Yellowstone’s Wes Bentley admits he ‘doesn’t speak’ to showrunner about Jamie’s fate
Wes Bentley prefers to stay in the dark about the future of his character Jamie, who is quite literally in bed with the enemy in the latest gripping season of the Western drama.
The fifth season of Yellowstone is currently taking a lengthy break from the Dutton drama, giving John Dutton (played by Kevin Costner) and his cowboys plenty of time to prepare for their move to Texas. Once the series gets going again in the summer, the Paramount drama will have plenty of surprises in store for fans, including cast member Wes Bentley who prefers to stay away from spoilers.
Bentley revealed he let showrunner Taylor Sheridan take the lead on where he’s taking Jamie Dutton.
In Yellowstone’s fifth season, Jamie has been working and sleeping with Sarah Atwood (Dawn Olivieri), a shrewd businesswoman hired by Market Equities to take down the Duttons.
At this point in the season, fans are still unsure where exactly Sarah’s loyalties lie, as she could easily stab her new partner in the back once her boss Caroline Warner (Jacki Weaver) makes her next play for the ranch.
Unfortunately, Bentley was reluctant to give away any hints about what’s coming next as he revealed he doesn’t talk to Sheridan about his character’s journey.
“I didn’t have any conversations with Taylor,” he admitted. “We have talks about many things, but I never ask him what’s coming.”
At the start of the series, Jamie was in even less control of his own life after his sister Beth (Kelly Reilly) caught him killing his biological father, Garrett Randall (Will Patton).
However, as the new season has progressed, the black sheep of the Dutton family is finally finding a foothold thanks to Sarah’s support.
Despite finally getting closer to taking John’s governorship for himself, Bently doesn’t want to know anything about his story until he gets Sheridan’s scripts.
“He’ll sort of suggest things, but I never let them stay, because I’ve learned, in TV, you don’t listen to that,” he explained to Gold Derby.
“You wait to see the pages because I don’t want to decide anything for my character too early.
“So, I find the joy in waiting for the pages to come and then discovering all these things in that way.”
Even so, Bentley still struggled to be content with Jamie’s current trajectory, especially between seasons four and five.
“I wasn’t going to call anything, but I was just stewing in my room,” he continued.
“Just upon the first reads of those first few episodes I felt like,’He’s still so weak. What’s he going to do? He’s got to do something, he killed his own Dad.’
“But I was still being Jamie and realising that he’s stuck. [Beth’s] made a play on him he really doesn’t know what to do with.
“During [John’s] campaign he’s had to work through killing his own father, and all the terrible guilt and the terrible feelings about that and about her.”
“He’s really accepting his death here, in the first few episodes. He’s accepting his fate.”
“But here comes this person who might give him the chance to get it at least for a moment before he’s killed,” he added, before finishing with a laugh.
Jamie may or may not be destined for the train station by the time Yellowstone completely comes to an end.
It’s unknown how long the drama will continue, but given the success of spin-offs 1883 and 1923, it’s safe to assume the mothership could continue for at least another couple of seasons.
Fans may be desperate to know what lies ahead for Jamie and the rest of the Duttons but, for now, Bentley is apparently just as in the dark about his character’s fate as everyone else.
Yellowstone season 5 will continue summer 2023 on the Paramount Network in the USA and Paramount+ in the UK.
