As one season of the Kevin Costner-starring Yellowstone ends on TV, another one begins coming together. The series’ fourth season began filming last week, and on that note, Costner reflected on the most challenging thing about working on the Paramount Network show. Hint: It is not the fact that he rarely has to wear suits on the Western, since Costner has already revealed he is not a fan of them.
This year, Kevin Costner is facing another obstacle that has to do with Yellowstone's coronavirus safety restrictions. Ahead of Season 4, co-creator Taylor Sheridan revealed how the show would be handling the new guidelines, which involved a change in filming locations. Here's what Costner had to say about why the hardest thing about working on Yellowstone, just got harder. Costner told Good Housekeeping:
It puts me away from home. I go home every moment I can. But this year, we're filming exclusively in Montana, which makes going home almost impossible. When you deal with two airplanes, it's all-day travel. If it's all-day travel home, then it's going to be all-day travel back.
Yellowstone’s location changes are hitting Kevin Costner hard, and understandably so. Ahead of its high-octane finale, Yellowstone’s creator revealed that the show would be leaving one locale behind when going to Season 4. The drama will not be filming in Utah this year, with the production limited to taking place only in Montana, so that everyone can stay centralized to limit the risk of the cast and crew getting sick. The veteran actor explained that the situation would almost certainly keep him from his family. It's for a good reason, but no less disappointing, I'm sure.
I think the talent in the entertainment industry may have to start a support group. Dancing with the Stars’ married professionals are also having to stay separated for the duration of the dancing competition’s run, and similar situations are happening for other series that are heading back into production across the globe. So, quite a few people can possibly relate to Kevin Costner’s situation, which means it is possibly going to be a rough time for relationships in the entertainment business.
Spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Yellowstone are discussed beyond this point.
The silver lining, of course, is that Kevin Costner is obviously going to be back for Season 4. Costner’s character was one of many caught in a life-and-death cliffhanger during this past Sunday’s Season 3 finale. John Dutton was hanging on for dear life after his cellphone took one of the many bullets shot at him. But considering he's the esteemed anchor for the extremely talented ensemble, his return was all but guaranteed.
Having one's character survive is hardly a bad thing, though it's not great to counter it by being ripped away from a real-life family. After all, Yellowstone is all about Kevin Costner’s Dutton clan, including his complicated grown children, young grandson, daughter-in-law, and soon-to-be-son-in-law. Hence, there is no escaping thoughts of family, and sadly things are not about to get any better for actors on location-shoots who are missing theirs. We can probably expect Costner to be a Zoom pro by the time it's done.
It sounds as though Kevin Costner has managed to make it back to see his family at least once, with the downside being there wasn't much time before he had to go right back to the Yellowstone set. This year, due to the coronavirus, any such visit while filming the hit show is apparently off the table.
It is a bad situation, but it hopefully will not stay that way forever. Yellowstone will return for Season 4 long after this fall’s premieres, so stay tuned to those in the coming months. You can watch Kevin Costner in The Highwaymen on Netflix along lots of newly arriving 2020 content.
