Catherine Zeta-Jones Brings Her Welsh Voice to ‘Kill Jackie’

Catherine Zeta-Jones makes Jackie proudly Welsh

Catherine Zeta-Jones is bringing her natural Swansea accent to a leading role for the first time in Kill Jackie, the Prime Video thriller arriving October 2. She also helped reshape the character’s identity, turning a U.S.-based male protagonist from the source novel into a Welsh woman with a dangerous past.

Zeta-Jones plays Jackie Price, a former cocaine dealer whose quiet life collapses when elite assassins are hired to kill her. The actor said using her real voice helped define Jackie and freed her performance, grounding a heightened crime story in the humor, toughness and rhythm she associates with home.

Swansea becomes part of the character

The series is adapted from Nick Harkaway’s novel The Price You Pay, which centers on a man named Jack in the United States. For the screen version, the creative team changed both the character and the setting around Zeta-Jones. Some scenes were filmed in Swansea, marking her first drama shoot in Wales.

As an executive producer, she pushed for Jackie to be Welsh and drew inspiration from people she knows. She described the character as comic and recognizable but also connected to a tougher side of Swansea. That mix gives the accent a narrative purpose: it is not a decorative flourish added after the script, but part of Jackie’s personality and backstory.

A playful Welsh detail in an action thriller

The show’s Welsh identity even reaches its action set pieces. Zeta-Jones described a security system hidden behind Andy Warhol-style images of Tom Jones, with the panels revealing weapons as one of his songs plays. The idea brings a deliberately local joke into Jackie’s violent world.

The role also arrives as a contrast to Zeta-Jones’ recent screen work, including her portrayal of Morticia Addams in Wednesday. In Kill Jackie, the familiar voice is central to a less familiar character: an art-dealing fugitive confronting enemies and her own history.

For Zeta-Jones, the production is both a star vehicle and a homecoming. The accent, Swansea locations and Welsh references make Jackie feel tied to a specific place even as the series plays on an international action-thriller scale.