Taylor Sheridan is well known for making the actors in his Yellowstone franchise learn how to ride horses like a true cowboy. However, he let Helen Mirren skip the saddle.
Yellowstone and its prequels, 1883 and 1923, follow the Dutton family from their trip through the Western Frontier to their massive cattle ranch in Montana. As one would expect, all of the characters know a thing or two about horses. So, when Sheridan cast actors in roles, he put them through an intense Cowboy Camp to ensure they play their parts perfectly.
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Dame Helen Mirren got a pass from the standard camp classes when she went to Montana to train for 1923, though. While talking to Deadline, she said that we’ll never see her running through the mountains on horseback, but we will continue to see her manning the wagons, and she explained why.
“I did go to Cowboy Camp,” Mirren admitted. “I said at the beginning that I don’t ride. I mean, I’ve been on the back of a horse many times, but I’m not a rider. I’ve never really learned properly how to ride. So Taylor had the great idea of putting me in a buggy.”
“So I did have to learn how to drive a buggy, which was a really great experience,” she continued. “That was my Cowboy Camp.”
‘1923’ Castmember Remembers Being ‘Tortured’ While Training with Helen Mirren
Her castmate Brian Geraghty, however, was a little less enthusiastic about the experience. While he loved Cowboy Camp as a whole, he admitted it was a brutal experience that put everyone through the wringer.
During a chat with E! News, he explained that he and the other actors learned exactly how to rope, ride, and shoot like someone living in the Wild West during prohibition. The work was rough and dirty, but the shared misery was a uniting experience.
“We were running on horses, lassoing, I learned how to use an old six-shooter,” he shared. “Weapons training, walking in spurs and chaps, It’s a whole different world.”
“We were all tortured in a two-week cowboy camp,” he continued. “So we got to have highs and lows together before we started, which actually was really good for bonding. We would all be terrible, and then the next day progress. We all got to be vulnerable. As adults, it’s not easy to learn a new skill.”
