Natalie Alyn Lind: The Secrets of Dutton Ranch
There are two kinds of power in the world of Dutton Ranch: the kind that announces itself, and the kind that never needs to. As Oreana Jackson, Natalie Alyn Lind belongs firmly to the latter. Sharp, self-assured and difficult to read, Oreana arrives with a confidence that feels almost impenetrable. But in Taylor Sheridan’s world, certainty is rarely the same thing as control, and every family has something to hide.
At first glance, the Jacksons’ 10 Petal Ranch and the Duttons’ Yellowstone Ranch may seem worlds apart. Look closer and the familiar ingredients emerge: inherited loyalties, buried histories and the quiet violence of protecting what belongs to you. The final episodes only complicate the picture, revealing just how much can change when the people closest to you are the ones you understand least.
For Natalie Alyn Lind, stepping into the Yellowstone universe meant joining a world she already knew, only to discover it from the other side of the camera. Alongside a stellar ensemble that includes Cole Hauser, Kelly Reilly, Annette Bening, Ed Harris, Jai Courtney and Finn Little, she brings Oreana to life as a character whose greatest strength may also be her most effective disguise.
We spoke with Natalie Alyn Lind about the woman beneath Oreana’s armour, the secrets binding the Jackson family together, the art of holding her own in a room full of characters, and what might happen when the worlds of Dutton Ranch and Yellowstone begin to collide.
Talent: Natalie Alyn Lind @natalynlind
Editor-in-Chief: Dimitri Vorontsov @dimitrivorontsov
Photographer: Yuxian He @brianhyx
Stylist: Kris Fe @krisfe_
Hair Stylist: Laura Rugetti @laurarugetti
Makeup Artist: Nova Kaplan @novakaplan
Stylist Assistant: Tatiana Isshac @tatianaisshac
Special thanks to Hype Studios @hypestudios.la
Dimitri: I watched all of Dutton Ranch first. I was captured by the show and its characters, so I then went back and watched Yellowstone from season one through the season five finale. Is that a good way to experience the two shows?
Natalie Alyn Lind: The great thing about the show is that it makes sense without having seen Yellowstone first, but you have a much better appreciation for Beth and Rip if you have. My mom and her boyfriend did it out of order too. They liked Dutton Ranch so much that they said, “Okay, now we need to see the original,” and they just finished it.
The original has been on for a while, so it’s a commitment. You have to really want to jump into it. I’ve been watching it for so long, and it’s such a good show. It feels weird to say about my own show, but I really enjoy ours too, and I definitely loved the original.
Dimitri: You were already a serious Yellowstone fan. When you heard about Dutton Ranch, did you immediately want into that world?
Natalie Alyn Lind: There have been many Taylor shows. We call it the Taylorverse, because he has so many different ones. I’d known Taylor previously, and John Papsidera, who pretty much casts all of Taylor’s shows, he had me in to audition for a couple of them before. He is my favorite casting director ever. I’m obsessed with him.
As an actor, I think certain roles come to you, and you get this internal feeling when you can really relate to a character. The moment I got the sides for Oreana, I loved that she had this fun, untamed spirit.
Dimitri: “Untamed spirit” is a soft way to put it.
Natalie Alyn Lind: She’s a crazy bitch.
Dimitri: She’s not. She’s actually quite a straight shooter, and she doesn’t give a fuck.
Natalie Alyn Lind: Oreana Jackson walks into Dutton Ranch with absolutely no interest in being liked. I’ve played characters, but I wouldn’t call them edgy. On Big Sky, my character also had this untamed spirit, but it came more from a place of insecurity. Oreana’s comes from deep-rooted anger, and that’s something I hadn’t really explored before.
Dimitri: How did Oreana actually come to you? Was it a long casting process or did everything happen very quickly?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Going into the audition process, I was calling my agents pretty much every day: “Have you heard anything? Have you heard anything? Have you heard anything?” A couple of days before testing, I got a phone call, and they flew me and, I think, 14 other girls out to Texas to test. It felt like mini summer camp.
