Years before that Taylor Sheridan cast as Travis Whitley on 'Yellowstone' he was often seen butting heads with Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) and his lovable but regularly fractious biker gang in Sons of Anarchy. Kurt Sutter's series, which mixed Hamlet with pigs, cast Sheridan as straitjacketed Deputy Chief David Hale, a mere thorn in the side of Teller and his crew. At least for a while.

Watching The Sons for 21 episodes, Hale was suddenly killed in the third episode of the third season (one of the best seasons of Sons of Anarchy) while driving to a funeral. Like many deaths on the show, its success was visceral, assuring the audience that it was well and truly done. According to Sheridan, the exit was his choice, and it all came down to a matter of numbers, both on call and contracts.

While promoting his Yellowstone prequel series, 1883, in 2021, Sheridan clarified his Sons of Anarchy departure with Rock and his career choices, which played a huge role in transforming him into the film and television dynamo he is today. "Then I was offered what I thought was a very unfair salary. It was less than almost every other guy on the show and it wasn't enough for me to quit my second job,” he explained.

From there, Sheridan received some key advice that would change the course of his career and make Hollywood grab anything with his name on it for years to come.

It's a story as old as time in Hollywood. Tell someone they won't accomplish anything, and chances are they'll do all that and more. In Sheridan's case, a few words from a business attorney set him on course. "This jerk business lawyer says, 'He probably deserves to make more, but we're not going to pay him more because guess what?' He is not worth more. There are 50. He has 11 years on the call. That's who the guy is, and that's all he's ever going to be,'' he recalled.

He wasn't. Three years after leaving Sons of Anarchy, it was announced that Sheridan's Sicario script would be directed by Denis Villeneuve, marking a career milestone for both writer and director. "I've just decided I don't want to be 11 years old on call for the rest of my life." Now, I'm happily 11 years old at the call of Yellowstone, but I don't think anyone wants to watch. I do anything on TV for an hour because the business told me not to. Now, with eight shows of his own making (for more on that, see /Ranking of Sheridan shows by film) and six of his screenplays (two of which he directed) that have earned critical acclaim, it's clear that Sheridan riding solo was the right thing to do.