Established in 1885, the saloon at the New Sheridan in Telluride, Colorado plays to the lore of the loosely governed Wild West. A great deal has gone on in this building over the last 140 years and I sense that not much of it would have earned the participants an easy stairway to heaven. The irony is, that given the bar sits at an altitude of 9200 feet, the alleged climb would be considerably shorter than most. The saloon has the whiff of vice and is probably all the better for it. It was a place where only four generations ago, saloon girls and grizzly gold prospectors bettered each other’s lives night after night.
In 1889, just one building down from the New Sheridan saloon, Butch Cassidy staged his first bank robbery. He and three mates ran off with $31,000 from the San Miguel Valley Bank - a load of cash in those days. There were no lawmen in sight, it was very much The Wild West.
In my giddy western revisionism, I always demand strong faces and this tableau is a narrow smorgasbord of Western archetypes. The calculus involved in the casting and then the composition of that cast in a single vignette is vital if we are to pay effective homage to famous saloons such as the New Sheridan. It is a good canvas on which to tell stories.
Attention to detail in placing cast members is the epicentre of what we do and I think we have learnt from our many mistakes over the years. Everyone in this photograph has earned their place at the table and what a good dinner table that would be. There would be little in the way of moral compass, but there would be a dogged determination and a pursuit of the American dream. There is much to applaud in those attributes.
This was my first time working with Kelsey Asbille - a key cast member in the iconic Yellowstone series and a delightful and down to earth actress. She brought great energy to the set as well as her South Carolina charm and many stories of the excellence of Taylor Sheridan’s direction. I was keen not to be seen as a regression and that was a tough order. Kelsey knows the camera well and the camera loves her. Her eyes were my single point of focus and I asked her to look untamed. She delivered that look for sure as, indeed, did everyone else.
I want to thank Ray Farnsworth - the proud owner of the New Sheridan Hotel and its famous saloon - for hosting our crew and looking after us all so well. Do stay there: the staff are delightful; the food is excellent and it is no longer untamed.