Actress Kelly Reilly’s upscale twang sounds completely convincing playing Montana-born businesswoman Beth Dutton on Yellowstone, but her real-life speaking voice reveals she isn’t even American.
Where Is Yellowstone’s Kelly Reilly From?
Kelly was born and raised outside London, England, in the royal borough of Chessington. Her father was a police officer while her mother was a hospital receptionist.
Where Does Kelly Reilly Live?
When she’s not shooting a project, Kelly splits her time between Southampton, New York, and her native England. Kelly’s husband, Kyle Baugher, grew up in the posh Long Island town and the couple have a home there, while she also owns a 300-year-old cottage in Sussex, England.
Some Fans Are Shocked to Find Out Kelly Reilly Is British
Kelly’s natural British accent comes out in interviews, which comes as a surprise to those who haven’t heard her speak outside of her Yellowstone character and other roles.
Even talk show host Drew Barrymore was surprised when Kelly appeared on her daytime talk show on November 14, 2024. “I would have never guessed you had an accent!” the Blended star exclaimed.
Kelly Reilly Worked Hard to Perfect Her Dialect for ‘Yellowstone’
The actress credited her “dialect coach because she’s amazing, Jessica Drake,” for how naturally western she sounds on Yellowstone.
“We were re ally going for a Montana accent, but she’s [Beth] educated. She’s from a very, very wealthy ranching family. I wasn’t going to go, like, ‘Howdy, ma’am.’ It wasn’t that for me,” she continued. “But I certainly wanted to get that Montana dialect correct. So, I worked with Jessica.”
Kelly’s accent was so convincing it fooled even her costars when they began filming the show.
Forrie J. Smith — who plays lead ranch hand Lloyd on the show — didn’t know Kelly was British when filming for season 1 initially got underway in 2018.
During a November 4, 2024, appearance on Glenn Beck’s podcast, the host asked it was true that Kelly “used an American accent the entire time for like the first week, because she didn’t want people to say, ‘She’s British, she’s not going to be able to pull this role off.'”
“Yeah. I didn’t know, either, the first couple of weeks,” Forrie responded, adding Kelly couldn’t be more different than her character. “She is just a sweetheart in real life.”
Kelly Perfected Her American Accent for Other Roles
After starring in a number of TV shows and other productions in her native U.K., Kelly first became famous with U.S. audiences in Denzel Washington’s 2012 film Flight.
She followed it up starring in the ABC psychological medical drama Black Box in 2014. Kelly then appeared on the California-set season 2 of HBO’s True Detective, playing Vince Vaughn’s wife in 2015. In all of the roles, she had a flawless American accent.
Kelly told Drew that she worked with Jessica “on Flight and True Detective and all these other American accents I’d done.”
However, she went to a whole new place when playing ranching baron John Dutton’s only daughter, Beth Dutton, on Yellowstone.
“But for Beth, it was more about the voice, because she smokes a little bit. She drinks a lot of bourbon,” Kelly explained.
She also paid great attention to costar Kevin Costner, who played her dad until his character was killed off in part 2 of season 5.
“I listened to Kevin a lot because he really deepened his voice for John Dutton, so I just stole it. I just copied him,” Kelly jokingly added.