'Yellowstone’ actor Kelsey Asbille reveals why filming the final scene was absolutely 'terrifying'
Kelsey Asbille, who played Monica Long Dutton, a Native American teacher on the Western TV series 'Yellowstone', recently opened up about filming intense scenes despite suffering from equinophobia. “I’m so scared of horses," she said while appearing on 'The Kelly Clarkson Show'. She further explained that she got panic attacks shooting the season's finale. As per Town&Country Magazine, Asbille recalled the actual danger that existed on the sets on the final day of production, "It was our last day; it’s the final time you see these characters, and we’re all on horseback—even our director, Taylor Sheridan, he’s on horseback," she explained.
“Our last day of shooting is something I’ll never forget because we were kind of sitting ducks with the fires, with the smoke,” she remembered. “So, we were waiting for it to finally clear." Because the entire cast was mounted and the fire was roaring, it was a perilous situation, and her fear reached its peak at that very moment. "And we’ve got a hundred cattle, and the clouds just part, and the sun goes over the hill and it’s just gorgeous, really beautiful,” she described the instance when the threat subsided. The 'Yellowstone' actors needed to attend cowboy boot camp to prepare for their roles.
According to Cowgirl Magazine, the cast were required to master ranch skills created by Sheridan during their extensive training, from riding horseback to wrangling cattle and picking up roping techniques. Asbille recounted that she was "absolutely terrified" mounting a horse at the camp, “My first day of cowboy camp—they didn’t invite me until the very last year, with good reason because I’m just absolutely terrified—they threw me in right with all the cattle, and I’m just a mess. But we’ve got the best wranglers in the world so… I trust them.” However, Sheridan showed faith in her which eventually calmed her fears. "Taylor kept being like, ‘Monica, ride up, ride up,’ and I’d be like, ‘Nope, she’s gonna be right here; she’s gonna oversee from behind,’” she added.
In an exclusive with the New York Post, Asbille revealed that she loved playing a traumatized Monica on-screen. “I love that,” Asbille says with a laugh. “I think she’s really, now, finding her place in the family and what her part in the Dutton legacy is, and I’m really excited to see her take that on.” Additionally, she disclosed taking a liberating road trip with her mother that prepared her emotionally for the heart-breaking birth scene. “My mom and I drove to Montana together this year,” she said. “Knowing that big storyline, it actually gave me those conversations with my mom about her own experiences with child loss, in a way that we had never talked about it before. So that was a really beautiful part of the process.”
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During season five part one of the series Monica loses her baby while driving to the hospital to give birth. “I felt so much responsibility because we wanted to approach that with such a sensitivity,” she said. Asbille also confessed to finding a sense of accomplishment by working again with Sheridan, the maverick director previously selected her for a lead role in the 2017 crime/thriller 'Wind River,' alongside Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen.
