Hey, everyone, Welcome back to the Official Yellowstone Podcast. I'm Jen Landon and I am joined by my podcast partner and fellow Yellowstone cowboy, mister Jefferson White.
Hey, Jen, it's an incredible gift to be here with you. As always, we've got a very, very fun show on tap for you today. We feel incredibly lucky to have with us the stunt coordinator of Yellowstone. He's been with us since the very beginning. We've got Jason Rodriguez, Jay Rod the legend himself. I hate to say it before we start, I'm gonna have to run into the other room. I'm gonna have to grab a cup of coffee, and then I'm gonna be right back. So hang tight, we're gonna dive right in.
Jeff, do you have your coffee?
Yes? Thank you for your patience with me. I had a late night. Yeah, it was a late night. I stayed up late to watch the return of nineteen twenty three. Couldn't wait. It was one of those funny moments where me and my fiance are sitting there and it's this moment of like a fuck, we really should go to bed, but I couldn't. I couldn't sleep. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sleep until I watched it.
You know what I mean? Like, I have this thing where if other people have seen it and I haven't, I can't.
Isn't there a word for that that the young people use? Or it's like a what is it?
Fomo fomo?
Fear of missing out?
Fear of missing out?
I didn't catch twenty three last night, but I was up really late doing something oddly Yellowstone related, which was I drank too much coffee and then drank a monster energy and then decided that I had never listened to the anthology of Yellowstone Music on Spotify whoa, and then proceeded to do that until two thirty in the morning. And then after I finished listening, I impulse spot a pair of sneakers.
How'd you wind up with sneakers? It wasn't even cowboy boots after all that. That's one of these funny things you work on a show like this, you wind up with way more pairs of cowboy boots than you could ever use. I don't know how to say. I can't. I went through a real phase early in Yellowstone, and now I probably have like nine pairs of boots just taking up my very limited space in my tiny little Brooklyn apartment.
I know that you have recently moved, but I saw your last place. Then I do have to say that the boots seem to take up an insane amount of space and.
It's mostly boots. Yeah, my apartment is mostly boots and hats. Yeah, well this is the thing. This is why you got to have a ranch. If you're a cowboy. You got to have a ranch because you need space to put your your boots, your hats, your spurs, your various pairaphernalia. It does not This is why it's hard to be a Brooklyn cowboys that most of my apartment is taken up by hat boxes.
I've got to say, it's hard to just fly with only a carry on as a cowboy.
What do you do with the hat is?
What do you do?
The spurs are considered a weapon potentially, and for anybody who you know, buys, you know, or you're gifted some custom spurs, that is not something that you want to have taken away from you.
Yeah, those are precious, they're they're an incredibly expensive, tiny little piece of metal that it's hard to travel with all this stuff, which I guess is why these guys. You know, when we talked to mobrings plenty last week, he was driving across the entire country. I guess that's why cowboys end up spending a lot of time driving horse trailers.
Huh yeah, I mean I would. I find myself driving to Texas half the time now, even if it's for a couple of days. I just I get in the car flying.
I think that's a really that's a romantic image, you know, barreling across the American Southwest, nothing but your spurs and your hat. Well, it's it's funny you should mention, you know, the difficulty of flying with spurs that might be perceived as weapons, because this week we're talking about fights. And forgive me out there if you're already familiar with this
phenomenon the world of stunts, there's some specific compartmentalization. So stunts encompasses a lot of different things if you think about it. Some TV shows are all about gun fights, some are all about car crashes. Some are all about helicopters, planes, tanks, military style stunts. Yellowstone really runs the gamut. We've got gunfights, we've got car crashes. Sometimes in the same sequence, we've
got gunfights, car crashes, horse races, lassowing, rodeo. If you think about the history of Hollywood, ye, Westerns are a huge part of the origins of stunt technology, right like early blockbuster movies. A lot of that is these iconic American Westerns, and from the very beginning that involves falling off of horses, jumping from horse to horse, getting shot.
So a lot of the the you know, tradition and origins of stunt work and filmmaking stunts also dovetails with the Western world with riding and rodeoing and roping.
