Ahead of the Paramount+ series release of "1923," Helen Mirren admitted she signed onto the project with Harrison Ford without reading the script beforehand.
In the latest installment of the "Yellowstone" universe, Mirren went with her instincts and agreed to be a co-lead with Ford. She opened up about her decision to star in the series.
"I wasn’t hugely familiar with the whole thing. What interested me about ('1923'), I did see ‘1883,’ and that era of American history has always really fascinated me," she said, according to an interview with Variety.
Mirren added that co-star Ford had the same sentiments and agreed to be a part of the Taylor Sheridan franchise without looking at the script first.
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"The fact that Harrison was going to be involved was very important for me. Both of us committed to it without really reading any scripts," she added.
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"We didn’t really know what we were signing up for … the specifics of what we were signing up for. We had trust in Taylor’s extraordinary abilities as a writer, and we took a leap of faith."
Mirren and Ford first worked together nearly 40 years ago on "The Mosquito Coast," an adventure thriller that also starred late actor River Phoenix and was based on the novel by Paul Theroux.
The "1923" prequel is the second spin-off to the popular series, which follows the lives of the Dutton family as they run the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch. This series focuses on the Dutton family surviving the early 20th century, including the Spanish flu pandemic, the historic drought in America, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression.
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Mirren and Ford play Cara and Jacob Dutton, a married couple who manages a family farm in Montana. The couple is faced with several challenges during their journey but remained resilient throughout.
"They’ve been together for 50 years. When you do spend 50 years together, especially in the circumstances that Cara and Jacob are living their lives, it becomes, at its best, an absolute equal partnership," Mirren added.
"I love the fact that it’s what happens after ‘and they lived happily ever after.’ What happens next? I love that Taylor has given the room and the space in the story to look at a mature relationship and see how that relationship can succeed or flounder, and the challenges involved in keeping a relationship together."
Mirren said she enjoyed Sheriden’s writing in "1923" because men and women have equal partnerships in the series.
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"It’s essential," she noted.
"Taylor writes great women. He doesn’t have any prejudices when he writes his women characters, and there are really strong women characters in our piece."
Paramount+’s "1923" premieres Dec. 18.
