Yellowstone: How Jefferson White Got Permanent SCARS While Filming! (Exclusive)

hi my name is jefferson white and i play jimmy herdstrom on yellowstone [Music] you're alone jimmy i'll take that as a yes jefferson white first of all congratulations you are a part of the number one show on tv how does that feel it feels incredible i feel incredibly lucky uh and it's all obviously you know i've loved the show for years i've loved the show since we started making it since the first time i read the script so it's an incredible gift to to sort of feel that for other people to sort of get a chance to see it and to fall in love with it the way that we have you know it's kind of hard to describe with words how uncomfortable i am right now what kind of reaction do you get in your everyday life i live in brooklyn new york so out there it's pretty mellow everybody's very cool everybody's very distant which is a bummer for me because i'm always walking around trying to get recognized you know i'm always like making protracted eye contact with people like do you want to talk to me nobody wants to talk to me it's my first date with the texans so i don't really know the protocol so brooklyn boy what drew you to the project talk to us about the casting process from the beginning uh so i read the script in you know 2016 i think it was my agent sent me the script and they originally had me auditioning for casey for the role of casey which i read and i was i was so immediately obsessed with the script and the role casey that's an incredible part but i also sort of recognize right away that's not me you know that's an ex-navy seal ultimate badass cowboy so what i did was i loved the script so much and i knew i wasn't quite right for the part so i went through the script looking for anything else that fit so i immediately sort of connected with jimmy that really felt kind of right right down the middle for me you know just a sort of guy trying desperately to keep up a guy who's in over his head sort of trying to survive in a world that's that's very new to him that really resonated with me but i also so i made a tape for jimmy without anybody asking me to uh which could have gone either way but worked out pretty well were you you were the yellowstone i thought the yellowstone was gonna get me out of trouble so let's dive into season four of yellowstone when you read the script and saw for the first time that jimmy survived after being unresponsive on the ground because i'm not gonna lie for a second we thought we lost you yeah yeah yeah what was your reaction well first of all it was like yeah there's four people who are in you know dire dire straits here you've got kevin costner american legend and then you've got kelly reilly who plays beth and you've got luke grimes three duttons they're in danger so if anybody's expendable let's all be honest about who's expendable it's me so reading the end of that i was like oh boy if anybody's going jimmy's going and i you know i read that script i know because it's the finale of season three that i'm not going to read another script for six months which means i don't know if i'm gonna have a job or not for six months so i'm just frantically texting everybody and let's be honest about who responds very few people you know i'll end up texting denim and being like denim have you heard anything and he's like why would i have heard anything but when i found out i survived i was incredibly grateful to keep to you know keep doing the best job i've ever had in my life you know what i mean to get to keep working on the ranch and keep working with those guys that's the best job i've ever had in my life what happened to him it's not a list of things we need to discuss so it really is top secret then like you don't know how far in advance the storyline goes for jimmy i don't know anything and that's i think appropriate for jimmy particularly yeah for jimmy [Music] well i'm glad we're all glad that he survived because there are so many more stories to tell with jimmy i love when you mention about casey you said you know he's this ultimate badass cowboy but look now at this full circle moment at jimmy being an ultimate badass cowboy jimmy's yeah jimmy's come a long way uh he's still got a long way to go the more i learn about this stuff the more i realize how little i know you know and it has a way of humbling you anytime i start to get ahead of myself or start to imagine that i've got it all under control the horse has a way of humbling you you know now obviously jimmy is a fan favorite and i feel like a lot of people would even argue he's the heart of the show why do you think it's so easy for people to root for jimmy that's very kind and i appreciate people's response to jimmy so much i think part of it is just that he's new to this world too i think people really connect to the show in part because it has these huge sort of romantic sweeping sort of idyllic views it's this kind of epic world it's this sort of you know the american west we romanticize all the time there's this sort of the legend of the american west and i think people really connect to that and then jimmy's so new to it it's a world that jimmy is uh just learning about and just sort of trying to find his footing in so i think in some ways he becomes a bit of a audience stand-in you know for me that that's been my experience with jimmy is that i've been learning about this