You know what.
That made me just think we've been fortunate enough to have people on Yellowstone who actually were some of those stunt people at the very beginning of the Western TV film I'm forgetting his last name, but Boots for example, who I believe he got killed in season four.
Yeah, they invented a lot of this stuff. It's pretty amazing. Like one of the cool things about filmmaking is it's this constant problem solving, and that's also true of ranching. That's also true of the sort of cowboy world you got to. Every day is a new day and a new challenge and you've got to invent the processes by
which you solve those problems and surmount those challenges. So a lot of the guys working on Yellowstone and sort of around Yellowstone and in this world invented a lot of the techniques that the rest of you know, Western filmmaking has employed for a long time. It's so cool and learning from them has been such a remarkable gift. Speaking of stunts, listen, we can talk about this shit all day long. Luckily we've got a real expert to inform us about it a little later. Can't wait to
talk to Jay Rod. But in the meantime, Jens, let's dive into some of our favorite Yellowstone action sequences. Just now, we've been talking about gunfights, car crashes, horsework. Let's dig into all of it. What's your favorite walk me through them? Putting you on the.
Spot, Jeff, I'm actually not one hundred percent sure what my favorite action sequences are, and I would like hard to pick. I would let yes there, it's incredibly hard to pick. Also because my coffee hasn't said in completely, So I would sort of love if you answered that question first to get my brain working this morning.
Oh don't worry. I'm buzzing. I'm going to talk for way too fucking long. We've been talking about the like incredible variety and versatility of our stunt performers and our stunt teams. One of my favorite stunts on Yellowstone that I think a company like encompasses a lot of that is there's a sequence in I want to say season three, maybe season two, where Casey ropes a guy out of a truck, which is like, yeah, when you really think
about what that involves, it's crazy. So we're talking about a stunt performer, probably Jordan Warick, if I was gonna guess, we all endeavor to do as much and as many of our stunts as is safe and responsible, but we also all know we're all smart enough to know when to tap out and also just for the sake of, you know, safety, and for the sake of letting the
experts do their job. So I think that's Jordan Warick in that sequence, who's also been with us since the very beginning of Yellowstone, literally tossing a lasso into the cab of a truck and pulling. I think he pulls the guy out of the window. And when you think about like how many disciplines are involved in that, how many complicated factors are colliding or you know, God willing not colliding in this case. I just think that's a remarkably impressive thing. So I love that sequence.
I say this often, but when we were at the Sagawards, for example, and we were nominated for Best Ensemble, and they always play the clip, you know, before they announce who wins, so much of our clip was actually filled with stunt performers. Yeah, because so much of it was an action sequence, and the people who who double us really are half of the performance a lot of the time, because so much of Yellowstone is about making it look authentic.
And I mean, as the seasons have gone on, we've been able to do more and more of our of our own stuff, but they help sort of raft what everybody, what everybody sees at home. They are in ways half that performance absolutely.
I mean I love to say about my stunt double, Bobby Roberts, that he's played Jimmy for as long as I have, because my first day on set was the sequence in season one where Jimmy gets duct taped to a bucking horse and Bobby was there, and Bobby did that sequence. You know, so me and Bobby our first day was the same day. So he's played Jimmy as long as I have and some of our performers. I mean, it's amazing. A guy like Jordan Warwick has doubled pretty
much everybody on the show. Whenever they need to tag in a bad man to do an incredibly difficult task on the back of a horse, they go to Jordan Warwick and he doesn't.
You know, my favorite I don't know if I've said this ready on the show, but one of my favorite Bobby Roberts stories is that, besides doubling you, Beth falls off a horse. I think in season one, the gal who doubles me, Lindy Gorham, was doing that stunt. She fell off the horse. Her hand got broken that day the horse stepped on it. She had to go to
the emergency room. They needed to get the shot off, and they're looking around at a group of people and the person who is most height and coloring appropriate is Bobby Roberts. So when Beth falls off the horse, I forget in whatever season that is, that is the same person who doubles Jeff.
