Robert Patrick isn’t sure whether the sheriff he plays on 1923, the latest Yellowstone prequel, is a good guy or a bad guy.
“I’m still trying to figure that out myself, dear,” he says.
1923 Shows Us the Not-Quite-So-Old West
Landing Sunday, Dec. 18, on Paramount+, 1923 continues the prequel march from the 19th Century of the one-season 1883 to the 21st Century of Paramount Network’s hit Montana melodrama Yellowstone.
From Paramount+:
1923, the next installment of the Dutton family origin story, will introduce a new generation of Duttons led by patriarch Jacob (Harrison Ford) and matriarch Cara (Helen Mirren). The series will explore the early twentieth century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home.
The series was announced as 1932, but creator Taylor Sheridan reversed direction, apparently realizing he had more story to tell than he originally thought. The starting point moved back nine years, and a second season has already been announced.
Take a peek:
Robert Patrick Is the Sheriff in Town
Patrick, who broke through as the T-1000, the antagonist in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, has made a career of playing tough, assertive figures, on both sides of the good/evil divide.
As Sheriff William McDowell in 1923, he’s very much a man in the middle of opposing forces. On the one side are Montana ranchers, led by Jacob Dutton. On the other side is the U.S. government, Native Americans, and the massive societal changes brought by WWI, Prohibition and relentless pace of technological progress in the 20th Century.
“It’s epic,” says Patrick. “As these scripts started coming, it was just like, ‘Oh, my God, this is just an opus.’ I mean, it’s just epic. He’s got so many places to go with it, and with all the characters and the history of what was going on at the time, it’s just this massive, sprawling story.”
The Clash of the Modern and the Cowboy Code
Most of what we’ve seen of the West in TV and movies takes place in the 19th century, similar to the story of 1883: cowboys, Native Americans, homesteaders, pioneers, railroad magnates, etc.
Little has been seen of the West in the early 20th Century.
“They just wanted to be free [in Montana],” says Patrick. “They didn’t want government involvement. And of course, clearly, the Duttons don’t want government involvement.
“Their Yellowstone Ranch is their code. And that’s what we’re dealing with. We’re dealing with the clash of the modernization of America, with the advent of electricity and electrical devices and things that being brought into homes and communities to make life easier.
“It’s about how that contrasts to the old ways of the cowboys and the cowboy code. That does involve my sheriff, because I’m kind of a guy that has been an ally to the Duttons. I have a friendship with Jacob and have stood side-by-side with him when we’ve hung people before.
“But now I’m telling him, ‘We’ve got to change our ways.’ He’s got to start including me and respecting my office, and the way the world is gonna be lawyers and judges and the court. And this is how things are gonna be decided. It’s not gonna just be cowboy justice.”
In a Way, 1923 is a Sequel to Deadwood
In a way, 1923 picks up on the end of HBO’s Deadwood. There, a formerly lawless mining camp in Dakota Territory, outside the reach of the U.S. government, gradually becomes subsumed into the nation.
With that comes law, order and modern conveniences, like the railroad, telegraph and telephone service (Deadwood, South Dakota, was one of the first towns in the country to get a telephone exchange — in 1878.)
“That’s exactly what I was trying to say,” says Patrick, “but you said it a lot better than me.”
Saddling Up a Model-T
Although Patrick has been known to ride a Harley (he co-owns a dealership), and Western sheriffs have been known to ride horses, Patrick uses neither in 1923.
“I get a cowboy hat. I wear cowboy boots,” says Patrick. “I don’t ride a horse. I’m in a Model-T.”
He pushed to get a Harley, since the company was around at the time, but Patrick had to settle for the Model-T.
I joked that, maybe, he’ll get one next season, if he lives.
“Yeah,” he says, “maybe, if I do live. You’ll have to watch the show to find out, Miss O’Hare.”
Second Time Around With Harrison Ford
Asked what it’s like to work with Harrison Ford, Patrick pointed out that it’s not the first time. The two actually appeared together in a 2006 thriller called Firewall.
“I had this crazy fight scene with Harrison,” he recalls, “where neither one of us were really good at fighting, supposedly, because we’re both bankers.”
Patrick continues, “He’s a great guy. He’s a tremendous talent. It’s amazing to watch him on a horse. He’s just a hoot. He really is.”
Although he doesn’t get a horse, Patrick gets some gunplay.
“The most fun thing I did,” he says, “it’s not a spoiler, but I get to shoot a gun in a public place and shut everybody up.”
From Actor on Sons of Anarchy to Creator of 1923, Taylor Sheridan Reinvented His Career
Actually, in a bit of trivia, both Patrick and Sheridan worked on the biker drama Sons of Anarchy, which was just about Sheridan’s last acting job — other than the one he did on his own hit show.
Patrick is amazed at Sheridan’s sudden explosion as a writer, after so many years as an actor
“He writes great,” says Patrick. “Harrison and I are gonna shoot the first scene of the whole show. We’re both commenting on the scripts we’ve gotten so far.
“I said, ”This is so epic. It’s like Hemingway, man.’ It’s just this unbelievable.”
Looks Like Catholics Don’t Come Off Well, Though
BTW, on a faith note, the trailer shows nuns and a priest, and it’s not a good thing. Sheridan dabbled in Catholicism, and the Faith does pop up in Yellowstone, but it’s a pretty neutral portrayal there.
Not so, in 1923.
From TV Guide:
The other storyline follows Teonna Rainwater (Aminah Nieves), a young Indigenous woman at a cruel parochial school for Native Americans run by the sadistic nun Sister Mary (Jennifer Ehle) and the more compassionate but still merciless Father Renaud (Sebastian Roché). The Yellowstone franchise, and Sheridan’s work in general, has always been concerned with the mistreatment of Native American people, women in particular, but the franchise has never had a thread as devoted to that theme as Teonna’s appears to be.
No critics have seen more than the pilot, so I’ll circle back to this after I see a few episodes.
Image: Paramont+
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