Wes Bentley is opening up about the great tragedy in Yellowstone, which is deeply interwoven within the sibling bond…er…rivalry of Beth and Jamie Dutton. When we first met the family at the heart of Taylor Sheridan’s Yellowverse, we had no idea what we were getting into, but we soon discovered that for as multifaceted as each character was, their story had more layers than we could ever have imagined.
There’s a lot of pain in the Dutton family story, and that rings especially true in the interactions between Bentley’s Jamie and Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton. It was evident early on that the two shared a space of love for one another, but something quickly replaced that with disdain and distrust. In a recent chat with Entertainment Weekly, Bentley dished more on what that means for him as an actor.
“The description of Jamie to me, within the context of the show, was that Jamie’s relationship with Beth is a ‘Greek tragedy out in Big Sky Country’ are the exact words Taylor said to me when I first talked to him on the phone. That this was a tragic relationship full of pain, and that’s rung true; you know that he stayed true to that from the get-go.
Bentley reveals that, at first, he wasn’t sure exactly what layers would be uncovered on the path to recognizing the heartache and pain that Beth and Jamie share. They’ve felt profound despair in their own lives, and they’ve caused it for one another. There’s nothing more tragic than loving someone and slowly watching that adoration become disdain and then a deep-seated hatred.
“I didn’t even know to the extent we were gonna go, but he made it clear, and I feel like it’s been accurate, and in fact, everything he said was the first season was very accurate that it’s going to be a big hit that it was going to be quite a few seasons and be the best work we’ve ever done and it feels like if not all those are true most of those are true.”
The storytelling, acting, and believability sold to audiences are the best we could have hoped for. Sheridan wasn’t lying when he told Bentley that this was “the best work” they’d be a part of. We’ve seen the likes of Reilly, Bentley, Kevin Costner, and Cole Hauser across several films and tv series’ throughout the entertainment realm, but nothing leaves you wanting more the way Yellowstone does; nothing has been as captivating as the Dutton family story.
Yellowstone‘s fifth season is set to return later this summer with a wild second season, and after an intense conversation to shut out the first half of the story, Beth’s discovery in the form of the train station and the fact that we’ve never seen a Dutton vs. Dutton battle this intense before — it’s safe to say that the stakes have never been higher.