Tim McGraw is ready for another acting project with his wife, Faith Hill. The two starred as James and Margaret Dutton in the 1883 TV series, a spin-off of Yellowstone, for one season, and would love to find another movie or TV show to work on together.
“It was wonderful,” McGraw says. “I was always amazed every day doing scenes with her, how good she was. She really elevated my game and made me better, because she was just so natural and so good. And to see her build her arc as Margaret and how powerful and strong Margaret’s character became, and watch her build that was just pretty phenomenal.”
‘It was so cool to be able to do scenes with her and have a great day of shooting something really incredible,” he adds, “and going home and laying in bed and talking about it. That was something pretty special.”
It was the show’s creator and executive producer, Taylor Sheridan, who recruited McGraw first, and tasked him with the job of asking Hill to join him.
“I’d been a fan of Yellowstone since the first night it came out,” McGraw reveals to BMLG. “So, Taylor called, and he goes, ‘Hey man, I want you to be in Yellowstone, and you’re gonna play the original Dutton who founded the Yellowstone ranch.’ And he said, ‘You’re also gonna have a wife. Do you think Faith would be interested in playing your wife?’ It took me about three days to get the nerve up to ask her. She said, ‘Sure, I’ll be glad to do it. It’ll be fun.’”
In fact, it was their on-air chemistry that inspired Sheridan to create 1883, instead of having them appear in Yellowstone, as he originally intended.
“The first thing we shot, it was just so much fun,” McGraw remembers. “We’re going so fast and the shootout was so great. I remember getting off the horse and walking around going, ‘I don’t care if I do any other film for the rest of my life. I wanna do westerns from now on.’ And then cut to later on, Taylor called me and said, ‘I showed the flashbacks to the studio and they want to do a whole series now.’ So, when he sent the script for 1883 and we read it, Faith and I both were like, ‘This is just too special. It’s just too special not to do.’”
McGraw and Hill have been married for 28 years, but despite their longevity, the “One Bad Habit” singer says there isn’t a secret to their success.
“I am not an expert,” McGraw admits. “I don’t think anybody is. Marriage is — any relationship’s tough if you don’t cultivate it, and certainly if you’re not committed to it. Love and respect are always important, but I think that knowing that there’s gonna be tough times and knowing there’s gonna be times where you don’t like each other as much, all those things are gonna happen.
“I think that it’s knowing those things are gonna be there,” he adds. “Still knowing that you’re gonna get through the other side of it and you want to be together, and this is what you want your life to look like, I think is the important thing.”
Find all of McGraw’s music and upcoming shows at TimMcGraw.com.
All Photo Credits: Courtesy of Paramount+