Ithink that people are going to be very surprised where my character ends up going,” Natalie Alyn Lind teases, carefully tiptoeing around spoilers for her new series, the Paramount+ spinoff Dutton Ranch. Throughout our phone interview in late May, it’s not difficult to picture the actress’s grin as she describes the antics of Oreana Jackson, the latest fiery, foul-mouthed female protagonist to find a home in Taylor Sheridan’s broader Yellowstone Cinematic Universe. “She is a force to be reckoned with, and there’s nothing that will get in her way,” Lind says of Oreana, who earns a scene opposite the formidable Beth Dutton (Kelly Reilly) in episode 4, after the latter catches the former straddling her adopted son, Carter (Finn Little), in bed early one morning. But Beth opts not to verbally eviscerate the Jackson scion as some fans might (understandably) expect. Instead, she seems to recognize she’s stumbled upon an equal.
Oreana—“a character that has no boundaries,” according to Lind—is the granddaughter of 10-Petal Ranch owner Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening) and daughter of Rob-Will Jackson (Jai Courtney), who’s currently riding out a stint at rehab after his erratic actions resulted in a murder early in Dutton Ranch’s premiere episode. Oreana knows nothing of this murder, but she does know she wants little to do with the legacy Beulah is so keen to thrust on the young woman’s shoulders. As such, she’s prone to troublemaking. Over the course of Dutton Ranch’s first four episodes, she pulls Carter deeper into her orbit after the young Texas transplant rescues her from assault at the hands of her steer-wrestler boyfriend. As the two become friends and then romantic interests, it’s clear their families’ competing Capulet-and-Montague ranches won’t be enough to keep them apart.
Lind comes from a Hollywood family: Her mother, Barbara Alyn Woods, is an actress known for her work on One Tree Hill; her father is a producer and assistant director; and both of her younger sisters, Emily Alyn Lind and Alyvia Alyn Lind, are also actresses (though they’ve yet to appear in a scene as a trio). Lind first started acting when she was a child, making her television debut in One Tree Hill. Her mother—who didn’t want her daughters to feel pushed into the family business, and who encouraged them to explore other interests—nevertheless let her audition for the guest role “to make sure I was decent enough and wasn’t going to embarrass her on set,” Lind jokes. “I think that she was kind of screwed after that, because I got a taste for [acting], and I’ve never let go of that. I still feel exactly the same way about acting as I did when I was little.”
Now, Lind is an actress in her own right, as well as a producer like her father. But, she says, the glamour and thrill of Hollywood still overwhelm her to this day. Describing the experience of starring in Dutton Ranch, she says, “I cannot even put it into words. I mean, I knew it was going to be big to some degree, but you just never know. It was very important for me to keep the integrity [of Yellowstone, the flagship series] as we bring new characters and new light to it. Seeing how positive people have been about [Dutton Ranch] literally has been bringing tears to my eyes.”
Below, Lind discusses the parallels between Oreana Jackson and Beth Dutton; breaks down key moments from episode 4; and previews what’s to come for the Jackson family.