Wes Bentley has admitted that his “Yellowstone” character has affected his real life.
Prior to the release of the second installment of season 5, Bentley explained to Fox News Digital that playing Jamie Dutton for the last five years has proven to be a real “challenge” for the actor.
“I love challenges and, as an actor, I’ve had great challenges in my career, but I’ve never had one like this. And every scene that Taylor [Sheridan] wrote was some cathartic, emotional, you know, challenge.”
“And I find it really rewarding to get to work on things that are difficult to achieve, and I hope I did it pretty good,” he said.
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Bentley explained that he doesn’t “really identify” with the characteristics that Jamie Dutton has, which has altered his “real life.”
“That’s been the most rewarding and challenging because Jamie is a character I don’t really identify well with at all and have a hard time living with, you know, he’s got a lot of baggage, a lot of heavy things to carry the load with. And so it’s been a real challenge in my real life, but not one to complain about,” Bentley said.
In 2023, Bentley told the New York Times it was difficult to portray the most “hated” person on the hit Western.
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“He’s incredibly sad,” Bentley explained at the time. “I’ve always dealt with my sadness with things like comedy or humor or drugs at one point, or trying to just ignore it and finding another way out of it. But you can’t do that when you’re trying to portray someone’s sadness. You have to let it be there. That’s been the hardest part of it all, and it’s weighed on my life a little bit.”
Bentley noted that he prides himself on being able to leave any problems at the door once he is finished on set; however, this time around, it has been more challenging.
“Jamie’s sadness permeates my life, even though I’m not sad. I’m very lucky to have a great family and be where I’m at in life, but he’s always there behind me, clawing at that, especially when I’m shooting.”
The first episode of the second half of the fifth season of “Yellowstone” premiered on Nov. 10 without Kevin Costner.
Bentley told Fox News Digital that Costner, who played John Dutton, was a “huge part of the show” and he wishes him all the best.
“He was someone great to work with, has been great to work with. But you know, in TV, that’s just the way it is. Sometimes your favorite characters, sometimes they’re gone and that’s why we have those seasons… why it goes on for years, but you know, we’re grateful for Kevin, and we’ll miss him,” Bentley said.
In June, Costner told People he had been “disappointed” in how the rumors surrounding his exit were handled by production.
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“I loved the show. I liked the people on the show. I liked what it was about. I love that world,” he said at the time.
After the first half of the fifth season aired late last year, the show took a break for the holidays. They were set to return to filming at the top of the new year, but that was pushed back to sometime this summer.
While Costner was ready to continue, he said “the scripts weren’t there.” “There was a moment where that show for me stopped for 14 months. … That’s the fact,” he said. “I could have done a lot of things in that time, but I wasn’t aware that that [holdup] was going to happen.”
Prior to the news that Paramount Network was releasing the final episodes of season 5 on Nov. 10, Costner said he had been well-aware of the online buzz surrounding his exit and had not been thrilled with the lack of support from production.
“I read all the stories,” he said. “I was disappointed that nobody on their side … ever stepped up to defend what it was I actually did for them. There came a moment where I thought, ‘Wow, when is somebody going to say something about what I have done versus what I haven’t done?'”
Despite the disappointment, Costner told the outlet he would still be interested in returning and tying up any loose ends.
“I’ve always felt that … it might be an interesting moment to come back and finish the mythology of this modern-day family,” he said in June. “And if that happens, I would step into it if I agreed with how it was being done.”
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“In the very end, I couldn’t do any more for it than I had already done,” he added.
“Yellowstone” follows the Dutton family through years of trying to save their family ranch in Montana. The star-studded cast included Bentley and Costner as well as Luke Grimes, Kelly Reilly and Cole Hauser.
Although the series was set to conclude after season 5, negotiations for a sixth season of the Paramount show are underway, Deadline reported.
No deals have been reached, sources told the outlet in August, but “Yellowstone” will likely continue with Hauser and Reilly as the leads.
In August, Fox News Digital reached out to Paramount about the report, but a representative for the company declined to comment.
