The smell of hay lingers in the air, but horses are nowhere to be found. Instead, Kelly Reilly, clad in a denim-on-denim look with Saint Laurent boots that have no place in a barn, is leaning over a photo monitor to sneak a peek at her People shoot in a Manhattan studio. She’s joined by a familiar face. “It’s so nice to get to do this as Kelly and Cole,” says Reilly. “Usually it’s Beth and Rip.” When the costars sit down for an interview a little while later, Cole Hauser concurs: “It’s a big difference, isn’t it?”
Reilly, 48, and Hauser, 51, are coming up on a decade as Beth Dutton and Rip Wheeler, first introduced at the beginning of Yellowstone in 2018 and now about to launch their own spinoff, Dutton Ranch, May 15 on Paramount+.
Beth, the daughter of the late John Dutton (Kevin Costner), and Rip, John’s longtime ranch foreman and fixer, were in an unforgettable sort of fiery, messy love from the show’s beginning and tied the knot in the season 4 finale. Both characters are fiercely loyal to the very few people they trust—and not afraid of a little violence in order to protect them.
In real life the actors are far more affable. The ease between them is palpable as they finish each other’s sentences while describing being reunited for the first time since they wrapped filming in early March:
WHERE WE LEFT OFF
As the sun set on Yellowstone, John Dutton was dead, killed at the hands of an assassin hired by Jamie’s (Wes Bentley) girlfriend, and his remaining children, Beth and Kayce (Luke Grimes), sold the massive Yellowstone Ranch back to the Broken Rock Reservation.
At the beginning of Dutton Ranch, set about a year later, a more mature Beth, Rip and Carter (Finn Little), their adoptive teenage son, have left Montana and are settling into a new home in small-town Texas.
“Beth and Rip were always such warriors, and they’re hoping that they may not have to be warriors,” says Reilly. “They’re always going to protect each other. They were protecting a place and a dream of John Dutton’s for five seasons. Now that cycle, that burden is over. It’s dead. And so, who are they together now?”
The move to a new state and a new landscape will mean new challenges for the family. In Montana “they were the top dogs,” Reilly says. “Now they’re the strangers.”
“It’s like going to the moon for these characters,” says Hauser, noting that Rip will face a significant language barrier as his workers all speak Spanish. “They don’t know the land or the people or the environment.”
Reilly quickly adds, “And they don’t know them. They don’t know who these guys are. They don’t know what they’re dealing with.” Among the unsuspecting locals are Beth and Rip’s new neighbors, a grizzled veterinarian and Navy veteran who befriends Beth , and the boss at the town’s big ranch
“We needed some heavyweights alongside us to tell a new story,” Reilly says of Harris and Bening. “We’re deeply flattered that they wanted to come on to a show with us.”
“The opportunity and honor to work with Ed was a dream come true,” adds Hauser. “He’s just as good of a person, as he is an actor. And Annette is wild and fun and smart.”
The actors’ affection for Little, 19, is also evident every time Carter comes up. “He’s just grown with us, and we love him,” says Reilly.
“We’ve been a part of his most formidable years as a young man,” says Hauser. “And so, to see him grow not only off the screen, but on the screen as an actor, he has so much talent, and it’s just oozing out of him.”
THE LOVE STORY
When Yellowstone debuted, the characters of Beth and Rip were single, and, in a rare move on television today, they’ve only ever had eyes for each other.
“There was such a history of Beth and Rip and what they meant to each other,” Reilly says of the characters whose romance first began when they were teens. “But she was pretty awful to him at the beginning [of the show].”
“I actually thought it was funny. I’m a little sick that way,” Hauser responds with a laugh. “I thought the relationship was so bizarre, and [creator] took such a great risk with starting the characters the way that he did. That gave room for Kelly and me to be able to take even more risks with them and play.”
“And that’s the thing that Taylor does as a writer is that he gives you this freedom, whether you know it or not, to actually really be creative and try new things,” Hauser adds. “The Beth-Rip relationship, it’s so much different than any other relationship I’ve ever had on camera. It’s hot, it’s cold, it’s beautiful, it’s angry, it’s passionate.”
WE’VE LIVED WITH THESE CHARACTERS… SO WE FEEL A RESPONSIBILITY TO HONOR THEM AND BRING THEM FORWARD
The characters later found a rhythm and a steadiness within each other that will carry them into the new series. “He allows her to be who she is, and she just will do anything for him,” says Reilly.
Adds Hauser:“And when they’re hurting, they’re there for each other, which is so beautiful. I can tell when she’s not doing well. She can tell when I’m hurting.”
As the actors finished filming Yellowstone, Hauser says, they “didn’t know” if there would be a future for Beth and Rip onscreen, but “there were hopes.” “It’s an honor to be in a show that was so loved and play characters that were so loved,” Reilly says. “You could end it where it ended with Yellowstone. It did end.”
But after what had been a tumultuous season 5 because of Costner’s departure and the Hollywood strikes—Reilly and Hauser didn’t have much of an extended break before putting Beth’s and Rip’s boots back on.