Small north-central Texas town transformed into Montana town for Costner, ‘Yellowstone’ filming

Huntsville Item 

VENUS, Texas — Kevin Costner graced the screens of televisions across America Nov. 13 as the fifth season of “Yellowstone” aired. On Nov. 15, he was in a small north-central Texas town, tossing a football around during a filming break.

Crews and actors from Paramount Network were in town filming for a future episode of “Yellowstone” all day Tuesday.

Dewayne Good, of Rio Vista, was one of hundreds who tried to catch a glimpse of one of the show’s celebrities. 

“Beth,” Good said with a laugh, when asked whom he hoped to see. “She’s just bad ass. But no, I like them all.”

After they waited anxiously all morning, the hopes of those in the crowd were answered as Costner, Gil Birmingham, Moses Brings Plenty and others took the stage – literally.

The scene Paramount was filming was of Costner, as Gov. John Dutton, giving a speech in Hardin, Montana.

On Friday, Nov. 11, crews began moving in Montana vehicles and other gear needed for the shoot. They worked most of the weekend, transforming the facades of buildings around the town square.

“It’s kind of cool weather like in Montana, so I guess it fits,” Burgess said Tuesday morning. “It’d have been kind of hard if it was still 90 degrees.”

Costner greeted fans as he emerged from his movie trailer. He even took time to toss the pigskin around with police officers working crowd control on break between takes.

Security was tight around the square, as more and more people began showing up.

Mayor James Burgess had to throw out the mayor card to get on the square.

“They didn’t really want to let me get in,” he said with a laugh. “I told them I’m not going to get in their way, I just want to come down here and experience it and be part of it.”

So just how did producers find Venus?

“[Paramount has] an advance team that goes out and scouts locations,” he said. “They came and looked at Venus and said that they felt like it would fit their scene.”

About a month ago, city officials received word that Venus was chosen for the filming.

“It’s just a one-day shoot where some of previous ones have been three, four days or weeks,” Burgess said. “I really don’t expect this to be a major part of even the episode it’s in, but it’s exciting, and it brings a lot of attention to our little, historic town.”

This isn’t the first time the town of Venus has been featured on the big screen.

“Back when I was just a kid, we had ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ with Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty,” Burgess said. “They dressed up my uncle’s building as a grocery store and he got to play the person who Clyde robbed.”

“The Trip to Bountiful,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” episodes of “Walker, Texas Ranger” and several commercials and music videos have also been filmed in the square.

Many film companies like the old, rustic look the town has, Burgess said.

Burgess said the downtown business owners seem excited about the filming, even though it might impede their normal business for a day or so.

“A lot of people don’t even know Venus exists, and the ones that do, they pass by on the highway and never come down here to the square and see historic Venus,” Burgess said. “Sometimes you have cities that just die downtown because the traffic passes them by. This is why I like ‘Yellowstone.’ It’s so popular that it’s creating such an interest and ‘Yellowstone’ being here brings attention to our town.”

A lifelong Venus resident, Burgess was on city council for 10 years and is in his 10th year as mayor.

“I graduated here in 1975, when we were still playing six-man football,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of changes. When I graduated high school we had 419 people. Now we’re at 6,000 and they’re projected, depending on the economy, anywhere from 12 to 15,000 in the next five years.”