← The Official Yellowstone Podcast
The Official Yellowstone Podcast
The Frontier Is Female - Kelly Reilly, Jen Landon and Kelsey Asbille
00:48:08
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- [00:07]
Jefferson White
Hey, y'all. Once again, welcome back to the official Yellowstone podcast presented by Wynn Las Vegas. It's Jefferson White here. I am really excited about this next episode. As some of you might know, we had a bunch of the cast here to record. A couple weeks ago, the Wind hosted us all and organized an incredible dinner at their new supper club, Delilah. I'm not sure I had ever even been to a Supp club before, and now I call every restaurant I go to a supper club. It was spectacular. We had Kelly Riley and Jen Landon there for the dinner. Kelsey couldn't join us, unfortunately, because she's the busiest woman in Hollywood. She was filming out of state. But we have them all here with us now on this podcast, digging into their work on Yellowstone, how all of these characters play vastly different roles and really help to define the tone of the show. I feel incredibly lucky today to be joined in the studio by Kelly Reilly. You know, Kelly Reilly for her many incredible performances in films and television, but most recently as Beth Dutton on Yellowstone. Kelly, thank you so much for being here.
- [01:13]
Kelly Reilly
Pleasure. You're doing. You're killing it.
- [01:15]
Jefferson White
Thank you so much. You've really. I would say that my entire career, I've benefited immensely from low expectations.
- [01:22]
Kelly Reilly
Right.
- [01:23]
Jefferson White
Everybody always expects me to be bad at stuff, and that's a great place to start from.
- [01:27]
Kelly Reilly
Right? Owning ways up.
- [01:28]
Jefferson White
Only way is up. Exactly. So let's just assume that I'm going to be terrible at this and we'll go from there.
- [01:34]
Kelly Reilly
So we're all just pleasantly surprised.
- [01:35]
Jefferson White
Yeah, exactly. Wow. He's.
- [01:37]
Kelly Reilly
He didn't mess up that bad.
- [01:39]
Jefferson White
Every time I get on a horse, it's been four years now, and still every time I get on a horse, everybody expects me to fuck up. So the bar is very low. Will you just for. For folks who've gotten to know you through Yellowstone, will you just talk briefly about your life before Yellowstone, your career before Yellowstone, everything up until we got to know you as Beth Dutton.
- [01:58]
Kelly Reilly
Oh, wow. Well, that's a. Yeah, you can go.
- [02:03]
Jefferson White
As long or as short as you want there.
- [02:05]
Kelly Reilly
Well, obviously, I'm not American, so I grew up in South London, England. I left school at 16, but I had two wonderful drama teachers who took me to theater and gave me plays to read. And it just became a passion of mine. Playwrights and writing and drama and acting, and went to theater and just ate up theater. And then before I knew it, I. By the grace of God, I have no idea how I managed to do it, I became an actor. And that was 20 something years ago. Yeah, so my career started in the theatre in London, and I feel like that's where I really cut my teeth and learned from the greatest actors. All theater character actors, you know, state that was their bread and butter. They go from play to play to play. And I got some. I had some incredible experiences and roles and got to work with great, best British directors. And then I realized I was poor. It's not really a lifestyle if you want to, like, have a life. And also, I was playing all these tragic heroines, you know, as Desdemona and Miss Julie. And it was just like I couldn't sustain a life and play all these tragic characters every day. So I was like, okay, I think there's another world going on on TV and film, and maybe I need to get a sniff of that. And so, yeah, that sort of began my career in TV and film. But I never, ever, ever imagined. And that's the joy of our job, right? We don't ever know where we're going to be from one literally month to the next. We are gypsies in the best sense of the word. And it's been such an honor to sort of land in Montana with a bunch of other reprobates telling a story about America. And I sometimes do have to pinch myself that I'm part of it. And it's been one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. Was that all right?
- [04:20]
Jefferson White
That was fantastic. Thank you so much. One of the very first things you mentioned when you talked about your background as an actor is playwrights, is the text, is the script. And we're very lucky. On Yellowstone, it's very rare that you have one writer who effectively writes every episode of a show, you know, that's much closer to the theater model. There's a writer who writes a script, you know, and so we have from the beginning, obviously had Taylor, who's written every episode of the show. So will you just talk a little bit about your experience of first reading the script, of first sort of coming to the words?
- [04:53]
Kelly Reilly
Well, when I first read the pilot for episode one, Season one, I literally had that of gut reaction. You know, when you read a script and you don't. You're like, maybe I can see myself doing it, maybe I can't. I always have this idea, if there's another actor in your head that you think could play the part better than you, you probably shouldn't do it, or maybe you need to do it. You know, maybe it's okay. But there are some that literally take hold of you in a Way that is bigger than it about being an acting job. There is some sort of a feeling of I need to play this character. I don't know why, but I felt that with Beth, I had never read a character quite like her. I was excited and frightened by her in equal measure when I first read some of her lines and her scenes. And I was just sort of lent in and was intrigued that a man would write a woman that I. A deeply flawed woman who he wrote as a hero.
