‘Yellowstone’ Season 5: Wes Bentley Interview on Jamie’s Shattered Relationships

By
Rebecca Murray
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Yellowstone fans need to prepare themselves for what could possibly be the most intense season yet with the arrival of season five on November 13, 2022 on Paramount Network. Season four ended with Beth (Kelly Reilly) forcing her brother Jamie (Wes Bentley) to murder his biological father. The season four finale also revealed Beth now possesses photographic evidence of Jamie’s crime and will be holding it over his head.

Don’t kid yourself into believing Beth will ever allow Jamie a moment’s peace, given their history.

As season five begins, John Dutton (Kevin Costner) is being sworn in as Montana’s new governor. However, the resentment Jamie feels at John for squashing his political career doesn’t hold a candle to the anger he feels toward Beth. It’s safe to assume the feeling is mutual and that Beth will be doing everything in her power to make Jamie’s life miserable.

During our November 2022 interview, Wes Bentley discussed that sibling relationship and touched on Jamie’s mindset going into season five.

Yellowstone Season 5 Wes Bentley
Wes Bentley stars as Jamie Dutton in ‘Yellowstone’ season 5 (Photo Credit: Paramount Network)

How does Jamie react to John basically eviscerating his political career? How does he move forward knowing he’s never going to be Montana’s governor?

“I think it’s one of the hardest things for Jamie to come to realize is that, you know, the only thing he wanted out of this arrangement that John had forced upon him with being a lawyer and all this is that one day, hopefully, this would be the reward. He would be a governor or something powerful, that didn’t only have to do with the Duttons but also for himself to step up and be an impressive figure himself.

Well, John’s completely robbed him of that. And not only that, John, who hates politicians and lawyers, is all of a sudden one. I think Jamie sees that as hypocritical and therefore taking off the sheen of heroism he may have put on John. So, there’s a different perspective for Jamie. Although he’s got to deal with him, he wants him to do well so that they don’t lose the land, he has to kind of walk the line between his feelings about what he wants and what he needs to happen in the moment.”

That’s interesting that you mentioned the sheen of heroism. Does he still view John as a hero?

“Yeah, to a fault. I think there’s something in there. He’s fallen for the – like a lot of people have – the sort of cowboy myth that he’s above it somehow. He’s independent of all this other stuff. I think he realized that, no, he’s just another piece of it. He’s just a man who doesn’t know what to do, in Jamie’s eyes now.”

Jamie’s so cut off from everybody. Is there anybody he can turn to at this point to have a heart-to-heart with who’s not going to judge him?

“I think Kayce would be the closest thing he could do, but the problem with Kayce is that who knows where Kayce is in that moment. And they can’t really have discussions necessarily about this stuff because Kayce is not interested, but Jamie is interested in the perspective of how to keep this land. So, really, no. He doesn’t have anyone that he feels is his equal who can hear him and understand him.

And not only that, he’s got this threat from Beth constantly that he feels like his life is in danger, and it’s hard to talk about anything. So, he’s more isolated than ever and stewing in his pot of anger. And I think that’s why he’s so actually dangerous in this moment, more so than Beth even knows.”

Is he stewing in that anger toward just Beth, or are there a variety of people he’s focused on?

“Beth is the primary because Beth…what she forced him to do with his biological father was beyond for him. And I think he’s lost any hope of love or reconciliation, and now he just has hate for her. And John is, like I said, John is not listening to him. Although I think he would turn to John quicker, John is rejecting him as well. There’s really no one.”

Could you sum up what this new season’s going to be like? Is it going to be darker? Bloodier?

“It’s full of political intrigue, and we have a lot of cliffhangers. And into that political world, we find a lot of new people we haven’t met before. It’s a lot of different angles that have arrived here in season five. But I would just say we’re at an inflection point.”

Yellowstone season five kicks off with a special two-hour premiere on Sunday, November 13, 2022 at 8pm ET/PT on Paramount Network.




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