While I’d say it’s easy to reckon the majority of the fanbase for Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowstone universe would be absolutely gobsmacked to be working amongst the various series’ star-studded casts. That’d be particularly reckon-able when it comes to 1923’s cast of superstars, from leads Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren to recurring James Bond icon Timothy Dalton. Understandably, even some of the actors found themselves to be a bit starstruck during various points in the production. Including scenes filmed in the bedroom and between the sheets, grin grin, wink wink, nudge nudge.
For as much heartbreak and tragedy as there was readily available during the ten-episode first season of 1923 on Paramount+, the show definitely factored in more than a few moments of love and levity between the characters. And when such storytelling was such that it required Ford’s Jacob to be in bed with Mirren’s Cara, even the Oscar and Emmy winner hilariously had to self-awarely keep herself on task.
Here’s how she put it when speaking reflecting on working with Harrison Ford during a panel Q&A for TheWrap:
I had to be in the bed with him, you know. I'm dressed up to here: [Points to neck]. But I'm lying there and I'm thinking, 'I'm in bed with Harrison Ford.' [Laughs.] I was so excited, I can't tell you. I had to pretend to be cool. Don't tell him. Promise me.
Helen Mirren is living proof that it doesn’t matter if one is in skimpy PJs or the most modest, old-timey nightwear, lying in bed next to a fellow cinematic legend can still be equally mentally intimidating and intriguing. Who cares if it’s happening on a set while cameras are around? Acting is all about getting swept away in a moment despite the artifice, whatever that moment might entail.
Plus, it’s not like Taylor Sheridan scripted anything inherently filthy taking place beyond hugging and smooching within their bedroom. (Those kinds of acts, from public sex romps to totally non-sexual horse masturbation, are more of a signature on Yellowstone proper.) As such, Helen Mirren’s nervousness could remain on an adorably polite “fan yourself with a magazine” level.
Although maybe not completely innocent, as she amusingly said the following a little before bringing up filming an in-bed scene with Ford:
I genuinely, actually love him, and if I wasn't married... [Laughs]
Helen Mirren has been married to another famous Taylor — filmmaker Taylor Hackford — since 1997. He helmed the 1992 adaptation of Stephen King’s Dolores Claiborne, which I mainly bring up because Kathy Bates would be a fantastic addition to Sheridan’s western world, and I wanted to put that thought into the universe.
To be clear, the actress spoke quite a bit about how giving and invested a performer Harrison Ford is, and credits him with growing in those respects as an actor since they time they worked together on 1986's The Mosquito Coast. Which probably just fanned those flames of G-rated desire, amirite?
Will we see more from Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford while horizontal in the previously renewed Season 2? Will Taylor Sheridan maybe catch wind of her quotes and bemusedly write a more pointedly tawdry moment between the two? We’ll have to wait and see when the next season joins the rest of the upcoming Yellowstone projects, even if the flagship series is set to potentially end with Season 5 over alleged scheduling conflicts with Kevin Costner.
Maybe that whole situation should get in bed with Ford and Mirren for a bit.