- [05:59]
Jefferson White
So you mentioned that this is a script and a character written by a man, but really responding to the way that Taylor wrote Beth, a woman. Will you talk a little bit about that dynamic as it played out, translating the script from the page to the screen as it played out, sort of being surrounded by men. Beth finds herself often in a men's world, a man's world, navigating spaces where she's the only woman. Will you talk about that experience a little?
- [06:28]
Kelly Reilly
Beth was raised by men. I mean, she had her mother until she was, I think, 11, but then it was. It was her and her brothers and her father. So, yeah, she was. I don't know if she was raised as a man, but she certainly. She certainly learned from them, from her father, specifically, I think. And, yeah, it's very common for women to be on a film set surrounded by men. I think that's changing. So it wasn't an abstract world. What's that like, only being surrounded by men? Most actresses would say that's more common than not. But, yeah, I didn't ever look at Beth as. Like, there's this way of thinking that actresses are looking for characters that are strong. Right. Because we're always trying to find these characters that we can relate to and are not specifically role models. But there's something about the character that we can see empowered. Not just the girlfriend, not just the thankless role that hasn't got anything to her. And I was more curious about just the more complex character. It wasn't about. Had to be a role model or a character that I could look up to and admire. I mean, there's things to admire about Beth, but there's also things that are questionable. Right. But you don't ever think that with a male character. You're never reading a male character and going, oh, he's a strong male character. I don't think they have ever been said strong male character, but you get that all the time. Strong female character, Strong female role. Or. And I. What I enjoyed about Beth was her irreverence to some of that stereotyping. And I responded to it just artistically, personally. And I think a lot of women have responded to her in that way too. So it sort of feels like a bit of an uncharted territory.
- [08:34]
Jefferson White
And part of what you identified there is these contradictions, right? Like the first thing you said is she's hurt. She's sort of complicated. And yeah, I guess when I. You're totally right that it's an oversimplification to imagine to describe her as strong or to describe her as a destructive force or in her own words, you know, a tornado. She describes herself, I think, of the damage that she does, the sort of chaos that she sows, but she is also herself, so hurt. And there's that contradiction sort of at her very core, this hurt person who hurts people. Talk about that a little bit about that duality because I think that something you do so well is allowing her to have a full life on both sides of that spectrum.
- [09:20]
Kelly Reilly
Well, Taylor doesn't let me hold back. If I tried to soften her in any way in those moments, he would pull me aside and ask me what the hell I was doing. It's very clear what my instructions are. And within that, it's like pushing the boundaries quite to an extreme level that you see the truth of something, you know, and if you teeter on being safe, sometimes you don't really get the full experience of what he's going for. And I think he does play with that idea of like, you know, can she. Is she vulgar? Does she have. Does she speak in a way that you don't like or that you do like? I mean, she's. She's a very polarizing character. And for me, that's exciting for. Because you don't want everyone to. It's not about ticking boxes, but it is about complicated, interesting, three dimensional, the whole gamut, dark and light, warts and all, you know, messy. And there's a little bit of mess to Beth that I'm intrigued. Intrigued to. In. I'm intrigued by.
- [10:23]
Jefferson White
And then also, you know, it's also big and small. You talked about pushing it to the extreme, being sort of understanding the assignment and knowing that to a certain extent, it's your job to take. Take the stakes as high as you can. Beth doesn't do much small. She goes as hard as she needs to go to accomplish her objective, you know, to get what she wants. And that for me, that's what characterizes your performance is your ability to, you know, to run the gamut and explore that entire spectrum.
- [10:53]
Kelly Reilly
So we don't know. We do a season of a show, and I've done seasons of a show before, and they've not got picked up or whatever. But now we've been playing these characters for four years. They become part. I don't know about you. Do you feel like that with Jimmy? Do you feel like a loyalty to him, A protectiveness towards him?
- [11:11]
Jefferson White
Like, absolutely. Yeah. And over time, more and more. You know, over time, I feel like I find more and more ways as we explore more shades of these character, we find characters. We find more ways in which we align with them.
- [11:23]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah.
- [11:23]
Jefferson White
Cause looking at you, speaking to you, obviously you and Beth are different in a lot of ways. But over time, I think those two things that are difficult to reconcile get all closer together.
- [11:35]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah. Was it Meryl Streep? She talks about acting as. Like, you think it's not about playing something that is outside of you. You think that it's something that you don't recognize in yourself and you're reaching for. You're trying to navigate and figure out and become. But the study is actually when you start to really inhabit and become the character, you understand where your similarities actually are. And like you said about serving story, like serving the writer, that's our job, right. As actors. Like, we're serving a greater story. So you're just one cog in a machine, really. It's not just about, you know, it's not the Jimmy show or the Beth show or the Rip show or the. It's probably the Costner show.
- [12:16]
Jefferson White
I was gonna say it's definitely not the Jimmy show. There's a spectrum you're describing there.
- [12:21]
Kelly Reilly
Well, maybe the spin off. Right.
- [12:26]
Jefferson White
Another thing that I find so fascinating about that you just said, you know, these archetypes. These archetypes live in Beth. But the great gift of getting to do this for four years, for 40 hours is that it's not any one archetype. It's not any one sort of mythical character.