That's amazing. He also doubles Zayin in nineteen twenty three. A lot of our stunt team works across all of these shows. So Zain in nineteen twenty three is played by my dear friend Brian Garritty. We don't look so alike, but Bobby manages to look enough like both of us. Luckily, you don't have to listen to me and Jen, you know in awe over this talking about some of our personal heroes. We've got one of our personal heroes here
with us right now, right after they break. We feel so lucky to have with us today, a guy who is as much responsible for bringing you Yellowstone as anyone else. He's been on this thing since the beginning. He's been dealing with me and Jen's incompetence since the beginning, making sure we're safe, taking care of us. We feel so blessed to have with us today. Jason Rodriguez, Jay Rod, thanks for being here.
Jay Rod, Hey, good to see you guys. Jeff, Jen thanks for having me.
Jared, thank you so much for being with us today. Where in the world are you What are you doing?
I am in weather for Texas right now, and I'm directing second unit on Civil War sequence for Bass Reeves, the new TV show that One on One Studio is producing.
So we've heard whispers about Bass Reeves. I'm sort of as a huge fan of Tailor's, as a huge fan of this world, as a huge fan of yours specifically, what can you tell us? I think our whole audience is out here eager for any tidbits you can give us.
Well, I can only tell you just the overall show is about the real life ranger Bass Reeves, who was a sheriff in the Oklahoma territories in the late eighteen hundreds, and he's credited with being like the inspiration for the lone ranger that we all know on television, and that's kind of what I know about the story. I'm kind of coming in just to do a specific sequence that's a civil war that kind of opens up where Bass came from, where we find Bass and stuff.
This is fascinating because you know, viewers of Yellowstone, people who've maybe seen eighteen eighty three, seen nineteen twenty three, are starting to get a sense of how diverse your skill set is. So in for instance, season four, episode one of Yellowstone, we've got Casey with the assault rifle smashing an suv into a panel van and now you're describing to us shooting a civil war sequence for bass Reeves. So will you talk about you know, what's the same, what's different?
Yeah, I mean, I I've been doing this for thirty years, Jeff, So, I mean, I know I look much younger than that, but.
You really do I want people.
But I've been around man, Yeah, and so so I've gathered you know, all these all those different skill sets of you know, being a stuntman and stunt coordinator, so I can coordinate not just westerns h you know, uh, driving sequences, gunfights and like that. Which, by the way, that the episode one, that gunfight was one of my favorite still sequences to do of all a Yellowstone that
we've done. It was really fun. And then just this last season the uh the when they were trying to steal the wild horses in Casey and his crew come over with the helicopter and all the horses charging through there, that was that was an amazing experience too. It was
it was fun. And that's what I love about Yellowstone is we do everything pretty much for real and real time and not a lot of not a lot of I don't know, trickery and and we get the we get the stuff, you know, real and gritty and and how we're feeling, you know, how how it's scripted.
There's only so much you can fake, right. That's what I'm always amazed with on the show is like, you know, you use movie magic where you can you fake it sometimes, but on Yellowston, but it does seem like we come across a lot of sequences where, ah, shit, the best way to do this is to just do it. And I'm thinking perhaps a little bit about the Cowboy Poker sequence. Do you remember this? I think it's season two, episode one. Will you talk about that a little?
Yeah? That was those were that was an interesting time when Taylor wrote that, the producers at the time came to be and goes, so, how are we gonna do this, you know, and guarantee the safety of everybody involved? And I'm like, well, we really can't. I mean, We're just gonna We're just gonna see what happens. And I'll hire the doubles for the actors that they'll all be familiar with bulls and bull riding and bull fighting. I had two really good bullfighters there, one in wardrobe, one standing
to the side. And then the girl that took the hit from the bull was Duke Wemberley, who I originally used in season one to ride a bucking horse, and I brought her back to double that girl that gets hit, and Taylor, right before we went was said, hey, look, I don't need anybody to get you know, just cream by this bull. You know, we'll just you just do it. We'll play it for real and then when whenever it's done, then I'll just rewrite whatever and build We'll make the
story work around it. And I said, okay, So I get the stuntcirt the stunt people together and I tell them all that, and Duke looks me right in the face and goes, no, it says in the script that the girl gets run over. And I go, I know it says that, but I'm telling you that whatever happens, it's going to be great. She goes, nah, I'm gonna let her. I'm gonna let it hit me. So so I said, okay, fine, just do whatever you want. I don't care, like you know, don't die. So she went out.
