NATALIE ALYN LIND CALLS JOINING ‘DUTTON RANCH’ A DREAM COME TRUE: “I DIDN’T WANT TO MESS UP ‘YELLOWSTONE’” li02

 

Natalie Alyn Lind is in the middle of a horror movie. The breakout actress, who plays Oreana Jackson on Dutton Ranch, is busy as hell, currently filming a new film she produced called Halloween Store, which, as she enthusiastically describes, is exactly what it sounds like: “It’s about a bunch of kids that are trapped in a Halloween store on Halloween night with a serial killer on the loose.” Although 25-years-old, Lind gives the feeling of being an old soul. She talks about being “nostalgic” for the movies from the ’90s or early 2000s, and being excited to make a movie of her own. “I didn’t have Barbie dolls,” she says with a laugh. “I had Michael Myers dolls.”

Right now, before her film is complete, fans of the Yellowstone world are seeing a lot of Lind in Dutton Ranch. Episode 4, “Start With a Bullet,” puts Oreana front and center in the action, as her budding romance with Carter (Finn Little) becomes a bigger part of the show’s unfolding drama. And, even though Lind is a fresh face in the Yellowstone mythos, she’s been a working actress for a huge portion of her life; from her child star days in shows like One Tree Hill to big roles in Gotham, The Gifted, Tell Me a Story, and Big Sky, Lind was already working extremely hard, even before the Dutton Ranch came calling.

And as that new show—possibly the most popular show on the planet right now—heats up, Lind talked to Men’s Journal about what she loves about Dutton Ranch, her deep-rooted Yellowstone fandom, and why the Texas heat took some getting used to.

I was such a fan of the original Yellowstone. I think that coming into this show, there are very few roles, especially for females, that just feel so powerful and are not afraid to walk into a room and just create dominance and be very just out there and eccentric. And for me, it was just very important that everything that Oreana does comes from a very deep-rooted space, and she’s not just crazy.

Everything that she does feels very intentional. She has a huge heart, and she has been mistreated a lot in her life and has had this kind of interesting upbringing. It’s really fun to play a character that has so many levels and is just very strong-minded.

Oh my gosh, I mean, definitely! This entire universe is just incredible. I have been a fan of all of the prequels and the original for years. So when this show came up, just as a fan, I was excited that they were finally showing Beth and Rip’s family, and their inner circle, and who they are as people. So, I was just happy to take a meeting on it at all. I am so happy to see the fan reactions because there is that kind of intimidating feeling of not wanting to mess up the original. I didn’t want to mess up Yellowstone. It’s completely changed my life.

It feels so different than the original Yellowstone—mostly because of the Texas setting—but it keeps all the same morals, and it has all the same through lines that I think people fell in love with from the beginning. I’m from Los Angeles, and I’m half Canadian, so the heat was the biggest thing for me to get over.

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