world this culture this community alongside him and that's a way in which i've connected to him from the beginning is that we're both sort of outsiders looking in and outsiders desperately trying to fit into this world so you'd say you're pretty similar to your character than in real life in a lot of ways just minus the horses in brooklyn that part exactly yeah in a lot of ways it both largely in that we're both just sort of uh learning and doing our best to learn from everyone around us and that's that's certainly been the case for for jimmy from the beginning he's new to this he's desperately watching rip lloyd john dutton trying to pick up everything he can and that's absolutely the case for me on the show too you know i feel so lucky to be surrounded by such brilliant actors who i've admired for so long and in the same way that jimmy's learning from those characters i'm you know looking to cole hauser learning from cole hauser learning from kelly riley learning from kevin costner every chance i get you know so the same way that jimmy looks up to these characters and sort of aspires to earn their you know respect i i feel exactly the same way on set action i know what you're thinking that it's cruel what i'm doing sending you away that it isn't fair this isn't a punishment jimmy it's an opportunity if you let it be kevin costner to be able to now work alongside him could you ever have imagined that he's a myth himself you know he's a kind of legend of american cinema western cinema and i'm lucky in that jimmy is awed by john dutton in the same way that i'm awed by kevin costner so the real gift to that is that i never have to pretend that i'm not you know in awe of him see you around jimmy [Music] see you around what is your favorite part about playing jimmy i love honestly my favorite part of working on the show and my favorite part of playing jimmy is just getting to sort of spend time in this world that i might never have otherwise gotten to know you know the western world cowboying ranching is a sort of lifetime pursuit it's a kind of it's it's an entire sort of world unto itself and if not for yellowstone i might have never had the opportunity to spend time on horses to spend time in the rodeo world in the ranching world and that that's been an incredible gift so my favorite part of working on the show is the opportunity to learn about this this world to learn about acting from the brilliant actors on the show to learn about writing and directing from taylor who is obviously a sort of myth unto himself taylor is i think he's he's writing his own legend right now you know he's an incredible sort of uh mythic figure in american television right now about the horses you like them it's kind of more like a face into fear so being being surrounded by these brilliant creatives and also being surrounded by these brilliant cowboys and ranchers and animal wranglers and stunt performers that my favorite part of it is just getting to learn from all these geniuses how much training did it take for you to pull off being such a believable cowboy so i had never ridden a horse before yellowstone i had never touched a horse before yellowstone uh before we started shooting the first season we had several weeks to practice we are surrounded by brilliant trainers brilliant horses we've got it's a sort of best case scenario if you're a who has never touched a horse before which is uh what i am uh so we really were given every opportunity to learn as much as we could and still and still fail constantly you know four years later we're still very much learning it's it's a lifelong pursuit you know it's a shame that hurts the most you know did you have a fear of horses at all going into it or were you pretty just okay with that you know actors we don't really get the luxury of fear you know if they were like hey your job is to ski down that hill i would say you got it thank you so much uh happy to be here you know we don't have the luxury necessarily of of that kind of choice um but like it's also these animals and these trainers are so brilliant that uh had i been afraid i'm sure they could have navigated that they really they really are uh remarkable teachers too so it was hard to be afraid in the circumstances where i had the best teachers with the best animals the best resources available how am i gonna pay for all this well the hospital's pretty curious about that themselves jimmy he's he's no stranger to a hospital now with these horses have you had any real life injuries knock on wood there's got to be some wood around here um knock on wood i i've been very lucky i've got some permanent scars just uh it's a little bit tmi on the inside of my butt cheeks there's a kind of what do they call them rorschach inkblot of scars wow um that will probably never heal other than that i've been very lucky very sore very bruised very uh very sort of beaten up but very lucky we got to go back to the scars on the booty because now it's like it's basically yours it's an evocative image it's it's a version of the yellowstone brand it's not on your chest and now yellowstone is with you for the rest of it and it is kind of a why shape look at that you know it's kind of a permanent why do you know if anyone has suffered injuries that are similar to your scars on your booty i think i was the newest to riding on the whole show which is lucky because jimmy's the newest to riding