So she she sat there teeth gritted the entire time, head down, back to the bull, and he came and made a bee line for and ran the absolute length ever and she she got up, ran to the fence. Everything was fine and we got a really good sequence out of it. But that's kind of how we do stuff on this show, you know. It's just kind of like, uh, they look at me, how are we gonna do it? And I guess we're just gonna do it for real and see what happens.
It's so funny. I'm reminded of when John Dutton turns to Rip, you know, they're they're they're trying to gas up a bunch of wild horses, goes, hey, what's the plan here? And Rip goes, you know, Sarah, I figured just kind of fuck.
It, you know, Yeah, yeah, yeah, we had. That's kind of the attitude. Christian and Boris and I have this kind of inside joke where we'll set these things up and then the helicopter will come up over the hill and the guys will be charging after the loose horses, and then the thieves will do this and we'll circle them around and we'll jump into the water and then we both look at each other and go all right, ready, yeah, no,
it'll never work. It's gonna be great. And and then and that's kind of our like our good became our good luck charm. Now we always just every time we're going to do something big and wild like that, she and I'll just look at each other and go, it'll never work. And then and then it invariably does, because the quality of the cowboys and stuff and the stunt guys that I hire always pull it off and it goes great.
So, Jay Red, I don't know if you know this, but when Taylor called me to talk to me about Teeter and sort of the inspiration for Teter, Teter was based on somebody that he knew growing up, and Duke Wimberly, Yeah, that was the sort of hybrid because what she did that day was crazy.
Yeah, Duke Duke talks a lot like Teeter. She's very very Texas very. Oh, she's great. She's she has the she has the funniest like cowboy colocalisms I've ever heard in my life, and I've heard a lot of them, and she's she's just she's fun to talk to. And she did a great job with that. And then in eighteen eighty three, she played the drownding girl pulls faith off the horse and tussles with her under the water and everything. So we call her in for those kind of spots.
I can you talk a little bit? I know this great. Can you talk a little bit about how you got into stunts and growing up doing rodeo and you know your your pops being in rodeo and he gave me my first roping lesson along with you.
Oh that's right, Yeah, what about that? Yeah? Well, for just my background is, first, I grew up on a I grew up on a im Passer Robles. My family, my grandfather owned a cattle ranch outside of past Robels, which we still own. My mom and my niece run up today. And my grandfather, her on my mother's side, is in the Hall of in the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, several time world champion. And my dad is also in the Pro Rodio Hall of Fame. He's a several time team rope and world champion and h and yeah,
it's true. I had him out there working on the show doing a rodeo sequence and Jen was There's when I first met Jen, and and Jen was learning how to rope, and I had her I was kind of teaching her, and then I went, wait, I got my dad's here, I'll just have him. I'll just have him teacher, yes, so and so he kind of helped out. And then so when I got how I got into stunts was I moved down to Los Angeles because I was doing some like local commercials and uh, I was the talent
and a lot of local commercials and stuff. And and I moved down to LA because I just wanted to try it in Los Angeles. And I got there, tried to be an actor for a couple couple of years. Didn't really like being broke. It was the same reason I quit Rodeo, and because I hated not having money. I just hate it. And evidently I don't act very well, so I was not I was doing a lot of I was doing quite a few commercials. I was doing all right and commercials. But anyway, I started doing stunts
on a show called Briscoe County Junior. I doubled Bruce Campbell and that's kind of how I got my foot in the door as a stuntman. And then about a year or two later, I went down and worked on the Maskazorro not doubling anybody. I was just working as a stuntman down there. But I was down there for about six months and met a lot of guys and that kind of kicked my whole career off. After that,
it kind of just took off from there. I was, you know, I started working really regularly and had some really good people like Chris hal freddie Hies that kind of took me under their wing, and the rest is history. Here I am.