We did the first day of testing, then the second. On the second day, they brought Jai and me into a room and had us stand back to back. It was such an in-and-out thing. They said, “This is Natalie. This is Jai.” “Hi, nice to meet you,” whatever. Then, on my flight home that night, I got a phone call that I’d booked it. They said I had two or three days to pack up my stuff for six months, because I was moving to Texas.
Dimitri: Wow.
Natalie Alyn Lind: The whole process went so insanely fast that there wasn’t much time to process it. It was just bang, bang, bang.
Dimitri: And then suddenly you’re inside a show you used to watch at home. How quickly did the fan in you disappear?
Natalie Alyn Lind: I think it was either cowboy camp, getting on horseback for the first time, or stepping onto set with Kelly for the first time, that it felt strange to be in the same universe. It was hard to explain what I was feeling during that time, because it was so fast and my brain didn’t have time to calculate what was happening.
Dimitri: How long did cowboy camp take? Did you pick up riding quickly?
Natalie Alyn Lind: You’d have to ask the cowboys. They might give you a different answer. I’d say I picked it up pretty fast. I’m such an animal lover, and I’ve had experience horseback riding, but nothing technical. The cowboys are teaching us incredible real-life skills. They’re not just teaching us what looks good on camera.
I’ve done training for other shows, where stunt coordinators come in. On one show I made a country album and had to learn piano and guitar, but that was definitely for the camera. I knew where to put my fingers, but I’m not sure how great it sounded when I was strumming.
Dimitri: You can’t fake riding a horse, that’s for sure. Did you keep riding once camp was over?
Natalie Alyn Lind: No, you cannot fake riding a horse. For the first cowboy camp, we all went together as a cast every day for about a week. We were there for a long time, and we would all go and ride on our off days. That became our hobby in Texas, and it was really cool.
Dimitri: Fantastic. Six months in Texas must have been quite an experience. Are you going back for season two?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Yep, we’re going right back. I’m not going to say when, but we’re geared up to go back and do the same thing.
Dimitri: Taylor Sheridan is getting much more involved creatively in season two. You already loved his writing, so how curious are you to see what he does with Oreana?
Natalie Alyn Lind: I think it’s fantastic. The first season gave enough of a twist at the end to leave me very excited for the second season.
Dimitri: There’s talk that Taylor is returning as a writer for season two. You could reach 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and you’re at 90 already.
Natalie Alyn Lind: The first season was done so well, and people loved it for a reason, but Taylor created this world and knows it better than everybody. Additional input from him makes sense, especially as he is an executive producer on the show. I think Taylor is not just an incredible writer, he’s an incredible human, and probably one of the most talented guys in Hollywood. Not just in Hollywood, but of all time.
I’m so grateful for the opportunity to be on one of his shows, in his universe. Every time he puts pen to paper, it’s poetry. The words he writes are so strong and so compelling.
Any chance to have him writing on the show is something we’d all be very grateful for. I’m just excited to see what that looks like. I have no idea at this point.
Dimitri: People are loving your show. What was it like coming into a world with such a big existing fan base?
Natalie Alyn Lind: It’s really interesting to come into a world that has a preexisting fan base. There’s an intimidation, and you’re not sure how people are going to receive the show. I think one of the main reasons it was so successful was Kelly and Cole, because they understand this universe so well. It was important to them to develop a universe that felt authentic to the original but was also doing its own thing.
One of our other executive producers, Christina Veros, works on all the Yellowstones. She, Kelly and Cole know this entire universe so well, and they have so much passion for this project and for the fans who love it. The show is nothing without the people who adore it, but coming into that in any circumstance is intimidating.
Then you get into this world in Texas where you love your costars and this family you’ve built, and working on the show has been genuinely fun. There were stretches where I didn’t work for a week or two and I’d get really sad. To be able to call that a job, and to miss what you’re doing on set… We definitely had hard days. You’re filming in Texas and it’s 97 degrees at night (36°C). But it never felt like work to me.
Dimitri: Wow. Did you say 97 degrees at night?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Yeah, and the humidity was pretty intense. So we had the nighttime heat, and then there was a week in January last year when we had a freeze-out. We were stuck indoors for a week. We couldn’t leave the house, and we couldn’t drive. The conditions in Texas can be extreme, but I am obsessed with Texas. I love Fort Worth. It was always really fun, and we all had that same experience.