- [12:40]
Kelly Reilly
I'm not one myself. Like, I feel like I have a whole gamut of different women in me.
- [12:45]
Jefferson White
Exactly. Yeah.
- [12:46]
Kelly Reilly
And I think. And for you, too. And I think, like, what we have, what we're capable of, is endless as people. Like, I mean, I leaned into Beth of some of her strength and some of her way. She owns a room. Right. I don't necessarily share that quality. In fact, I don't share it at all. But when I play her for a while, I start to understand the strength in me that can do that. And I've limited myself to Thinking that I can't do that just by my brain, because when I play her, I can do it. So it's already in me. So you're basically just touching. We're all capable. And I. Not to quote such great actors, but I'm a nerd about acting. And Daniel Day Lewis is like. He does talk about how we are massively. We have no idea what we are capable of as human beings. And how him playing all these characters over the years, he's understood that there's that pool of unconsciousness that we could all dip in and out of. And to use those things in your life. So it's not just about being an actor, playing a role, and serving a story that you can actually use. Like, people write to me and say, thank you for showing. Like, I take on some of Beth Dutton when I have to deal with the asshole at work. Right. And I use Beth as an inspiration, and I become a bit of Beth to get me through that day. And so, in a way, they're talking about the same thing. It's like taking on an aspect or an element of something that you think is outside of yourself, and then by internalizing it, you become it.
- [14:22]
Jefferson White
Yeah. I mean, that's an amazing observation. And it's not surprising that people see themselves in Beth's strength, in Beth's sort of power. Right. She describes herself as a tornado in Beth's kind of, you know, elemental rage. What's it been like for you to also, especially as the years go on, especially pushing into seasons three and four, get to explore the sort of opposite side of the spectrum, the softness.
- [14:49]
Kelly Reilly
I mean, it's trickled, you know, it's like, trickled in. And I had to earn it. I think, like, she has. The first season, it was just all brutality and strength and fierceness, which I love. But then season two, you started to sort of. He started to give me the odd moment that was. You just know that there, like Cole said earlier, that there is a beating heart in there who does. Who can be sensitive. And one of the things that I love most about her when she's in her softer moments, is what she does for others time and time again. And I look about what her actions are. There is always something that she's doing for someone that she loves, and very little is it about doing anything for herself or pleasing herself. She's not after power. She's not after money. She's not after anything other than. I don't actually know what she's after. I think in those, you know, those moments, when she's talking about peace with her father, like, how did you find. How do you find peace? What does that mean? Because she's searching for it and she can't find it. And it's just. I love those questions posed in the middle of a Western TV show, you know?
- [16:05]
Jefferson White
Yeah. She's really. I mean, in a lot of ways, she's destroying herself for the sake of somebody else. She's putting herself through hell for the sake of her father. And I think that. That as you described earlier, we serve the writer, we sort of serve a greater purpose. In the pilot of Yellowstone, Lee says to Casey or Jamie, maybe, he says, we don't choose the way. Yeah, we don't choose the way, little brother. Something like that.
- [16:30]
Kelly Reilly
That's true. I believe that.
- [16:32]
Jefferson White
Yeah. And we don't. We are, I think, at our best, not trying to control anything, but a surrender.
- [16:40]
Kelly Reilly
Yes.
- [16:40]
Jefferson White
Surrendering to these. This sort of elemental force that is Beth, or the part of yourself that is Beth. Like allowing the part of yourself that is Beth to take the wheel for a while.
- [16:55]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah.
- [16:56]
Jefferson White
Yeah. And Beth herself. Beth herself is often turning the wheel over to her father, to these people to whom she feels loyalty. To Rip, starting in season four, to Carter. She's. She's putting herself into incredibly difficult, challenging, often brutal circumstances for the sake of this greater purpose, for the sake of her belief system, which seems largely structured around protect. Like she says over and over again, once my dad's gone, you know, you can have the ranch. Fuck it.
- [17:26]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah, I'll sell it to the Four Seasons and swim laps in their pool. That's what she says. I think that's changing. I think that speaks to the fact that what it symbolizes is not any part of what she wants. She doesn't. But I think she's. The more time she's there and obviously with the relationship now with Rip, I think that she's finding where she belongs in this world. I mean, she is made of those mountains.
- [17:54]
Jefferson White
Something people may have noticed over the course of listening to this podcast. Is that your voice and Beth Dutton's voice? Pretty different. Will you talk about that experience? Is that disorienting?
- [18:04]
Kelly Reilly
It was funny. So I don't know if you remember. I mean, you and I actually haven't had a scene together, which we need to deal with.
- [18:10]
Jefferson White
Your lips to God's ears. God is Taylor Sheridan in this case.
