EXCLUSIVE | 'Yellowstone' star Denim Richards says Colby and Teeter's love isn't about 'ripping clothes off'
When MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) sat down for an interview with 'Yellowstone' star Denim Richards, we were teeming with questions about the Season 3 finale and the next season. After the explosive cliffhanger like that one, we can't be expected to not ask about the fate of all those characters who now remain in television purgatory. Season 4 of the Paramount hit show has already begun shooting.
But Richards, who plays the role of Colby on the biggest Western drama this season, says that he can't really indulge us — they don't know much either. "The honest answer is we just started shooting Season four. So we're not even five pages into the first episode yet". Neither can he tell us who is going to be back and who won't. Colby, by 'Yellowstone' standards, got a promotion on the Dutton ranch that is run by Kevin Costner's John Dutton. He got himself branded and also found love.
But before we get to that, we asked him about what he thought of the Season 3 finale. Throughout Season 3, creator Taylor Sheridan delivered a new product compared to its previous seasons by essentially setting the stage for the next installment. "I think the great thing about Taylor's writing is that you were always kind of guessing. When we got the script, we were all blown away, literally and figuratively," Richards tells MEAWW. After that came consternation - "how we [were going to] pull it off."
But they pulled it off just fine and ended up with an episode that was not only applauded and appreciated by its audience and critics alike but has also left its loyal viewers in a tizzy trying to make sense of what happened and what is to come.
It is curious that 'Yellowstone' focused on characters this season — it became a lot more than a western drama by evolving into a Western drama that follows a family riddled with tumultuous relationships. Colby also sees some growth and exploration in the season. So far, he was just another ranch boy, but now he is a part of the many secrets that Yellowstone hides in its vastness.
"Colby has been there as a ranch hand for several years and seeing the things that go on there, he's always known what happens [at Yellowstone]," Richards tells us, adding how it is only now that he has finally become a part of the larger family. "This is his whole family — he is not struggling [to know that or find his place]. At the end of Season 2, he sees Ryan [played by Ian Bohen] going off and doing some other kind of secret operations, I think that it leaves him [thinking] 'if you don't get a part of this, you're going to be left behind and you're going to have nothing'."
"So even though he's not necessarily a killer or anybody that wants to do any of those things, I think that he just accepts that responsibility since his family is doing it."
'Yellowstone' rarely really dabbles in romance apart from a select few couples like Beth Dutton-Rip Wheeler (Kally Reilly and Cole Hauser) and Kayce and Monica Dutton (Luke Grimes and Kelsey Asbille). But when Colby is introduced to Teeter (Jen Landon) early this season, we knew something is going to get cooking. And while they spent the entire season oscillating in a will-they-won't-they canoe culminating only towards the end, Richards explores their relationship.
"Their relationship is of a lot of endearment. When you go through trauma with somebody, it naturally brings you closer," he begins hinting at the life-threatening attack the couple was subjected to."[Teeter] was really growing on Colby as the episodes go on. She's such a free spirit [as opposed to Colby, who] is a little bit walled off and he likes to just hang out with Ryan and/ or kind of keep to himself. But Teeter brings out this other side."
He adds that the love they share is beyond temporary pleasures. "It's not like wanting to rip each other's clothes off. It's more of a thing where there is actually something that could be developed there that is." With the two getting branded themselves this season, it will be interesting to see where it goes. For love always ends up questioning loyalties.