Why Taylor Sheridan Left ‘Sons of Anarchy’ After Just 2 Seasons
Taylor Sheridan has “taken [his] beatings,” the one-man TV posse told Howard Stern on Tuesday.
Sheridan, who at this point makes pretty much every TV show your dad watches, says the “worst” of those beatings also happened to be “the greatest gift that I ever got.” The story also happens to explain why he left FX‘s hit cable series Sons of Anarchy after just two seasons.
It’s all good: Sheridan has gone on to make a few hits (to varying degrees) of his own, like Yellowstone, Tulsa King, Landman, Lioness, Mayor of Kingstown, The Madison, and Yellowstone prequels 1883 and 1923. He’s soon taking his television talents to NBCUniversal, where Sheridan has already set up a film deal.
But 15 years ago, when he was a mere actor, Sheridan says he made scale on the Kurt Sutter series, which was about $10,000 per episode (on a 13-episode show).
“We’re not talking about an exorbitant amount of money,” Sheridan said, adding, “especially not in L.A.”
“I literally would leave the set of that show and go to my other job ‘cause I didn’t make enough on that show to pay my rent and live,” Sheridan told Stern on SiriusXM. “So after season two, I told [Sutter]— I said, “Guys, I’m not coming back and doing this again for this price. I’m just not doing it. I want what the other 14 people [make].”
Sheridan clarified that he was not asking for the same money the shows established stars like lead actor Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal and Ron Pearlman made. Producers offered Sheridan $15,000 per episode, but at a guarantee of 10 episodes.
“I do the math on it, and I said, ‘That’s not a raise. What is that?'” he recalled. “And I said, ‘No.'”
A “business affairs guy,” presumably at FX, told Sheridan’s attorney that the actor could be recast “tomorrow,” per the writer/ex-actor.
“There’s 50 of that dude,” Sheridan said the man told his lawyer.
“I realized my value is I’m imminently replaceable and that my business did not respect me,” Sheridan said. “So, I quit the show… that’s when I decided that I was going to write. I quit.”
“My god, that takes fucking balls,” Stern said. “Bravo.”