Yellowstone star Kelly Reilly is one-half of one of television’s favorite couples, but in a new interview, the British actor says she feels like her primary relationship on Yellowstone may very well fail before the end of the show.
Reilly’s character of Beth Dutton finally married her longtime on-again, off-again love interest, ranch foreman Rip Wheeler, at the end of Season 4, but in an interview as part of a behind-the-scenes featurette for Yellowstone‘s Season 5 DVD and Blu-ray release, she casts doubt on whether the relationship can last.
“Beth is haunted by her past,” Reilly states (quote via Insider.com). “She has a lot of regrets, and she has a lot of secrets that he doesn’t know.”
“So there is something that is under the surface that will one day, I’m sure, come, and she’s probably certain that she will lose him,” she adds.
Reilly also reveals that she has not always agreed with Yellowstone co-creator and writer Taylor Sheridan about the arc of her character.
“I’m coming to it almost the same as the audience,” she says. “I mean, I have my hopes and thoughts for the character. Also, as I’ve played her for over five years now, I feel like I know her so well, but I’m still learning.”
“There are still things that I read and I didn’t expect, or sometimes I wish for something else for her, but that’s the same as the audience,” Reilly adds.
“We’re all sort of beholden to the vision of the storyteller and we serve the story,” she observes. “Who knows what’s going to happen? I find that exciting as an actor.”
Yellowstone is set to end at the conclusion of Season 5 as Kevin Costner departs the show and his character, John Dutton, will reportedly die. The final episodes were originally scheduled to air in the summer of 2023, but Paramount pushed them back to fall amid contract negotiations with Costner, and the Hollywood writers and actors strikes make it likely the rest of the season will not air until 2024.