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Catherine Zeta‑Jones transforms a reworked crime novel into a Welsh‑accented action‑thriller, navigating the world of art, assassins, and a gritty path to justice, while breaking new ground for female leads on screen.
About five years ago, the Sydney‑born executive producer of Spotlight and John Wick sent a crime novel to Catherine Zeta‑Jones, hoping to inspire a new film.
The novel, The Price You Pay by Aidan Truhen, tells the tale of American cocaine dealer Jack Price who becomes the target of a hit by an international terrorist organization. While Zeta‑Jones found the plot gripping, she noticed a glaring gap: the story lacked a female lead. She recalled asking the producer, Peter Lawson: I presume you are going to change the central character to a woman.
The Origin Of The Character Jackie Price
Once I considered a female protagonist and the dark humour in the original character, I thought, This is really interesting. That conversation led to the birth of Jackie Price, a former cocaine smuggler turned glamorous and shadowy art dealer who, twenty years after leaving the drug world, finds herself hunted by a group of assassins known as the Seven Demons.
The Seven Demons employ a scorched‑earth policy, destroying Jackie's home, art collection, and bank account, while targeting anyone associated with her. As her loved ones are lost, Jackie goes on the run with her tax accountant Sam, played by Daniel Ings, and her assistant Charlie, portrayed by Australian actor Hattie Hook. Realizing she cannot rely on a saved future, she decides to track down and confront the assassins herself.
Zeta Jones Chooses Welsh Accent For Role
The film's tone was a long journey to get right, according to Zeta‑Jones, and the result was worth the patience. For the first time in her extensive career, the former Oscar winner chose to play Welsh, bringing an authentic voice to Jackie Price. She explains the choice: "I needed something to ground her. I was considering a Cockney accent or something, but then I just went, This woman is Welsh.
" The Irish‑English producers, screenwriters Tom Butterworth and Conor Keane, embraced this subtle yet resonant detail, and the character's connection to her hometown of Swansea Council Estate added depth and vulnerability to the protagonist. Zeta‑Jones was influenced by Welsh women in her life, including the female characters from her own upbringing and the strong, earthy Welsh persona she associated with artists like Bonnie Tyler.
Zeta‑Jones's early career, interrupted by limited roles for Welsh women, had seen her break into musical theatre at nine, starting with the quiet orphan July in Annie on London's West End. By 2002 she was back in film, starring opposite Renée Zellweger in the musical adaptation of Chicago, as the sharp‑tongued, fame‑hungry Velma Kelly, earning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
She recognized parallels between Velma and Jackie: both women are glamorous, fiercely capable, and would kill for the right reasons. In her depiction of Jackie, she balances danger with charm, lacing her performance with a sly, "Bond‑like" wit. Kill Jackie arrives amid a larger trend of strong, complex female protagonists who take justice into their own hands, a trend that streaming platforms have helped to accelerate.
Streaming Services Increase Opportunities For Women
Zeta‑Jones notes that with streaming services, there is more opportunity for women: "There is more to go around, where women can step up to the plate, because there's more space for us.
" She characterizes this influx as both "bad‑ass" and compelling, appreciating that the modern landscape offers rich, female‑driven drama. She acknowledges that this abundance is cyclical, evoking the 1970s heroines typified by James G. and Ellen Burstyn, and highlights the ability of the new generation of actresses to break further into such roles.
Set to draw viewers into a suspenseful revenge narrative, Kill Jackie showcases a seasoned actress who brings depth to her role, no longer bogged down by stereotypical accents or roles. Her choice to portray Jackie as a Welsh woman speaks to a personal journey that mirrors her longstanding desire to see authentic Welsh representation on screen.
This film invites the audience into a story that blends action, intrigue, and a tight examination of a woman's past, present, and fight for control in a world that controls her too. With a cast that includes Oscar N. Jaenada as a key supporter and a landscape of acts from her own experience, Kill Jackie stands out as a testament to Zeta‑Jones's perseverance-overcoming limitations, embracing her roots, and delivering a story that speaks to both the film's adrenaline and its unspoken layers of identity and responsibility.
Catherine Zeta‑Jones Kill Jackie Action‑Thriller Welsh Character Female Lead
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