It wouldn’t have been possible without Christina, Kelly and Cole. They have shaped this entire universe and created something so beautifully different that still gives you the things you’re missing from the original.
Dimitri: Kelly Reilly has said she doesn’t want Beth and Oreana to be just two strong women fighting each other. Where would you like that relationship to go?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Kelly actually came up to me about that after a scene we did together in the car, I think in episode three. Kelly has such a great understanding of the human heart. She’s lived in Beth for 10 years now. What people would expect is for Beth to automatically dislike Oreana because she’s sleeping with her son. But I think Beth sees a lot of herself in Oreana. She understands the genuine hurt Oreana experiences, and she sees that Oreana comes from an unstable family, which is something Beth has had in her own past.
There’s a moment when Beth walks into Carter’s room and they’re lying in bed together, and instead of Oreana just bowing down to Beth, which is what you’d naturally do with your significant other’s mother… Beth and Oreana both refuse to surrender the room. there actually more recognition between them than rivalry.
In television, you so often see two powerful women plotted against each other. Going against that as much as possible is something you don’t see very often, and I find it a much more interesting choice. That was definitely Kelly’s and Annette’s doing.
Annette’s character and mine obviously go toe-to-toe too, and our dynamic is a lot messier because it’s family. I don’t know that Oreana has a lot of female energy around her besides her grandmother. She doesn’t have a mother she grew up with, so being able to see Beth and respect her just from the way she handles herself is something very cool.
Dimitri: Ed Harris can change the temperature of a scene just by walking in. What’s he like to work with?
Natalie Alyn Lind: I love Ed. He’s such a great actor, and it was really refreshing to see him in such a good role. He’s one of a kind, and I love him to death.
Dimitri: And the rest of the cast? Tell us about working with them.
Natalie Alyn Lind: You can just go down the list. I had such a great experience with every single one of my castmates. Jai Courtney plays my dad on the show, and he and his family have become some of my closest friends. Juan Pablo, I just saw him in LA, and I text him on a day-to-day basis. Mark Menchaca is one of the kindest, most soft-spoken people, truly one of a kind. Then there’s Annette, Kelly, Cole and Finn. I took Finn to his first haunted house when we were in Texas.
I cannot tell you how much love I have in my heart for every single person. I’m hoping our storylines start integrating a little more next season. There are so many characters in season one, and we were all developing our own storylines, so there were many times I wasn’t in scenes with a lot of these people. Some scenes were cut, but I do hope that in season two we have a chance to integrate our characters more. We’re so lucky with this cast. A lot of people say, “Oh my God, it’s like a family,” and I really do feel a strong connection to the people I work with.
Sometimes there’s one bad egg, one person you think, “Oh my God, they just make it hard.” I would never say who they are, but I’ve worked with them on other shows, and I just don’t think we have one here. Unless everyone’s talking behind my back and I’m the bad egg and just don’t know. (laughs)
Dimitri: I’ll let you know if I interview anyone else. (laughs)
Natalie Alyn Lind: But I’m still getting text messages from everybody constantly, and I’m not always the first one to text, so I hope I’m not the bad egg. You never know. Maybe I’m just blind to it. I don’t think so.
Dimitri: After watching all five seasons of Yellowstone, I find it fascinating that 10 Petal Ranch and Yellowstone Ranch look so different at first, but both are built on generations of family loyalty, violence and dark secrets. Do you see them as more alike than they first appear?
Natalie Alyn Lind: I do see those comparisons, and it’s really cool to see everything that was done with season one. With any show, it takes a season to sink your teeth into the characters and feel like you know them. But with our show, you had that sense probably midway through season one.
Dimitri: Now that the circumstances are set, it feels like season two is the time to really let things go.
Natalie Alyn Lind: I think that’s exactly right.
Dimitri: Your team kept asking when we could do the interview, but I wanted to watch the show properly first. You live with these characters for months, so the least I can do is watch.