- [18:14]
Kelly Reilly
But for the first season. And you wouldn't know this because necessarily, we didn't actually have any interaction on set because we were never on set at the Same time. But I hardly spoke to anybody because I couldn't. I didn't. It's not about breaking character. I also. You hear those stories about actors staying in their dialect off camera, and I admire them, but I would feel like an idiot, like speaking to Tim, who does my hair, or the lighting guy, or, you know, my mom calls me on the phone and staying with my American accent. I just couldn't. I couldn't make peace with that. That's just bananas. But. So it was just easier for me to just not talk and not let anyone know me for about two seasons. And it was just all. It wasn't about getting people to be convinced that I could play Beth or that I was Beth or whatever, but it was more about me staying in the space, because it does become a. It becomes a pretty sacred space, right. When you're in that level of work that you want to deliver and you want to, like, protect and you want to get right for the audience. I didn't. I just needed to be convinced of it myself. So, anyway, Dialect. Yes, I work with a dialect coach. Longest answer ever.
- [19:35]
Jefferson White
No, you had to protect your process, you know, by taking a vow of silence.
- [19:39]
Kelly Reilly
It was a bit of a vow of silence. I think everyone just thought I was, like, you know, unfriendly or whatever. But actually, I just had the weight on my shoulders of this beast, and I. Oh, there's tremendous pressure how he writes her. I mean, he gives me big, great chunks of dialogue that are really hard to say, even in my accent. So me getting my mouth around some of that, you know, that muscularity of all those Rs.
- [20:05]
Jefferson White
Yes.
- [20:06]
Kelly Reilly
Is hard, but, I mean, it's an.
- [20:08]
Jefferson White
Incredible transformation because you.
- [20:10]
Kelly Reilly
Similarly. It helps. I love it. I love it because I also drop my voice as well. So I found myself. I was. I was listening to JD and he kind of does that kind of gruff thing.
- [20:19]
Jefferson White
Yeah.
- [20:20]
Kelly Reilly
So I was like, oh, yeah, I'll do that. I'll steal that.
- [20:24]
Jefferson White
Is there stuff. I mean, is there stuff that's been especially fun for you? We talked about getting to explore different shades of Beth over the course of four years. Is there stuff that's particularly fun for you? Are there moments that have been particularly fun on set?
- [20:38]
Kelly Reilly
I have a lot of fun playing Beth, so massive amounts of fun. I mean, I do spend a lot of time apologizing in advance to my fellow actors that I'm about to crucify, but they know what they're getting into, so then they're getting paid for it, so it's fine. But the crew becomes our family. Right? Our crew are just incredible. And they are always, you know, the best humored, hard working family. And coming to work in Montana, like I'd have moments where you're literally setting up a shot and the sun is rising and I've got a steaming cup of coffee and someone's just making a joke and it just feels. I just feel so lucky that I get to be part of this. And I don't even mean like the success of the show. That's almost like an added on bonus, but just the actual doing it is a pleasure. When I'm not being tortured about some of those other scenes. I'm always grateful when there's a scene where I don't have anything to say or it's just a one liner because then I feel like I can relax.
- [21:41]
Jefferson White
And that's one of the most. Pardon me. Go ahead.
- [21:43]
Kelly Reilly
No, I love being in Montana as well. That's part of the. That's really a win. I would not want to be on a back lot in California.
- [21:53]
Jefferson White
Yeah, it's so immersive. The experience of making the show does a lot of the work for us to a certain extent. You know that coffee steaming, you don't have to pretend you're cold. For the most part. You're cold.
- [22:02]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah.
- [22:03]
Jefferson White
You know, for the most part, if you're in Montana, the weather is incredibly immersive.
- [22:07]
Kelly Reilly
Well, either roasting and everything's on fire around us and then suddenly we're freezing and in the middle of winter it changes so dramatically. But I feel like everyone feels like that everyone is like happy to be there. There's something about being that close to the elements and that close to nature and you know, you wake up. I remember being to set one day and they were like, oh, did you hear about the grizzly that was like seen on set yesterday?
- [22:33]
Jen Landon
And Cole Hauser.
- [22:34]
Jefferson White
Cole Hauser. His name's Cole Hauser.
- [22:36]
Kelly Reilly
And driving to work and seeing the bald eagles circling above you, like, that's. That's pretty something.
- [22:44]
Jefferson White
It really is. Yeah. An incredible gift and I feel incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to have this conversation with you. So thank you so, so, so much.
- [22:53]
Kelly Reilly
It's nice to meet you.
- [22:55]
Jefferson White
Yeah. Jefferson White. I play Jimmy. I'm the, I'm the. Don't worry about it. I'm the dumb guy.
- [23:00]
Kelly Reilly
You're so Brooklyn then.
- [23:02]
Jefferson White
Yeah. Hey, fuck it. Don't fucking worry about it. I'm the dumb guy. I play the fucking dumb guy. Um, I always, I always, you know, I think there's no way to imagine Jimmy and Beth meeting that would leave, you know, where Jimmy would walk away feeling okay.
- [23:14]
Kelly Reilly
I don't think so.
- [23:14]
Jefferson White
Yeah.
- [23:15]
Jen Landon
I'm sorry.
- [23:16]
Jefferson White
I'm kind of grateful they've never bumped into each other because I don't think that goes well for Jimmy.
- [23:19]
Kelly Reilly
I'm looking forward to that moment.
