Taylor Sheridan Fought With Producers Over One Sicario Character

"Sicario" isn't just the best Taylor Sheridan movie, it's the movie that put him on the map. The film, which was written by Sheridan, follows ambitious and dedicated FBI special agent Kate Macer (Emily Blunt), who finds herself caught in the murky dealings of shadowy government officials. Its gritty tone combined with standout performances from Blunt and co-stars Josh Brolin and Benicio del Toro made "Sicario" an unforgettable thriller that immediately established Sheridan as a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood.

It took some time for Sheridan to get to that point, however. He had been working as an actor prior to penning "Sicario," landing small roles on several shows before he secured a recurring role on "Sons of Anarchy." As good a performer as he was, "Sicario" proved Sheridan's real talents lay behind the camera, and since the film's debut he has gone on to establish nothing short of a TV empire, at the pinnacle of which sits "Yellowstone."

Considering the absolute script-writing powerhouse he turned out to be, it's odd to imagine Sheridan struggling to make his first movie the way he envisioned it. But evidently, not everybody could see his vision early on. Sheridan not only had to fight for the ending of "Sicario," he faced a battle over one of the most important characters in the story.

It's debatable who the "main" character is in "Sicario." You could argue that Benicio del Toro's Alejandro Gillick — the titular Sicario (or assassin) — is the central character in Taylor Sheridan's crime thriller. But Emily Blunt's Kate Macer is the de facto lead and very much acts as an audience surrogate as she becomes immersed in the shadowy world of the U.S.'s war on drugs and the dodgy tactics employed by people such as Josh Brolin's shifty CIA officer Matt Graver to fight the battle. But she's also much more than that.

In an interview with Variety, Sheridan spoke about Kate being so crucial to the story, revealing her to be "based on an actual person" who actually had the real-world equivalent of Matt Graver's job. The writer said:

"When I met the person, I was so taken by that essence in her [...] She's a buck-oh-five. And she is extremely intelligent and extremely capable, and you could tell she worked at it, and you could see the toll. I thought that was fascinating."

As such, Kate became integral to "Sicario." The story is her story. It's only because of Kate's idealism and ambition that you get a real sense of how darkly dubious the whole enterprise of the war on drugs actually is. Had she not worked so hard to get where she is and had she not sacrificed where her male counterparts hadn't needed to, the reality of the government's actions behind the scenes wouldn't feel as sinister as they would had some privileged meathead been in her place. You can imagine, then, that Sheridan wasn't too pleased when he faced pressure to change the character altogether.

During the early stages of development on "Sicario," which was made under genuinely life-threatening conditions, there was significant pressure to change the role of Kate Macer to a male lead. As director Denis Villeneuve revealed at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival (via The Guardian), "People were afraid that the lead part was a female character, and I know several times [Taylor Sheridan] had been asked to rewrite the role." However, the Canadian filmmaker claimed that when he came on board those requests stopped.

According to Sheridan, though, there was a significant push to rewrite Kate Macer as a male character that continued beyond Villeneuve's arrival. "I think there was some pressure on Denis," said the writer. "Or it might have been a conversation that they had. The pressure on me was prior to [production company] Thunder Road, etc., getting involved." Sheridan went on to explain how he faced pressure to rewrite Macer early on, adding:

"Very early on I took a meeting with a producer who asked if I would change the role to male so a specific actor could play it. I used a couple of strong adjectives in my reply and haven't spoken to him since."

You can understand why Sheridan would be so resistant to changing his script, given Macer's importance to the story. As the writer put it, "I didn't want it to be just this do-gooder guy. I wanted it to be someone that had sacrificed a tremendous amount to achieve her position of respect and authority, and I wanted to see the consequences on her face." Sure, a male lead could have sacrificed for his job, but not in the same way a female lead could. When you couple all that with the fact that Emily Blunt turned in a career-best performance in the film, it's kind of ridiculous to imagine anyone wanting to change the script. It's been said that the Kayce Dutton "Yellowstone" spin-off could be Sheridan's next "Sicario," but without Macer or a similarly tough female lead, it will be hard to match the movie Sheridan fought so hard to make.