Acting legend Morgan Freeman gave a major salute to star TV writer Taylor Sheridan in a recent sit-down with the New York Times.
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Sheridan has created hit TV shows such as Yellowstone and, most recently, Lioness. During his interview, Freeman says one of the reasons that he believes Sheridan has had so much success as a writer is his ability to make the audience connect with the "human experience" of his characters.
Freeman Credits Sheridan For Portraying 'Human Experience'
"It has to do more with the human experience, what people are actually going through, emotionally, in a lot of cases," Freeman said as caught by PEOPLE. "You saw that a lot in Yellowstone, and you actually see it a lot in any of his writings."
Jenkins' most current project, Lioness, which stars Zoe Saldana, follows a secretive CIA operations team. One that recruits female operatives to infiltrate high-level terrorist organizations by getting close to the targets' wives, daughters, or girlfriends. While Lioness falls under the category of fiction, Freeman pointed out how Saldana's character deals with many of the same issues as the average Joe.
"And here, in Lioness, in Zoe [Saldaña's character] case, for instance, he is dealing with a woman whose life is on the line very often," he added. "She has kids and a husband. She makes decisions, and she has to consider these. It takes courage to write about stuff like that, and Taylor seems to have an awful lot of it."
Saldana echoed a similar sentiment ahead of the show's season 3 premiere.
When speaking with PEOPLE about the characters in the show, the Drumline star praised Sheridan for how "gender-fluid" he made the Characters in Lioness. She said that shows the true mark of a talented writer.
"When you write something so incredible that it kind of defies gender and race, and it's just about the merit of that human being, I feel like you give yourself the opportunity of a wider range of actors that can come in and sort of vie for that part," she said. " I have a great deal of respect for men that really know how to write women, and I think that Taylor gives himself enough credit."
