Yellowstone star ditches 'tiring' LA  for real-life Dutton ranch complete with hundreds of rescue animals: 'I've become a better human being'

Yellowstone star Dawn Olivieri left Los Angeles behind for a 160-acre Dutton-style ranch in rural Arkansas and she's never looked back.

The 45-year-old actress, who has appeared in four Taylor Sheridan projects, Yellowstone, 1883, The Madison and Lioness, revealed the reason for the transformative lifestyle shift in an interview with Fox News Digital.

As Olivieri explained, she grew tired of the career dry spell and 'waiting by the phone' for acting roles on top of the superficial illusions of Hollywood.

'I didn't have offers just like falling out of my phone. I went through a dry spell, and I was like, "Wow, so this is an illusion,"' she told the outlet.

'I kind of saw through the veil and once I saw through [the] veil — I realized in that moment, I have to make some decisions about my life that make me happy. [It] isn’t always waiting by the phone, losing my power, waiting for someone to hire me.'

Disillusionment with Los Angeles forced her to dive deep and ask herself what she would do with the money if she was successful.

'Well, I would move to the country and have horses,' she concluded. 'And so I did that with nothing. Which wasn’t the dream part, but in actuality, it was what was always meant to happen because I moved toward my own authenticity.'

Olivieri bought a property in 2022 outside of Mena, Arkansas, and the following year founded Moon Mountain Sanctuary and Rescue, a nonprofit that rescues and rehabilitates hundreds of horses including wild mustangs, burros, mares and foals, along with bison, zebras, camels, goats, sheep and dogs.

In August, Olivieri gave Let’s Talk Local podcast host Sarah Zubirate Bennett a tour of the sanctuary and pointed out the renovations she has planned including a grassy welcome area.

'We're going to build a welcome center here. Right now we’re completely remodeling the main barn, which is so exciting, but this whole area is going to be a welcome area with benches and grass under trees, a circle drive with a fountain in the middle of it. We have a whole design coming together.'

Olivieri has been living in a camper on the property while she works to build and expand the ranch – a Keystone RV Montana, which sells for $120k and upwards and includes a luxurious layout, according to the company’s website.

Speaking to Fox News Digital, Olivieri said she’s become 'a better human being' since leaving Los Angeles, and it's helped her career as well.

'I became a better actress for sure. I started working way more than I did when I was in LA waiting for the job, waiting for the call,' she maintained.

'And I moved to a land of no mirrors is what I called it. I went into a deep relationship with the core of my being versus what everything looked like, what I looked like. And I would recommend that move to anybody.'

Olivieri's first role in a Sheridan project was Claire Dutton in the Yellowstone prequel series 1883, where she played the grief-stricken, widowed sister of James Dutton (Tim McGraw).

Then, in Yellowstone, she played the ruthless corporate lawyer and business strategist Sarah Atwood, who seduced Jamie Dutton (Wes Bentley) into a romantic and political partnership with her and convinced him to turn against his own family.

Olivieri played Amber Whalen, a CIA Clandestine Services Targeting Officer, in Sheridan’s series Lioness.

She guest-starred as Ellen in episode six of Sheridan's drama series The Madison. Her character was the ruthless Manhattan boss of Paige McIntosh (Elle Chapman).

Olivieri currently stars as Jenna Ross in Homestead: The Series, a post-apocalyptic drama streaming on Angel Studios that follows a group of survivors struggling to rebuild their lives and defend their fortress in the Rocky Mountains in the chaotic aftermath of a nuclear attack. 

In an interview with UPI, Olivieri noted that her character has evolved. She shared that in season one 'everything was happening to her... she was just very emotional, very incapable of doing much,' which she found frustrating, but she made a pact to help Jenna 'step into her power' and become stronger and more of a problem-solver in season two.

The show, which is mostly filmed in Utah, premiered season two on November 3.