Keri Russell has her co-star for the FX drama pilot The Americans. Matthew Rhys of Brothers and Sisters has signed up to play Russell’s on-screen wife in the Cold War era project that follows the arranged marriage of two KGB spies living in the US and running a network of spies and informants.
Deadline reports that Rhys has been brought onto the project in the role of Phillip Jennings, whose marriage to Elizabeth Jennings, played by Russell, is a front for a Russian spy operation. The couple struggles with the discovery that their feelings for each other are growing into a real relationship while they attempt to run a secure undercover spy operation. Keri Russell of Felicity picked up the female lead just over a week ago in another attempt to regain her status as a TV star.
Rhys, who played Kevin Walker on the five seasons of Brothers and Sisters has a few movie credits and other minor TV credits to his name including Love and Other Disasters. This would be a return to what seems to work best for him: TV drama. As for the project itself, it’s described as a period drama, and I have already lamented the fact that the 1980s can now qualify as “period”, so I will try to let that go. The pilot takes place in Washington D.C. as the Cold War escalates. It will be interesting to see how the project manages to turn KGB spies, once feared and hated, into sympathetic characters. Certainly if this one is successful it will be a testament to how far we’ve come since the Cold War.
Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/
