Known for playing wise cowboys, Sam Elliott's character for 1883 comes as no surprise. Elliott portrays Shae Brennan, a haunted Civil War veteran tasked with escorting a group of immigrants into the American frontier. A prequel to the hit series Yellowstone, 1883 follows the Dutton family's ancestors and traces their perilous journey to reach Montana.
At a roundtable interview attended by CBR and other outlets, Sam Elliott discussed his work in 1883. His character, Shae, is defined by a rigid moral compass and chased by grief. Elliott detailed what drew him to this role and how this cowboy is different from others he's played. He also spoke about the specter of Yellowstone and how he thinks that 1883 stands as its own story. Mostly, Elliott wanted everyone to know how great it was to work alongside LaMonica Garrett and how important the men's friendship is to the show on the small screen.
Elliott discussed how his character Shae remains kind even after the horrors he's witnessed. "I think empathy is, you're either empathetic or you're not," Elliott said. "I think Shae Brennan is empathetic. It's one of the things that makes his character so complex for me as an actor. He's willing to shoot somebody in the head for stealing food. At the same time, he cries over the immigrants that he loses, as he cried over his family that he lost. It's part of his nature."
Elliott's character has a traumatic backstory, which differs from his personal experience. "I've never really been haunted," Elliott said. "I know a lot of people that talk about taking it with them, taking it home. Maybe it's because I'm not an actor that anybody's going to accuse of being a chameleon, getting so deep into a part that they become someone else on some other level. I can appreciate that if that's the way you work, that it would take a long time to shake it off. Certainly, when you do anything that's an emotional scene, you carry it for a while, you become a little vulnerable, probably, ultra-sensitive if nothing else. Anytime I do something where I go deep on an emotional level, it takes me away. I remember the last scene in Star is Born when I was sitting on a couch with Stephanie, which laid waste to me for a couple of days only because I felt what I was feeling at the time. I loved her so dearly and loved Bradley so dearly that it was all very real to me. When it becomes real, when you're telling the truth, and you're being honest about whatever it is you're doing, that's when it most deeply affects me. I try to tell the truth all the time."
Elliott is known for playing gruff cowboy characters. When asked what makes his 1883 character different, he shared, "I think there's a lot more to Shea than some of the other cowboys that I've played. He's got a lot of issues and he's complex in some ways. Number one, because he's a veteran of the Civil War. We all know what being a veteran is today, call it what you want. Number two, he loses his family in the first episode, right off the top. Then he's in charge of these immigrants and he takes that very seriously. He's also a Pinkerton, which I'm not even sure how that involves anything other than he's in the Pinkerton office in the beginning, because it's never mentioned again. But he's a complex character."
Taylor Sheridan, the creator, writer, and director of 1883, seems like a dream match for Elliott. "I've never worked with anyone like Taylor before," Elliott said. "I've certainly worked with some good directors, I don't mean that. But Taylor is so talented and so complex on so many levels that I would say that I've never worked with anyone like him. That said, I think we share a lot of common bonds. He has his love and understanding of the West and the history of the West, the history of this country that makes him the right guy to make a project like this, tell a tale on the Oregon Trail. I don't know a lot of other people around that could pull that off. It's been a joy working with him. I think I can speak for the entire cast."
Elliott described how Sheridan's Yellowstone informed this prequel series. "Yellowstone is all over this," he said. "We're tainted by Yellowstone, which on some level I can't stand because I think 1883 stands alone. Once it comes out, people are gonna say, 'Oh, yeah, the only connection there is that it got John Dutton to Montana.' But Taylor is all over everything in this thing. He's Yellowstone, he's everywhere. It's a joy to work with him. He's all-powerful and all that, but he's a nice man on top of it. He's a brilliant horseman, he has done more for the horse industry than anybody that I know of in my lifetime."
But Sheridan isn't all good writing and better riding. "He's a taskmaster," claimed Elliott. "He told me in the beginning when we first started this thing and he was trying to convince me to do it or maybe about the time that I'd said I was gonna do it. He says, 'You're gonna hate me at the end of this fucking thing.' We're approaching the end and I have yet to hate him, so we'll see what happens."
Elliott also described what drew him to 1883."I think on some level it's just kind of the luck of the draw, it's where my career took me. My family's all from West Texas, for several generations. I'm the only one in my immediate family who was not born in Texas, was born in California, which is immaterial to your question. But there's just something about the simplicity of this genre. It's pretty black and white, there's not a lot of gray areas. It is the classic struggles: man against man, man against nature, man against himself. That always appealed to me. It's not brain surgery, but it's something that appealed to me. Being outdoors -- the outdoors is a prime character in any Western. I think it's the nature of my career that they have come my way, these Westerns."
Elliott's character Shae is a close companion of LaMonica Garrett's Thomas. The pair form a crucial bond in 1883. When asked about their relationship, Elliott gushed. "Number one," he said, "I love LaMonica. That relationship is the most important to me in the entire show. The fact that there's a Black man traveling with a white man or a white man traveling with a Black man in the 1800s is something that crossed me right in the beginning. I just thought, 'Wow, I can't wait for that.' And then I got down there and met LaMonica Garrett and I thought, 'Holy shit, who's this monster?' LaMonica is the most fit human being I've ever worked with, and he's also the nicest man I've ever worked with. It's incredible and we're having a lot of fun."
"In terms of their history, they both served in the Civil War," he continued. "This is according to Taylor. Taylor said the LaMonica rode with a group called the Buffalo Soldiers, which was an all-Black unit. But he also said that Shea might have been there with him. That made me scratch my head because I've seen a lot of photographs of the Buffalo Soldiers over the years and there was never a white men amongst their ranks. So I'm not sure where Taylor came up with that thought. But the fact that they're there together and Thomas kind of takes care of Shea along the road. [Shea] keeps talking about committing suicide every morning, that's just part of their deal."
When asked if Thomas brings out Shea's softer side, Elliott agreed. "I think he does, certainly his compassionate side. I think Shea's a bit of a psycho on some level -- I've thought about that, I'm not sure that that's fair to say. But he's deeply troubled and he goes off on people and Thomas brings him back, Thomas takes care of him and brings him back. So I love that relationship. I love that relationship and Thomas and his love are the only two -- well, I shouldn't... I can't go there for the viewers. But Thomas makes it to Oregon."
1883 premieres Sunday, December 19 on Paramount+. New episodes will release weekly on Sundays.