Taylor Sheridan’s ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Gave Ex-Convict Extras Panic Attacks, Caused Hospitalizations
Taylor Sheridan made shocking revelations about how several ex-convicts had to be taken to the hospital after their time on the set of Mayor of Kingstown.
“There is a scene in episode 3 of the first season where a man is arrested for killing a child. It actually is a parole violation so the guy doesn’t go to county, he goes straight back to prison immediately,” Sheridan, 56, recalled on the Monday, June 29, episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” show. “And when he comes in, there’s this frenzy because … there’s a bullseye on this guy [in prison].”
Sheridan recalled filming the intense sequence in a “decommissioned” prison.
“After the first take, I start hearing buzz over the radio, ‘We need a medic. Actually we need two medics.’ And I run upstairs to see what happened,” he continued. “Why do we need a medic? Did someone have a heart attack? And most of the extras in this scene were ex-cons who had actually stayed in this prison, which is empty [now].”
The creator realized that the experience was triggering for some of the extras, adding, “Of course, we’re paying a few hundred bucks a day to these guys and there’s not any work because it’s COVID and so they jumped at it.”
“Two of them had panic attacks that were so bad that they had to go to the hospital,” he said. “Then there was a third one who [when] we closed them in and locked them in the cells, this guy starts screaming, ‘You gotta let me out, I can’t do this.'”
Sheridan continued, “We let him out and he starts taking off. He’s like, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t. You don’t have to pay me.’ I said, ‘No, no, no. For what I just put you through, we’re gonna pay you.’ They left and they were done. They wanted absolutely no part of even reenacting it.”
The Mayor of Kingstown is one of Sheridan’s many successful shows. Sheridan originally explored a career as an actor before writing scripts for movies, including Sicario, Hell or High Water and Wind River.
Sheridan’s focus later shifted to the small screen, which paved the way for Yellowstone‘s success. The hit series aired from 2018 to 2024 as viewers tuned in to keep tabs on the fictional Dutton family. Sheridan has also worked on original shows Landman, Lioness and Tulsa King.
News broke in October 2025 that Sheridan closed a major with NBCUniversal. The five-year overall deal for film, TV and streaming will begin January 1, 2029, after Sheridan’s TV deal with Paramount — which goes through 2028 — officially ends.
Paramount will retain the rights to Yellowstone and the other franchises Sheridan created under his deal with the company, so he is expected to create a brand new IP for NBCUniversal. Sheridan’s move came after Paramount’s merger with Skydance.
“I spent the first 37 years of my life compromising. When I quit acting, I decided that I am going to tell my stories my way, period,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in a 2023 profile. “If you don’t want me to tell them, fine. Give them back and I’ll find someone who does — or I won’t, and then I’ll read them in some freaking dinner theater. But I won’t compromise. There is no compromising.”