The Untold Truth Of Kelly Reilly

Kelly Reilly grew up in Chessington, a region in Greater London, England. Her childhood was remarkably ordinary, with parents working blue-collar jobs. "I don't have any upper-class breeding in me whatsoever," Reilly told the Evening Standard in 2012. "My dad was a police officer — he retired last year — and my mother works as a receptionist at the antenatal clinic in Kingston Hospital."

Reilly has certainly played the upper crust through her characters — she was Caroline Bingley, after all, in the 2005 adaptation of "Pride and Prejudice" — but that social elitism doesn't come naturally to her. "I've met upper-class people... and I find it hard to have any sympathy for them, because it's as if they're living in a bubble," she told the outlet "Maybe that's how I see it because I'm a working-class-girl, but I think that attitude displays a gross kind of naïveté."

Reilly called her childhood home a "very normal suburban household" in an interview with Netribution in 2000, adding that the ordinariness of her life made acting seem out of the question. "But I never, ever, ever, in my wildest dreams, thought that I could be an actor because I come from a working-class family," she said. Academically, Reilly wasn't a stand-out — except when it came to drama, according to The Telegraph. This was her wheelhouse and she latched onto it.

You'd never know it from her performances, but Kelly Reilly never received training at a formal acting school. "I wanted to go to drama school, my drama teachers were very keen that you go and learn your craft, but I didn't have the money to do it, that was one, and I was getting more work," she told Netribution. It's a fair point. If she's already getting acting gigs anyway, why pause to go to take classes? "Working with other actors was my training," she told The Guardian.

But Reilly shared that this brought on some self-consciousness early on in her career. "Because I didn't go to drama school, I really was aware this wasn't a world I just easily fell into. ... I never felt my feet were under the table, so to speak," she said in The Scotsman.

What's more, she took daunting theater parts without having a background in the script. Case in point: Reilly was cast as Desdemona in the "Othello" production put on by the ultra prestigious Donmar Warehouse without having much prior experience with the works of the Bard of Avon. "Shakespeare was basically for the bright kids," she told The Telegraph. As the outlet noted, her work in the show earned her a nod for an Olivier award — an achievement she doesn't take lightly. "So, to be counted among some of those actresses... It doesn't get better than that," she said.

While Kelly Reilly might love theater best of all, she isn't one to complain about a job, be it film, TV, or theater. Early on in her career, she explained how work ethic and taking jobs was more important than elitism about art.

"I think nowadays, especially young actors, we're grateful for any work we can get, without sounding desperate," she told Netribution in 2000. "Of course you would rather do a huge film than be in EastEnders, that goes without saying, but if you need to pay the rent you're going to do that episode of Casualty. If you're worth your salt as an actor, I don't think people hold that against you. I certainly wouldn't hold it against anybody or go, 'Oh God, how could you let your art down?'"

Nine years later, and that much further into her career, Reilly told The Scotsman that she was well aware of her fortunate position. "I know I'm one of the lucky ones," she said. "Believe me, I know. Some of my best friends are actors and they're not working, and they really should be because they're really talented."

Half joking, Reilly said that it's hard on budding actors because the established ones get all the parts. "So when I moan and go, 'Oh, it's the same faces (starring in everything]', that's me!" 

While Kelly Reilly doesn't always have to get rigged up into intense costumes, she has starred in several period pieces that require uncomfortable, antiquated outfits. When Reilly starred as Desdemona in the theater production of "Othello," for example, her ensemble was not particularly easy to wear. "When you first put on a corset it's like someone just sucked all the air out of your body and you're talking like that," she told The Scotsman, talking in a high voice. "You feel you can't sit down, you can't walk, and God forbid you'd want to eat anything."

But Reilly used the discomfort for the complicated role of Desdemona. "And because that was on stage, night after night, you really need to be able to have your lungs expand," she noted. "And I found the corset, that tension, was really good. You used it for the role."

Learning to use this tension was something that Reilly picked up on when surrounded by other actors, and unlike Beth Dutton, her character in "Yellowstone," preciousness and outspokenness don't come naturally to her. "I was introverted about what acting meant to me," Reilly shared with The Guardian. "It was so magical and private. I am a slow worker, incredibly diligent. I'm getting faster now but then I'd sit at the back of the class until I could find my voice." So even uncomfortable corsets became a tool to get into character. Seems like Reilly knows how to spin straw into gold.

When Kelly Reilly played the character Mary Morstan in Guy Ritchie's "Sherlock Holmes," she was unfairly dragged into a behind-the-scenes scandal. In October 2008, Madonna filed for divorce from Ritchie and the split was made official the following month — and that all happened to be around when filming began on "Sherlock Holmes." The rumor mill started churning, and it wasn't long before people began to erroneously speculate that the director's split from Madge was due to a supposed affair between the former and Reilly. 

Reilly recalled the story to The Telegraph, saying, "I had done one day's filming with him and said, 'Hello, how are you?' 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.'"

As she told The Guardian in 2011, she ended up taking the matter to court. "And I won because it was completely made up," she said. While she was able to laugh about it in hindsight, she didn't like the harm the rumor caused. "I let it affect me because it was embarrassing," she said. "Not with regard to Guy — to be honest, I couldn't care less what he thought, he's used to it! But I had people ringing me up saying: 'What's this about you and...' It hurts people you love. I was in a relationship." 

Kelly Reilly deeply loves her privacy and the commotion and dazzle that goes with celebrity doesn't really suit her. During her interview with The Scotsman, she was getting ready for a premiere later that evening so her team was busy getting ready for it in the background and the journalist noted: "She's embarrassed by the fuss."

This theme of privacy is one that comes up over the years with Reilly. She once explained to The Guardian that the ability to escape is paramount for her line of work. "I think when you're an actor and you're drawing on your emotions all the time you need to be quite steady," she said. "You need to be able to separate yourself. I don't want to be a neurotic or crazy. I have a nice, normal life and I couldn't live in this world all the time. Sometimes, I think I could disappear quite easily but then again it's my job and I love it."

While Reilly sure seems to enjoy doing this for a living, she's also not completely taken with every element of the gig. In a refreshingly candid moment, she said, "There is a part of me that is not fulfilled by acting. It is a self-involved life, it can feel shallow, but not very often. I know there'll be a day when I'll want to have a family — and I know that life takes precedence over my work." For Reilly, this is what's important.

All of this hard work has really paid off for Kelly Reilly. She's sitting at a net worth of $5 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. While her specific salary for "Yellowstone" is unclear (Cinema Blend speculates that she makes around $200,000 an episode), we know that Paramount Network has a huge budget for the program.

Reilly's co-star Kevin Costner, who plays her father, John Dutton, makes $500,000 an episode, an extraordinary amount for a series. Executive Kevin Kay explained to The Hollywood Reporter why they dolled out such high salaries: "The statement we wanted to make was that we're open for business and we're willing to pay top-tier actors whatever their quotes are. It sends a message and that's what we want to do." So we can safely assume that Reilly is getting well compensated for the tall order of playing Beth Dutton.

As "Yellowstone" continues to be the stunning success that it is, we have no doubt that Reilly's net worth will grow, as will her exposure and with that comes more parts. Hey, if she can play Desdemona, Caroline Bingly, and the beast Beth Dutton, Reilly can do anything.