If you’ve never heard “Yellowstone” star Kelly Reilly speak out of character, you may be in for a bit of a jolt. The Beth Dutton actress speaks with a British accent in real life.
As Beth, Reilly’s confident drawl is so convincing that many “Yellowstone” fans are shocked upon hearing the actress, who hails from the U.K., speak in her natural accent.
Reilly is an accomplished stage actress who was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress of 2003 and, in 2015, made her Broadway debut in the Harold Pinter play “Old Times” with Clive Owen and Eve Best. She has also appeared in movies such as “Pride & Prejudice,” “Mrs. Henderson Presents” and “Flight,” per IMDb.
‘Yellowstone’ Star Says Beth Is ‘Of This Land’
In a behind-the-scenes featurette from the Paramount Network, Reilly explained that Beth is not a cowgirl – she hates horses, perhaps due to the horseback riding accident that caused her mother’s death – but “she is of this land,” meaning Montana.
Yet when Beth returns home at the beginning of “Yellowstone,” she must face all her old demons. And perhaps nobody reminds her more of the skeletons in her closet than her adopted brother Jamie (Wes Bentley).
“She can’t stand Jamie,” Reilly said. Still, “they’re like twins, they’re like inseparable… If there was no love there, they wouldn’t irritate one another. It wouldn’t matter.”
“Beth has her father’s love, and Jamie knows it,” she added. “And he’s deeply jealous.”
Nonetheless, Beth is tougher than Jamie, a fact that she never lets him forget. Whether she’s bathing naked in the water trough to remember her mother or slugging Jamie in the face, Beth is all swagger.
“She was raised by men, by cowboys, by ranchers of this brutal, beautiful land,” the “Yellowstone” star explained. “The only female. And that’s what makes her extraordinary. There’s no room for any sentimentality.”
If there is a chink in Beth’s armor, it’s Rip (Cole Hauser). Beth tries to distance herself from him by striking up a fling with Walker (Ryan Bingham), but it’s no use: she and Rip are meant to be together. And by the end of Season 3, they’re engaged, with their hard-won happiness seeming just over the horizon when a bomb tears through Beth’s office in the season finale.
“She does love him, in her own way,” Reilly said of Beth’s relationship with Rip. “They’re sort of in each other’s bones.”
Watch Reilly discuss her character on “Yellowstone” here:
