Why Sheriff Kerry From Lanterns Looks So Familiar

When Hal Jordan (Kyle Chandler) and John Stewart (Aaron Pierre) investigate a bizarre mass shooting in the first season of "Lanterns," Sheriff Kerry Kane comes along for the ride. And if Kerry looks familiar, it might be because you've seen her before.

Scottish star Kelly Macdonald has a long list of critically acclaimed credits to her name, including the superb prestige series "Boardwalk Empire." That show saw her play Margaret, the mistress — and eventual wife — of Nucky Thompson (Steve Buscemi). Macdonald's talents also landed her a role in one of the best British crime drama series of recent years, "Line of Duty." In that series, she played DCI Jo Davidson, a rogue police officer who's investigated by AC-12, the show's anti-corruption unit. She also briefly played bounty hunter Pokkit in "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" before jumping over to Netflix to play Dr. Irving in the Scottish crime drama, "Dept. Q." 

Macdonald has also worked on movies such as "Brave," "No Country for Old Men," and "Finding Neverland." She made her film debut in Danny Boyle's "Trainspotting," playing Diane, the schoolgirl who lies about her age and sleeps with Renton (Ewan McGregor). 

As a Scot, Kelly Macdonald often has to switch up her accent to fit the setting of the project in which she's appearing, whether that's Prohibition-era New Jersey, Edinburgh, London, or even outer space. And when it comes to American accents, like the one she uses in "Lanterns," she has to know exactly where it comes from. 

"The more specific I can be — like a place, a town, a village — [the better it works so] there's something to go into," she told Backstage in 2020. "If I'm told [it's] just a general American [accent], then I think I'm just really bad. If I work really, really hard, I panic and I sort of need a bit of a crutch." 

Thankfully, the rural USA setting of "Lanterns" gives Macdonald a key location to focus her accent on, and she comes across as a convincing Nebraska native even while holding her own against Kyle Chandler and John Stewart. Her accent is so convincing, in fact, that it might be the reason why some viewers don't recognize her in the show, as she's proven herself to be a natural chameleon in her career so far.