Natalie Alyn Lind: Oh, really? Honestly, so often people don’t put the work in anymore, so that means the world to actors too, to be able to have a real conversation about it. I love hearing people’s perspectives on the show. It’s crazy to see the fan reactions to my character specifically, from people who absolutely love her and people who absolutely hate her. If you only see the first episode, she’s this girl getting out of the car, screaming and kicking, telling her boyfriend to fuck off. And if you haven’t seen the entire series, you don’t realize there’s an empathetic side to her too. I love that you took the time to watch it all. That’s incredible.
Dimitri: Right. Taylor has brought the Western back to the mainstream in a way we hadn’t seen in decades. What do you think he’s doing differently from the classic Westerns?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Oh, yeah. He’s done an incredible job of modernizing cowboy culture. There are the cowboys you see in movies and television, but what he does really well is create a very authentic version of what it actually looks like to be a cowboy, especially today. It’s not walking into a bar with a gun and saying, “You’re not welcome here.” That’s not what it is. You’re seeing real-life experiences on a ranch, and you’re seeing relationships form within families.
There’s also an entire business side to running a ranch and maintaining acres and acres of land that you don’t think about when you think about cowboys or the ranch lifestyle. Showing exactly what that looks like is something he’s done since day one on the original Yellowstone. Beth is such a cool, badass character who walks in and understands business. You see a woman run the business side while the men are out on the ranch working it, and the end goal is selling this meat and maintaining the huge empire they’ve built.
So it’s not just bringing back cowboy culture. It’s showing a side of it that hasn’t really been seen before, which I find very interesting.
Dimitri: What I like about a series is that there’s time to flesh out the characters and understand the connections, rather than cramming everything into a two-hour script. I love film, but Quentin Tarantino put it nicely: with a film you remember the film, but with a TV show you remember the characters, not every episode. That’s true in a way. But that’s Quentin talking, which is a different league. I do sometimes prefer to watch a show, because it gives you time to understand the characters. With streaming there are no commercial breaks, and you’re not going to be canceled next week over low ratings, so you don’t have to pump every episode. Do you feel that you can focus more on the character development over the season?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Oh my God, yes. I think that’s the dream of an actor: not having to put all your cards on the table in one episode.
Dimitri: Oreana gets hit with almost everything at once in the finale. Did you know where her story was going from the beginning, or did you discover those twists script by script?
Natalie Alyn Lind: On this show, before we even started production, we went into some of our creators’ offices and were told our entire family history going back to the 1800s. All of the Duttons you’ve met in the past shows have this amazing legacy behind them, with the spin-offs and the prequels. Having people who care so much, and sitting down to figure it all out… I know where my character went to college. I know her upbringing and the trauma she went through when she was younger.
Having all of that to think about, and then having the time throughout the entire series to sit down with people and ask, “What is the turning point for her? What makes her decide…?” It’s this crazy roadmap, both in acting and in the human condition: what people feel and how emotions change. The person I am today is not the same person I was last year. You change and develop, if you’re lucky. If you’re lucky in life, you’re not put in one place. You’re able to grow and expand and have different experiences that shape who you are, sometimes in a negative way, sometimes in a positive way.
The characters in these universes are so deeply complicated that having the time across the entire season to lay down that roadmap is wonderful. You can go back to the drawing board on who she is at this point and who she’s going to be, hopefully, fingers crossed, in two seasons from now.
Dimitri: Maybe five seasons. Who knows? And how does that compare with the challenge of telling a story in a film?
Natalie Alyn Lind: Hopefully that’s the case. A TV show really isn’t a two-hour experience, but it’s not basic or easy in a movie either. When you’re in film, there’s a struggle in trying to relay an entire story within a 90-minute or two-hour bracket. That’s a different complication, because the pacing is shorter.
There are complications with both. In a longer time span, you have to figure out when you want certain things to come out, or when you want to start making decisions. I love being able to tackle both and strategize for film compared to television: how fast you can fall in love with the characters you develop, or how fast you don’t want to.
Specifically on this show, our characters have so many different levels and are so full of depth. Being able to work with a creative team that understands that, and wants these characters to develop at the same pacing, has been a really great experience. I don’t think a lot of creatives will give you those opportunities, so I’m very grateful for that.
Dimitri: Thank you so much for your time. Absolutely enjoyed our conversation!
Natalie Alyn Lind: Thank you for watching the show. I’m so grateful for that, let’s keep in touch.
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