This Is Why Yellowstone's Kelly Reilly Looks So Familiar

"Yellowstone" star Kelly Reilly came from humble beginnings, but she shot to fame playing the sharp-tongued, tough-as-nails daughter of wealthy rancher John Dutton. Although the role of Beth Dutton made Reilly a household name,"Yellowstone" was not her first rodeo. Her career began when she was just a theater-obsessed teenager who fell in love with the craft while attending plays in London. "I just remember feeling so alive," she told the Independent about watching those productions. By the time she entered the "Sheridanverse," Reilly had already made a name for herself as a two-time Olivier Award-nominated stage actor and had a resume filled with small parts in big films and television shows. 

Today, Reilly is an A-list star in her own right. She imbued Beth with such a potent combination of sex appeal, sass, and smarts that viewers couldn't look away, afraid to miss what she'd say or do next. She played her role so well that some fans are shocked when they realize Beth Dutton's voice is very different in real life — Reilly is British, after all. To play a character so filled with venom and vulnerability wasn't easy, especially considering that Beth couldn't be further from what Kelly Reilly is really like when the cameras aren't rolling. In fact, the actor told The New York Times that she credited the role with giving her more moxie in her real life. "Beth has given me a backbone," she said. "There's a strength in playing her all these years that I've definitely found a bit of."

The stunning transformation of Kelly Reilly from aspiring actress to bona fide celebrity began with a gutsy move that would have made Beth Dutton proud. In an impressive show of bravery, the 16-year-old aspiring actor penned a letter to the head of a local showcase and asked if she could perform a monologue. In what could only be described as fate, Reilly took the stage in front of an audience that, unbeknown to her, included the casting director of the British television show "Prime Suspect." The director was so impressed by the young Reilly that he offered her a small role opposite the show's huge star, Helen Mirren. That was just the beginning. 

Reilly would go on to make a splash in the theater world, achieving acclaim and award nominations for her work before becoming a familiar face on both the large and small screens. In an interview with the Independent, the "Sherlock Holmes" star reflected on those early days and described herself as "introverted" and "shy." "I wasn't a natural performer," she said. How did someone so "shy" find the nerve to write the missive that would ultimately change her life? "It came out of just an absolute need — I really wanted to be an actor," she explained. Unlike some in the public eye, Reilly's need wasn't driven by fame, but rather by a love of the craft. "I live very quietly, and I'm not interested in celebrity or being famous," she told Awards Daily. "I love acting. I love storytelling. I love great writing."

While most people probably think Keira Knightley when they think of the hit movie "Pride and Prejudice," some eagle-eyed "Yellowstone" fans have realized that Kelly Reilly played Caroline Bingley in the period piece based on the novel by Jane Austen. On the surface, the prim and proper aristocratic Bingley seems light years away from the bottle swilling, cigarette smoking, fist swinging Beth Dutton, but the two women share a certain no-nonsense, do-what-it-takes vibe that unites them. 

Reilly is one of many "Yellowstone" actors who are gorgeous in real life and on-screen. But that beauty doesn't take away from her knack for playing strong, complex women who resonate with her female fan base. In an interview with Awards Daily, the actor expressed her surprise at how many women approach her to say that they wish they could channel their inner Beth.  "I'm always a little bit surprised, because on the inside I know there's a wild woman, which probably other women want to tap into," she said. "There's no good girl there. There's an unapologetic wild storm, and it's fabulous to play and fabulous to put that woman in the living rooms of America." Her talent for getting inside her characters and finding what makes them tick is, as theater director Terry Johnson noted, an inherent skill. In an interview with The Guardian, he praised Reilly as  "possibly the most natural, dyed-in-the-wool, deep-in-the-bone actress I've ever worked with." 

Unless you are a truly devoted sci-fi fan, or a British television aficionado, chances are you might have missed Tom Hardy and Kelly Reilly's less than stellar sci-fi venture, "A for Andromeda." The telemovie was a remake of the 1961 television series, but it failed to achieve liftoff. Both Reilly and Hardy were light years away from becoming the stars they are today, so clearly the flop did nothing to abort their stratospheric rise in Hollywood. "The critics, everyone is allowed an opinion, right?" Reilly remarked to Awards Daily. "And that's fine." 

Some actors would be discouraged by a project that was not a huge commercial success. The seemingly unflappable Reilly, however, has said she doesn't concern herself with anything other than whether or not a part speaks to her. She is an actor who loves acting for acting's sake, and she has earned a reputation for throwing herself into every role, large or small, with the same gusto and, in her own words, "steely focus." "I don't think there's been any part of my career that I haven't enjoyed and taken satisfaction out of, to be honest — perhaps because I'm quite cautious in selecting roles," Reilly said in an interview with Simply the Best magazine."What motivates me is working hard, enjoying what I am doing, and getting the next job," Reilly continued. "I'd like to think I am unassuming and committed to my profession ... these are the standards that have got me to where I am."  

