Yellowstone’s Wes Bentley speaks out on career first on show: ‘I surprised myself’

Yellowstone’s Wes Bentley has talked about how he has “surprised” himself during his time on the show.

Having portrayed troubled Jamie Dutton from the very beginning, actor Wes Bentley has had a plethora of major storylines to work with.

From his ongoing feud with sister Beth Dutton (played by Kelly Reilly) and accidentally murdering journalist Sarah Nguyen (Michaela Conlin), to finding out he’s adopted and killing his real dad Garrett Randall (Will Patton), the legal mind of the Dutton family has been through a lot.

And with just a handful of episodes left to get excited about from the Paramount Network drama, Jamie’s story is expected to end with a bang.

Opening up to Gold Derby, Bentley has shared how it is these big emotive stories that have been a new experience for him as an actor.

“I think one of the most important jobs here is to be emotionally available to give it to the performance, because that’s what people are watching”, he said.

“It’s not always what’s going on but how the people are going through it, what are they going through.

“And so having that emotional availability means you’re vulnerable to it and that alone starts it off.

“Jamie [Dutton] on top of that is going through so much that I have to reveal, that I’ve had to be brave and as vulnerable as I could to experience these things without being afraid of it and hiding from it and you can see that in a performance and I didn’t want that.”

Bentley continued: “I thought it was too good for me to waste that so it was the first time in my career where I read scenes where I had to cry when I wasn’t like ‘well it’ll only happen if it happens’.

“I had to get there so I found things I could do that I never thought I could do, I really surprised myself through this guy and through these welcomed challenges that Taylor [Sheridan] gives me.

“The abilities I didn’t know I have and the bravery in my acting that I didn’t give to enough stuff in my younger career which I knew was happening but I also knew time was the only thing that could break that.”

Sadly, the end is in sight for Jamie and the rest of the Duttons in the global hit Western drama.

It has already been confirmed that Yellowstone will be no more once season five comes to an end.

The first half of the series came out in May 2023 but as of yet, there has been no sign of the final handful of episodes.

This is because delays have been caused by the writers and actors’ strikes in Hollywood that took several months last year.

However, it is now believed that Yellowstone season five part two is going to begin sometime in November 2024.