Faith Hill and Tim McGraw are a force to be reckoned with in the world of country music and now the real-life married couple is coming together for the first time on the small screen in the Yellowstone prequel series, 1883. Hill and McGraw play Margaret and James Dutton, and the show follows a previous generation of the Dutton Family as they journey from Texas to Montana to establish what would eventually become the Yellowstone Ranch.
I was lucky enough to sit in on a press roundtable (courtesy of 101 Studios & Paramount +) with Tim McGraw, Faith Hill, and Isabel May who plays their oldest daughter Elsa Dutton on the series. During my time up for a question, I asked Faith Hill how she and her husband were approached to do the series given the fact that they are married in real life and she went into how the process began:
“I don’t recall exactly. I would imagine he was probably approached first because he had a relationship with Taylor. We had met Taylor, spent a little time with him. Tim had spoken to him more. But I think we received the first episode at the same time. But in terms of your question, I’m pretty sure he probably knew first about it. And then I was asked if I would be interested and the first thing I said was, which was a stupid thing to say for a Taylor Sheridan show is, can I read it? It’s like, duh. It’s going to be amazing, but you never know. And Tim and I have been approached to do things together on film before, so it needed to be many things. After reading the script, it was just like, there’s no way that we could ever pass this up. It was just the writing is just so remarkable and the strength, the character that that Isabel plays Elsa in the show. This is our daughter and well, I just had never, ever read a female character so strong at such a young age. That period, any period really was. Yeah, we said yes, and so glad for it. We knew it was going to be hard. We were warned multiple times by Taylor. All of us were, but it has most definitely been worth it.“
When speaking with Tim McGraw, I asked him what the collaboration process was like on this project with his wife because they have collaborated before in the world of country music and I was curious if something like this was any different. It became very clear that McGraw couldn’t imagine doing this project with anyone else:
“You know, honestly, I couldn’t imagine. And after doing this for four months now, and we have another month or so to go. I couldn’t imagine it ever happening without her. I mean, I couldn’t imagine doing it with anybody else, with any other actress or actor. I couldn’t imagine doing it. I mean, it’s just, I think the scenario and the writing, everything was so perfect for us together that it was impossible for us to not want to do it together. And more than anything, I’m grateful that she wanted to do it because, you know, we’re working six days a week, 12 hours a day, sometimes longer than that. And I wouldn’t be able to go home. And, you know, if she was home, she would be in the middle of doing things that she needed to do and we wouldn’t see each other. So we get to work together. I learned so much from watching her. I’ve learned how fantastic she is. She’s done two movies in her career and she’s been great in both. But I’ve learned how fantastic she is and what a great actress she is and how generous she is. And I can tell you this on set. She’s like everyone’s mom. I mean, she’s the light on set for everybody, and she’s the light in my life, for sure. But I’ve gotten to see everybody else experience what I know about her which is pretty spectacular.“
I think what we have here is the very definition of couple’s goals. Their real-life affection for each other is bound to translate well on screen and since there is some high emotion on the show, I’m sure they liked being able to lean on each other when shooting might have gotten a bit taxing emotionally. That’s bound to pay off on the finished product.
1883 is now streaming on Paramount+. Check out our review of the first episode!