I’m not kidding, when it came to filming the final episodes of Yellowstone’s fifth season, there were Marvel levels of secrecy surrounding it. Honestly, it’s kind of wild to think about the cast not knowing everything that was going on in the season that’s airing on the 2024 TV schedule. So, when I had the chance to interview Kathryn Kelly, who plays Jimmy’s partner and vet tech Emily, I asked her about the challenges that came with all these secrets.
When I spoke to Kelly about Yellowstone’s infamous redacted scripts, she began her story about getting them by explaining that she prefers to have paper scripts. So, that’s what she got, however, those pages were completely blacked out in a lot of places, as she explained:
I get to set and they have them printed. It was like three pages completely in black ink, like redacted. I was like, ‘What am I supposed to do with that? Like, this is giving me nothing. Are you joking?’
She wasn’t the only one who got that though, most of the Yellowstone cast got redacted scripts, except for a few principal players – like Kayce Dutton actor Luke Grimes, who told Esquire he got everything.
Kelly went on to tell me that while she got the secrecy, she also thought the cast and crew could have made sure leaks didn’t get out, noting that they all want “job security.” However, in the end, everyone understood why Taylor Sheridan’s scripts were being kept close to the vest.I mean, with big reveals like John Dutton’s death at play, they obviously wouldn’t want someone to accidentally spoil a major plot point.
Not knowing everything did “make it hard” though, as Kelly said, because they genuinely didn’t know what was going on outside of their own scenes – and she does not appear as Emily until the penultimate episode. So, odds are she didn’t know what had happened at the Yellowstone in the lead-up to the auction she and Jimmy attended in Episode 13.
However, she did explain that there would be chatter here and there to try and piece together the story, but overall, they just needed to trust the process:
I do think it created a little feeling of discourse, you know, because it's like, not even all of costuming or hair design or makeup really knows the journey that we're all going on, and we didn't know all the characters journeys. And so it feels a little maybe disjointed at times.
Like I said she knew she had to trust the process, Taylor Sheridan’s writing and her chemistry with the cast. And in the end, it all worked out. While she said it could feel “disjointed” at times, in the end, they knew it would come together in a “seamless” way, that was just going to happen in a way they weren’t used to:
But I think because we all have the chemistry that we have, and because we've all worked together for so many years, and because everyone trusts Taylor's writing, and trust that he knows what he what he's doing for everyone. So I think because of all of that, it still feels seamless. But during it…normally, we get the entire script for each episode. So that was very different. So now when I'm watching I'm like, ‘I don’t know what’s happening.’
And she didn’t know what was happening until she sat down with her co-stars at the premiere to watch the first episode of Season 5B. However, being shocked alongside her friends and colleagues ended up being great. I can picture them all gasping together at the reveal of John’s fate, and I would have loved to be a fly on the wall afterward to hear their conversations about what could happen next.
Now, as we approach the final episode of Yellowstone, the Emily actress is watching the show just like the rest of us, as she said:
I'm enjoying it so far. I think it's great. I haven't watched it like this, because, like I said, normally, I get to know what's happening. [Now] I'm like, ‘I don't know what's going to happen next week.’
Girl, neither do I. When I was preparing for the Yellowstone interviews at the start of the season, I was not allowed to see the premiere before it aired on the Paramount Network. So, my theorizing got to the point where I actually thought Kevin Costner might come back. Not knowing what’s coming at all for sure has its challenges, but it’s also fun to guess what could happen and ponder all the theories floating around.
Now, some of the Yellowstone cast gets to do just that, and while it made filming hard, it ensured that all the secrets stayed secret until each episode aired on the Paramount Network every Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.
