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Beth Dutton is not the only boss lady in Rio Paloma.
In Dutton Ranch, the new Yellowstone spinoff that sees Beth (Kelly Reilly) and Rip (Cole Hauser) relocate from Montana to Texas, Beth immediately gets off on the wrong foot with the town’s resident rancher, Beulah Jackson (Annette Bening).
As Reilly tells PEOPLE, “It’s her town, I’m just visiting.”
The tension between the two alpha females unfolds all season long, and Reilly says, “That’s the joy. The audience really knows who Beth is and what she’s capable of, but nobody else does in this world, in this town. So Beulah is queen, and Beth is just visiting for now.”
From Bening’s point of view, her character 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.”
“There’s a kind of mutual attraction and a mutual intrigue, let’s say, between these two women,” Bening, 67, tells PEOPLE. “But that’s the fun of it. It’s just really a joy to have that dynamic going on.”
As a fan of Yellowstone, Bening was excited about joining the beloved Taylor Sheridan universe, and says it was Reilly that drew her to the series.
“I was a fan of Yellowstone, especially Kelly Riley, to be honest,” she says. “By the way, I didn’t even know she was English. When I heard that, I’m like, ‘Wait, on top of everything else — she’s English? That’s incredible.’”
“You’re really only as good as who you’re acting with,” Bening continues. “And especially with great actors like Ed Harris, Kelly Riley, Cole Hauser, then, really, it’s about listening and looking at what they’re doing and picking up on that energy.”
“That’s the fun of it — the exchange, and the uncertainty of what might happen. And is there a surprise in store for what might happen in the scene as we’re playing? All of that is the fun of it.”
Reilly says Bening is “very playful as an actor” and “always open.”
“Every take, every time, she’s looking and searching and playing and inventing. It keeps you on your toes,” she says. “It just keeps the work really alive. It’s like a full meal.”
New episodes of Dutton Ranch drop Fridays on Paramount+