Jefferson White spoke with “1883” star Tim McGraw recently for the official “Yellowstone” podcast, and the two spoke about McGraw’s crazy work schedule, and finding dust in unmentionable places.
“1883” films in West Texas, and, apparently, also in the middle of real, huge dust storms. “It’s a Sunday,” White started, “you were shooting on Friday, and you go back to work […] tomorrow, Monday.”
McGraw confirmed, then said, “I’ll probably be up at 3:30 in the morning getting ready to work.” White continued, “So you went from West Texas where you all are working, to The Wynn, Las Vegas, back to West Texas to go back to work.”
“Literally, we left,” said McGraw, “in the middle of nowhere in the panhandle of Texas, in a 60 mile per hour dust storm, shooting bad guys, running horses over rough terrain, horses jumping Yucca plants, that whole thing […] and we get on a plane, fly here, and I’ve had three showers since then. And this morning, I took a q-tip in my ear […] and there still was dust in my ears. I had dust in places that I don’t even want to mention.”
Sounds like a tough time being the star of America’s favorite prequel. I guess there is a downside to filming the show as authentically as possible. Sure, the handmade wagons are awesome, but not so much finding dust everywhere for a whole weekend.
‘1883’: Tim McGraw Talks Hardest Thing He Had To Learn
Tim McGraw is great at many things, some of which helped him in “1883.” But, there’s one skill he had to learn that he says “took a lot of work”: driving the wagons.
“I mean, I grew up riding horses, but being on the wagon was something that was really intense and really took a lot of work,” McGraw told Taste of Country. “And Faith spends the most time driving the wagon during the show, so she spent a lot of time doing that to where she’s pretty expert at it now. I mean, that’s a harder deal than people think it is, to drive a wagon. Those things can get really serious really quickly, especially when crossing the river. It’s just so treacherous and so dangerous. I mean, you never knew where the holes were in the river. You never knew how deep it was.”
Also, driving horses across deep water is definitely a dangerous stunt to pull. No wonder McGraw found it tough, as he also spoke about his horse‘s antics in the water.
“Just about every scene I shot with my horse he was trying to throw me in the middle of the river,” said McGraw. “I had one scene where my horse is raring up. Its hooves are slashing in the air and my hat falls, I catch it and put it back on. It shows the chaos and the danger and the precarious situation that everybody was in.”
