Annette Bening may look completely at home on horseback in Dutton Ranch, but the Oscar nominated actress admits becoming a convincing Texas ranch owner required overcoming one major fear.

Bening, 68, revealed that riding horses did not come naturally to her before taking on the role of powerful ranch owner Beulah Jackson in the hit Paramount+ series.

“I’m a little bit intimidated by horses,” she confessed at the premiere of Dutton Ranch.

Since Beulah spends much of the series in the saddle, Bening knew she had to build both her confidence and her riding skills before cameras started rolling.

To prepare, she worked closely with the show’s experienced wranglers, who not only cared for the production’s horses and cattle but also helped train the cast.

“I took some wonderful lessons,” Bening said. “I was taken out by the wranglers. We have an amazing group of wranglers on our show who take care of all the horses and the cows, and they took me out riding.”

The extra preparation paid off.

“The wranglers’ lessons really helped me enormously,” she said. “I loved it, and I also just enjoyed it personally.”

Learning to ride was only one part of Bening’s preparation for the role.

She immersed herself in ranch life by meeting women who manage working ranches across Texas, hoping to better understand the world her character comes from.

“Playing a Texas rancher, I really enjoyed that,” she explained. “Getting to know the ranch world. And I was lucky, I was introduced to a number of women who live in that area who run ranches.”

Bening also visited the National Cowgirl Museum in Fort Worth, where she explored the history of women in the American West.

“I went to the Cowgirl Museum, which is this amazing museum in Fort Worth that is really an in depth history of women of the West, and the history of that area is amazing,” she said. “So I got into all of that and found the people to listen to for the accent and the whole thing.”

While mastering the physical side of the role was important, Bening said her biggest focus was understanding Beulah as a person.

“My priority was the inner world of this woman,” she explained, saying she wanted to make the character feel “as real and as complex as possible.”

One thing she quickly discovered was that Beulah is not someone easily intimidated.

“She is a boss woman,” Bening said with a smile.

One of her favorite parts of filming was developing Beulah’s fiery relationship with Kelly Reilly’s Beth Dutton.

Although the two women immediately challenge each other, Bening believes there is also genuine admiration beneath their clashes.

Beulah sees Beth as “a woman who’s incredibly gutsy and intriguing and admires her,” Bening said, even though they have been “sparring with her from the moment they meet.”

“There’s a kind of mutual attraction and a mutual intrigue, let’s say, between these two women,” she added. “But that’s the fun of it. It’s just really a joy to have that dynamic going on.”

Fans won’t have to wait much longer to see how that relationship develops. The Dutton Ranch Season 1 finale premieres Friday, July 3, on Paramount+.