Sebastian Roché Talks 1923, Collaborating with Taylor Sheridan, and the Importance of Exploring Dark Chapters in History Through Media

Sebastian Roché is a gifted storyteller with over a hundred credits to his name. He’s built a legacy in film and television for his remarkable ability to transform into any character. This year, he stars in the highly-anticipated series, 1923.

1923, a Yellowstone origin story, introduces a new generation of the Dutton family as they explore the early twentieth century when pandemics, historic drought, the end of Prohibition and the Great Depression all plague the mountain west, and the Duttons who call it home.

Pop Culturalist was lucky enough to speak with Sebastian about 1923, collaborating with Taylor Sheridan, and the importance of exploring dark chapters in history through media.

PC: How did you discover your passion for storytelling?
Sebastian: It started very, very early. I was living in France at the time and come from a bilingual family. We were not allowed to watch television, but we still managed. I had a neighbor in the village who lived twenty miles from Paris. I would sneak into my neighbor’s house and watch TV. We’d usually get a scolding, but eventually, my parents got a TV.

I remember very clearly one day watching this extraordinary movie by Cocteau: Beauty and the Beast. It was the original 1936 version by Cocteau. That was truly one of the most extraordinary films I’d ever seen. It was a surrealistic masterpiece. It’s the same story that Disney took. It was based on the actual fables.

Then I carried with me this passion for the screen. I would spend a lot of time with my grandparents in London. There I’d watch great classics on TV. I would usually go for Christmas or the holidays. We would watch marathons of some of the greatest classics of British and US film.

I started to really like theater. My dad took me to the cinema. He was very interested in different filmmakers. In my early years, I would watch Bergman and Akira Kurosawa, especially this movie that stuck with me called Dersu Uzala and then Seven Samurai. Then I went on to develop this incredible passion for disguise. I love to disguise myself and invent stories.

PC: You’ve had so much success throughout your career. When you look back, is there a particular moment that stands out?
Sebastian: There are many that stand out, but it’s probably the decision I made as an actor to suddenly leave everything and move to New York. I was originally going to move to London. I was working as a French actor, but I never really felt comfortable in my mother tongue. I was raised bilingually, so I thought, “I’m going to move to London.” Then I went to New York on a whim and realized that was where I needed to be. I got my green card and stayed and started working. That decision was one of the most important decisions that I made in my life because very soon after I was starring in a huge production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé with Al Pacino. That was a very big debut for me on the stage. I can’t believe how gutsy I was as a kid.

When I arrived in New York, I called major agents and sent my photos, and I’d get calls. I’d done a few American TV series in Paris. I remember this casting director named Hank McCann said, “If you come to the States, call me.” I called him and I said, “Hey, Hank. I’m here. Where can I meet agents?” I was so brazen. I did the same thing with Bonnie Timmermann. A friend of mine said, “If you go to New York, call Bonnie.” She was the biggest casting director at the time. I called Bonnie and I was like, “Hi, Bonnie. I’m Sebastian. Would love to meet you.” You never do that. [laughs] I got her personal number. She called my friend in Paris and was like, “Oh yeah, come see me.” Then I got cast in Last of the Mohicans.

These are moments in my life where I thought to myself, “This is the place I need to be. I am meant to be here.” Then I started my American career. I did a lot of theater in New York. I started doing more and more TV and moved to LA. Things got better when I got to LA. There were many significant moments in my career, like the first TV series I did in 1997. It starred Heath Ledger, Vera Farmiga, Keri Russell, myself, Lisa Zane, and some others. That was Heath’s first American gig. He was eighteen. There were all these amazing actors in it.

That started a regularity of employment up to this point with 1923 with Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren. Who could ask for more? These were my absolute heroes and crushes. Helen Mirren in Excalibur and then with Harrison Ford in Mosquito Coast, who was for me the embodiment of adventure as an actor. It was quite a dream. The journey has been worth the effort.

PC: Speaking of 1923, you’re no stranger to playing the villain, but often there’s a supernatural element to those characters, which I imagine allows you to step outside of reality. But this role is very much grounded in history. Were there any trepidations about heading into this project, given the subject matter and your character’s arc?
Sebastian: Yes, very much so. We’re dealing with something that truly happened and that was unfortunately newsworthy because we’ve heard about the residential schools in Canada and the discovery of mass graves of children.

I give Taylor Sheridan an immense amount of credit for always talking about the Native American casualties and the horrors that happened in the past. He talks about the reservations on Yellowstone and 1883. There’s the push towards the West and encroaching on the territories. Now we’re talking about the very, very painful history of residential schools with Native Americans who were taken away from their families and put in these schools to as they say in the scripts “get the Indian out of them.” It’s sort of an offshoot of colonization, but we’re talking about religion as a weapon to dehumanize a whole strata of society and the indigenous Americans, the people who were here first. We’re recreating that painful history. It’s painful. It’s extremely triggering for people who are going to watch it and who experienced it.

I play a perpetrator. When I read the script, I hesitated at first I have to admit. But then I thought to myself, “This is a necessary moment in history to talk about.” People need to know about these moments in history. Especially now when we’re in a time where people are trying to prevent history from being taught. That’s the great thing about films and documentaries. We can take these moments and release them to an even wider public because most people don’t read or want to inform themselves. It’s our duty. It was extremely brave of Taylor Sheridan to talk about it. Nobody really talks about it in a fictional series, but we’re talking about something that truly happened. It’s an important, dark chapter in our history. We need to be cognizant of the fact that this truly happened in the name of religion and state-building.

I felt a huge responsibility as an actor to do my job properly. I had to inform myself properly and work with the actors who were indigenous American so that we could have safe words together. Because we’re dealing with such brutality.