- [23:21]
Jefferson White
Oh, God. I come back. I come back from the Sixes. I'm finally a confident, tough, strong cowboy, and Beth just shreds me with a line. Thank you again, so, so, so much for being here. It's such a treat.
- [23:33]
Kelly Reilly
Thank you.
- [23:35]
Jefferson White
Wow. Kelly is an incredible actor, but she's also just obviously a very genuine, good person. We're going to take a breath here, and when we come back, we're going to dive right in with my dear friend Jen Landon, who plays Teeter. Folks, I feel incredibly lucky today to have Jen Landon in the studio. Jen Landon plays Teeter on Yellowstone. Jen's an incredible actor, an incredible cowboy. I've been learning alongside Jen for years now. Jen, thank you so, so, so much for being here.
- [24:08]
Jen Landon
I'm so happy to be here, Jeff. It's really a thrill.
- [24:13]
Jefferson White
Could you just talk a little longer about how excited you are to be?
- [24:18]
Jen Landon
This is. Well, I mean, I feel like we've been together for a while now because we're in Texas working on this cutting events together. Yes.
- [24:27]
Jefferson White
Prior to coming into the Wind to record this podcast, Jen and I have been staying together at a B and B in Weatherford, Texas.
- [24:34]
Jen Landon
Yeah.
- [24:35]
Jefferson White
Preparing for a celebrity charity cutting event. Cutting is a. Could you describe cutting for us a little bit?
- [24:42]
Jen Landon
I mean. Yes. I wanted to kind of start with just like sharing an Airbnb being sort of the event, because not only have I never lived with you before, I haven't lived with anyone in about 25 years. So I feel like getting to see our. The way we like. We're both very courteous and trying not to infringe on the other person. But also, we're both very, very slightly messy.
- [25:06]
Jefferson White
Yeah. I would describe us both as curious, as courteous but messy.
- [25:10]
Jen Landon
Yeah, courteous but messy.
- [25:11]
Jefferson White
I have three roommates all the time. Because you live in New York. Yeah, I live in New York City. So for me, this is many fewer people than I usually live with. Jen, just for the folks at home, will you just take a second to describe your life prior to Yellowstone? So everything that happened before folks out there got to know you was Teeter.
- [25:31]
Jen Landon
On Yellowstone, there was nothing. It was just sort of like the pre Big Bang moment. Are you serious? Is this A serious.
- [25:40]
Jefferson White
Yeah, you can take as long as you want to or as short as you want to.
- [25:44]
Jen Landon
Gosh, Prior to Yellowstone, I was having a lot less fun, though I was still acting. I started out in theater. I was on a soap for many, many, many years and said many, many, many words and then hopped around on some shows and that's it. I have no life outside of work. Which is what you can gather from that answer.
- [26:09]
Jefferson White
And part of, as you describe your background, I guess part of what occurs to me is that you have. You've lived a lot of lives in a short time and you've learned a lot of different sort of crafts and skills in a short time because especially as an actor, you have a very. A very varied and diverse skill set as an actor. So you started out in theater, you worked in daytime, you've worked in very, very cool television and movies.
- [26:33]
Jen Landon
Yeah, I was an associate artistic director of an experimental theater company for a while. We were a movement based company that worked often with classical texts. I definitely have that side of me, I feel like. As do you.
- [26:49]
Jefferson White
Yeah, yeah. We both share diverse backgrounds as actors and then we both landed thankfully on Yellowstone and we're tossed into this world that we didn't have as much experience with. So for both of us, from the beginning, we've been working very hard to come to understand this world, to develop the skills that it takes to survive in this world. So will you talk a little bit about the process of getting up on a horse, of stepping into teeter?
- [27:20]
Jen Landon
Yeah, I mean, you know, when I auditioned for the show, they had reached out to my team and asked if I had horse riding experience. And I informed them, my team, that I had ridden horses as a child, but not since then. And they told casting that I was a professional horseback rider. So coming in, I actually had a lot of horse fear because I did grow up with horses. And my mom had a really, really bad fall and was dragged around an arena with her foot stuck in a stirrup. And she really shouldn't have survived that. And I was still quite young, but that was the end of horseback riding. So I didn't get to kind of reclaim that until I joined the show. So it was really, it was really healing on one level. And then the other thing is, I feel like. I feel like this is how surfers must feel when they engage with a natural force like the wave, which is. I do feel like the difference between a good day and a great day sometimes is getting on a horse, that sort of being in that rhythm, which is this natural rhythm of that animal reminds me of the animal that I am and the natural rhythm that my body would like to be in that I rarely allow it to be in.
- [28:52]
Jefferson White
You've also. A minute ago, you described, you know, feeling some fear because of a very difficult experience you had at a young age with horses. But it's interesting because I think of Teeter, the character, as being, in some ways characterized by a fearlessness or an incredible sort of. Even if she is afraid, an incredible courage to run at whatever scares her.
- [29:15]
Jen Landon
Yeah, there's. I do feel like Teeter's courage gives me courage. That's something that we all experience as actors playing different parts. We sort of take on their mental state, but also, as an actor, we really get a false sense of confidence. I'm like. For example, I'm under the impression that I'm an incredibly good fighter who can beat up an entire biker gang because J Rod choreographed a fight in which I win. But I cannot do that. But I think I can.
