‘Yellowstone’ stars Luke Grimes and Wes Bentley don’t sugarcoat ‘surprising’ series finale: ‘heartbreaking’
The sun is setting on the ranch.
After five seasons, the hit ranch drama “Yellowstone” is ending. The second half of the fifth and final season premieres Sunday, Nov. 10 (8 p.m. on Paramount).
Luke Grimes, 40, who stars as Kayce Dutton, told The Post that the ending is, “Profound, beautiful. Heartbreaking.”
Wes Bentley, 46, who stars as Jamie Dutton, told The Post, “I’m probably like a lot of the fans where it’s been so much time and there’s so many different [possible] endings. I’ve thought about them all before.”
The “American Beauty” actor added, “But even then, it still surprised me in the way [creator Taylor Sheridan] wrote it. I think the fans are going to be excited, because it’ll be surprising in a lot of ways.”
The hit cowboy drama premiered in 2018 and has attracted 17 million viewers, according to Paramount. It follows the Dutton family, owners of the largest ranch in Montana, including patriarch John (Costner) and his adult children Kayce (Luke Grimes), Jamie (Wes Bentley), Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Beth’s husband, Rip (Cole Hauser).
Where the show left off, John was the Governor of Montana and Jamie had a full-fledged villain arc, working against his family.
“It’s a lot of fun playing the antagonist in this story, and particularly because he’s a complicated antagonist and people have complicated feelings about him,” said Bentley.
“So, often [fans] can’t just say, ‘you’re the bad guy.’ But, they rather want to have a therapy session and try to discover what’s messed up about Jamie and how can we fix him. And they’re really concerned. So it’s funny that they’ll treat him like the bad guy, but yet they still want to fix him.”
Everyone got emotional on their final day of filming.
“There was a lot of crying, for sure,” said Bentley.
Kelsey Asbille, 33, who plays Kayce’s wife, Monica, said that on her last day, “I was just a blubbering mess. I was ugly crying … The actors were giving speeches, which is my worst nightmare. I blacked out.”
Grimes said that he teared up, too.
“I definitely had my moments … being a dude and all, I keep my emotions at bay in front of people. But driving home, it just sort of hit me that that’s been the last time I was going to drive home from that set. And it was kind of a big deal.”
He added that the show has been a one of a kind experience.
“Any time we got to do any of the big cowboy stuff – like on horseback with cattle – with a lot of the cast and a lot of the real cowboys, there’s no way to fake moving cattle. Or CGI cattle. So we’d actually just have to get on [horses] and do it.”
He added, “I don’t know any other way in my life in which I would have had that experience.”
Grimes said the show’s ending surprised him.
“But it also felt right. It felt like that’s exactly what should have happened. Taylor’s talent as a writer is that it’s never what you expect, but it’s always the perfect thing.”