Beth Dutton a fan favorite on Yellowstone, but Kelly Reilly recently revealed that she doesn’t always love cocreator Taylor Sheridan’s vision for the character.
Reilly, 46, discussed her thoughts on Beth’s arc in a featurette included on the Blu-ray and DVD editions of the first half of season 5. “I’m coming to it almost the same as the audience,” she said in the clip. “I mean, I have my hopes and thoughts for the character. Also, as I’ve played her for over five years now, I feel like I know her so well, but I’m still learning.”
Reilly went on to say that she still gets surprised by things Sheridan, 53 — he has written or cowritten all 47 episodes of the show — decides to do with Beth. “There are still things that I read and I didn’t expect, or sometimes I wish for something else for her, but that’s the same as the audience,” she explained, adding that she thinks it’s “fascinating” to discover where the show is going. “We’re all sort of beholden to the vision of the storyteller, and we serve the story. Who knows what’s going to happen? I find that exciting as an actor.”
Yellowstone has been plagued by delays and rumors of drama on set for months. The first half of the fifth season wrapped up in January and was supposed to be followed by the second half this summer, but filming delays pushed the release date back to November. Paramount Network confirmed in May that the show will end after the remaining episodes of season 5 air.
The announcement came amid speculation that series lead Kevin Costner was holding up production on the new episodes and refusing to make himself available for more than a handful of days on set. His lawyer Marty Singer, however, denied that Costner, 68, was the reason for the holdup. “The idea that Kevin was only willing to work one week on the second half of season 5 of Yellowstone is an absolute lie,” Singer said in February. “It’s ridiculous — and anyone suggesting it shouldn’t be believed for one second. As everyone who knows anything about Kevin is well aware, he is incredibly passionate about the show and has always gone way above and beyond to ensure its success.”
Costner, meanwhile, is hard at work on his Horizon saga, which marks his first time in the director’s chair since 2003’s Open Range. He has been trying to get the western epic made since 1988, but production didn’t begin in earnest until early 2022. Costner — who plans to split the 11-hour saga into four movies — confirmed in May that production had begun on the second film and said he hopes to premiere the first movie later this year.
Sheridan, for his part, denied that he and Costner ever feuded. “My last conversation with Kevin was that he had this passion project he wanted to direct,” Sheridan told The Hollywood Reporter in June. “He and the network were arguing about when he could be done with Yellowstone. I said, ‘We can certainly work a schedule toward [his preferred exit date],’ which we did.”
Costner is also in the middle of a nasty divorce battle with estranged wife Christine Baumgartner, whom he wed in 2004. In May, an insider exclusively told Us Weekly that the Yellowstone production delays were “one of the reasons” for the couple’s split.
“Christine wasn’t happy with Yellowstone‘s schedule delays because it caused him to miss so much time with his family,” the insider said, adding that Costner had always been worried about how much the on-location project would take him away from home. “He was on the fence about doing the show from the beginning. He had to be convinced to do the project.”
Baumgartner and Costner share sons Cayden, 16, and Hayes, 14, and daughter Grace, 13. Costner also shares daughters Annie, 39, and Lily, 37, and son Joe, 35, with ex-wife Cindy Silva, and son Liam, 27, with ex Bridget Rooney.
