Yellowstone has been a breakout hit for the Paramount Network. Aside from its appealingly
dramatic portrait of Montana land-use conflicts, the cable series succeeds largely on the basis
of its fascinating characters.
The world of Yellowstone is populated by a truly outstanding ensemble of complicated,
damaged people first among them, prodigal daughter Bethany Dutton, played by actress
Kelly Reilly.
"You are the trailer park. I am the tornado."
When we're introduced to Reilly's Beth on the series' very first episode, she's busy
ruthlessly dismantling a publicly traded petroleum company and bullying the CEO into thanking
her for the privilege.
It isn't long afterwards that family patriarch John Dutton summons her back home to Montana
so she can apply her particular set of skills to the personal and professional destruction
of local real estate rival, Dan Jenkins.
Beth's arrival has an immediate impact on the state of play. The power suit-clad vulture
capitalist presents a mean contrast with the rugged ranchers, wranglers and grooms who
mill around her father's dynastic Yellowstone Ranch, but her big city life back in Salt
Lake doesn't appear to have sanded off any of her rougher edges. As it turns out, you
can take the ranch girl out of the ranch, but you can't take the ranch out of the ranch
girl.
"She's not a cowboy. She hates horses. But she is of this land."
Beth Dutton feels like the kind of scene-stealing role that Reilly was born to play. She's a
hard-drinking, aggressive land heiress with a chip on her shoulder the size of Glacier
Park. Reilly's become such a fan favorite in the part that it's easy to forget she's
been in the business for decades — and she used to look a lot different.
Long before Kelly Reilly was breaking hearts across Montana as Bethany Dutton, she played
the far more genteel role of Clowance Poldark in the 1996 made-for-TV movie Poldark. No
sane person would argue that Reilly hasn't aged well — she's still a knockout at 42
cast as the 38-year-old Beth — but Beth Dutton's bleached and straightened look is
a definite change from the wavy red locks she was rocking in Poldark.
Beth Dutton is a character known for being overly concerned with her appearance. She
derives much of her power from her sexuality, and revels in her ability to manipulate the
googly-eyed men that surround her.
When Beth Dutton enters a room, people notice. Even at her drunkest on Yellowstone, we rarely
see her without a perfect patina of makeup, complete with her trademark menacing raccoon
eyeliner. It's certainly a contrast with the natural beauty the 22-year-old Reilly brought
to Clowance Poldark, though no less striking.
After a few more TV projects in the ‘90s, she didn't make the leap to the silver screen
until 2000, with a role in the British comedy Maybe Baby.
That movie centers around husband-and-wife couple Sam and Lucy, who are struggling to
have a baby, with Sam balancing his family troubles with his unsatisfying job at the
BBC. Things take a turn when inspiration strikes, and Sam realizes he should write a screenplay
for a film about his and Lucy's troubles, using his wife's diary entries to shape the
story.
Reilly pulls double duty in her small role, playing the actress who signs on to play the
fictional version of Lucy in Sam's movie.
At just 23 years old when Maybe Baby was released in the United Kingdom, Reilly looks fresh-faced
and wide-eyed in the role and her cut-short hair is a hugely different look to the long
locks fans are used to seeing her sport on Yellowstone.
After that role, Reilly returned to the big screen in the role of Caroline Bingley in
the 2005 feature film adaptation of Jane Austen's Victorian romance novel Pride & Prejudice.
In the movie, as in the 1813 novel, Caroline is the haughty sister of Charles Bingley,
a wealthy bachelor whom Mrs. Bennett intends to marry off to one of her daughters.
In many ways, Reilly's Pride & Prejudice look splits the difference between her fresh-faced
appearance in Poldark and the world-weary sensuality that she brings to Yellowstone.
Whether she's in the finest fashions of 1800s England or calling the shots on a Montana
cattle ranch, Kelly Reilly never fails to make us swoon.
"What do you want?"
"To make a scene. You ready to watch that happen?"
Catch Reilly at her self-destructive best on Yellowstone season 3. New episodes air
Sundays on Paramount at 9 PM Eastern.
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