A Fan-Favorite Yellowstone Actor Helped Design The Show's Iconic Bunkhouse

Taylor Sheridan's "Yellowstone" is known for its wild moments and violent storylines, but there are tender scenes in between the mayhem. These include the ones depicting the loyal ranch hands of the Dutton family hanging out in the bunkhouse playing cards, listening to music, and drinking beers. Sure, they occasionally get into dust ups and stab each other, but overall, the bunkhouse is a temple of cowboy camaraderie. What's more, Forrie J. Smith — the actor who plays the lovable rancher Lloyd, aka the character responsible for brawling in the bunkhouse — helped design the setting behind the scenes.

In a 2021 interview with Deadline, "Yellowstone" set decorator Carly Curry revealed that Smith drew upon his real-life experiences as a cowboy to add more authenticity to the bunkhouse scenes. In case you didn't know, Smith is a long-time rancher and rodeo rider who got into acting because he had a broken leg and needed to make some money. His insights have been invaluable to the creatives on "Yellowstone," with Curry crediting him for making the bunkhouse scenes become more important. In her own words:

"When we started putting our details into this, I had a pretty good sense of how cowboys live because I live with one. But talking to Forrie, he was able to give us a lot of little details you wouldn't think of. Like the bottle of Tylenol by his bed, for his arthritis, the snuff cans that are all over the place, the Louis L'Amour paperbacks."

Curry added that Sheridan was so impressed with the end results that he wrote more bunkhouse scenes into the neo-Western drama. That said, Smith's contributions to the show extend beyond acting and helping design the sets, as his experiences have also inspired some of the most memorable scenes in "Yellowstone."

There are so many ridiculous moments on "Yellowstone" that one would be forgiven for thinking they have no basis in reality. Well, that isn't entirely true. The season 2 premiere sees Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser) and Kayce Dutton (Luke Grimes) let a bull loose in a bar to break up a fight involving the bunkhouse's ranch hands. It's one of the sillier sequences in the entire series, and the best part? The "Yellowstone" bull scene was inspired by a real-life event involving Forrie J. Smith, who was called out to a bar to stop a similar situation from escalating further. 

In short, some bikers beat up a cowboy in a bar, so he got his revenge by setting a bull on them. Smith later recounted the story to Taylor Sheridan, who proceeded to write a similar scenario into his hit series. Sheridan has a reputation for being excessively controlling on his shows (to the degree that he's even gotten into physical fights with "Yellowstone" actors), but it's also clear that he's more than happy to collaborate with the casts and crews on his projects. Smith, with all of his experiences and cowboy wisdom, is a testament to that — and why wouldn't Sheridan embrace his expertise, given that he has lived in actual bunkhouses and witnessed cattle causing carnage in bars? Without Smith on board, "Yellowstone" arguably wouldn't be as entertaining as it is.