There’s some ideas out there about Yellowstone character Beth Dutton that actor Kelly Reilly isn’t too fond of, and we agree with her.
It’s easy to pigeonhole Beth Dutton as a no-nonsense hardass with a mean streak. However, there’s much more to her in Yellowstone than that, and Kelly Reilly thinks it’s important we take note of her motivations.
Yellowstone‘s Beth Dutton may have the vibe of that woman in a dive bar you’re scared to ask to pass the peanuts, but like most Yellowstone characters, she’s driven by family ties. And Reilly, who has served in the Yellowstone cast since season 1, thinks that’s crucial to understanding Beth.
When asked about the Shakespearean quality of the series, Reilly told Vulture “I talk about Beth as a powerful, dangerous woman and Lady Macbeth is that, but Lady Macbeth has a bitterness in her.”
“I’m not sure Beth has that bitterness. She’s so alive. I don’t think it’s necessarily about vengeance, but more, ‘If you come up against me or anything that I care about and love, I will destroy you.’ It’s more active. It’s more American.”
“It’s less sitting in her room, manipulating, thinking of ways she could f**k someone over. And Beth only does that to people she believes deserve it.”
She continued, “As an actor, I’m trying to balance her. But at the same time, she is who she is. If I try to intellectualize about her too much, I lose the essence of her because she is not up for psychoanalyzing, even though she’s ripe for it.”
“I don’t want to do that as the actor playing her because I don’t want to judge her or pigeonhole her. She’s just a force of f******g nature. And I think that’s where people have gone, ‘What is that?’ Because she doesn’t play by the rules we expect women to play by. Sorry.”
Once we’re done contemplating the potency of that “It’s more American” quote, we’ll be thinking about the ways her characterization might surface for the last time in Yellowstone season 5 part 2 — if it ever actually comes out.
Yes, Beth is often a mess, but is that not what makes her such a whirlwind of a character? She stands out from the rest of the Duttons, and not just aesthetically. We agree with Reilly, she’s not cruel for the sake of it, she just finds ways to justify crossing moral lines.
But don’t take our word for it, revisit the Yellowstone timeline and rewatch her in one of the best drama series in all her glory! If you’re more into history than ‘herstory’, though, check out the Yellowstone 1923 season 2 release date. We’ve also got the best TV series of all time to look through.