Annette Bening plays a hardcore cowgirl in the 'Yellowstone' spinoff series
Credit: Lauren Smith/Paramount+
NEED TO KNOW
- Annette Bening plays a lifelong rancher and true cowgirl in the Yellowstone spinoff Dutton Ranch
- Bening tells PEOPLE she’s “a little bit intimidated” by horses as she reveals how she conquered that fear to play the character
- The season 1 finale of Dutton Ranch premieres Friday, July 3 on Paramount+
Annette Bening goes full cowgirl in Dutton Ranch. While she makes it look natural, it wasn't all smooth sailing.
"I'm a little bit intimidated by horses," Bening, 68, tells PEOPLE. Considering how frequently she had to be in the saddle to play ranch owner Beulah Jackson in the series, the actress had to conquer her fears.
"I took some wonderful lessons," she says on the red carpet at the Dutton Ranch premiere. "I was taken out by the wranglers — we have an amazing group of wranglers on our show who take care of all the horses and the cows — and they took me out riding."
The wranglers' lessons "really helped me enormously," Bening says. "I loved it, and I also just enjoyed it personally."
Credit: Emerson Miller/Paramount+
The role overall was a thrill for her. "Playing a Texas rancher, I really enjoyed that. Getting to know the ranch world. And I was lucky, I was introduced to a number of women who live in that area who run ranches."
"I went to the Cowgirl Museum, which is this amazing museum in Fort Worth that is really an in-depth history of women of the West, and the history of that area is amazing. So I got into all of that and found the people to listen to for the accent and the whole thing," she says.
Her biggest priority for Beulah was understanding "the inner world of this woman," she says, in the hopes of making her "as real and as complex as possible."
"She is a boss woman," Bening adds of her character.
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Bening particularly enjoyed developing the riotous dynamic she has with Kelly Reilly's character. Beulah sees Beth as "a woman who's incredibly gutsy and intriguing and admires her," but she's "also sparring with her from the moment they meet," Bening says.
"There's a kind of mutual attraction and a mutual intrigue, let's say, between these two women," she said. "But that's the fun of it. It's just really a joy to have that dynamic going on."
The season 1 finale of Dutton Ranch premieres Friday, July 3 on Paramount+.
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