By definition, horror movies are often bloody, graphic, and psychologically disturbing. But even the most die-hard fans of the genre agree that some are harder to watch than others. "Eden Lake," starring Kelly Reilly and Michael Fassbender as lovebirds Jenny and Steve, fell firmly into the latter category. Reviewer Alex Hess deemed it "one of the most brutally terrifying experiences in my life," in The Guardian. On the surface, it looks simple enough: a couple looking for a romantic getaway opt for a campout at the picturesque Eden Lake. A chance encounter with a gang of youth takes the couple, and the viewers, on a tense, gruesome, anxiety-filled trip through hell that offers no redemption — not even at the end. "Yeah, that ending is brutal," Reilly admitted in an interview with Daily Dead. "I remember shooting the ending of "Eden Lake," and saying to the director, 'You know people are going to hate this ending. They are going to absolutely hate this.'" 

Reilly wasn't wrong. People had very strong, mixed reactions to the film, with some calling it "torture porn," while others took issue with what they considered a disturbing portrayal of Britain's working class. It would be normal for any actor to have reservations about playing the lead in such a dark film, but while Reilly had doubts about playing Beth Dutton in "Yellowstone," she seemed to have no regrets about playing "Eden Lake's" Jenny. As she confessed to Daily Dead, "I really loved making that film."

As the girlfriend of Jude Law's Dr. Watson in "Sherlock Holmes," Kelly Reilly had a very Beth Dutton moment when she threw a glass of wine in the face of Robert Downey Jr.'s Holmes. "She stands up for herself," Reilly told the Independent. By the time she made the Guy Ritchie film, Reilly was already a successful actor, leading some to wonder why she took such a small role in the blockbuster film. "Honestly? Robert Downey Jr. It's not a job that you turn down," she said. "It's real quality. It was just a nice offer."  Plus, Reilly said she appreciated roles that she could "drop in and out" of.  "[T]hey're so much fun," she said. "You get to have a lot more different experiences. I really enjoy that variety." 

When you have such big names as Law, Downey, and Ritchie attached to a project, the press is bound to circle, and it wasn't long before the tabloids were linking Reilly and Ritchie (who was divorcing Madonna) romantically. Reilly seemed to find the whole thing amusing. "We'd talked about a scene and before you knew it there were press on my parents' doorstep going, 'So, I hear that Kelly's the reason for the divorce,'" she laughed in an interview with The Telegraph. "I mean, I'm in a relationship, for Christ's sake," she added. "[Ritchie] is a nice guy but we hadn't even had a cup of tea together."

In a case of life coming full circle, Kelly Reilly played the role of Detective Constable Anna Travis in "Above Suspicion," a show created by Lynda La Plante, whose show "Prime Suspect" was where a 16-year-old Reilly made her television debut. In the years between the two shows, Reilly transformed from a relative unknown to a well-respected actor. Despite this, she admitted to the Independent that she was a little nervous about playing the lead in the two-part ITV show. "I didn't know what I was doing on the first one. It was a real stab in the dark," she confessed. Reilly may have felt unsure, but La Plante was confident. "Kelly has taken on board the character and has brought to the role humor and yet a totally believable quality of a young, career-minded police officer," observed the show's creator, Lynda La Plante. 

Her character, Travis, was the daughter of a famous detective. In real life. Reilly's own father was a policeman, and her mother worked as a receptionist. She has credited her parents for showing her the value of hard work. "It's ingrained," she said. "They both worked hard, and still do. I'm aware it's something that I appreciate in other people. It's just so easy to become blasé and be blind to how lucky you are if you have been given the opportunities I've been given. I am aware that tomorrow I could just be knocking at the Royal Court's door going, 'Hello! Anything going?'"

Kelly Reilly was an established actor across the pond, but she had yet to make a big splash in American waters. Part of the reason was fear. "When I was younger, I was terrified [of Los Angeles]," Reilly explained in an interview with The Telegraph, and cited its intense competitiveness, along with the ageism surrounding women in the industry as among reasons for her reservations. She put her misgivings aside, however, and headed to the U.S., where she promptly landed a plum role in the Robert Zemeckis hit "Flight" opposite Denzel Washington. 

The part of Nicole, a recovering heroin addict, was one that intrigued Reilly, who told IndieWire that she is drawn to characters who feel a bit "underwritten."  "This was one of the scripts that I read and I can honestly say that I read it and got goosebumps," she said. Then there was the fact that she would be working with Washington, whom she described as "charming and incredibly intelligent." Reilly was still considered a relative unknown in the U.S. at the time and admitted that she was nervous about screen testing with the megastar. "I just went in, I was terrified — but at the same time, I'm not 20 years old anymore; I said, 'Alright, I'm here. I haven't got anything to lose. If I don't get it, this is an amazing experience,'" she recalled. Reilly sailed through the audition and played the challenging role with sensitivity and compassion. "I'm not interested in the addict," she explained. "I'm interested in the human being who's just so lost." 

