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‘1883’ Stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill Could Barely Read the Finale Script

Just reading the “1883” season finale script caused stars Tim McGraw and Faith Hill to start bawling their eyes out. And we can’t blame them, given how emotional the entire episode was.

Fans had a feeling going into the end of the season that Elsa Dutton wouldn’t make it. We knew from a flash-forward scene in Episode 1 that she gets shot with an arrow eventually. But when it happened and “1883” fans realized the severity of the injury, it became apparent that Elsa’s days were numbered.

This made the entire journey that much harder for James and Margaret Dutton. They had to watch their oldest child die a slow death from an infection they couldn’t stop. The couple soon made the decision to let Elsa see as much of the world as she could before she passed, and then they’d build their home around her grave.

When Tim McGraw and Faith Hill read about this in the “1883” script, they couldn’t keep it together. The real-life couple told Variety how they’d switched off reading episode scripts for the season. But when Hill handed the Episode 10 script to McGraw, they ran into an issue.

“He couldn’t read it because he was bawling,” Hill shared. “It took me about an hour to read it to him because most of the time, I couldn’t catch my breath I was crying so hard.”

It’s safe to assume that everyone who watched Elsa’s death scene cried like a baby. But Hill, McGraw, and Isabel May had to act it out and convey all the emotion they read while reading the script. That’s hard enough for any actor, but especially those with daughters of their own.

‘1883’ Stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw Talk Balancing Emotions During Filming

After reading the “1883” script, stars Faith Hill and Tim McGraw realized one crucial thing. They had to keep it together up until the finale. Although they knew Elsa’s death was coming, they couldn’t let any grief or sadness show too early.

“The hardest part for us, I think, was to not be emotional too early,” McGraw said. “Both of our characters are really strong people and wanted to be strong for our family. So that was the hardest thing for us because we do have daughters. And because Isabel, when we first walked on set and saw her, we said, ‘My gosh, she looks she could be one of our daughters.’”

McGraw added, “It was great casting. But you do become emotionally invested and you do bring your real-life situation into the way you act. You find that piece of your life or a piece of who you are and you can sort of put it under a magnifying glass. It does expose all those emotions, and it’s hard as a parent, playing that role — you don’t want to go to any dark places in your mind about your kid. So you have to keep trying to block that out and still be in the moment with the character that you’re playing and the characters you’re playing opposite of, but the lines do get blurry.”