In the latest episode of The Official Yellowstone Podcast, we got to hear from some of Yellowstone‘s leading ladies. Kelly Reilly has been extremely vocal about her experience playing Beth Dutton. In this podcast, she goes on to talk about what it is about Beth’s character that she feels so aligned with.
Right off the bat, we know that Beth is a complex character to play. That’s exactly what Reilly loves about her. When speaking to Jefferson White on the podcast, Reilly was asked about how it felt reading Beth’s lines. “There’s some sort of feeling of I need to play this character. I don’t know why but I felt that with Beth,” Reilly said. “I’ve never read a character quite like her.” She goes on to say that when she first read some of Beth’s scenes, she was “excited and frightened by her in equal measure.”
Part of that excitement and fear comes from the fact that Beth is deeply flawed, yet she’s written as a hero in the show. Kelly Reilly explains that as an actress, she’s always trying to find characters that she relates to on some level. They don’t exactly have to be a role model character, just someone who represents empowerment.
For Reilly, Beth embodies empowerment. She’s questionable, strong, and a force to be reckoned with in a man’s world. For Reilly, that felt like uncharted territory. She explained that she has spent a lot of time on movie lots being surrounded by men, and stereotyping can happen easily. But to Beth Dutton’s character, stereotyping doesn’t really bother her. That’s part of her character’s appeal, according to Reilly. In fact, she felt like Beth’s character resonated with her artistically and personally.
Kelly Reilly Literally Had A Gut Reaction to Beth Dutton’s Character
On the podcast with Jefferson White, Kelly Reilly goes on to talk about how she decides if she should take a role or not. For her, she tries to think if anyone else could play it better in her head. If she can think of someone better, that either means that she shouldn’t take the role, or that she should, because it’s scary and a growing opportunity. Reilly didn’t have any problems with taking Beth Dutton’s character. As a matter of fact, the seasoned actress immediately felt a kinship with the tough-but-lovable Beth.
“When I first read the pilot, I literally had a sort of gut reaction. You know when you read a script, and you’re like ‘maybe I can see myself doing it or maybe I can’t,'” Reilly told White. “But, there are some that really take hold of you. There is a feeling of ‘I need to play this character.’ I don’t know why but that is what I felt with Beth.”
