'I love being in nature'
Under Salt Marsh star Kelly Reilly on the great outdoors
SKY Atlantic
- Gareth McLean
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When Kelly Reilly was in her 20s, she embarked on what might well be a rite of passage for every young British actor with ambition: she went out to Los Angeles to take meetings, perhaps to audition, to see and be seen. Or, as she puts it, “to hustle”.
“I remember going and there being so much sun! And I love the rain. I love rain and being out in nature. It’s one of my favourite things about my jobs, and location is something I definitely take into consideration,” she says. “I don’t think I’d be very good on a procedural, on a set every day. I’ve got to feel like my soul’s on fire a bit.”
And so, last winter — October through to February, in fact — Reilly found herself in the cold and the rain in the wilds of north Wales, playing the lead in the superlative thriller Under Salt Marsh. “You’re immersed in the place, in the land, and it can’t help but have an effect on you. You feel the energy of it.”
Kelly Reilly in Under Salt Marsh Sky
For a significant amount of time, Reilly was also immersed in freezing cold, chest-high water for a scene in which her character Jackie, a police officer turned primary school teacher, discovers the body of one of her pupils. And let’s not forget the scenes in which an impending storm fulfils its potential, makes land fall and devastates the town, drenching, and indeed drowning, many of its residents.
Reilly, 48, is unrepentant. “I’ve been filming in Montana for years and years [on Yellowstone, the US TV show turned cultural phenomenon in which she plays the violent, vengeful, occasionally tender Beth Dutton]. And then I get to go film in these mountains in Britain. And it was really quite an emotional thing.
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“I have a real love for north Wales from when I was a kid. We used to go there on holidays, and when I was in primary school, I had this wonderful head teacher who took us on a school trip to climb Mount Snowdon. It was so formative for me. You give yourself over to something greater and you feel humbled by nature and in awe of its beauty. The thrill of insignificance.”
Authors
Gareth McLean
Gareth McLean has been writing about television for nearly 30 years. As a critic, he's reviewed thousands of programmes. As a feature writer, he's interviewed hundreds of people, from Liza Minnelli to Jimmy Savile. He has also written for TV.
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