- [29:53]
Jefferson White
And what an incredible gift, I guess, to get to sort of. I don't know how you think of it, but put on a mask or sort of step into the boots of this character who has a different set of skills, a different set of limitations, who has. It has a very different sort of background than you.
- [30:11]
Jen Landon
Yeah, very much.
- [30:12]
Jefferson White
Yeah. Talk a little bit about the experience of coming in, because Teeter. You and Teeter are very different in a lot of ways. Or, you know, Teeter is a certain part of you. You know, Teeter is a kind of.
- [30:23]
Jen Landon
We have a very different mask. That's.
- [30:24]
Jefferson White
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Maybe you have the same primal core and you both express it in different ways. Talk to me about. Titor comes into the bunkhouse as a woman surrounded by men and is the most aggressive sort of character in that environment. Teeter hits on everyone. Teeter's sort of going after everyone. Talk to me about that experience.
- [30:42]
Jen Landon
I mean, I don't want to take away from the fact that she does zero in on Colby pretty quickly, though. Yeah, she's interested in all things, you know, am I allowed to cuss on here?
- [30:52]
Jefferson White
Oh, yeah.
- [30:53]
Jen Landon
I mean, it's like, you know, does she want to, you know, eat it, or does she want to fuck it, or does she need some sleep? You know? But I had talked to Taylor, and, you know, it's like she's a. You know, not that I don't want to open up a whole bag of worms, but she is. Has a. She's a dude in the traditional idea of what that is. Right. And that is something that I'm actually really comfortable with, kind of leaning into that more aggressive sort of archetype in some way.
- [31:36]
Jefferson White
Yeah. And it's fascinating because Beth, you know, you talk about traditionally masculine qualities or traditionally feminine qualities. Right, right. Beth is also an incredibly aggressive sort of forward attack mode aggressor. And Teeter is in some ways too, but then their tactics are so different. Their tactics diverge sort of from the very beginning.
- [32:02]
Jen Landon
Yeah. Beth is like. You know, you and I had been talking a little bit before the podcast about Teeter being a strong character. And, you know, we were agreeing that Teeter is a strong female, but she's nowhere near as strong as Beth, you know, But Beth is so, for me, watching it, so iconically female in this really wonderful way, you know, that I, as a person, really like watching as well, because it's very powerful, but it's very feminine. And again, in this very traditional way. Yeah, yeah.
- [32:40]
Jefferson White
Beth sort of leverages her femininity as a. As a weapon. She uses it as a weapon to get what she wants from her enemies. And Teeter takes a very different tactic. Teeter kind of leverages her masculinity or her, like, tradition, as you said, you know, in some ways she's a dude and she, like, she'll. She'll punch you in the face before she'll.
- [32:58]
Jen Landon
Oh, a hundred percent.
- [33:00]
Jefferson White
Talk it out.
- [33:01]
Jen Landon
Yeah, no, she's not talking it out. It's. I don't think that that has worked well for her in the past. No. Though I've had a fantasy of a scene that's never been written in which Teeter just launches into a monologue one night around the poker table. And it's like maybe a 45 second monologue. And she gets really emotional and nobody knows what she's just revealed because that's.
- [33:26]
Jefferson White
Played as a joke throughout the show. There's so many sort of funny moments of Teeter saying something just utterly indecipherable. Everybody being confused. Talk to me about that. Because you, you know, as an actor, you're not just saying something indecipherable. You're saying something. You're trying to communicate something. So talk to me about the experience of Teeter's accent.
- [33:44]
Jen Landon
Yeah. So it's writt. Taylor's wrote it phonetically, which was fantastic. I remember when I saw the sides, on first glance, I was like, what?
- [33:54]
Jefferson White
So it's spelled out. The sounds are spelled out.
- [33:56]
Jen Landon
The sounds are totally spelled out. And even though just when I kind of did that first Thing where you're like, how long is this audition? I was like, one of these languages is not English. I was tickled by the fact that I. She always made sense to me. I always knew exactly what she was saying. And that was not the case for a lot of people who would read it. But that being able to hold on to it, being sounded out, was so liberating for me. And I. I'm just amazed that. I mean, we. Taylor writes at a clip. He can also write gibberish or, you know, phonetic English at a clip. I mean, it was. It's sort of shocking how well he writes that.
- [34:48]
Jefferson White
Really remarkable. And it's so sort of different than your. I mean, you know, folks at home. Folks at home might just notice the difference between your. Your natural speaking voice.
- [34:58]
Jen Landon
Yes.
- [34:58]
Jefferson White
And Teeter's very thick accent.
- [35:01]
Jen Landon
Yeah. People. People are surprised by that. They're also surprised when they. Somebody's been speaking to me for, you know, sometimes it's an hour, and then they find out that I'm teeter because I don't visually register to them as teeter. And they then ask me how long it takes for makeup to put the prosthetics on my face every morning. And I have to inform them that. That there are no prosthetics on my face. That that is just my face.
