Dawn Olivieri played a snake among wolves in season 5B of Yellowstone, with her portrayal of femme
fatale Sarah Atwood leaving viewers on the edge of their seats.
Despite only starring in the first half of the finale series before meeting her end in episode three of 5B,
Dawn gleefully left her mark on the neo-Western created by Taylor Sheridan.
Now, the American actress, 43, has spoken exclusively with Daily Mail Australia to reveal what it was like to film her steamy sex scenes with co-star Wes Bentley (Jamie Dutton) and why she tried to avoid on-screen nemesis Kelly Reilly (Beth Dutton) on-set.
Her character Sarah made quite the impression on the Dutton family, but none more so than son Jamie who became smitten with the lawyer.
Sarah and Jamie quickly became embroiled in a relationship which sent ripples through the series and saw actors Dawn and Wes, 46, strip down to bare skin for X-rated scenes.
‘Unless you’re there, you don’t realise how unsexy [sex scenes] really are,’ Dawn laughed when asked what goes on on-set during those steamy moments.
She continued: ‘It’s the farthest thing from an honest sex scene that you can ever imagine… They’re very technical. They’re very cautious.
‘Everybody’s making sure everybody is comfortable, everything is okay.
‘You just jump into these moments for a split second and then it’s like, “Okay, break, let’s re-start and get the wardrobe back into place.”‘
Dawn went on to reveal that she and Wes often ‘had a laugh’ because they were so comfortable with each other that their intimacy co-coordinator didn’t have much of a job.
‘Her main job was just to get us mints or gum. That was it. I’m not really uncomfortable in scenes like this. I’ve been doing them for a long time in my career,’ she said.
‘Usually it’s the guys that are more uncomfortable than me and so I cater to them, making sure they’re feeling okay and everything feels good for them.
‘We laugh a lot, too. It helps to dispel any sort of awkwardness that bubbles up.’
However, when it came to filming sex scenes with Wes, she said there were no nerves she had to ease in him, explaining they developed a brother-sister type relationship off-screen.
‘Wes and I had a real fun relationship together on that set as co-workers. We would sit and talk and have lunch together. We laughed a lot,’ she said.
‘He has a great sense of humour and we had similar perspectives on life and spirituality. It was just a lot of fun to hang out with him.
‘It felt kind of like brother and sister hanging out and doing things, and when we had to do those sex scenes it was just doing the same thing—giggling but with less clothes.’
As for Wes’ on-screen sister Beth, played by Kelly, 47, Dawn said she was forced to avoid the English star to make it easier to ‘hate’ her on-screen.
But Kelly didn’t make it easy on Dawn, as despite playing mortal enemies on Yellowstone, the 1883 star said she thought Kelly was ‘an amazing human’ in real life.
‘I run a horse rescue in Arkansas called Moon Mountain Sanctuary,’ Dawn explained.
‘[Kelly] is such a wonderful human being that on-screen we are adversaries, but off-screen she actually donates to my horse rescue. What a cool human being to do that?’
Despite having plenty in common with Kelly as an actress and wishing she could have a close friendship with the star, Dawn said she tries to avoid her on-set whenever possible.
‘We don’t hang out with each other. We don’t talk to each other. Even on set, I’m not going to stand with her, I’m not going to small talk with her because she’s an enemy,’ she said.
‘Everybody does it different, but I’m pretty method with the way that I act.’
Dawn went on to say she and Kelly did exchange text messages when they found out they would be working together, with Kelly saying how excited she was to work with Dawn.
‘She was like, “I’m so happy you’re on this. You’re such a force.” And I was like, “You know, if I wasn’t supposed to hate you so much, I’d ask you to go hiking,”‘ Dawn revealed.
‘But we’re not going to do that.
‘It does get difficult if you really have a good rapport with somebody to get into a scene and really work with all of that stuff you’ve got and layer into those moments.
‘We never actually really became friends. For me, I know it’s for that reason.’
Though Dawn is ‘sad’ about letting go of such a cunning femme fatale character, she said she’s grown used to ‘going out with a bang’ with characters like Sarah.
‘Who doesn’t love playing the part of a person that we all wish we could be, but for good reason we’re not? The villain always gets a chance to do all the fun things,’ Dawn said.
‘We get to say the things nobody wants to say, nobody has the b**ls to say… The villain is the thing that makes you better. It’s the thing that creates a hero, truly.
‘To me, that’s a fun character. It’s fun being the springboard of a hero.’
Dawn has been starring in movies and TV shows since the early 2000s, but was best known for her roles as Lydia in Heroes and Monica Talbot in House of Lies.
In recent years, the Hollywood star has been working closely with director Taylor Sheridan, 54, first landing a role as Claire Dutton in the Yellowstone prequel 1883.
Her performance on the series was so incredible, Taylor invited her back to play Sarah Atwood in Yellowstone, and now Amber Whalen in Special Ops: Lioness.