on the whole show too so i think i was the person who had the least experience and the least um callous but the real thing is that it's a little bit of luck but it's also an incredible amount of skill you know we're surrounded by horse trainers stunt performers a safety team that keeps us incredibly safe you know it's a tricky job their job is to make it look as dangerous as possible while being as safe as possible and they always err on the side of safety you know what i mean we don't take risks they're really brilliant at uh creating the feeling of frantic action and frenetic sort of chaotic movement while it's all under control that said you can't really like fake bucking you can't really fake a horse sequence so i have an incredibly talented stunt performer who's been playing jimmy as long as i have bobby roberts and he's done all the bucking sequences since then he does the stuff he does the stuff they're not quite ready to let me do yet let's go fish jimmy when the cameras are off in the bunk house what goes down kind of the same thing it's not so different when the cameras are rolling we're always finding ways to compete with each other we're very competitive especially me denim richards and ian bowen who play colby and ryan we're always finding ways to compete with each other you could ask me on the date i could i could do that so do it you want to go on a date yes yeah now jimmy went 0-60 with mia then he goes zero to sixty not even sixty zero to a hundred jimmy hits the gas very quickly when it comes to women why do you think he falls so fast is he a hopeless romantic deep down inside i think there's very few people in jimmy's life who have ever taken any interest in him looked him in the eyes seemed to show any sort of genuine care for him i think he's uh kind of starved for attention and starved for affection let me buy you dinner no i can't let you buy your dinner you got a girlfriend i i don't know i think you had a very complicated uh to say the least family life he's had a very complicated to say the least history prior to landing at the ranch and then the ranch isn't exactly uh the most nurturing environment it's a bit of a trial by fire so i think for jimmy anybody that pays attention to him and sort of sees him just a little bit the way he wants to be seen i think he he falls fast [Music] now with that being said who do you think is better for jimmy mia or emily wow um he describes mia as having seen him as something bigger than himself or an idea that he like wanted to live up to but never quite felt like he lived up to and it feels like emily sees him to a certain extent for who he really is you know which is like a hard-working guy who's out of his depth and trying to keep up you know mia saw jimmy to a certain extent as a rodeo cowboy as a kind of rock star which jimmy aspired to but i think could never quite live up to and i think emily emily sees jimmy for maybe who he really is today you know which is a a hard-working ranch hand just trying to stay on the horse you know in season four jimmy had that opportunity to reach out to mia after the breakup with a letter but he decides against it why do you think that was you never never text your ex you know what i mean there's never snail mail them yeah there's never a good reason to text your ex uh because it's like what are you looking for what what are you seeking from that person by writing them and where else can you find it you know because if you write a letter that means you're hoping to get a response what's it gonna feel like if you don't get the response you know what i mean like what are when you reach out like that what are you hoping to find so i'm glad jimmy didn't uh you know text his ex to a certain extent looking back at season four what was your favorite scene to film season four was i mean an incredible joy for me in general it was so many new things for jimmy so many new sides to jimmy the first three seasons jimmy never quite gets his footing he's always behind the eight ball a little he's always scrambling to catch up which is very fun to as an actor as well it's fun as an actor to be out of your depth but for the first time in season four jimmy sort of starts to come into himself um and that's been an incredible gift to sort of show these other sides of him you know there's like jimmy the romantic there's jimmy this sort of capable you know it's maybe the first time we see jimmy as capable of rising to what he's asked to do um and so that was an incredible gift also just getting to know the cowboys down at the sixes seeing that space after spending you know four and a half years up in montana the beautiful ranch up there the yellowstone getting to know that world it was an incredible journey to get to see another side of the same coin down in texas in west texas i had never been to texas in my life before we went out to the sixes to shoot and getting to know those cowboys getting to know that lifestyle was a was a tremendous pleasure in part also because it represented so much learning for me are you ready ready for one ready for work taylor directed all those texas sequences you know taylor was really that that was his unit that he took down to texas getting to learn from him at every turn was an incredible incredible gift and getting to learn from kat who plays emily she's a brilliant actor stepping into a show in its fourth season stepping into this sort