One of the breakout stars of Yellowstone’s most recent season is the ranch hand Teeter, played by Jennifer Landon. The only female hand on the Yellowstone Dutton Ranch during season 3, Teeter has pink hair and a big attitude, but neither of those qualifies as the main reason she stands out from the pack — not when she talks the way she does.
Teeter has a drawl that’s been increased to the next power, the type of accent that even people who talk like the characters do on Yellowstone would have difficulty understanding. Watching characters react to her, it’s clear they have never heard anything like it. “Ain’t Texan,” says Forrie J. Smith’s Lloyd Pierce. “That’s gibberish.”
Teeter speaks like she has to chew all the consonants off a word before it can escape her mouth. It’s the kind of accent that sails right off the map of that dialect quiz from the New York Times that’s been making the rounds again lately on Twitter. Here there be monsters.
Where is Teeter’s accent from?
The confounding nature of Teeter’s accent hasn’t stopped fans of the show from trying to pin it down somewhere, anywhere. A Reddit thread started by u/maysranch18 asks fellow fans for answers as to “what language” Teeter speaks. “I’m in East Texas and never heard that dialect.”
Users claiming to be Texans from all corners of the state say they’ve never heard anything like it. Some say it must be Cajun. But u/disenchantedoptimist claims to be from South Louisiana and points the finger instead at southern Alabama and the Florida panhandle, which u/TheVue221 denies: “Nope I grew up down around there. Not even close. It’s a made up accent. ‘Hollywood Holler’ accent.”
A lot of other fans share this opinion, some not very charitably. “A ‘California born, New York educated, 530 episodes of soap opera experience’ style Texas accent,” says u/thesirenlady.
“I just found out that her real life dad was Little Joe on Bonanza. So I’m guessing that drawl is acting,” says original poster u/maysranch18.
Teeter’s accent is a team effort
Landon is the daughter of Michael Landon, star of TV westerns Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie, and much of her acting experience does indeed come from a different TV genre: soap operas. She’s done stints on As the World Turns, The Young and Restless, and Days of Our Lives, winning three consecutive Daytime Emmys while on the first of those.
Though she may lack experience on westerns, that isn’t why fans are having such trouble placing Teeter’s unique dialect. In fact, Landon’s only partially responsible for it. Credit — or blame — has to be shared with series co-creator Taylor Sheridan. “It’s phonetically written,” Landon revealed in a behind-the-scenes video from the Paramount Network introducing her character.
“You can just tell how much fun Taylor’s having writing her,” said Kelly Reilly, who plays Beth Dutton on the series.
And Landon’s not interested in pinpointing a home zip code for Teeter. “She just speaks the way her family speaks,” she said. If the fan reaction to it is anything to go by, then it’s clear that the voice Landon and Sheridan have created for the character is wholly unique.