‘Yellowstone’ Star Kelly Reilly Needed Taylor Sheridan’s Help to ‘Access’ Beth Dutton

Yellowstone’s Beth Dutton — played by British actress Kelly Reilly — is a character unlike any other fans have seen before. The feisty, sharp-tongued, irreverent only daughter of rancher John Dutton (Kevin Costner) has already made her mark in television lore, but Reilly admits she had difficulty finding Beth at first. She recently revealed that she needed creator Taylor Sheridan’s help to “access” the character when she was originally cast.

The ‘Yellowstone’ star says Beth Dutton is the most fascinating character she’s ever played

When Reilly was offered the role on Yellowstone in 2017, Sheridan had just won the award for Best Director at Cannes for the film Wind River. She hadn’t seen the movie at that point — but she had seen Sicario, which Sheridan wrote.

Reilly heard Sheridan’s speech when he won at Cannes, and that’s the moment she knew she wanted to work with him. The 44-year-old recalled how Sheridan dedicated his award to the Native Americans, and he “spoke with such intelligence and grace about them.”

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Reilly says that one thing that makes Beth so special is her words — which come from Sheridan.

“I have the luxury of saying Taylor Sheridan’s words, which are weapons — sometimes they’re prayers, and sometimes they’re screams. It’s hard to explain Beth or sum her up. I could talk about her for hours. She’s probably the most fascinating character I’ve ever played. In my brain, she certainly takes up a lot of space,” Reilly revealed.

Kelly Reilly needed Taylor Sheridan’s help to ‘access’ her character

Beth is a “ruthless, yet unbreakable” character who will do absolutely anything for the benefit of her father and the Dutton Yellowstone ranch. The first word Reilly used to describe her character was “complicated,” and she admits she didn’t get her right away.

“It took me a long time to access her and fully understand her,” Reilly confessed. “Many hours back in season one before we started filming, I would just be on the phone with Taylor listening to him. I have probably three notebooks full of notes about his vision of her and her history.”

The Yellowstone universe and all of its characters are Sheridan’s creations. Reilly says that talking to him and reading the first few episode scripts helped her understand Beth much better.

“I have never read a character like her and was energized by her irreverence and her danger and her recklessness, but also her pain. He draws that really beautifully,” she says. 

‘Yellowstone’ star Kelly Reilly says Beth Dutton is a ‘storm’

When first reading a character like Beth — with all of those unique characteristics — Reilly knew she had to “inhabit all of that.” She explained that in order for Beth to “resonate or command any sort of emotional response, those notes had to all be equal in her.”

“I think she’s a storm. She’s weather. And there’s something so unapologetic about her that it’s a fantasy, right? You and I wouldn’t get away with speaking the way she speaks or doing some of the things she does. So it’s a heightened reality of, wouldn’t that be wonderful if sometimes I could just say what I think?” 

Yellowstone airs Sunday nights on the Paramount Network.