The “Yellowstone” Season 5B premiere was shocking in ways both expected and unexpected.
We expected that John Dutton, the character played by Kevin Costner, would meet his maker following a prolonged and very public skirmish between the star and series creator Taylor Sheridan, which involved contract obligations and Costner’s own western epic “Horizon.” Ultimately, they couldn’t reach an agreement and Costner left the show.
But the way that his death was handled in Episode 9, and the mystery and sadness and grief surrounding his passing, along with an ingenious structure for the first episode that flashed back, for most of the runtime, to six weeks before his death, added even more emotional heft.
Corralling all of this fell to director Christina Alexandra Voros, a longtime member of the “Yellowstone” family who has directed 9 episodes of the mainline series, along with episodes of “1883” and Sheridan’s “Lawmen: Bass Reeves.” (She is also directing six episodes of “The Madison,” which is set in the “Yellowstone” universe, but was decidedly off-limits during this interview.)
Voros told TheWrap about directing that season premiere, whether or not this really is the final season of the mainline “Yellowstone” series and what makes her relationship with Sheridan so special.
TheWrap: When you got the script and you realized you would be shooting around Kevin Costner, did you start thinking about how you were going to stage things?
Christina Alexandra Voros: That’s a really good question. Obviously, there are practical realities about how we had to approach the season based on Kevin not being with us. That being said, I think those considerations were already in place as Taylor was writing. It’s always a shame to me that people can’t see the scripts themselves, because there’s a story, and there are the brilliant actors acting in it, but the way that Taylor writes descriptions and of locations and cues for how things should be shot, and there’s a remarkable sense of humor. As something to sit down and read, it’s such a joy. I mean, anytime I get a script in my inbox from Taylor, it doesn’t matter if I’m driving, I will pull over and sit down and read it.
I think one of the beautiful things about the way he writes is he really tells you how you can see it as you read it. You can see what the story tells you as you read the scripts. That being said, it didn’t feel like there were massive decisions to be made based on what was on the page, because what was on the page was so specific, about what one sees. And more than that, it was so specific about what the characters feel. Even though there’s this massive event, all of the emphasis is on how that event affects the people who survive it. It was inherent in the script, how it wanted to be shot. You want to see the effect of this loss on the faces of the people who are suffering the loss. And so it was less about, oh, maybe, if we just see part of his ear, it really wasn’t about that at all. It was how do you take something that is shocking and find the heart of what is important about it emotionally. It’s not about seeing blood and guts on the floor. You know what’s happened. You could not have shown anything. You could have seen blood on the wall and looking at Luke and Kelly’s faces in that moment leaves no question. And that was very much on the page.
The episode is really ambitious, too, in terms of being split across two timelines and action taking place in Montana and in Texas (at the 6666 ranch).
It was a monster. And we didn’t finish shooting it until August. We shot all the Montana stuff at the beginning of the season and then shot all the Texas stuff at the end of our shooting season. We were shooting right until the end of the summer. Yes, it exists on many different planes, geographical ones, temporal ones… I think the way that those shifts, geographically and timeline-wise, are part of what gives the episode its layers, the juxtaposition of flashbacks into the present. I think it really amplifies the emotional kick of what happens at the top of the show — you are more immersed in the loss when it is in stark contrast to what everything was like just before it.
It was a really bold choice by Taylor to do it that way, partially because it adds a profundity to storytelling, partially because it’s a brilliant narrative choice. This thing happens, and then you are pulled back into the past, and all you want to know is what happens next. But before you get there, before he gives you any more information, you are brought back into what the characters themselves are longing for right at the moment before it all was set on fire.
It’s funny reading the responses to the show, which spread the gamut. And I think that’s always a sign of great art, is that people have really powerful reactions to it. If people don’t have a reaction to it, you’re doing something wrong. The fact that people either seem to feel like, Oh my God, it was the best episode ever, I was on the edge of my seat, I was crying the whole time to people who are really devastated that John Dutton is dead. You’re supposed to be devastated that John Dutton is dead. You are supposed to be furious that he’s not there, because that’s how his children feel. I think it’s really interesting that the audience has responded in a very extreme way on both sides. And I think that’s the point.
You’ve been a part of Taylor’s world for a while now and specifically within “Yellowstone.” Did Costner’s departure radically change the initial path of 5B?
You know, it’s strange that what I knew about how the season was going to end remains true. I think that there were certainly choices that had to be made because of the circumstances that might have changed elements of how we got there, but what I understood to be the way the story was meant to conclude is ultimately, over the course of the season, how the story is meant to conclude. I think there might have been another vehicle to get to the destination, but the destination remains the same.
The marketing has been pretty coy about whether or not this is actually the final season of “Yellowstone.” Is there a finality to the season in your eyes?
Yes, it is definitely the end. It is definitely the end of a chapter, and we are going past the point of no return in certain ways. I’ve been asked about this a lot and I think that I honestly, I wish I could tell you, I’m just being cryptic. I genuinely don’t know the answer to these questions, which is why I shy away from them. I think that this is the end of an epoch.
