Keri Russell: The Americans subverts gender roles ‘I love it. I think it’s real’
The Americans has been renewed for two more seasons, but unfortunately its sixth season, which will air in 2018, The Hollywood Reporter has a new interview with on and off screen couple, Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell. It’s a wide-ranging interview well worth reading, especially if you’re a fan. (For those of you who haven’t yet seen this show or who have tried and weren’t able to get into it, you can watch the first three seasons for free on Amazon Prime on demand.) Rhys and Russell officially got together a couple of years ago, maybe not-so-coincidentally just as Russell’s marriage was ending. They welcomed their first child, a son named Sam, a little over two months ago. THR caught up with them near Woodstock, New York, where they have a summer home.
Speculative spoilers for The Americans follow, but they’re just about what won’t happen, as far as the lead actors know. So I think they’re safe for most of us to read as they only rule out one possible ending. Plus anything could happen at this point. I was so happy to read that the fact that they have an FBI agent as a next door neighbor is based on the true life story of a Russian agent. It’s not just some plot device the writers cooked up. Here’s more, and I especially liked how Keri explained that her character, kickass spy Elizabeth, isn’t the typical female character you see on screen.
Russell on what interested her in the part
The part that interested me most was that marriage. In the beginning, it’s a relationship where the female was a little less invested, which is such an interesting take because it’s always the woman pining after the guy who’s cheating on her. I read those scripts all the time. I love it. Because everything we see as a woman is that you’re supposed to be loving and nurturing. Elizabeth believes in what she has to do and it’s OK that there’s another parent at home who’s a little more touchy-feely. I know it’s not always cozy, perfect parenting, but I also think it’s real. As a mother of three, there are moments where [you’re not] the craft-making, cookie-making mom you want to be.Russell on doing sex scenes extensively
I know you might find it surprising, but people don’t cast me for my voluptuous body all the time. “We’re looking for a woman with a 13-year-old boy’s body. Who can we get? Yes, you!”Rhys on if being an offscreen couple helps with sex scenes
There’s that immediate thing where, like, physically you’re comfortable together, and so that’s fine, and you’re not all [hesitant]… I get a little protective. I’m like, “Can someone get her a f—in’ robe, please?! She’s standing there naked, we’ve cut for five seconds, Jesus Christ.” (Laughter.) And they’re like, “Dude, this is the fourth season.”Russell on collaborating with the showrunners (mild spoilers here)
Every year we sit down with them at the beginning of the season, and they give us a basic outline for that season. I think they already have the ending that they want, and it has nothing to do with what we say or want. (Laughs.)… I actually said to them at the beginning of last [season], “Are we seeing cracks? Is there any way this could be Elizabeth saying, ‘Maybe we should double agent or something?’ ” And Joe looked like I had said the most blasphemous thing. He was like, “No, there is not a chance.” (Laughter.)Rhys on how the based the FBI agent neighbor on a real spy’s experience
These spies were called “illegals,” and so we had a real illegal come to set who did exactly what we did. We caught some flack in the press about having an FBI agent [Noah Emmerich] living next door, but that was his story. He had an FBI agent who lived next door to him who turned him, so I was saying all this to Joe and Joel. I was like, “This is perfect. Noah Emmerich will turn us — we’ll become double agents.” [It was] this whole massive pitch. And they went, “Yeah … no.”
There’s so much more in the interview, including Rhys and Russell explaining how fans approach them. Russell gets compliments on how she beat up Margo Martindale in the first season “yo, you kicked that lady’s ass” and still meets Felicity fans who talk about how she cut her hair, which she doesn’t think would get as much mileage these days. She said that while she loved her character that “it’s not kosher to talk that much sh-t about some girl’s hair anymore. Like, Hillary might be president. You gotta be cool with that sh-t. Tone it down. And I hope that someone would call someone out on that if it happened now.”
I never even thought about the fact that Elizabeth was the “tough” one in her relationship with Phillip because it’s something that seems true-to-life as compared with how outrageous their daily activities can be. Oh and Rhys joked about how their Emmy nominations would bring more pressure. He said he thought “Oh no, now people will watch. We’re dead. Everyone will hate us. This is terrible.” No, it’s about time. I would say that The Americans is like Breaking Bad in that it takes a little while to get into the rhythm because it’s so unique, but once you watch a couple of episodes you’re hooked.
Photos credit: WENN.com and Getty