- [35:34]
Jefferson White
And I think that speaks to how sort of transformative, that it's a physical transformation in some ways, but it's also. There is such a sort of powerful, as you described it, feral energy that it sort of transforms your presence.
- [35:51]
Jen Landon
Yeah. I do move through the world slightly differently when I'm in her skin. People very close to me notice it. Some like it, some don't.
- [36:04]
Jefferson White
Do horses respond to it? Because I feel like Teeter is an incredibly experienced rider.
- [36:10]
Jen Landon
I feel like when I take on Teeter's energy in life on a horse, I get stuck in this weird in between where I am trying to, like, you know, just be that, like, dominatrix on that horse or like that, like. Yeah, that dom on the horse that I feel like Teeter is. But the horse is smart and is picking up my bullshit. So then it just throws everything off. The horse just gets anxious and grumpy.
- [36:38]
Jefferson White
Yeah.
- [36:38]
Jen Landon
Yeah. I'm trying to work on soft receptivity on the horse. My first experience wasn't on horse on the show. It was. I remember when I read. I think it was episode three or something for me, or 303. Teeter separates a Charolais, a white cow, from a bunch of black cows, and I thought, well, I'll be in a big arena, and a bunch of very trained black cows will run by, and then there will be a big gap, and I'll jump in front of a white cow and stop it. And then I show up, and there's like, a chute, and there's just a bunch of sort of anxious cows running back and forth. It's like, no, you're going to just jump in front of one of those and stop them for real. And I watched a lot of Temple Grandin videos and tried to bring my best temple to work that day.
- [37:33]
Jefferson White
Part of the experience of filming Yellowstone is all of us gathering in a small town in Montana for months at a time, away from our families, away from our other communities. Will you talk a little bit about what keeps you busy while we're out in Montana? What keeps you sane? What sort of fills you up? The experience of being out there authentically, you know, working on the ranch is a. Is a very sort of authentic experience, and so is just living out in Montana. What's that like for you?
- [38:03]
Jen Landon
I sort of thrive in that environment because Montana, to me, feels like the most wild state in many ways, in a nature sense. And part of why, on the flip side, I like New York City so much is because New York is sort of wild as well. So I think I'm drawn to that wildness. But getting in that nature as much as possible is so grounding. And then I felt like we did sort of a wonderful job of creating kind of community, and we all knew that it could get challenging at times, especially with COVID So we kind of had those group activities and those movie nights, and I feel like we did a really great job of creating a family there.
- [38:44]
Jefferson White
Yeah, it's not so different than living in a bunkhouse. You know, we're out there, it's really not there. Kind of in the middle of nowhere. And we're each other's. We're each other's family. We're each other's community. We're co workers, but we're also just, you know, because we've been. We've had the opportunity to do this for a long time. We also, yeah, really are each other's sort of source of strength and solidarity and strain in a strange environment.
- [39:05]
Jen Landon
Totally. And, I mean, I did live on top of a horse barn.
- [39:08]
Jefferson White
Oh, yeah. You literally lived on this one.
- [39:11]
Jen Landon
Yeah.
- [39:12]
Jefferson White
Jen, thank you. Thank. Let's say it together, Jen.
- [39:17]
Jen Landon
Jeff, no, one more time.
- [39:19]
Jefferson White
Jen. Jen, thank you so, so, so much for being here, for doing this for Taking the time to talk with me. You and I head off immediately after this to go get our asses kicked. Some more. Learning.
- [39:31]
Jen Landon
That's right.
- [39:32]
Jefferson White
Learning a little more about with our great treats.
- [39:34]
Jen Landon
I have to just say Lindy Burch's name. Everyone look her up.
- [39:37]
Jefferson White
Jen, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for taking the time. What a treat. What a joy to spend this time with my dear friend. I can't thank you enough.
- [39:44]
Jen Landon
All right, I'll see you. I'll see you later. And I'll see you tomorrow in Texas.
- [39:47]
Jefferson White
Yeah, I'll see you tomorrow in Texas. I can't tell you how much fun Jen is. What a kind, thoughtful, generous, patient friend she is. She really, she really takes care of all of us on set. And I'm so, so grateful for her. I need to step aside for a second. When we come back, I'm going to be joined remotely by none other than Monica Dutton. Kelsey Asbill. All right, today we're talking to Kelsey Asbille who you know as Monica on Yellowstone from the very beginning. Kelsey is obviously an incredible actor who I've been lucky enough to call my friend for four years now. And we're going to chat about everything. Yellowstone. So Kelsey, first of all, thank you so, so much for being here. Thank you for doing this. I'm so grateful.
- [40:33]
Kelsey Asbille
Oh, you're so welcome. You're the perfect person to be doing this. I'm really glad it's you I'm talking to.
- [40:42]
Jefferson White
Thank you so much. I will endeavor to prove you wrong over the course of the next 40 odd minutes. So for people that don't know you, for folks that don't know you, can you just talk a little bit about your background, how you wound up on Yellowstone? Sort of everything. Everything about you before we started to get to know you four years ago?