I'm always amazed by how it's such a family affair, you know, and we found that. You know that Yellowstone is about family. It's about this sort of generational family. You talk about how your father, your grandfather rodeoed, and also your family's on set too, right like your your family's working alongside you on Yellowstone. I find that to be such a fun and just sort of lovely parallel between the rodeo world, the stunts world, our world on the show.
That's what I love about Yellowstone, not only the crew and the cast and the store the show. But the first season, Wade Allen was the stunt coordinator. He had done Wynn River for Taylor, and I was really happy that he asked me to come along on the first season, and I doubled. Actually, I doubled Casey the first season.
And that's another whole story, because Taylor would always before I would do something, Taylor would joke on I think he was joking, mate, he wasn't, but he would get on the walkie and go all right, ready to go, And hey could tell Jay Rod to look younger and skinnier, that'd be.
Great, so so so at any rate, But what I was saying is when we got when I got that show, I was able to take my family with me and we packed up every horse.
And dog and everything and just moved it out and and that was great. And you know, then my wife started doing stunt. She fell the horse when Gretchen Mall's character dies, and she did that. And then she's been working on the show, doubled ed and Brolin and doing other stuff. And then this year I got to have my son Boone out on the set in the branding sequence in the cattle drive.
We got to hang out.
Yeah, wrote it. He wants to know when you're gonna come play Mario Kart again with it.
I know we have that.
We have a Boone and his youngest Boone and back er j rod Son's and I play video games with them.
It was Buck born during season one. Jay ride reminds me season two, season two, Buck was born, and I just think it's like, what a beautiful expression of the sort of family nature. Yeah, your younger son was born on Yellowstone season two and now he's along for the ride the whole way. I just think that's such an amazing thing.
Yeah, No, it's wonderful. And you know, Taylor's always promoted that kind of family atmosphere around there. You know, it's it's just been it's been a really it's been a great time on so many levels on that show well.
And it's really interesting. I think, you know, people hear stunt sequences, there's this idea of this like separation of you know, the show and then the stunt sequences. But I think Yellowstone, more than any show I've ever worked on, there's this incredible sort of blurring of those boundaries, you know, because we have in our cast, we have guys with a lot of stunt exp experience, and then a lot of our sort of stunt guys have been there from the very beginning and are as much a part of
playing these characters as anyone. Part of what people respond to when they think of Rip is Cole's just big, powerful, physical presence. And something that's really fun to think about is there have been a lot of different stunt doubles who have also played that part over the years, who
have done specific different sequences. Rip has been involved in about any kind of stunt you can think of, driving stuff, gun fights, fist fights, horse stunts, and a lot of different guys have stepped into those shoes and contributed to that character that we all has become this sort of larger than life icon. The same is certainly true for Casey, the same is true for Jimmy. More than one person has come in and bucked a horse pretending to be Jimmy to save my little ass from getting broken half.
And it's just like, it's such a cool sort of the community that brings this show to life is big, and I think that it's really the whole thing is impossible without our stunt performers. Part of what people respond to about Yellowstone is how real it feels, How real it feels these exciting sequences. It feels real and those sequences look good because we have the best stunt performers and stunt coordinators in the world.
Well thanks but I honestly got to hand it to you guys, because you guys have worked so hard to do is to get as good as you guys have on horses. I mean, we did those branding sequences this last season. I think I don't think I used a stunt person in any of those to drag calves and rope and do all that stuff. That was all. That was all cast members. You know, everybody was just dragging calves and it was it was a really good It
was a really good time. And I mean, I mean, I remember first season when I picked you up, Jeff, to take you out to the Cowboy camp in Utah, and I asked, I asked, so, so, Jeff, you wrote been horses or anything? And Jeff just cheerfully goes, nope, my first day. Go all right, cool, No.
My first rodeo, this is my first rodeo.
