How Nicole Kidman's Lioness Pushed Taylor Sheridan Out Of His Comfort Zone

Writer, producer, actor, and director Taylor Sheridan clearly wants to do it all, and he currently has numerous TV projects running at once. His hit Paramount+ series "Yellowstone" has spawned several spin-offs, including the now-finished "1883" and "1923," with several additional "Yellowstone" spin-offs in the works. Not only that, but he's also the  creator of the Paramount+ shows "Tulsa King," "Mayor of Kingstown," "Landman," and "Lioness," making him an obscenely busy artist. After all, he not only serves as creator and often directs on these shows, but he has also traditionally written the entire things himself, which is a tremendous amount of work. For the Sylvester Stallone-starring "Tulsa King" and the Nicole Kidman-starring "Lioness," however, he finally gave up a little control and hired writers to help him complete his vision.

While that doesn't sound like a huge deal, handing your various projects over to others can be extremely challenging, and Sheridan seems like a creative who maintains tight artistic control on all his ventures, which is probably how he's maintained a certain level of quality on all of his shows. In a 2022 interview with Variety, Sheridan revealed that it wasn't dealing with prairie critters on "Yellowstone" or filming the intense action of "Lioness" that pushed him out of his comfort zone the most. Rather, it was doing a little bit of delegating and letting others do the work for him. Look, when you have nine or 10 series in production at once, you kind of need to delegate! 

Sheridan has a truly impressive filmography, having written the tremendous 2016 neo-Western heist flick "Hell or High Water" and the incredible 2015 crime thriller "Sicario," but his writing credits for television extend even further. He's created a series for almost every kind of TV-watching dad, whether they're into war and political intrigue, ranching, or organized crime, but there's only so much time in the day, and he finally had to delegate some of it to other writers. He told Variety that he was unsure just how well he'd be able to delegate and help share his ideas with his writing teams, but since "Lioness" and "Tulsa King" have both been hits for Paramount+, it's probably safe to say the writers and Sheridan are working together fairly well.

There's one instance where Sheridan really doesn't seem to like delegating to others, however, and that's when it comes to casting some of the big-name stars for his shows. "I don't think anyone can speak to my projects better than me, so I might as well just cut out the middleman and just call myself," he explained, referring to the fact that he called both Kidman and Zoe Saldaña personally to pitch them on starring in "Lioness." The two are both total powerhouses, so who wouldn't want to see them onscreen together? I guess you can add casting coordinator to the long list of job duties Sheridan holds, though at least his writing load's a (little) lighter these days.