They were filming on a soundstage in Utah —
Kevin Costner, Wes Bentley and Kelly Reilly — playing out another tense exchange in the Dutton family drama
Yellowstone.
But between takes, tensions boiled over. Costner, both star and executive producer, was pushing Bentley to ditch Taylor Sheridan’s script and play the moment
his way. Bentley refused. He told Costner that he had signed up for a Taylor Sheridan show, not a Kevin Costner production.
“Kevin didn’t like that, and he lunged at him,” says a source who was present. “No fists were thrown, but they were in each other’s faces, pushing and shoving and just getting hot until they had to be separated.” Reilly, according to one witness, was in tears. Production briefly shut down.
“The incident with Wes was the line in the sand. Everything was different after that,” says another source who was also present for the fight with Bentley. “Everyone loved Wes and so that really made Taylor upset. Kevin and Taylor butted heads from there on out. It got very awkward.” (A spokesperson for Bentley confirmed the altercation, calling it a “work related argument during an emotional and physically tough scene,” which was “discussed and resolved.” Costner’s spokesperson declined to comment on the near fisticuffs.)
Dueling allegations started making their way into the press. It was reported that Costner, who had scrounged up some seed financing to start making his Horizon films, wanted to spend no more than a week on the Yellowstone set for the final episodes. Costner’s camp disputes that claim, alleging instead that Sheridan was the problem because he was late delivering scripts. Regardless, it would all soon come to an end. According to a source, Costner presented Paramount and the show’s producers with a list of demands required for his return to season five, including a $10 million upfront payment and script approval. Those conditions were rejected, and it was agreed that John Dutton’s character would be killed off in the first episode of the second half of season five.
At his peak, Costner was being paid around $1.5 million an episode, with a potential seasonal payday of over $10 million. Yellowstone was originally envisioned to run for six seasons, but a source on the show says, based on its success, it could have potentially stretched to eight seasons, meaning Costner might have pocketed something like $45 million if he’d continued playing John Dutton III.