One of the most widely-acclaimed writers cum directors of all time, Taylor Sheridan did pretty much revamp the Western genre with his perspective in a way, bringing about unparalleled storylines and tropes. To say the least, his success is justified by all the top-rated actors who have agreed to work with him ever since, including even legends like Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford.
But while he has delivered masterpiece after masterpiece, including the likes of Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, and Landman, Sheridan has been at the receiving end of severe criticism over certain elements, especially how he writes the female characters in his projects. However, Mirren seems to have skipped that part altogether, considering her recent praise for the director.
Helen Mirren heaped praise on Taylor Sheridan over the very thing he gets heavily criticized for
Since the early 2020s, ever since she got cast as Cara Dutton in 1923, Helen Mirren has been working with Sheridan, and it seems like the showrunner has played his charms on her as well. This is evident from how she couldn’t stop heaping praises at him while talking about the second season of her Western series, especially over how he draws the female characters in his lores.
Talking with The Hollywood Reporter, she emphasized her thoughts on the same, saying that women should be happy about how Sheridan writes them in his saga. Mirren said:
Young women should be very grateful to Taylor Sheridan for writing such great women roles. Cara [Mirren’s character] is just one of them. He’s written a whole series of great, great women’s roles.
Apparently, the female roles that the writer cum director has incorporated in his stories didn’t exist when she, herself, was a young woman, thus, her being in awe about the same. “Those roles didn’t exist when I was growing up in our business. Even as an audience member, I never saw these people on the screen,” as the Prime Suspect actress went on to reveal.
However, while, over the years, Taylor Sheridan has been heavily praised for bringing to the table quite a few outstanding Western pieces that deserve all the love and acclaim they can get, he has also faced tremendous backlash over the way he writes his female characters. This was especially clear from the femme characters he incorporated in Yellowstone and Landman.
For one, in the former, there was Kelly Reilly‘s Beth Dutton. Though she was a fierce and intimidating woman willing to go to the extremes required to get whatever she wanted, she was still a victim of the writer’s over-s*xualization of her, which made her among the lesser-liked characters among many – though scenes of her sexuality were meant to exude power, as other fans felt.
Then there was the way he brought about the protagonist’s wife Angela Norris (played by Ali Larter) and her daughter Ainsley Norris (played by Michelle Randolph) in Landman, the design for both of whom was terribly criticized by fans worldwide for just how obscenely they were drawn. This is why Sheridan openly faced fans’ wrath over the over-s*xualization of the same.
Did Helen Mirren start liking Westerns due to Taylor Sheridan’s way of writing female characters?
While Sheridan has received more than just tremendous backlash over how he draws the roles of women in his pieces, Mirren still seems to be as hell-bent on her opinion of heaping praise on the showrunner over this very element as ever. In fact, the actress even implied to have found Westerns more watchable after Sheridan’s contribution of great female characters to them.
As the Red star continued while gushing in praise for the 54-year-old writer,
I never really liked Westerns because the women in them were so awful. I just love the fact that young women now can watch 1923 or any of Taylor’s pieces and see really interesting, complicated, vulnerable, strong… just real people who happen to be women on the screen.
Well, for what it’s worth, while Helen Mirren may be swooped off her feet by the writer’s way of drawing female characters, quite a lot of fans would find the appraisal of Taylor Sheridan over this very element hard to digest — and rightly so, for all the aforementioned reasons, especially after watching Yellowstone and Landman.
All of Sheridan’s Western shows, including 1923 season 2, can currently be streamed on Prime Video and/or Paramount+.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
