Given the incredible popularity of Taylor Sheridan's modern Western series Yellowstone, it's no surprise Paramount+ is launching 1883, a prequel that explores the first days of the Dutton family founding what became the largest ranch in the country. The highly anticipated new series premieres on December 19, and it follows the Duttons on the trail to Montana as they encounter various obstacles on the way to their new home.
Just as Yellowstone dives into the personal and political conflicts surrounding the land, 1883 is sure to tackle similar themes while taking the time period into account. Namely, the racial tensions at play are different just two decades after the Civil War, and the role of women is much more structured as well. But patriarch James (Tim McGraw, The Blind Side), whose dreams of a better future are what set him on the dangerous trail in the first place, has two particularly willful women in his family: wife Margaret (Faith Hill, The Stepford Wives) and daughter Elsa (Isabel May, Alexa & Katie).
Hill and May spoke to Screen Rant about the complicated nature of their mother-daughter bond, and how it will evolve over the course of the season.
I'm really loving 1883 so far, especially these two very strong yet very different interpretations of what it means to be a woman in this time period. Can you both talk about the somewhat strained and yet very rich dynamic between Margaret and Elsa?
Faith Hill: Elsa is seventeen - you're seventeen, right, daughter? When we leave Tennessee and take on this journey across the frontier and to the unknown, I think the rub from a mom to a daughter is the letting go. Letting go of that protection. I've probably had my arms around her before we've left safety and the things that we know in Tennessee [and now we're going] into this world.
I know her spirit as her mom because, as a mom, you do know your children - even though they may think you don't know them, we do know them. We know what's inside. And then when you get into a place like the wild and wide open space of Texas and the areas that we are traveling [on the way to] Montana, all these places? It's just this freedom where there's no judgment, because there aren't neighbors, and so forth and so on.
That's the struggle for me: trying to rein that back in, knowing full well what's inside of her, and having the ability to figure out how far do I allow her to go. How far do I rein her back in? While at the same time James, my husband, is like her best friend or champion. He allows her to go and do all these things, and he teaches her and trusts her and believes her; he knows that she's capable. And I know she's capable too, but it's an extraordinary tale. It really is an extraordinary tale.
Isabel May: What I think is interesting is that who Elsa is in the story when it begins is reflective of who Margaret was. They were both free spirits, and you kind of discover that about Margaret. But she understands the reality of a woman's life and what Elsa's life will become in the future. I think Elsa feels like she's on a leash with her mother, and it's her mother trying to do her good and trying to actually help her and aid her.
And with her father, there's this kind of free rein that she gets. That's their dynamic in the beginning, at least. But it's really beautiful, their trajectory.
Faith Hill: Yeah, what becomes [of it] is wonderful.
As Dutton ancestors, did either of you look at Kelly Reilly [who plays Beth Dutton] in Yellowstone or any of the Dutton family members for inspiration?
Faith Hill: We really didn't. I mean, I look at Kelly as inspiration for my own life.
Isabel May: She's amazing. That's one of my favorite female characters.
1883 premieres Sunday, December 19 at 9 pm ET exclusively on Paramount+.
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