Paramount’s Yellowstone featured its first LGBTQ+ scene in season five episode seven titled “The Dream is Not Me,” according to ComicBook. In the scene, Clara Brewer, played by Lilli Kay (Your Honor, Chambers), is seen kissing someone behind John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner (The Postman, Dances with Wolves), and Summer Higgins, played by Piper Perabo (Coyote Ugly, The Prestige), at the county fair which viewers noted and took to mean there were “lesbians on the ranch,” via ComicBook. According to Kay, the scene was not intended to be big deal, and happened out of “logistical convenience,” via ComicBook.
When discussing the casting decision, Kay told Deadline: “We were in our COVID protocol. It was written that Clara is making out with someone in the background behind John and Summer. And we were trying to figure out who was easy and comfortable to cast who was also in the testing cycle. My partner, Juli Kocemba, was there with me in Montana so they said, ‘oh, let’s just have you guys make out in the background.’” Kay was surprised when viewers noticed this scene. She tells Deadline: “It was very funny because I did not expect anyone to even really catch it. And then people were like, ‘lesbians on the range!’ It was very, very funny.”
Kay does not know who made the decision to have her and Kocemba in the scene, but notes the awkward shooting day having her father, Stephen Kay (Get Carter, Sons of Anarchy), direct. She tells Deadline: “My father was the director. He was really wonderful and great. It was also the most awkward day for him at work, directing his wife kissing Kevin Costner and his daughter making out with her partner.”
In addition to Kay, Costner, and Perabo, the Yellowstone cast includes Luke Grimes (American Sniper, Fifty Shades of Grey), Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice, Flight), Wes Bentley (American Beauty, Interstellar), Cole Hauser (2 Fast 2 Furious, Good Will Hunting), Kelsey Asbille (Fargo, Wind River), Brecken Merrill (This Is Us, We All Got Up to Dance), Jefferson White (God’s Country, The Twilight Zone), Gil Birmingham (Wind River, Twilight), Forrie J. Smith (Hell or High Water, Rambo III), Denim Richards (Good Trouble, Muse), and Ian Bohen (Wind River, The Dark Knight Watches).
Yellowstone is set to continue season five this summer, via Deadline. Seasons one through four are available to stream on Peacock, while Yellowstone’s prequels 1883 and 1923 are available to stream on Paramount+.