Kelly Reilly's Natural Accent Sounds Nothing Like Her Yellowstone Character's Voice

Kelly Reilly may have brought Montana native Beth Dutton to life on "Yellowstone," but what some might not know is that she sounds completely different in real life. We're not just talking about the accent, either (though many may be surprised to know Reilly is British). As it turns out, Dutton's husky voice was something Reilly, whose actual voice is brighter and much more smooth-sounding, trained to achieve.

In a 2024 appearance on "The Drew Barrymore Show," Reilly opened up about the process of becoming Beth. Speaking of her work with dialect coach Jessica Drake, Reilly shared, "We were really going for a Montana accent." However, they were very clear from the start that they didn't want to slip into clichés. "She's educated, she's from a very, very wealthy, you know, ranching family. ... I wasn't going to go, like, you know, 'Howdy, ma'am.' It wasn't that for me," Reilly quipped. All that in mind, Reilly spoke about working with Drake to really nail Beth's dialect — but as we said, that was only part of it.

"For Beth, it was more about the voice," Reilly told Barrymore. "She smokes a little bit, she drinks a lot of bourbon," she went on to explain, pointing out that in real life, that would make anyone's voice a little gravelly. Reilly hinted at her co-star Kevin Costner having done the same, and joked that she'd used him as inspo. "He really deepened his voice for John Dutton. And so I just stole it. I just copied him," she joked. Well, between that, Drake's training, and Reilly's own dedication to giving a killer performance, the approach clearly paid off and then some!

Those who've followed Kelly Reilly's career transformation over the years will no doubt know that Cole Hauser's on-screen love featured in the 2005 film adaptation of "Pride & Prejudice." Notably, her accent in that film was more on the received pronunciation end of the spectrum (which makes sense, given her character's standing in society). Her actual delivery is also slower and more drawn-out (again, making sense for the character since Caroline Bingley was so dedicated to performing the role of the perfect upper class woman). However, it's a lot closer to what Reilly actually sounds like in interviews today. 

Reilly had a similar accent in "Sherlock Holmes," in which she starred as Jude Law's love interest, Mary Morstan, though her delivery came across sweeter than it had in "Pride and Prejudice." What is interesting is that at the time of "Sherlock Holmes," Reilly's own accent seemed to be more casual in interviews. That could have been because she was younger at the time. 

Of course, outside of productions in her home country, Reilly has also worked fairly extensively in American films and TV shows, such as Nicole Maggen in "Flight," opposite Denzel Washington, and Jordan Semyon in "True Detective." In her interview on "The Drew Barrymore Show," she did mention that she'd worked with Jessica Drake on both of those productions as well, each time to nail the dialects of her characters, and it's safe to say she did just that. After all, there are Reddits filled with comments from those who only realized the "Yellowstone" star had been in "Pride & Prejudice" years after the fact, with many users commenting specifically on the fact that they'd had no idea she was British. A sign of a great actor, if ever there was one.