“1883” series creator Taylor Sheridan had a different plan for Isabel May’s talents in the beginning. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the fledgling actor dished that she initially auditioned for another one of Sheridan’s projects, “Mayor of Kingstown.”
“I was the only person to audition for Elsa. Taylor was doing another project called Mayor of Kingstown… He flew three girls out to Texas, including myself. So I auditioned for that, and I was terribly wrong for it,” she said. May assumed that would be the end of their interaction, but she later received a call from Sheridan asking her to play a part for an entirely different show. “I don’t know what happened or what it was about myself or our interaction that sparked something in him, but Elsa came to life after our meeting,” she added. “He called two weeks later and said, ‘You’re Elsa Dutton. I want you to be Elsa Dutton. Please be Elsa Dutton.’ And I said, ‘Well, of course, I’ll be Elsa Dutton because you’re Taylor Sheridan and it’s my dream to work with you.'”
Speaking with Deadline, Sheridan said that it was May who completed his vision for the drama. “I saw she could represent innocence and hope,” he said. “At that point I had not figured out how to tell this story and I had Sam Elliott over here, and I had Tim McGraw there, and Faith Hill, and I had not found the bridge between them all. When I met Isabel, the whole story, all 10 episodes, went right through my head.”
Nicki
