Jill Wagner Reveals What It’s Really Like Working With Taylor Sheridan on ‘Lioness’ (Exclusive)
'It's his brain'—Wagner on Sheridan's vision and 'Lioness' Season 3's challenges
Key Takeaways
- Jill Wagner co-created ‘Lioness’ with her husband before pitching it to Taylor Sheridan. (78)
- Wagner stars as Bobby and also serves as an executive producer on the show.
- ‘Lioness: Special Ops’ Season 3 premieres Sunday, August 2, on Paramount+.
When Jill Wagner decided to team up with Taylor Sheridan for a military TV show called Lioness: Special Ops, she didn’t know what she was signing up for. Now, three years after the premiere, Wagner has gone on to star in every episode alongside Zoe Saldaña and Nicole Kidman. She also serves as executive producer on the show and Woman’s World recently caught up with her to discuss that and Season 3. To learn more, keep reading.
Jill Wagner opens up about working with Taylor Sheridan
Lioness: Special Ops first premiered in 2023. The series follows CIA operative Joe McNamara (Saldaña) and her elite team as they navigate the dangerous realities of military life and covert operations. Inspired by a real group of female military operatives, the show was partly created by Wagner and her husband David Lemanowicz, who then pitched to Sheridan, proving just how much the actress cares about the project.
“We came up with the idea in my backyard in Tennessee,” Wagner tells Woman’s World. “He was the first person that told me about lionesses. I didn’t know they existed. Taylor has created this version of them that you see, but these women exist, and there are b-d-ss women that go on these ops, and they do these jobs and we’re telling their story. They do exist, whether they’re called lionesses or not.”
Speaking of Sheridan, Wagner did take the time to reveal that he’s very involved with the series.
“He loves the show, and that’s what makes this show so brilliant, because it’s his brain and his passion for our military,” she says.
Also a part of Sheridan’s brain? The Madison, which Wagner loves. She also loves the Yellowstone universe, specifically Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) and thinks that the strong women should go out for drinks sometime soon.
Jill Wagner discusses working on ‘Lioness’
In Lioness: Special Ops, Wagner plays Bobby, a CIA Special Operations team leader and Quick Reaction Force (QRF) member. She shares a lot of screen time with Saldaña’s character, and both women are scene-stealers in their own right, bringing intensity, strength and emotional depth to every episode.
“It’s so cool. You look over and you just learn things by osmosis,” the actress says. “There were points where I looked over at them and I thought, ‘I shouldn’t be here. Oh gosh, I don’t belong in this room.’ Recently I’ve just looked over and said, ‘No, no, no, stop stop telling yourself that.’ Whether you’re a woman or a man, you have to get to a certain part in your life where you’re, like, ‘I do deserve to be here and sit in that.’ You don’t have to be cocky about it, but you just have to believe in yourself.”
As for what fans can expect from Season 3, Wagner didn’t share much, but did say that there were some challenges that she had to face.
“I think the challenges remain the same for me. Just the executive producer side of it. Obviously, there are those challenges, and then there’s the physicality challenge of Bobby and the fact that I’m also trying to be a mom and it’s really hard to keep those three things together,” she says. “But we can do it. We’re women. We can do anything.”
Lioness: Special Ops Season 3 airs Sunday, August 2 on Paramount+.
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