Billy Bob Thornton thinks politics may be why Taylor Sheridan keeps getting snubbed on the awards circuit.
“I think a lot of it’s political. I really do,” the Landman star, 70, said in a new interview with Variety. “I think some people assume Taylor is some sort of right-wing guy or something, and he’s really not.”
Sheridan, 55, is the force behind Yellowstone and its prequels 1883 and 1923, along with a stable of Paramount+ hits including Mayor of Kingstown, Tulsa King, Lioness and Landman. Despite blockbuster ratings and cultural buzz, his shows have barely registered with awards voters.
During Yellowstone’s five-season run, the series landed just one Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary Program in 2021.
Thornton, who plays oil executive Tommy Norris on Landman, said voters may be misreading Sheridan’s work, particularly projects centered on industries like oil.
“Even with this show being about the oil business, he just shows you what it’s like. He’s not saying ‘Rah, rah, rah for oil,’” Thornton said. “It’s just the people who work in this business or who are affected by this business, the people on the periphery and within the families in the business; this is what happens.”
“These are the kinds of problems and joys and triumphs and whatever happens in this world,” he continued. “It’s a world of gambling, and you never know what’s going to happen. But I think people got the wrong idea about that.”
Thornton also shrugged off the idea that awards are the ultimate measure of success, noting that art is not a competition with clear winners.
“If you run the 100-meter dash in the Olympics and you break the tape first, you win. There’s no question about it. Everybody saw it,” he said. “How do you say in the artistic world who won? It’s an intangible thing.”
“Then people say, ‘Well, any one of the nominees besides me could have won this. They’re all wonderful actors,’” Thornton added. “Not only them, some other actors in the audience who weren’t nominated, some other ones who aren’t even at the show, some other ones who aren’t even known by people have done an amazing job.”
The Oscar winner said he has made peace with Hollywood’s awards culture.
“If you put your heart and soul into something you love, and you’re satisfied with your work, and it works in the thing, there’s the award,” Thornton said. “I look at it that way. I’m too damn old now to worry about stuff like that. I got enough awards. I’m good.”
“I’m sure the people that I work for or work with me don’t like to hear that,” he added. “But I guess when I said I’m too damn old, I guess I’m too damn old to not tell the truth.”
Sheridan has previously pushed back on claims that his shows push a conservative agenda.
“They refer to it as ‘the conservative show’ or ‘the Republican show’ or ‘the red-state ‘Game of Thrones,’ ” he told The Atlantic in 2022. “And I just sit back laughing. I’m like, ‘Really?’”
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