- [41:03]
Kelsey Asbille
Yeah, of course. Oh, goodness. Well, I guess it really started with Taylor. I worked with him on Wind river and yeah, he really, I mean, he's made such an impression on me on my, on my career, obviously, but also my life. And so, yeah, when he asked me or sent me the script for Yellowstone, it was kind of a no brainer. I'd follow him anywhere.
- [41:35]
Jefferson White
So will you talk at all about your experience with Monica? Is that. Is the same. Are there, are there shades of Kelsey in Monica? Are there shades of Monica and Kelsey? Will you talk about that a little bit?
- [41:47]
Kelsey Asbille
Yeah, I think so. I think probably same for Jimmy. Right? Especially as the seasons go on. I think that Taylor put a little bit of us in Our characters, for sure. But, no.
- [42:03]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah.
- [42:03]
Kelsey Asbille
I think authenticity is really important. And I think one of the joys of shooting the show is being able to also shoot on location. I mean, I feel like Montana is just such a gift to us as actors because we really informs the world in a way that a soundstage could never. So I'm really glad that he fought for that. But I. Yeah, I mean, I think that. I think that I have really learned from Monica. I think, you know, she's a survivor and a mother and, you know, someone that. She's human. You know, she's. So. Yeah, no, I have a real. Yeah, I have a special place in my heart for, you know.
- [43:01]
Jefferson White
Yeah. I spoke to Mo.
- [43:02]
Kelly Reilly
Okay.
- [43:02]
Jefferson White
I spoke to Mo. And one thing that Mo talked about, because Mo is also such an incredible sort of. He carries with him so much history. He's such an expert on a lot of this stuff. Like, I've learned so much from Mo. But something that he emphasized over and over again is that he also tries to be a sort of student. He tries to always be learning. He tries to stay open to the world. And I feel like that's kind of what it's like to be an actor. A lot of times, you're simultaneously pretending to be an expert in something, but you're also all the time looking around, learning from the people around you. And on this set, particularly, we're lucky to be surrounded by sort of, you know, some real. I wouldn't use the phrase elder statesmen because they're in their prime, but people like Kevin. Right. Like. And so Monica, especially in season four and season three, starts to have more and more interactions with John Dutton. More and more sort of these two kind of families that define her loyalties and her sort of her responsibility to her life on the reservation. And then also her loyalties and her responsibility to Casey, to Casey's family, to Tate. Like, she. How do those two families. How does she relate to those two families and the responsibilities that she feels to each of them?
- [44:28]
Kelsey Asbille
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't. It wasn't the most welcoming introduction, but I do think, especially last season, she. I think she had this, you know, newfound respect for John Tutton that, like, maybe. Maybe they're fighting for the same thing, although in very different ways. But, yeah, I think she really. She really struggles with. She really struggles. You know, she's. She's. She's fighting for her family, but also, you know, like you said, she wants to, you know, can she exist? Having a foot in both worlds, It's Definitely easier said than done.
- [45:20]
Jefferson White
Over the last four years, Monica, you know, as Casey's war kind of comes home, Monica's also been exposed to these incredibly difficult, painful, traumatic situations that she has also risen to. And now, you know, in season four, is starting to sort of thrust herself into for the sake of protecting her people. But I think one thing that's been really amazing is that from the beginning of the show, even as you guys are navigating that difficult, dramatic content, there's also this, like, undercurrent of joy and this undercurrent of, like, love and trust. And so you guys do such an amazing job of not allowing this relationship or these characters to become only one thing or the other, but always having the sort of opposite present underneath it, because they would have to in order to stay together. Right? They would have to in order to survive. If this shit happened to people, it's such a. It's. They would need to have this love underneath it to keep them together, which is just such an amazing gift that you guys have.
- [46:25]
Kelsey Asbille
Oh, bless you. No, yeah, of course. I think you need to know what it is that you're fighting for, and sometimes it is kind of hard to get or you lose that for a moment. So I think that, you know, we've got some really, like, sweet moments in this season that are just. Are a good reminder of what we're fighting for.
- [46:48]
Jefferson White
Yeah, the stuff with the dog, I mean, I'm also so excited to see that stuff. I just can't. Like, there's the dog. There's all this sort of joy with Tate, there's. Because Brecken's also sort of huge spoiler.
- [46:59]
Kelly Reilly
Jeff, we get a dog.
- [47:01]
Jen Landon
All right.
- [47:03]
Jefferson White
The fans demand to know, do you get a dog? The big season four. The big season four question, who gets a dog? That's what everyone wants to know. Kelsey, again, thank you so, so, so much for chatting with us. Thank you for all the work you do. And I'll talk to you very soon, I hope.
- [47:23]
Kelly Reilly
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
- [47:24]
Kelsey Asbille
Thank you so much.
- [47:25]
Jefferson White
Bye. I am so thankful to all you for tuning in. So, so grateful. I wouldn't be able to do this without you, the Yellowstone family. So thank you for being here. We drop new episodes every Thursday, so make sure to subscribe and tune in to the Official Yellowstone Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you get your podcast. The Official Yellowstone Podcast is hosted by me, Jefferson White, and produced by 101 podcast studios and Paramount Network.