Kelsey Asbille, Jennifer Landon, Aminah Nieves, Piper Perabo and Julia Schlaepfer reveal just how dirty they get while filming their hit shows in this year’s Beautiful Issue, out Friday
Forget the flannel, cowboy hats and dirt-covered boots. In PEOPLE’s 2023 Beautiful Issue, Yellowstone and 1923 stars Kelsey Asbille, Jennifer Landon, Aminah Nieves, Piper Perabo and Julia Schlaepfer traded their ranch looks for gowns and glam.
Landon, who plays Teeter on Yellowstone, jokes that she took a shower and “put makeup on for the first time in four years” for the photo shoot.
“At the end of some days, it’s like, what’s the point? Because you were in cow poo poo all day and you’re going to be in cow poo poo the next day,” Landon, 39, tells PEOPLE. “There were days when we were literally covered in s— from head to toe.”
In fact, she actually travels with her own portable shower in order to be able to wash off anywhere. “I travel with this tub device that I bought on Amazon and you blow up the ring and you can put it in a tiny shower and sit in this soaking tub,” Landon explains. “I have to be in the bath every night.”
Asbille, 31, says “there’s usually dirt and blood involved” when she films Yellowstone as Monica Dutton. “Those are heavy days and because she’s really going through it,” she notes.
After shooting wraps, “there is a physical and emotional cleanse,” Asbille says.
Perabo, who plays vegan activist Summer Higgins on Yellowstone, quips that following filming, “I wipe the blood off with a hot washcloth and I go home.”
But, she really only does that for the benefit of the locals. “In case I have to stop and get gas or something, it’s hard to explain in the little town where we work, if your face is covered in blood, one of those guys will ask if you need some help,” the Coyote Ugly alum, 46, says.
Schlaepfer, 28, recalls living out of suitcases while shooting 1923 in Africa — but is thrilled to be able to wear a more glam look for the shoot.
“We are so dirty at the end of every filming day, but it is the greatest feeling in the world,” she says. “I’m used to being very dirty and soaking wet and riding horses, so it’s so much fun to get all glammed up and dressed up. To put on these beautiful clothes and feel confident and feel sexy is such a nice switch up and something I don’t do every day.”
As for Nieves, she recalls the last scene she shot as one of her dirtiest on 1923. “We’re in the little stream. You probably couldn’t tell that I was completely drenched, but [I was] completely. I would walk and my shoes would squeak. You could see water come out of the little holes. It was bad. It was very dirty.”
Despite being uncomfortable in the moment, Nieves says that feeling took a back seat to her desire to “keep going.”
“You want to get the shot and you’re not really thinking about it too much. I enjoyed it,” she says. “I don’t know. I like the dirt, the grime.”
The indigeneous actress also finds herself quite similar to her character Teonna Rainwater. “At the end of the day, we are very much still part of this land and we are one,” Nieves says. “We are one person.”
Asbille admires her character Monica for her resilience. “I think her softness is always her greatest strength,” the Teen Wolf alum says. “And she gets a little cheeky in this last season. She’s kind of a woman on a mission.”
For Schlaepfer, Alexandra Dutton’s confidence inspired her to find that in herself.
“My character is definitely more consistently confident in herself, which forced me in a very beautiful way to embrace that side of me,” Schlaepfer says. “She wore her heart on her sleeve and she’s so outgoing and vibrant and doesn’t care what anybody thinks about her. It was really nice for me to have to embrace that side of myself.”
Perabo reveals that Yellowstone creator Tyler Sheridan wrote the Summer role based on her and her experience as an activist.
“I was arrested for civil disobedience protesting the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and I told Taylor that story, so that he wrote an activist character, which for me was really exciting,” Perabo says. “I had never really crossed those two loves before.”
Perabo notes, though, that she and Summer’s diets differ. “I’m not a vegan!” she notes. “My husband’s an amazing cook, so I love to sit down and eat supper. He makes this double fried Korean chicken with this spicy sweet sauce on it that’s really good.”
Playing Teeter allows Landon to be “as feral as I think I probably am,” she says. “She doesn’t really have boundaries. She’s really animal. I kind of love it.”
Landon doesn’t think she’s perfected Teeter’s accent yet, though. “But year four or five, I think I’ll get it,” she quips. “Taylor writes it phonetically, so when I got the sides even, at first I printed them out and I thought it was a foreign language. I love the world that he’s created, and I love the way that he writes women. Teeter gets to have her own and I love that.”
Adds Nieves of the Yellowstone universe as a whole: “It’s a dream come true being able to do this and tell stories… It’s because it’s so true and honest. And I think Taylor and all of the talent and crew, everyone involved in the universe doesn’t hold back. You can see that. It shines through through the work, and you can’t help but be pulled to honesty.”
Yellowstone and 1923 are streaming now on Paramount+.