Top 5 Kelly Reilly TV and film roles that cement her as a British icon and how to watch them
Crush fully activated
Kelly Reilly is back on British soil – where she belongs – playing the brilliantly complex Jackie Ellis in Under Salt Marsh – and, like all her TV and film roles, we’re obsessed!
(Sorry if that sounds weird Kelly, you don’t have to get a restraining order. We’re coming from a deep place of respect and admiration.)
The Chessington-born actress, 48, nails every performance she’s in, whether it’s in her home country, or across the pond in the US where she’s found huge success as well. Kelly excels at playing likeable, but essentially flawed characters.
She’s been on our screens for three decades, ever since she first appeared in the 1995 Helen Mirren crime drama Prime Suspect: Inner Circles. And frankly, there’s been no stopping her ever since.
Here are Kelly Reilly’s top 5 performances in TV and film, according to TVGuide.co.uk (her superfans).
5. Kelly Reilly top 5 TV and film roles – Jordan Semyon in True Detective series 2
True Detective series 1 blew viewers away in 2014, kicking off one of the most successful crime drama anthologies of all time. By series 2 (in 2015), everyone was clambering to follow in the footsteps of leading actors Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Remember this was still a time when it was pretty rare to have huge Hollywood stars in a TV series.
Step forward Kelly Reilly, who bagged the role of Jordan Semyon, the wife of Vince Vaughn’s Frank. He was a career criminal attempting to legitimise his business with his wife and business partner Jordan. She played a pivotal role in the series – strong, morally ambiguous, but with her own fragilities including the inability to have the child she desperately wanted. Either way, she was a bigger power player than viewers at first realised.
This is a perfect example of Kelly’s unique ability to nail strong, but complicated, and vulnerable characters. We hate to resort to vegetable analogies, but Kelly is the onion of playing multi-layered characters.
Although season 2’s Rotten Tomatoes score is a poor 47% (it deserves more), Kelly’s stand-out performance more than matched her A-List co-stars Colin Farrell, Vince Vaughn, Rachel McAdams, and Taylor Kitsch.
All seasons of True Detective are available to watch on Sky Atlantic with a NOW subscription.
4. Above Suspicion’s DI Anna Travis
After Mulder and Scully set the TV world alight with their will-they-won’t-they relationship, came DI Anna Travis and DCS James Langton in police drama Above Suspicion.
The crime series, from Linda La Plante, ran for four series between 2009 and 2012. It followed a team of dedicated detectives investigating gruesome murders across London. For context, the DVD of the show was rated 18.
But the real action was between Ciarán Hinds’ DCS James Langton and Kelly Reilly’s DI Anna Travis. The sexual chemistry was off the charts. And, yes, there was an age gap of 24 years, but who was judging? Not us, we were TOTALLY invested in their intense, and often volatile on-off relationship.
The connection between veteran cop Langton and rookie Travis was complex, never easy, and a central focus of the novels and the TV show. And, once again, Kelly Reilly showcased her singular talents at portraying the nuance of both strong and fragile.
You can watch all four (short) series of Above Suspicion on ITVX now.
3. Kelly Reilly TV and film roles – Fiona Lavelle in Calvary
The 2014 film Calvary starred the always-brilliant Brendan Gleeson as an honest and good-hearted priest wrestling with a cynical, spiteful community… When he received a death threat from an unknown parishioner, he tackled some weighty issues with humour, intelligence, and sensitivity.
Kelly Reilly played Father James’ daughter Fiona in a largely Irish cast, including Aidan Gillen, Chris O’Dowd, Dylan Moran, Killian Scott, and Domhnall Gleeson.
Fiona visited her estranged father in Ireland after a suicide attempt, acting as a source of warmth and human connection. But the character also highlighted Father James’ isolation and personal history before entering the priesthood.
Kelly Reilly’s Fiona battled depression and had a history of self-harm, having come from a rehabilitation facility in London. The final scene, heartbreaking actually, showed her in an act of forgiveness crucial to the themes of the film. Kelly’s portrayal of Fiona put the emotion into emotionally fragile. She was so delicate you’d be afraid to touch her. Although Brendan Gleeson won all the accolades, Kelly deserved an award for her performance, too.
With a 89% Rotten Tomatoes score, this black comedy is one to watch if you haven’t already. It’s currently available to rent with a Prime Video subscription, or on Lionsgate with a cheeky 7-day free trial.
2. Jenny in Eden Lake
Imagine trying to look absolutely terrified for as long as it took to film one of the best British horror movies of the past 20 years. That’s what Kelly Reilly had to do in the 2008 film Eden Lake. And that petrified look in her eyes? We felt every jolt of fear too.
Kelly played Jenny, one half of a couple on a romantic weekend getaway at a remote lake in the English countryside. The other half was Michael Fassbender’s Steve.
However, their quiet weekend is shattered by an aggressive and unhinged group of kids – led by Jack O’Connell’s Brett – who terrorise them with violence. And this is where the true horror comes in, as their weekend outing becomes a brutal battle for survival.
Eden Lake is terrifying because the danger doesn’t come from ghosts or things that go bump in the night. It’s the depraved nature of human beings, and how they can behave in a pack. We won’t spoil the film’s ending here but, suffice to say, Kelly Reilly’s performance will stay with you long after the credits roll.
Critics gave the film a 76% score on Rotten Tomatoes, but this score doesn’t reflect the cult status of the film. You can rent it on Prime Video, Apple+, and Sky.
1 Kelly Reilly TV and film roles – Beth Dutton in Yellowstone
Kelly Reilly’s character Beth Dutton in Yellowstone describes herself as a “tornado” and has spawned enough memes to cement her as one of the most iconic female characters on TV of all time. We’re infatuated with Beth’s unapologetic ruthlessness. We’d love to borrow it, but we wouldn’t dare.
The daughter of John Dutton (Kevin Costner), the duo are constantly at war with several outside parties who want to gain control of the Duttons’ family land – a ranch in Montana.
Basically Beth’s a badass. Well-educated, and highly intelligent, she’s a master manipulator. She’s been called “reckless”, “bitter”, “abrasive”, “amoral”, “sadistic”, “volatile”, “selfish”, and “emotionally unstable”. She is, in fact, all of these and more. Yellowstone viewers know Beth for her vicious verbal takedowns.
Los Angeles Times said: “Armed with a volcanic personality and acid-tipped diatribes for anyone who opposes her and her father, Beth has high-stepped past the series’ other colourful characters to become a singular force of nature.”
The drama is now on its fifth season, without question because of Kelly Reilly’s fierce portrayal of Beth. It has an 83% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and is available to watch on Paramount+ now.
Read more: The 30 best drama series on Netflix right now
