Acting can be a truly grueling experience emotionally. So many actors work hard to immerse themselves within the full emotional scope of the character. To make the audience buy into what they’re watching, they can’t just simply play pretend. Rather, they need to feel like a real, tangible person that we care about as our own. Consequently, when films and television dip into darker territory, it can often be a taxing experience. This is no exception within the universes Taylor Sheridan crafts in his shows. One actress is telling her experience exploring this with him.
Recently, Julia Schlaepfer spoke with PEOPLE about the upcoming season of Taylor Sheridan’s 1923. There, she opens up about her character, Alex, who weds Spencer Dutton in the first season. One particular sequence in an episode gets particularly uneasy and traumatic with her character. Julia recalls the Yellowstone creator really emphasizing this and ensuring that she was okay going through with it.
“Taylor Sheridan called me before he started writing episode 3, and he was like, ‘Hey, she’s an immigrant coming to America. She’s a young woman who’s pregnant. And for all intents and purposes, as far as they’re concerned, she’s unmarried. They don’t legally recognize her marriage. And so she would go through a lot,'” Schlaepfer recalls.
“[Sheridan] was like, ‘I really want to write this episode, but I want to make sure, as an actor, you are okay with going through that because it will be very traumatic.'” she adds.
Taylor Sheridan Puts 1923 Star’s Character ‘Through Hell’
Julia recalls being particularly eager to dive into all of this as an actress. Once again, Sheridan emphasizes that “‘I’m kind of going to drag you through hell a little bit.'” Ultimately, though, Schlaepfer sees the sequence as an ability to flex her acting chops. Additionally, there’s a personal connection so she finds it particularly important to tell the story correctly.
“And I was like, ‘That’s okay. That’s okay. Yes, let’s tell this story because it also is real. It’s a real story so many people went through,” she recalls telling Sheridan. “My great-grandfather immigrated through Ellis Island with $15 in his pocket, and so I was like, ‘Let’s tell it.'”