I was not word with Jeff because he's the first one to go, hey, Jay Rod, I'm not feeling comfortable with what I'm doing right now. I'm not feeling I'm like, it's gonna be fine, don't worry about it. It's gonna be great. You know, it's gonna be all right. Well, cape is because I'm not really I'm not super comfortable with this, and maybe we could just no, no, no, it's gonna be great. You're gonna be fine.
Don't lie, don't lie. You're always telling me. Hey, Jeff, this looks a little too extreme. Maybe we should pull it back, and I'm saying no, Jay Rod, stand down. Tell Bobby to go smoke a cigarette, no problem.
Yeah, keep my double away from me.
I do all my Yeah, don't worry about that. Take a break, Bobby.
Hey, Jeff, speaking of a break, we gotta take a break.
I got Jim with the transition. That was incredible. A break.
But when we come back, we're going to talk to j Rod more about stunts. I'm curious about times you've actually maybe been afraid on set and how Yellowstone compares to other things you've worked on in terms of how much we push the envelope. So we'll be right back. Okay, welcome back, guys.
One.
I don't know, Jeff, have I told the story before about how I cried during the branding sequence. Oh, I'm not sure if I told you what boring? We don't have to tell, but I call it my There's no crying in baseball moment from a.
League of their own.
I was supposed to heal during the branding sequence and I only I'd only headed calves before, and uh, I couldn't do it.
And I was so mad.
And we broke for lunch, and jay Rod was like, and it's like lunch, you can go, and I'm like, no, I'm good. And I was just like staying on the horse and I kept trying and I kept missing, and I knew that if I got off the horse and looked jay Rod in the eye, I was going to start sobbing. So he's just talking to me and I've got my hat down and I'm like shaking my head and I look up and I catch eye contact with him because Jay Rod's a friend, and I start crying
like the girl in a league of their own. And it wasn't that it was. And here's the thing, Sorry, jay Rod, if you have like a real strong masculine identity you need to uphold instead of pulling a Tom Hanks and being like there's no crying in baseball, jay Rod, like, tear it up a little because he's never seen me. He's never seen me, You've probably never seen me cryer be upset. I'm sort of like an emotion I don't really have emotions, you know, I'm sort of dead inside.
So I think it just caught him off guard.
You're I it did. It really did catch me off guard. And by the way, I was told by you to keep this. I was sworn to secrecy on this, so now you're bringing it out into the open.
But yeah, none of.
You know, I could, honestly, I could. You are such a good you are such a friend, and and uh and I could feel your frustration, and it just it it made me, you know, it made me feel bad that you were feeling so bad. And yeah, I don't care. I'm an emotional guy. What the hell, I'm fifty something years old. I'm going to make any excuses for anything.
So and it just it moved me that you were so passionate and so uh frustrated in the moment, that you cared so much that uh, I mean because a lot of actors would just like miss them and they go, oh, well that's where my stun double takes me cared and they don't care, but you just like wanted to do it, so man.
And then we hung in there and then it worked.
Yeah, it worked. You got one and you drug it, and I was behind I was behind the I was behind the monitor with Christina. And when you caught one and you're dragging it to the fire, I was like jumping up and down, like I was so happy for you to, you know, have the success that you did, and I knew it would turn out good. But yeah, it was a definitely a more even a bonding experience jeh and I.
See this is funny because when I broke down and cried, jay Rod slapped me in the face. He put me in a headlock and gave me a nuggie for fifteen minutes production. We had to go on a break because Jason gave me a nuggie for fifteen minutes.
Jay Red, I don't know if you can't answer this question. Have there ever been moments on set like has there been or is there a distinct moment where you got worried where you went where I mean or that might just be a permanent state. But have you had moments that, again are out of our control because we do take calculated risk.
Yeah, I mean I can't anytime we do something big like that. There's a sequence where he chased buffalo at night, and that that sequence worried me just because it was night through this pasture and we couldn't you know, the devils are chasing this buffalo and they run fast. I mean, when you're chasing a buffalo, you're it. You're going as fast as your horse can pack you. And that kind of made me that that made me nervous. The the again, the wild horse sequence that we did this season always
kind of makes me nervous. I always have a Jordan work my right hand man, and he's out here running, coordinating fasters and doing a really great job. I always tell him I will always look at him sometimes when I'm nervous and I'll go, here's where I see my career flash before my eyes, and he always look at me and go I hate it when you say that.