I talked about this in another interview. Before one scene, I had to turn to the whole crew and apologize to them and to Plenty, who’s our Native American consultant on the series and is also on Yellowstone. I had to apologize to him because there was a room full of young women and we were going to recreate something very difficult. I felt it was my duty to apologize before doing the scene to clear the air because this was going to be something pretty horrific that we were going to transcribe on screen. It’s a huge responsibility, as it is with any film that recreates a dark chapter in history.

PC: Once you started receiving those first couple of scripts and you started filming, as an actor, how did you get into that mindset and create the space for yourself to dive into those darker moments? How did you decompress and separate yourself in between takes?
Sebastian: That’s a very interesting question. The day we shot any given scene, my process was to have a huge amount of focus. A film set is like a little village. There are people going about, doing their work incredibly professionally, especially on this series where you have the top people in their craft. You have to retreat into the character without being a horrible person. But you have to retreat into a space where you can focus on the scene, and that takes an inordinate amount of energy to channel such violence and such a desire for revenge. It takes so much energy and focus to stay within the character, especially when you’re doing your first scene on the first day of shooting. It brings added nervousness about what’s going to happen. Once you’ve achieved what you want in the scene and you feel that you’ve been as honest as you can with the scene and with your scene partner, there’s a sort of a release. There’s this feeling at the end of the day that a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders so that you can actually work on the next scenes with a little more liberty of spirit.

Nevertheless, when you’re doing those scenes, it does take a slight toll on you. You do end the day feeling spent. But at the same time, I remember working with Aminah Nieves and Leenah Robinson, these two wonderful young actresses, and feeling so fortunate that I could work with such truthful and powerful actresses.

At the end of the day, we’re actors. We celebrate the work that we do. I thought that after doing something so painful it would be triggering for them. It was beautiful to embrace each other. We all have a very close-knit relationship as a result.

It’s been extraordinarily fulfilling. I learned a lot about it during my research too. We’re sort of repositories of history at times. That’s what I find extraordinary in our art. We can talk about dark chapters of history, whether it’s the Tulsa Massacre that nobody knew about until Watchmen or movies about the Holocaust or movies like Dances with Wolves. They recreate periods of history that we might not know about as much anymore. Yellowstone is a perfect example. It’s a very popular series. People have difficulty in watching it, but it’s important to be challenged. It’s important to be challenged and informed, especially in an age of such disinformation. It’s time to be informed. Inform yourselves. Read a little more.

PC: You were also a fan of Taylor’s before jumping onto this project. What was it like getting to collaborate with him and what impact has he had on the way that you’ve approached your work since and specifically with this character?
Sebastian: I’ve been a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s since the moment that I saw Sicario. I’m an avid reader and writer myself. When I saw that film, I thought to myself, “Who wrote this absolutely brilliant script?” It’s a flawless script. It’s beautifully directed and of course, acted.

The origin of any great film is the writing. If you get a great script, most of the time you’re going to have a great movie. I thought to myself, “Who is this Taylor Sheridan?” Then I watched Hell or High Water and I thought, “My God, this guy is truly amazing.” Then I went to see the film that he directed and wrote, Wind River. Then I started watching Yellowstone, and I thought to myself, “I need to work with this guy. This man knows how to write as a writer, but he also knows how to write for actors.”

It seems so seamless. It’s like he throws the right words into every one of his characters’ mouths. It’s extraordinary. He’s a wordsmith and a magician of words. Then I watched 1883. When I heard about 1923, I thought, “I need to will myself onto the show.”

I auditioned for another character, but it didn’t work out. Then Father Renaud came along, and I connected with the character. It seems strange to connect with such a cruel character, but I did connect with the character. I didn’t identify, but I connected with the character. It felt right. I was proven right. I willed myself into the Taylor Sheridan universe.

Any time you’re on a new project of such quality, it does change you. I remember doing some of the scenes, and they’re so fine-tuned. Every word is important, every syllable. It makes you strive to become even more truthful and to try to present the story in the most honest way. In that respect, it did change me by bringing it down to the essence of the word. What I love about Taylor Sheridan and the way we shot is that the most beautiful thing about a scene is the silence. He gives you room for silence, for moments, for beats, where it all ends up in the eyes. But that’s also part of his writing because he gives you the space. I truly appreciate that.

I was working on a scene with this wonderful actor Jamie McShane. It was a scene where we were gauging each other and the words were sparse, but it was all about the silence. That’s great writing too.

That’s what I learned. Because sometimes you go on certain shows that are a little more commercial and people are like, “Could you go a little faster?” It’s frustrating. The silences in life are sometimes the most interesting moments that you’re going to see.

PC: You were talking earlier about how as an actor, you’re constantly learning. I read that when you weren’t filming, you were on set watching Harrison and Helen. What did you learn from watching them perform?
Sebastian: They are true craftsmen. They’re brilliant actors. It’s incredible to see the commitment and passion that they have for the craft still. These people are at the top of their games. They’ve gotten everything they could ask for, yet I loved to see their unbelievable respect towards the crew and their unbelievable commitment to the art that they’ve chosen. They are such generous actors. Beyond their brilliance of course, it’s truly the way they conduct themselves with the crew and the other actors and how they inhabit the characters. They have such cohesion because they’ve worked together before. It’s marvelous to watch how seamless it is between them. Harrison is giving everything to Helen for Helen to be her best and vice versa. It’s such beautiful, generous acting and with subtlety and honesty. They’re at the top of their game. You can only learn from watching.

To keep up with Sebastian, follow him on Twitter and Instagram. Watch 1923 on Paramount+ today.