Natalie Alyn Lind is thrilled about being a newly minted member of the Yellowstone universe—so much so that negative reactions from fans breezily bounce off her back. While she’s perfectly fine with fans having love-or-hate opinions about her fiery, Beth-like demeanor, there was one thing she wanted to set the record straight on: her age.
In an interview with PEOPLE, the Dutton Ranch actress addressed the comments and concerns circulating around her supposed age on the show. "Everybody keeps on making these references to the fact that they think my character is supposed to be a high school student," Natalie told the outlet. "A huge part of our storyline is that my character is supposed to be years older than Finn's. My character is supposed to be 24, and his character's supposed to be 19."
While this tidbit certainly adds to the storyline, it feels far from obvious in the series. After all, Carter and Oreana first met at the rodeo, surrounded by people who looked to be about the same age. That said, the abusive cowboy Carter saved her from in that first scene did look considerably older, so perhaps that was meant to be the tell.
"I always find it really funny when [fans are] like, 'She's supposed to be playing high school.' I'm like, no, not really, but you'll see more about that later,” the 26-year-old actress continued in the interview. “I feel like—hopefully, fingers crossed—season two will be able to dive more into her background and her story to show who she is as a person."
In the meantime, Oreana believes that it’s Carter who is making her character seem younger than she is. "...Oreana's childhood was robbed from her, because of her family and the environment that she grew up in… And there's a youthfulness that Carter brings out in Oreana," Natalie explained to PEOPLE. "She is so scared to accept love, and you see Carter maturing into himself and becoming a man, and I think that you're able to see Oreana go back to that kind of whimsical childhood that she never got—and they bring that out in each other."
There are only two episodes left in the first season, but Paramount+ has officially announced that the popular show will return for season two.
Rebecca Norris is a full-time freelance writer living in the Washington, D.C. metro area. Over the past 10+ years, she’s heavily covered a range of lifestyle topics, including travel, home, beauty, style, wellness, and celebrity news. She is a graduate of George Mason University, where she earned a B.A. in Media: Production, Consumption, and Critique, along with a minor in Electronic Journalism. When she's not writing, she can be found strolling with her Jack-Chi, Cash, sipping iced matcha lattes, indulging in delicious cuisine, perusing farmer’s markets and antique sales, collecting colored glass, getting lost within the pages of a book, and exploring new bucket-list cities.