For people who don't know about horses and the things involved with that. Like one of the things that I've come to have my own healthy fear about that I didn't have before, And what has often felt to me to be the most dangerous part of the show is running.
Is even just loping a horse through a field that is thick and brush that has holes that we might not see that seems to be the thing that I always because the rest of it, I feel like we can control and choreograph and we obviously check those fields.
But yeah, I mean we check them and do and do our due diligence to make it absolutely safe for the horses and the riders and everything. But still, yeah, those are the times. Those are the times that I just get a little worried about it. But ultimately I trust our prep and I trust our actors and stuntman and just kind of don't worry about it.
My favorite stunt that we did together, j Rod, was it'll It'll probably always be the Season three biker sequence. Oh yeah, I was on cloud nine by the end of that day. I mean, I was tired. We had done it, yeah, so many times. But that was so fun. And I got to work with your brother, who I love who uh yeah he looks you guys. He looks like j Rod, but like parallel universe j Like the eyes are the same, but nothing else you got.
You got to bite him right he did him? Yeah? Yeah, that's good. Yeah, Yeah, it was fun. That was That was a fun sequence and Jen. That was Jen's first season, so I got her a double I had I had a double for her just standing by because I didn't know, you know, I didn't know Jen yet and everything and those guys and I remember huh, Denn and Ian going, Hey,
where the hell's are double? I go, I know you guys, you'll be fine, and he was going, I hate getting slammed around and stuff like that, and I go, you'll be fine, suck it up, get in there, and my stunt guys beat the hell out of them, and they had no doubles of Jens double standing over there. And I knew once I got to really know Jen and I saw her that day, I go, oh, we're gonna have to double it for this stuff again, because she just loves it and thinks it's the greatest thing ever.
I get so mad when I don't have enough fight stuff. I'm like, no, like this is I live for this.
You scarcely get into the fighting way too enthusiastically, like the bar fight, this secret the bar fights. This year. Jen was like she's running around and the rehearsals and like as she'd dispatched with her guys, she'd grab somebody else on the floor and smack him in the back of the head. And I mean she owns it.
J Rud does. And I want you to lie about this if the answer is no, But does Yellowstone push the envelope more than other shows that you've worked on in this sort of horse stunt area? Do we do more than other people? And if the answer is no, I want you to lie.
No, no, no, no, I don't have to lie. Believe this is it's the scripts that Taylor writes require more. I don't know what you want to say balls this book, whatever you want to say, yeah, to accomplish the The and the thing of it is is it's not like when you look at it, it's not like you know, you think a huge action stuff. It's like Marvel movies and you know, Michael Bate and stuff like that. Those stuff.
That stuff is very rehearsed, very calculated, very you know, all the bugs are worked out of that before the performers even come on and start to do it. It's very specific. Like I said, with our stuff, it's like
we just we just do it. We just you know, throw twenty buffalo in the field and tell the guys to go chase them, you know, or we or we you know, just all that stuff is you know like I said, it's calculated in a way that I know the horses, I know the elements, I know everything, and I've and I've worked out every possible scenario in my head of what could possibly go wrong and then eliminated that, and so it's it's safe in that regard, But ultimately it's uh yeah, I mean when I first started on
the show, there was a lot of like, we're really going to do this, Uh this is you know, And now I kind of I kind of just relax into it and know that you guys have been trained enough, and then the stunt guys that I hire going to be perfect and thing is going to be.
Great on that friend, Jared, just because you actually are such a good director, did you pick up or just start thinking like a director when you started coordinating stunt things and just innately started thinking about it from like a camera standpoint, You had to almost think about the scene as a whole in order to know like where you were going to put things, et cetera.
Yeah, I mean that's that's how I like to coordinate, and I have that background, and what important to me, especially with the Yellowstone, is not only like serving the action, but serving the script and the and the the actor in their in their character and the progression of whatever that is. So when even in action sequences, to me,
it's just an extension of the story. And if you don't put the story pieces in or if it rings faults with what if it rings faults with the character, it doesn't do any good to be the greatest action sequence ever and not not push, not move the story forward.