And how does that make you feel?
I think what people don’t really realize is, there’s a model of television that has existed for a really long time where you do a show and then the show ends, and you go and do another show, and then that show ends. Taylor has created this wildly talented family of artists and crafts people and technicians, and he keeps telling stories and he keeps bringing the same people along to help him tell those stories. And now there are so many stories to be told that we’re not always telling the same one, but there are a lot of people who show up to Thanksgiving figuratively.
I think part of it was very bittersweet when we finished the show, because, yes, it was definitively the end of something, and you have people that have been on that set every single day it was in production. People had kids and lost parents and bought houses, and it’s been a real chapter in everyone’s lives. That said, the journey of telling stories with Taylor, just because this particular show has come to a conclusion, it’s not the end of the storytelling for us. Almost the entire crew from “Yellowstone” went down to shoot Montana. We went down to Texas. We finished up the Texas work. Everyone packed back up and they came back to Montana. It’s a strange cadence to be in, because it feels like we’ve been on the same train ride since March, but it’s now across two different shows [the other show is the upcoming “The Madison”]. I think it’s different for the cast, because it is the end of their time being together, and I think that’s a very different experience. And I miss them dearly and I think the rest of the crew misses them dearly. But a lot of the people that Taylor has given a spot to tell stories alongside him, continue to tell stories alongside him. There are a lot of people in the “Yellowstone” crew who went over to “Landman,” [season two of] “1923,” there’s a lot of cross pollination of camera operators who go from one show to the other, sound mixers, art directors. And so it doesn’t feel as final to us necessarily as it does to the audience, or as it does to the cast, who’ve put on their chaps for the last time.
You’d be back if the “6666” happens?
I go where Taylor wants me to go.
Can you talk about your relationship with Taylor? I’ve talked to a lot of the actors on his show who say that he doesn’t give them much direction. Is it like that with you — do you just go execute? Or is there more back-and-forth with him?
Taylor’s presence is strong every day we’re on set, whether he’s there or not — it’s in the writing. He says the writing is the Bible and it really is — everything you need to know about what he intended is on the page, down to the brand of beer or the kind of gun or the maker of the saddle, and he’s thought about that.
My relationship with him is, I think it’s incredibly special to me because he gave me, he gave me a shot that most people wouldn’t give other people. I was a B camera operator Season 1 and I became the DP Season 2 and he asked me to direct Season 3. I’m not unique in these like wild waves of trust. He has surrounded himself with people that he sees something in that aligns with his vision of storytelling. And then he just keeps throwing you in deeper and deeper pools of water, knowing that you can swim. He has done that for me. He has done that for people across all departments. We have camera assistants who are now operators. We have art directors who are now production designers. We have B camera operators who are now executive producers and it speaks a tremendous amount to his loyalty. It speaks a tremendous amount to his sense of responsibility to lift up a new generation of filmmakers. I know that there are a lot of great directors and show runners who do the same thing. I think it’s important that they do.
But Taylor has a really unique pattern of taking these wild swings of trust and empowering people to step into these positions that anyone else in Hollywood would be like, Wait, you’re going to take that person who’s done this and you’re going to let him do that, and his instincts are usually right. People grow into who he sees them to be. And it’s not you’re not coddled and your hand isn’t held. I mean, when I read the tornado sequence in “1883” I thought, I have no idea how to make a tornado. You’ll figure it out. And we did and it remains one of the pieces of work I’m proudest of, of anything I’ve done in my career. He has an eye for talent on screen, in terms of the actors that he has discovered or amplified or turned into, you know, Beth Duttons, and he does the same thing behind the scenes with people who are working at every level, as craftsmen and creators on the show.
Without giving anything away, what are you most excited about people experiencing this season?
I think the cast performances this year are mind blowing. I think there is this strange art imitates life, imitates art thing that happened. Much in the same way, in the absence of John Dutton, the family needs to rise up to lead, and I think the cast, in absence of Kevin, were given the platform to fill very big shoes and to shoulder the weight of the narrative without him. I think the performances you’ll see from Kelly, Cole, Wes, Luke, Kelsey, Dawn Olivieri, Gil and Mo, it is next level for everyone in terms of the peaks and valleys that they needed to be able to traverse to make these performances make sense. And it’s not just in the grief. It’s bouncing back and forth between now and then, present and past. How do you deal with all the stages of grief in a way that doesn’t feel repetitive, that doesn’t feel too big or too small? The amount of heart and work that the cast has put in this season is second to none, and I think that, to me, is what I’m really excited for people to take in is the show does exist without John Dutton, even though his presence is there, even though everything is about him, it’s on the shoulders of actors who have always had the capacity to step into that place of power. And they have done so, so brilliantly this season.
“Yellowstone” airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Paramount Network.