of juggernaut show this huge world and she's stepped into it so confidently with so much power and such a sort of sense of herself she kept herself so ably in an environment where it's easy to get sort of thrown off your axis you know yeah she's an amazing actor when we first were introduced to jimmy you know he's scruffy and you know he's got a lot of facial hair now he's you know more clean shaven and just looks a little bit more put together is this that next chapter of maturity for him i hope so yeah i ended up you know that beard that quote-unquote beard that i had for four years is about the best that i can do you know i had to start growing that thing three months prior to shooting and just walk around with this really patchy kind of embarrassing nightmare on my face so i'm grateful that jimmy is evolving in that way um it's been a real yeah it's also like as different things are asked of jimmy he evolves and his body evolves in different ways rodeo cowboys have a very specific kind of uh body that's that you develop you know incredibly thick neck just from getting bounced around on the back of a bucking horse that's different a little different than a ranch hand's body that's a little different than uh you know a meth head's body which is where jimmy started out you're a two-time loser jimmy one more felony and they throw away the keys all right i touch a lot of horses now i've often i've gotten in trouble a few times on the set for petting the horses too much because you're not petting them is supposed to be like a reward when they do a good job and i just walk around petting them all they all think they're doing exactly they're doing a good job just standing there i'm sending mixed signals you know you got treats in your pocket you got carrots you're just like hey come on man please quit petting that horse and now they're going to act up in the scenes because they think they're always here i'm undermining their years of training by petting them they're really cute oh my goodness but they're also athletes we gotta talk about obviously the spin-offs with yellowstone now this has become a universe and you are a part of this universe how does that feel um it's incredible as a huge fan of the show and i've been a fan of the show with all due respect to fans of the show i've been a fan of the show longer because i read the scripts so i've been a fan of the show for you know four and a half years now and so when i heard about 1883 i i am so excited for 1883. the cast they've put together so y'all just sit and watch you look like he had it figured thanks for the help the production design that like you know we mythologize the american west and yellowstone is a little bit about what comes after you know yellowstone is about this modern west the evolution of this grand tradition this grand legacy so seeing sort of where it comes from and the sort of seed of that west i'm so excited and that cast is truly bonkers billy bob thornton is one of my sort of all-time idols there's only one killer in fort worth and that's me i'm so excited to see everybody's work in that show tim mcgraw and faith hill i was waiting for it i was like incredible obviously it goes without saying sam elliott a legend a legend an incredible actor yeah so the pedigree of those actors and then seeing taylor like i'm also a huge fan of taylor sheridan's work you james dutton yes sir mind if we speak whatever you're selling i ain't buying to see him do a period piece like this as far as i know it's the first sort of foray of his into uh period you know into into the past and he has such an incredible sort of powerful singular vision i am so excited to see that play out in the west good luck jimmy like said luck has nothing to do with it no i said luck has nothing to do with horse showing for this you're gonna need all the luck you can get see you around and obviously also we have the sixes and jimmy helped introduce the sixes to the audience what are you most excited for fans to see more of at the ranch i think you know what's incredible about the six is is it's a real ranch you know the sixes is uh one of the oldest ranches in texas one of the oldest ranches in the country one of the sort of largest functioning cattle ranches and you know horse training and breeding facilities in the country and so i think you know i'm really excited for people to see the kind of real gritty not glamorous world of real life cattle ranching you know now in in modern times what do you think should be a part of the sixes spin-off anytime i think i know what should happen next something completely different happens and it's way better than my idea taylor has only ever surprised us thrown us curveballs that we never would have expected and that is the greatest gift you know you don't want to put you don't want to put a dumb ass like me in charge of decisions like that all i can really do is try to hold on to the horse you know no no no no you gotta give yourself more credit you are doing an amazing job i mean that's very kind i feel incredibly lucky to be just holding on you know just holding on sort of flopping around and i haven't fallen off yet yet i've fallen off a few times but so far i've gotten back up [Music]

Channel: Entertainment Tonight

Views: 732,977

Keywords: Yellowstone, Paramount+

Id: jpqb9FJaYPo

Length: 23min 3sec (1383 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 31 2021