Taylor Sheridan is explaining his Sons of Anarchy exit.
The show, which centers around a close-knit outlaw motorcycle club operating in fictional California town Charming, aired on FX from 2008 to 2014. Taylor appeared in the first two seasons before deciding he was leaving the series. His character was written off and killed in the first episode of Season 3.
“I’ve taken my beatings,” the 56-year-old actor and producer began to explain of his time in Hollywood in a recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show.
“What’s the worst beating you ever took? Who said something that really was just out of line?” Howard asked.
“The worst beating, which is also the greatest gift that I ever got: Season 2 of Sons of Anarchy had ended and it’s a very successful cable show. I’m an actor on this show making scale, making like, you know, there’s two dudes on the friggin DVD. One is Charlie Hunnam, who was the star, who’s a great guy, and me. We’re it,” Taylor explained.
“And I’m literally would leave the set of that show and go to my other job ‘cause I didn’t make enough on that show to pay my rent and live, so after Season 2, I told him, I said, ‘Guys, I’m not coming back and doing this again for this price. I’m just not doing it. I want what the other 14 people…not even asking for what Charlie gets or Katey [Sagal] or Ron Perlman. I just want what the other 11 guys are getting,’ and they couldn’t do it and what the other guys were getting, by the way, it’s a 13-episode show. They’re getting $20,000 an episode before taxes, before agents, before everything. We’re not talking about an exorbitant amount of money.”
Howard noted: “And you would think they hit the home run of all time. They’re millionaires or something. That’s hardly a millionaire.”
“No, especially not in LA, and they offered me 15. They said, ‘We’ll give you 15 and we’ll guarantee you 10 episodes. That’s all you’re getting.’ And I do the math on it and I’m and I said, ‘That’s not a raise. What is that?’ And I said, ‘No,’” Taylor explained.
“And my attorney responded to this business affairs guy. He said, ‘Look, I’ve got kids on f–king cooking shows on YouTube that make more than that.’ And he goes, ‘Well, then the guy should go get a cooking show on YouTube. We just don’t have to pay him because there’s 50 of that dude. I can recast that guy tomorrow.’ And so I realized my value is I’m imminently replaceable and that my business did not respect me and I thought to myself, I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t take this job and tell my son, ‘Son, you can be anything you want to be, but I’m going to miss your soccer game ‘cause I’ve got a Windex audition,’” he said.
“So, I quit the show. I told him, I said, look, whether you want to call it pride or ego or integrity, I don’t know what you call it, but I just realized I’ve maxed out what I can do as an actor in this industry, so I’m not going to try to do it anymore and the people that have all the power are the people telling stories, so I’m going to tell my own stories, and so, that’s when I decided that I was going to write. I quit.”
“My god, that takes f–king balls. Bravo,” Howard said. Watch above.
Taylor also made rare comments about Kevin Costner‘s Yellowstone exit, which happened in the middle of season five, leading to his character being killed off.
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