Yellowstone is a rough Western drama brimming with all sorts of cowboy things. And it is a successful one. No wonder though as its creator Taylor Sheridan is famous for his meticulousness.
The director and showrunner of Yellowstone demanded that all the cast attend the cowboy boot camp to get the skills they might later need on set.
However, Sheridan made an exception for Kevin Costner. Special training wasn’t required for him, Costner’s co-star Cole Hauser told Entertainment Tonight.
When asked by Cassie DiLaura, who he thought performed better at the boot camp, Hauser mentioned that Kevin Costner never attended it with them.
The latter portrays John Dutton and is a savvy Western actor and director.
He did his cowboy training decades ago when he was preparing for 1985 Silverado, a Western movie by Lawrence Kasdan that featured Costner riding a horse several times.
Nonetheless, Kevin Costner is better associated with another Western work of his – Dances with Wolves.
The film garnered five Oscars in 1991 including ones for best director, best picture, and best cinematography.
It is understandable why Cole Hauser thought that Costner got cowboy training for that particular movie.
Anyway, Kevin Costner’s cowboy skills are impressive. We can totally see that in Yellowstone. He was legitimately excused from attending the boot camp by Sheridan.
In fact, his mastery of horse-riding is so great that he taught an actor how to ride a horse on the set of one of his films.
Bobby Cannavale told Seth Myers a couple of years ago that he lied on his résumé about knowing how to ride a horse.
Kevin Costner who directed the picture Cannavale was working on kindly taught him how to do that after learning that the actor couldn’t do that.
Sadly, Cannavale’s part was stricken out of the movie whose name we don’t know. But this case goes to show how comfortable Costner is around horses and how great his horsemanship is.
As for the other actors of Yellowstone, they got special training before the series. This particular move of Sheridan’s paid off.
The series looks very natural.
What’s more, nobody got injured doing cowboy tricks on set which the boot camp must have been all about.