In what she told The Telegraph was "one of the best filming experiences" of her life, Kelly Reilly played Fiona, the troubled daughter of a Catholic priest who must die to atone for the crimes of the church, in John Michael McDonough's "Calvary." Reilly, who was raised Catholic but has never felt connected to it, said the film spoke to her on a personal level. "All that doctrine didn't resonate with me, she said. "I didn't need it to feel the relationship with my spiritual beliefs. That's where the film really spoke to me; it goes so far beyond religion and into the personal faith of what it is to be human and a good person."

The human experience is something that Reilly has proven herself to be gifted at portraying. She has unflinchingly tackled roles that are often intense, messy, and complicated, and presented them in a way that invites viewers to see what's below the surface. It's a skill that Reilly, who became a working actor at the age of 16, has spent many years honing. "A part has to fulfill me, otherwise I'd rather not do it, I'd rather be at home," she confessed. "I love everything about domesticity, I crave it — so if I'm going to leave that place, it has to be because I'm really excited about the work." That craving for domesticity is why you don't often see Reilly hobnobbing on the red carpet. "Nothing brings me out in more of a cold sweat than a premiere," she said and added, "I just can't do the schmooze."

Just when you thought you knew what to expect from Kelly Reilly, the actor took a hard right from her usual genres with the faith-based film, "Heaven Is for Real." Based on the bestselling book of the same name, the movie tells the true story of pastor Todd Burpo and his wife Sonja, whose young son Colton had a near-death experience and claimed he had an encounter with Jesus. The role required a combination of strength and vulnerability, and Reilly delivered in spades. "I feel like she doesn't need to have all the answers," Reilly said about her character in an interview via the Rotten Tomatoes YouTube channel. "I think women handle things slightly differently. I think we are more instinctive, we're more emotional, we're more aware that things can be just a mystery." 

Playing a role based on the life of a living person required Reilly to strike a balance between accuracy and creative license. "There's the real Sonja, and there's the real book, and we are inspired by that and educated by that, but we get to sort of get the baton and run with it ourselves," she explained. Greg Kinnear, who played Reilly's husband, Todd, had only high praise for his co-star. "I wish I could say it was a lot more acting than it was to create a sense of fondness between us but it was great," he told Sarah's Backstage Pass. "I love her. I really do."

Originally titled "Eight for Silver," "The Cursed" once again put Kelly Reilly front and center in a horror flick. The actor, who was starring in "Yellowstone" at the time, said she took the role because it allowed her to be someone other than Beth Dutton for a while. "As an actor, you really want to keep changing it up for yourself and dipping into different things to keep your own taste bud alive," she told Screen Rant. It didn't hurt that the film was shot in Europe, which allowed the British Reilly to go back to her roots for a while. "I live and work in America, so for me to come back to Europe for a film with a fellow Englishman and mostly European actors feeds me," she explained. "I always want to keep connected to my home, so it was nice for me to be able to come home and do something very different to what I had just been immersed in."

One of the more notable aspects of the movie was the "less is more" approach that Reilly brought to her role. "In the character, there was constraint and silence and loneliness. And I just felt like she doesn't really use her voice; she's not able to." Fans of "Yellowstone" know that's a far cry from the outspoken Dutton, whose verbal sparring can leave wounds. "I didn't want to overcomplicate it, and it was just a completely different box of colors to play with," she added.

The supernatural thriller "A Haunting in Venice" is based on an Agatha Christie's "Halloween Party" and features Kelly Reilly once again lending herself to a role with some mystery behind it. The movie is part of a trilogy that was directed by Kenneth Branagh (who also stars in the film) and also includes "Murder on the Orient Express" and "Death on the Nile." Reilly described this installment as different from the first two films in the series. "There's something a little edgier, a little darker, it feels almost a little film noir," she told The Movie Times. "It's very moody and atmospheric."

Reilly credited Branagh's creativity for bringing the movie to life in a unique way and for influencing how she played the role of retired opera singer Rowena Drake. "Working with someone like Kenneth is a tonic for the imagination," she told Simply the Best magazine. "There are many directors out there who have a vision for how something should be, but with Kenneth that vision is matched by outrageous optimism," she continued. "When you venture into his mind there is almost endless potential, and when you have that from the top, that infiltrates down into how you portray the role as an actress. It is totally inspiring." For his part, Branagh praised Reilly's portrayal of Drake, whom he described to Collider as "a complex character that Kelly brings such delicacy to."