1883‘s Margaret Dutton, Faith Hill, says “it takes a village” to realize the “enormous responsibility” the cast feels in bringing these characters to life.
Speaking to Yellowstone‘s own Jimmy, Jefferson White, for the show’s official podcast, Faith Hill reveals the wild pressure felt by herself and co-stars to do the prequel series justice.
“We do feel an enormous responsibility,” she tells White. “We all feel like… Whoof. You know what that feels like, right?” she offers of White’s work on Yellowstone. “We want it to be amazing. We want to bring these people to life the way that they’re written. Because they’re written so beautifully,” Hill offers of Taylor Sheridan’s brilliant 1883 script.
One character stood out to Hill while reading through for the first time, however. And it wasn’t Margaret or James, played by her husband, Tim McGraw.
“Particularly Elsa, our eldest daughter,” Hill says, blew her away. “My God, I’ve never read a part for a young woman, or woman period, ever, like that. And the first time we read the script, I said ‘My God, this will change this actor’s life,” she adds.
And so 1883 is for Elsa’s Isabel May, who both Hill and McGraw have absolutely fallen in love with. “She is extraordinary in this show,” Hill says of May’s 1883 performance. “She really is. It has been a joy to watch. It’s been a joy to watch everyone, actually. There’s just so many great actors.”
‘1883” Takes a Village’ Says Faith Hill
But Faith Hill knows that no show would ever amount to anything without the immeasurable work of the crews.
“It takes a village. All the people you don’t get to speak to or see for an interview; all the people showing us how to do all the things the right way,” she says of 1883‘s grueling 19th-century lifestyle. The show’s phenomenal crew is “teaching us how to ride and tie and dress,” Hill praises. Her praise falls short of corsets, however. “I will miss it all except the corsets,” she laughs.
“We’ve learned so much from everyone, though. The wranglers, the stuntmen and women. Costumers, set designers,” Hill continues. All their efforts combined make it far easier “to become what you need to become,” she says of her transformation into Margaret Dutton. “It takes a village, for sure.”
Or a wagon train in this instance. 1883 has shot entirely on location so far, and that means the same thing for every crew member as it does the cast. If the scene takes place out in the middle-of-nowhere-West-Texas, then that’s where every single cast and crew member resides for as long as it takes.
Judging by the results 1883 is bringing so far, however, we doubt any involved would change a single thing.