her, and tells her something kind, I’m sure, whatever it was,” Garrett shares. “And she had this big smile on her face. And the next take, she came, and she had a steady hand … whatever he told her, it calmed her nerves, and that was the only hiccup she had the whole time.”
“But he does that everywhere we go,” Garrett adds. “There’s always little things that I see that Sam’s doing like that. He did it with me, because it’s kind of intimidating working across Sam. But he brings everyone at ease.”
New episodes of 1883 stream every Sunday via Paramount+.
Stay tuned to Taste of Country as we provide ongoing coverage of both Yellowstone and 1883, including episode analysis, news on the shows, cast interviews and more. As part of our comprehensive coverage, check out the Dutton Rules podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Subscribe to the Paramount+ streaming service to make sure you don’t miss out on future episodes of 1883.
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