The Yellowstone Scene That Felt Like A Intestine Punch For Wes Bentley

This submit comprises spoilers for “Yellowstone,” together with season 5.

“Yellowstone” is filled with actual gut-punch moments. The sequence kicked off with a surprising loss of life when Lee Dutton met his destiny within the premiere episode. That very a lot set the tone for the present transferring ahead, which at occasions felt like a extremely well-shot cleaning soap opera and fewer like a premium drama. That is not to knock Taylor Sheridan’s hugely-popular neo-Western; “Yellowstone” has managed to keep up its enchantment partly as a result of such surprising developments making the sequence unmissable — at the very least for dads. Sam Elliot might need trashed “Yellowstone” on account of its soapy tendencies, however he additionally starred in certainly one of its spin-offs, so he cannot hate it that a lot.

This continued proper up till the present’s fifth season, with season 5 half B opening with the controversial loss of life of Dutton household patriarch John Dutton (Kevin Costner). Maybe essentially the most contentious second within the historical past of “Yellowstone,” the passing of John Dutton stemmed from some behind-the-scenes drama regarding Costner’s exit from the present, proving that “Yellowstone” is a tumultuous manufacturing each in entrance of and behind the digital camera.

For Wes Bentley, who performs John and Evelyn Dutton’s (Gretchen Mol) adopted son Jamie, there have been loads of intense moments all through the sequence’ 5 seasons. Jamie was in a feud of types along with his adoptive household beginning on the very starting of the present and rapidly discovered himself caught up in loads of inter-family backstabbing and malicious machinations because of this. However one quietly devastating second proved tougher for Bentley to tug off than another.

In season 3, Jamie learns that he was truly adopted by John and Evelyn after his actual father killed his personal mom when Jamie was only a child. His delivery dad and mom have been drug addicts, and Jamie’s father, Garrett Randall (Wes Patton), claimed to have murdered his spouse, Phyllis, after discovering her in mattress with one other man whereas an toddler Jamie, then named Michael Randall, lay hungry. Whereas this story was by no means confirmed, it confirmed that Jamie had begun his life on the middle of tumult and tragedy — two issues that might observe him all through his grownup existence.

For the primary three seasons of “Yellowstone,” Jamie has no thought of his tragic origin, having by no means been informed that he was adopted — although he had all the time struggled to really feel like a part of the Dutton household. In season 3, episode 7, “The Beating,” nevertheless, he’s requested to retrieve his delivery certificates to be formally sworn in as Montana’s Lawyer Normal. When he receives it, he discovers his unique title and delivery dad and mom’ names on the doc and realizes he is not a real Dutton.

In a behind-the-scenes featurette for the episode, Bently — who has beforehand spoken concerning the disappointment of Jamie Dutton staying with him off-screen — described the problem of performing this scene, saying, “I can not even describe all of the issues that got here up in doing the scene the place he finds out who he’s. It was like an odd mixture of ‘Aha’ and ‘Oh no’ and ‘Oh my god.'” However the actor would later develop on simply how onerous it was for him to convey Jamie’s feelings on this second. In actual fact, he claimed it was essentially the most difficult scene to carry out in his whole “Yellowstone” tenure.

After discovering the reality about his adoption, Jamie’s life would turn into much more turbulent than it had been, with the adopted Dutton son breaking away from his household and even reconnecting along with his delivery father, Garrett. That storyline itself would have a tragic climax when Jamie shot Garrett and disposed of his physique within the Duttons’ “Practice Station” dumping floor. Even then, his sister Beth (Kelly Reilly, who’s now set to headline a “Yellowstone” spin-off with Cole Hauser) tailed him to the situation and took images of Jamie with the physique, resulting in but extra household drama.

However it appears taking pictures all of this was simpler for Wes Bentley than the only second his character found he was adopted. Talking to US Journal in 2024, the actor described why the scene with the delivery certificates was so difficult:

“It isn’t like the opposite scenes, the place it is all emotional and yelling and screaming. It is simply actual easy, like [a] intestine punch and in addition a solution to a query he is all the time had however did not know he had. That day enjoying [Jamie] felt actually ethereal — I used to be actually in a head-y, shiny state, simply making an attempt to fathom what that should be [like].”

Bentley went on to say that this single second “actually switched one thing to me as properly, going ahead.” Now that “Yellowstone” has wrapped up with the second a part of its fifth and last season, during which Jamie dies, it will likely be attention-grabbing to know whether or not any scene from this tempestuous last season has matched the problem of the character’s earlier discovery.

“Yellowstone” is at present streaming on Peacock.