The women of Yellowstone are some of the strongest, most unforgiving characters. While it may be hard to relate to Beth Dutton, John's daughter, who seems to demonstrate some sociopathy, Monica (Kelsey Asbille) is a beacon of strength in the face of near-relentless hardship. While the Season 3 cliffhanger did its best to break Monica, traumatizing her son Tate and making her home feel unsafe, the upcoming season of Yellowstone will show how Monica processes this pain and heals from it. Of course, nothing will be easy for her.
Season 4 promises its fair share of distress for Monica, so CBR sat down with Asbille for an exclusive interview to discuss what's to come for her Yellowstone character. Asbille shares how she relates to Monica and details her character's tense journey this season.
CBR: Monica is such a complex and strong character who has seen some stuff. Are there parts of her that are easier for you to identify with or harder to?
Kelsey Asbille: She has seen some stuff. For me, what's important to Monica is to be a good mother. That's always been really important to me as an actor and making sure that that relationship with Tate is just the utmost importance. Taylor Sheridan definitely gives you some challenges of what new catastrophe Monica has to deal with, so I would say that heightened level of reality I feel really used to now.
We don't see a lot of Monica at the start of Season 4. Can you tease anything about what's in store for her?
With Monica, it's really hard for her to see her son go through PTSD. She comes to terms with the consequences of being in Dutton. So she goes back to her people and her culture as a way of healing. I think that that's a really beautiful part of the season. The ending, though, is really crazy -- That's all I gotta say.
So a standard Yellowstone season-ending then.
Standard Yellowstone, yeah. Kayce and Monica have a pretty good cliffhanger.
Monica is not often out in the field with the wranglers, but have you picked up any cowboying skills while you've been on set?
So Monica does ride horses. She rode last season, so I did get to join in on the -- not so much cowboy camp, but just learning how to ride. I now have the utmost respect for that. It's so hard. I'm really not good. But I loved it. I really loved that time.
Yellowstone is such a rough and violent show, so I'm curious what the filming process is like -- do you carry that off-screen with you?
It's really fun to be on the set. Honestly, no. It is really rough and violent, but I think -- our crew I've been with since we shot Wind River, actually. So they feel -- really, they're family. We create just a really safe, fun, loving environment to do some difficult work.
We got a brief tease last season of what the Beth/Monica team-up looks like. Are there other characters or actors you're interested in having scenes with?
My go-to for this answer is obviously Beth. I loved working with Kelly and would love to again. But also we have such an incredible ensemble, and we have Jacki Weaver coming in, we have Will Patton, who's amazing. So yeah, I don't know. Let's say Will Patton this time. I don't know how the two of them would connect, but who knows.
You've been living in this role now for quite a long time. So is the process for getting into character for Monica different now than it was years ago?
I feel like she is maybe more in my bones, so to speak. Yeah, I guess she's in there. This year, too -- we go back to work in April, and I really miss it. It does feel really familiar.
Is there any special process that you use to tap into that?
Oh, that's a good question. I will say the environment is so helpful. Being out in Montana, you're just so in that way of life. It's really, really helpful.
New episodes of Yellowstone air Sundays at 8:00 ET on Paramount Network.