Lawmen Bass Reeves - Building the World of Bass Reeves
Lawmen Bass Reeves - Building the World of Bass Reeves - Promo Trailer HD - From executive producers Taylor Sheridan (1883) and David Oyelowo (Selma) comes the untold story of the most legendary lawman in the Old West: Bass Reeves. LAWMEN: BASS REEVES follows the journey of Reeves (Oyelowo) and his rise from enslavement to law enforcement as one of the first Black U.S. Deputy Marshals west of the Mississippi. Despite arresting over 3,000 outlaws during his career, the weight of the badge was heavy, and he wrestled with its moral and spiritual cost to his beloved family.
Stream the series premiere of Lawmen: Bass Reeves on November 5, exclusively on Paramount+.
Stream the series premiere of Lawmen: Bass Reeves on November 5, exclusively on Paramount+.
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TVTranscript
00:00 [Walkers growling]
00:01 Go away!
00:03 I can genuinely say we are doing the Bass Roose story
00:07 at a scale that is mind-blowing.
00:09 The scope of this production has been just awe-inspiring for me.
00:12 It's so great, man.
00:14 It's a story of the American West told in a very real way.
00:19 It's breathtakingly brilliant.
00:21 ♪♪
00:27 Here we go!
00:28 ♪♪
00:30 Action!
00:33 Whether it's the hair, the makeup, the script itself,
00:36 the most rewarding element is watching hundreds of people
00:40 come together from a place of passion,
00:43 so desirous to get the story right.
00:46 The production design on this show
00:48 is absolutely breathtaking.
00:49 It's an epic show.
00:51 It's a show about an incredible time period in our history.
00:54 It was really cool from the sets to the costumes.
00:57 It wouldn't have felt as authentic without it.
01:00 [Gunfire]
01:01 The audience has a connection.
01:03 They feel something's going on.
01:05 You're living it. It feels so real.
01:09 You will follow me, and you will fire.
01:12 We're tasked with filling the brain
01:15 with all of this gorgeousness of all these different cultures.
01:18 There was Native Americans with African Americans,
01:21 with Chinese, with white.
01:24 Every culture was amongst each other.
01:26 They were all thrust together in the idea of the melting pot
01:29 that America likes to hang its hat on,
01:31 and it was a really unique time in the country for that.
01:35 Black, white, or red, we all just meant.
01:41 Let's go to our engines.
01:42 Watching and finishing.
01:44 Let's go!
01:46 They really go all out to make it as authentic as they can.
01:50 We have a Civil War consultant.
01:51 We have a Native American consultant.
01:53 We have different people that are experts in the field.
01:56 Start right here.
01:58 The representation in this show of American Indians
02:02 is so vital and important.
02:03 Taylor Sheridan and the folks at 101 Studios
02:06 are very supportive that we get everything accurate.
02:10 We did a lot of research into the actual towns
02:12 that we shot in -- Fort Smith, Fort Worth.
02:14 They are able to literally take a photograph from the 1800s
02:20 and make it real right now.
02:22 The set that we're in right now, the Reeds Farmhouse,
02:24 this didn't exist before this show.
02:26 This is a house that Bass Reeves
02:28 would have built for his family.
02:29 When we first see it, it's very, very simple.
02:32 And then as the story progresses,
02:34 Bass begins to make more money.
02:36 The look of the interior begins to change.
02:38 Look at this set.
02:40 It's wonderful to work in.
02:43 You walk onto a set like this,
02:45 and you're immediately transported back in time.
02:47 The sets are really, really cool.
02:49 They're just sprawling.
02:50 Dundee Carnival, Saturday and Sunday.
02:53 Fort Smith is the epicenter of commerce
02:56 in this region at that time.
02:57 There's tons of photos of the period,
02:59 so we were able to recreate storefronts
03:01 that probably have never been seen before.
03:03 Every can, every flower bag,
03:05 every box has some sort of history to it.
03:08 There's not an inch of these towns
03:09 that's not covered with something
03:10 that would have been there.
03:11 ♪♪
03:15 The courthouse was an interesting one.
03:17 Judge Parker was known as the hanging judge,
03:19 so he had a reputation for being a man of very little leniency.
03:22 If you were a criminal, you were gonna pay for it.
03:24 In his office, we definitely tried
03:26 to offer a lot of that personality to it.
03:28 It's very strong. It's very robust,
03:30 just like the man was himself.
03:33 "Hell on the Border" was a dank basement
03:35 beneath the courthouse.
03:37 It was a place where the worst of the worst were put.
03:40 It wasn't a place where human rights were thought of.
03:42 You got stuck in a hole in the literal hell.
03:44 I filled it with all these sort of dramatic shapes,
03:47 creating a very unusual jail.
03:50 We wanted to fill it as grimy and as down as possible,
03:53 and I think we achieved that.
03:55 ♪♪
04:01 They searched high and low, like, all over the world
04:03 to populate the spaces that our characters
04:05 find ourselves living in
04:07 to make it feel like a lived-in space.
04:09 It was definitely a challenge making all this stuff,
04:11 which is effectively 100 years old,
04:13 if not more, look brand-new again.
04:15 You know, this is a world where,
04:16 even though it is a period piece,
04:17 this stuff was brand-new to these people.
04:19 The scale of this show is massive.
04:23 We have 15,000 pieces of clothing.
04:26 If you see my shop here,
04:28 you'll see every corner of the shop has research.
04:31 The more we see it, the more we just get
04:33 completely engulfed by this world,
04:35 and that's when the magic happens.
04:37 You first walk into the wardrobe warehouse,
04:39 and you're just in awe of what they've tailored.
04:41 The hats they build, the boots they build,
04:43 the entire costume they build with period fabrics,
04:47 and everything is so specific.
04:49 It's been incredible.
04:50 And let's cut. Let's go again.
04:52 Let's cut. Go again.
04:53 Go again.
04:55 It's mind-blowing just to see and meet
04:57 so many good people, talented people,
05:00 smart people, noble people,
05:02 really just wanting to do the best they can
05:05 to put this story together and doing it so beautifully.
05:08 Whether it's costumes or production design
05:11 or our animal team sourcing period-appropriate saddles,
05:15 the textures, the materials that we're using,
05:18 there's been so much effort that's gone into this.
05:20 It was important for us to really make the show feel epic,
05:24 and I think we have achieved that,
05:26 and it's what is deserving of the legacy of Bass Reeves.
05:30 ♪♪