The UK's Telegraph interviews Kelly Reilly

The UK's Telegraph just interviewed Kelly Reilly as she promotes her new films, Me and Orson Welles (in U.S. theaters now!) and Sherlock Holmes (in U.S. theaters December 25th).

Before we get to her new interview, check out more photos of Kelly from the Me & Orson Welles - UK Film Premiere. (left Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images Europe)

Here's part of her interview...

Kelly Reilly interview
By Noam Friedlander
At the ripe old age of 32, Kelly Reilly is already a veteran of the British stage. Now – despite all that she’s said about the place – she is taking on Hollywood. She talks about what made her change her mind and lays to rest those rumours about her and Guy Ritchie.

Kelly Reilly is sitting pertly on a plump leather sofa in a bustling hotel in
Los Angeles. The flame-haired actress (who has been called 'the most promising to emerge from theatreland since Dame Helen Mirren’) is relaxed, friendly – and hungry. She orders a Diet Coke and a club sandwich, which swiftly arrives encased in the world’s thickest bread and accompanied by the world’s thinnest chips. 'Oh, my God,’ she exclaims, 'can I get thicker bread please?’ Her slender frame looks as if it rarely indulges in this kind of meal but she tucks in eagerly, albeit after removing the ridiculously chunky top layer of bread.

Dressed in a simple charcoal pencil skirt with a crisp, well-cut white shirt, Reilly looks more like a secretary than an actress. Even when she is on the red carpet her style is distinctly sober: the outfit she wore to the Olivier Awards last year – a double-breasted, powder-blue overcoat with tan court shoes and a tan clutch – was a world away from the siren dresses her characters wear on stage. Today she wears no make-up, her bright-eyed, expressive face freckled and pale. Reviewers frequently comment on her luminosity and, indeed, despite her icy-white features, there’s warmth in her blue eyes.

Reilly, 32, has built herself a serious reputation on – and, increasingly, beyond – the British stage. She was the youngest ever Olivier award nominee, for her lead role in Patrick Marber’s play After Miss Julie (1995), and was nominated for a second Olivier in 2007 after playing Desdemona, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor, in Michael Grandage’s staging of Othello. Reilly recently starred in Lynda La Plante’s television drama Above Suspicion (her first television role, aged 16, was opposite Helen Mirren in La Plante’s Prime Suspect) and now has three films opening over the next few months: Me & Orson Welles, Richard Linklater’s retelling of Orson Welles’ early, womanising days as a director; a thriller called Triage; and Guy Ritchie’s Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr plays the detective).

Perhaps inevitably, the actress has recently moved to Los Angeles. She was once highly critical of the city. In 2004 an agent there saw her in After Miss Julie and offered to represent her. At the time Reilly dismissed the notion: 'Being at the pinnacle of my career is not to turn up in some multiplex blockbuster. This career ladder thing is such an illusion. What’s at the top?’ she sniffed. 'Twenty million dollars a movie and paparazzi in the hedge?’

But, five years later, here she is in Hollywood. 'When I was younger,’ explains Reilly, 'I was terrified [of Los Angeles].’ The aggressive competitiveness of the industry and the constant need to network made the actress 'come out in a rash’. The ageism shown towards women still infuriates her; Reilly adamantly refuses to lie about her age, despite warnings that she should never admit to being over 26. In the past few months, though, Reilly says she has 'met the most lovely people and had a blast’.

The actress is contemplating setting up a theatre company. 'There are hardly any actors left in England right now as they’re all over here,’ she says with a laugh. 'We should all just do a play. I’m sure this conversation’s been had in many an LA coffee shop but think of the actors out here: Chiwetel, Michael Sheen, Matthew Rhys…’

Over the past few years Reilly has notched up several film credits (including a wonderfully acerbic turn -as Caroline Bingley in Joe Wright’s adaptation of Pride & Prejudice) and big-name directors are now queuing up to sing her praises. Stephen Frears, who directed her in Mrs Henderson Presents, describes her as 'hugely talented’, while Terry Johnson, the theatre director, calls Reilly 'possibly the most natural, dyed-in-the-wool, deep-in-the-bone actress I’ve ever worked with’.

Continue reading the entire Kelly Reilly interview here!