Yellowstone

‘Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly Compares Being In Dutton Family to ‘Working For The Mob’

From marrying her father’s hit man to blackmailing her adopted brother through murder, Kelly Reilly just might be onto something when she compares Beth Dutton’s Yellowstone family to “the mob.”

The Montana Mafia? Kelly Reilly thinks so. She’s not alone, either. Technically a Modern, or Neo, Western, Yellowstone pulls heavily from the roots of the Western genre proper. But as many fans and critics alike have cited, cable’s #1 show also comes with a hefty dose of mafiosa. And if there’s a kingpin in Montana, well, we don’t even have to tell you who that’d be.

But just so we’re clear, it’s Kevin Costner’s grizzled John Dutton. And after four seasons with a fifth currently filming, Kelly Reilly’s Dutton daughter, Beth, has shown herself to be even more ruthless and mob-esque than her father. So much so, in fact, that by Yellowstone Season 4’s end, Beth has amassed herself some life-altering wins through tactics her father absolutely did not approve of.

“Beth is going into this feeling pretty good about everything,” Reilly tells TV Guide of Season 5 while shooting that very season in Montana. “She’s confident that things are going to be looked after better.”

One win reigns supreme above all else, however, and that’s Beth’s firm grasp on Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) via blackmail.

‘They need him working for the family. It’s like working for the mob.’

“There’s a bit of the early dynamic coming back into the show, of them having to work together,” Reilly teases of Beth & Jamie. “[Beth and John] are using Jamie to put things through that they wouldn’t be able to do. They need him working for the family. It’s like working for the mob.”

Beth was able to accomplish this by cornering Jamie into murdering his other manipulative father, Garrett Randall (Will Patton); his only remaining biological parent and potential source of familial love. Snapping a photo of her brother as he dumped Randall’s body at the Dutton Train Station sealed the deal, and come Yellowstone Season 5, Jamie will be firmly under Dutton control once more.

The similarity’s don’t end there. John Dutton’s political campaign feels an appropriate power move for the Montana Mafia. It may be the only way to stop the family’s powerful – and pissed off – enemies from finally closing in on their land.

But it’s not all the sins of the father. Beth’s made her share of powerful enemies herself. Chief among them in Season 4 was Caroline Warner (Jacki Weaver), who left Beth with the promise of a jail cell in the finale.

‘Caroline is back’ for ‘Yellowstone Season 5 says Kelly Reilly, ‘And she’s got friends’

“Caroline is back,” Reilly confirms of Weaver’s breakout villain. “And she’s got friends. They understand what [the Duttons] are doing and they’re not going to take it lightly,” she adds of Warner’s counter-mob mentality.

Plot points aside, the British actress even found the mob flavor of the Duttons influencing her character decisions with Beth in Season 4. When it came time to select a dress for Beth’s biggest episode (in which she does no less than seduce-to-murder a convict, kidnap a priest, and marry her longtime sweetheart, Rip), Reilly picked out the garment herself. And if you’re current on Yellowstone, we don’t even have to tell you which bombshell dress this was.

“I was like, ‘What’s the most gangster-moll dress I can have?’” Reilly laughs of the gold minidress she hand-selected online. And even after getting cold feet as to whether she could “pull this off” or not, a conversation with Yellowstone mastermind Taylor Sheridan eventually got her into the right, dare we say, mob mindset.

“Beth doesn’t give a f*** what people think of her,” Reilly offers. “She makes me a braver actor.”

Yellowstone returns for Season 5 this November 13, exclusively on Paramount Network.

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