The actor-turned-creator shares how a pay dispute on the FX biker-gang drama led to his TV empire.

Taylor Sheridan explains why he quit Sons of Anarchy and acting: ‘My business did not respect me’

The actor-turned-creator shares how a pay dispute on the FX biker-gang drama led to his TV empire.

By Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence

Derek Lawrence is a former associate editor at **. He left EW in 2022.

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June 30, 2026 6:22 p.m. ET

Taylor Sheridan on 'Sons of Anarchy'. Credit:

- Taylor Sheridan is sharing why he quit *Sons of Anarchy*.

- The lack of a pay raise on the motorcycle drama led the actor to begin pursuing writing.

- Sheridan more than cashed out, now being one of the most prolific creators on television.

The TV landscape would look a lot different right now if *Sons of Anarchy* had given Taylor Sheridan the slight raise he asked for.

Before the *Yellowstone* mastermind became a prolific creator and Oscar-nominated writer, he was a journeyman actor who had one-episode guest spots on everything from *Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman* to *Star Trek: Enterprise*. He finally seemed to break through when he was cast in a recurring role on FX's motorcycle drama *Sons of Anarchy*.

The Kurt Sutter–created drama quickly became a major hit. But, with a large cast that was fronted by Charlie Hunnam, Katey Sagal, and Ron Perlman, Sheridan soon learned he was "eminently replaceable." The network's refusal to meet his salary requests then led him to quit both his role as Deputy David Hale and acting.

"I've taken my beatings," Sheridan said on Tuesday's *Howard Stern Show*. "The worst beating, which is also the greatest gift that I ever got, season 2 of *Sons of Anarchy* had ended, it's a very successful cable show, [and] I'm an actor making scale. I'd literally leave the set and go to my other job, because I didn't make enough on that show to pay my rent and live. So, after season 2, I told them, 'Guys, I'm not coming back and doing this again for this price.'"

Sheridan at the premiere of '1883'.

Ethan Miller/Getty

Sheridan shared that he wasn't asking for Hunnam, Sagal, or Perlman money, but rather the $20,000 that the other supporting series regulars were receiving.

"They couldn't do it," he said. "We're not talking about an exorbitant amount of money, especially not in L.A. They said, 'We'll give you 15, and we'll guarantee you 10 episodes, that's all you're getting.' I do the math, and I said, 'That's not a raise. No.' My attorney responded to this business affairs guy, 'I've got kids on cooking shows on YouTube that make more than that,' and he goes, '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 him tomorrow.'"

This led Sheridan to the conclusion that "my business did not respect me." So, he decided to voluntarily exit the series. Airing in 2010, the season 3 premiere of *Sons of Anarchy* concluded with Sheridan's Hale being killed when he's run over during a drive-by shooting.

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Sheridan would next be seen in a 2011 episode of *NCIS: Los Angeles*, but that was his last acting credit until he made his screenwriting debut with 2015's Oscar-nominated thriller *Sicario*. A few years later, his ever-growing TV empire began with *Yellowstone*, and he's since created eight more series. He was recently rewarded with a $1 billion developmental deal at NBC Universal.

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"Call it pride or ego or integrity, but I just realized I've maxed out what I can do as an actor in this industry," he told Stern. "So I'm not going to try to do it anymore. And the people who have all the power are the people telling stories, so I'm going to tell my own stories. That's when I decided that I was going to write." (And that he'd say "f--- 'em" to his critics.)

Sheridan has since returned to acting, at least in shows where he's writing the dialogue, between his arcs on *Yellowstone*, *1883*, and *Lioness*.

Original Article on Source

Source: “EW TV”