Wes Bentley is Yellowstone‘s Jamie Dutton, one of the most prolific characters in television right now, and someone who seemingly walks around with a cloud hanging over his head. As an actor, taking on the role of someone struggling can be difficult; as an actor who dealt with deep despair in his personal life, it’s an opportunity that presented him with the need to find a balance.
Bentley has been open about struggling with addiction early in his career and all of the ways that impacted him as both an actor and a man. He has shared how his addiction began, when he realized it was a problem, how he used it to cope, and how he finally got out of the cycle, moving forward to a life he can live, not try to escape from.
In a recent chat with Men’s Health, Bentley played soccer and spoke openly about everything from his past, his friendship with Heath Ledger, and his role as Jamie Dutton on the hit series that captivated audiences in 2018 and never let us go. The Dutton family story is one of tragedy and triumph, love and betrayal, and the relationship that once was between siblings. Jamie exists in the crux of one of the most important storylines in Yellowstone, the broken bond between a sister and brother — two people who once found solace in one another.
Bentley’s wife has noticed a marked change in her husband, and a lot of that comes from the escalated storyline in seasons four and five.
“My wife has told me, with Jamie, as I’ve gotten deeper, as we got into season 4 and it got really dark, she’s starting to notice. She’ll just say, ‘I don’t see Wes—I see Jamie, and I see some real scary sadness.’ So thank God she’s there to help me keep that out of my real life and check [the character] at the door. Which I’ve been very good at until Jamie. Jamie’s been the hardest.”
Going into season five, Bentley shared that the game had changed for his character in a big way; after the events of the prior season, Jamie had no love left for his sister. Despite their differences and fights in previous seasons, he always held a candle for Beth, but going into the most recent episodes, he no longer cared. The love he once desperately wanted to share with his sister was gone; the hope for forgiveness and a place to rebuild disappeared faster than a thief in the night.
It makes sense that Bentley has a hard time with Jamie Dutton — as we said before, his character seems to exist in a state of perpetual anguish. It’s something he’s used to now, something Bentley has taken time to recognize that he feels Jamie with him, and he realizes what work must be done to ensure he can separate himself from that character.
“I’ve done this show for five years now, and he’s taking up more space; like, I feel him there all the time now, and I feel him making decisions sometimes. Not now, ’cause I’ve had a few months—but it takes months. I don’t work in the hiatus on this show, not because I don’t want to work; it’s because it takes a long time to shake out of him.”
Part of that separation for Bentley is so essential because it keeps him from spiraling, and one of the last times he spiraled was when he was in the midst of a strong addiction. He tells Men’s Health that he wanted to be the “most impressive drug addict.”
“That period was incredibly dark. I did really dangerous stuff. I went downtown. I went and hung with really shady people. I wasn’t trying to kill myself or anything. That was just me: Go far. Be the guy who went the furthest.“
The break between filming for Bentley will soon be over, with the cast set to return to Montana in the coming weeks to begin filming on the second half of season five, and he’ll soon build an active bond with Jamie once more.
Bentley says when he gets back to work at Yellowstone, he’ll begin feeling Jamie Dutton building within him again, building from a place deep in his stomach, evolving out of a state of anxiety and terror. Jamie doesn’t know peace, be it a situation he’s crafted for himself or a hand he’s been dealt; he doesn’t have moments of comfort. He exists in a plane that only knows chaos, and it’s been something Bentley has to work through.
So what does he hope to do next? Something more lighthearted, that’s for sure, but he says it’s not exactly something people initially think of him first for — comedies.
“I know nobody thinks of me, and that’s fair. But that’s what I loved first.”
Bentley in a comedy is something we’d love to see soon, but we’re also hoping to keep him around in the Yellowverse for a while longer — as long as it’s a healthy move for him. You can see Bentley as Jamie Dutton in the first four seasons of Yellowstone, streaming now on Peacock. We can’t wait to see what’s next for the Dutton family.
Published: Mar 28, 2023 10:20 pm