So I think a lot about that stuff. In fact, this season, one of my favorite things that we did was that fight between Beth and Summer because I really got We rehearsed it quite a bit, and I really got to work with Kelly and Piper and we had these really cool talks about character and what Beth would do here and what Summer would do and how, and it was really a great I enjoyed it immensely because it was this great collaboration of you know, even if
it was you know, small stuff. When when Rip comes out to break the fight up, Kelly goes, I want to get off of her, but I think Beth wouldn't just like stand up, and I go, well, One really crappy thing is when you're in mma fight and stuff and when the bell rings. I go, you can push off of the push your push off the guy like he's help, Like you're pushing off of him to stand up. And she goes, oh that, I go, so why don't you just grab Piper's face and just shover her like
get up using her face to stand up? And Kelly was like, oh my god, that's great, and so she did it and it was all you know, it's then it's fun to see it that it worked in the final cut and they acted it so well, and I mean those girls went at it for two nights, but it was but again it was back to it was a it was an ability and a scene like that to really you really serve their characters, you know, even though it's a big action, you know, a big fight.
I think that really speaks to that that happens throughout the series because you know, there are so many bad asses on Yellowstone, but they all have a sort of distinct personality and that translates into their sort of style of violence, you know, which is an interesting thing to
talk about. But it's like Rip fights different than Casey fights, different than Walker fights, different than Bet, And it's so cool to see their personalities and the circumstances their characters grew up in affect the way they engage in these sequences. I think that's part of what's so gratifying about Season four, episode one of Yellowstone, when Casey just pops the fuck off, because you see the years that he spent engaged in special operations exactly, you see it for the first time.
You see that switch really flip, and he goes into a completely different No.
Yeah, you can absolutely see that he's been shot out for real. This isn't the first gunfight he's ever been in, you know.
And yeah, and that's so different than like Rip, how Rip handles these things. You know, Rip kind of runs headlong into these conflicts, whereas Casey kind of turns into this well trained machine exactly.
Yeah, yeah, it is a that's not That's what's fun about doing these sequences is you get to kind of think about that. You know, when when Rip, I can't remember what episode there's when Rip comes in and saves Beth from being raped by the Beck Brothers, bad guys and stuff, is you know, he just the guy turns a gun on him and he just smashes through the window and just can continues forward and takes the gun
and slams the guy through the floor. And I mean it's just that's just how Rip where Casey would have probably you know, came in and got a good angle on him and taken him out. You know.
So it's Rip's not very tactical, just kind of he's the bull, he's the bowl playing cowboy poker. He's going through you.
Yeah, yeah, which is always always fun to work with Cole and stuff like that. It's it's it's pretty fun. My stunt guy's hate doing fights with Cole because he's so big and strong, and doesn't you know when he when I say through the guy through the floor, that was a guy ritten off it. And I mean when Rip, when Cole picked him up and slammed him onto the floor, the whole like it felt like the whole second story shook like it was. It was. It was not pleasant.
Yeah, thanks for everything you do for us, obviously for years and years now. We feel so lucky to have you with us. And thanks for taking the time today. You're a very busy man.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
I miss you, guys, I miss you.
It was an incredible gift to talk to Jay Rod obviously somebody that Jen and I admire very much. If you couldn't hear it in our voices, we feel so so lucky. We also feel incredibly lucky to have you the listener with us every week. Thank you so much for being here. It really means the world, and we'll see you real soon. The Official Yellowstone Podcast is a production of one oh one Studios and Paramount. This episode was produced by Scott Stone. Brandon Goetchis is the head
of Audio for one oh one Studios. Steve Rasis is the executive vice president of the Paramount Global Podcast Group. Special thanks to Megan Marcus, Jeremy Westfall, Ainslie Rosito, Andrew Sarnow, Jason Red and Whitney Baxter from Paramount, and of course David Glasser, David Huckin and Michelle Newman from one oh one Studios