British actress Kelly Reilly is no stranger to unsettling material. In the ABC drama “Black Box,” she plays a neuroscientist struggling with bipolar disorder, and in the Irish indie “Calvary,” out Friday, she’s the suicidal daughter of a Catholic priest (Brendan Gleeson) who looks likely to be murdered very soon.
Fortunately, she says, the most depressing plots make for the most entertaining sets. “The darker the subject matter,” she says, “the more the messed-up humor. No matter if it’s a play or a film or a show. We all need to have a bit of lightheartedness while we take on material that’s heavy. And, in my experience, in a comedy you’re often surrounded by people who take themselves too seriously.”
Still, it’s a seriously talented cast in “Calvary,” which features Irish actors Gleeson, Chris O’Dowd and Aidan Gillen (a k a Littlefinger from “Game of Thrones”) alongside Reilly, who got her start in the 1995 Helen Mirren TV movie “Prime Suspect: Inner Circles.”
In both “Calvary” and the “Sherlock Holmes” movies — in which she plays Mrs. Watson, wife of Jude Law’s character — Reilly is very much in the minority, given how testosterone-heavy the casts are. But she doesn’t see this as much of an anomaly.
“I tell you what, I think that’s how most actresses feel,” says the 37-year-old Reilly, who lives in New York City and is married to financier Kyle Baugher. “It’s so rare to have a lot of women in anything. It’s mostly a bunch of men and one or two women. I don’t have any problem with that — but I would love to work with an all-female cast!”