“People like it… But I don’t want to play that again”: Kelly Reilly Has Every Reason to Hate Her Yellowstone Role

One’s life’s work is not measured by the awards or honors received in service of one’s contribution but by the value and worth contained in the work itself. For Taylor Sheridan, Yellowstone is the one that will stand as his legacy long after he is gone. However, Kelly Reilly missed the memo on legacy, value, reward, and honor, given how difficult her life has become in the aftermath of Yellowstone.

The Paramount+ series, which essentially launched Taylor Sheridan’s reputation as an unstoppable force in the television business, is now past its fifth season. Reilly’s arc as Beth Button still has a long way to go but behind-the-scenes drama and personal commitments have proven difficult to manage amidst the show’s ever-growing popularity among fans and followers.

Kelly Reilly and Yellowstone Don’t Go Hand in Hand

It is a truth well known that the commercial success of a Hollywood project only attracts more studios armed with similar scripts like moths to a flame. All actors have fallen prey to being pigeonholed by the industry based either on looks or their genre-based performance. Comedians hardly ever cross over into period drama and character actors are seldom seen doing musicals.

Kelly Reilly‘s relationship with Taylor Sheridan‘s Yellowstone somewhat falls in a similar category. Although her steady paycheck and growing popularity must come as benefits of starring in such a beloved show, her depleting reserve of privacy and lack of options are only collateral damages. In an interview with Looper, Reilly revealed:

Obviously, I play Beth Dutton and people like it. So I’m inundated with very feisty, strong, violent type women. But I don’t want to play that again. 

Although pigeonholing an actor based on the popularity of one show is a nonsensical premise, the audience responds to familiar products. Kelly Reilly’s popularity from roles like the scrutinizing Caroline Bingley in Pride & Prejudice and the hard-boiled Beth Dutton in Yellowstone suit her established onscreen personality. However, such a stereotypical entrapment is exactly the reason why Kelly Reilly feels she needs to draw the line when studios come to her with similar roles.

Kelly Reilly Caught Amid the Yellowstone Season 5 Drama

While Taylor Sheridan runs Paramount’s errands and leaves his show unguarded, fans and critics attack like wolves with rumors, allegations, and theories of what new drama could have unfolded among the show’s leading cast members and its creator. As Kevin Costner makes his stance on the issue clear in recent interviews, the audience is left with nothing to do but hope for his comeback.

On the other hand, Kelly Reilly finds herself caught in the media’s snare about her involvement with the Paramount family in the future after the end of her arc in Yellowstone. In a report published by Puck [via CinemaBlend], Reilly’s stance on the matter was cleared up beyond doubt:

I just care about finishing the show with as much care and as much passion and as much love as I can muster to put into it. That’s what I care about. I’m sort of prepping for that now [and] that’s my tunnel vision thing that I care about most.

As the subject of Beth Dutton’s involvement in any future Yellowstone spin-off remains on the fence, the audience waits with bated breath to sense any resolution of the building drama between Taylor Sheridan and Kevin Costner. As the series Season 6 enters production, Costner’s name is conveniently missing from the cast roster, which should already indicate that the Dutton family patriarch is about to be written off the show.

However, considering Taylor Sheridan’s dislike for “f–k you” deaths in the series, there still remains some hope regarding the potential return of John Dutton in the series finale to provide a satisfactory closure to the character he nurtured and built over the course of 7 years.

Yellowstone is available for streaming on Paramount+