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Keri Russell’s “comeback year” has the feel of a reinvention, a re-branding of the dainty young lovely who burst on the scene with “Felicity” back in the past century.

But as different as her flinty mom in the new film “Dark Skies” (not previewed for critics) might seem, as dangerous and “out there” as her Born Again Bolshevik sleeper spy is in TV’s “The Americans,” she refuses to label her return to public view a career makeover.

“The great think about disappearing is that people forget about you a little bit,” Ms. Russell says. “Your past is forgotten. You can come back as something fresh and new.

“These past two years, I’ve come back to all these interesting things that people might not have thought about me for in the past. They just happened.”

She stepped away from film and TV half a dozen years ago, getting married and giving birth to two children, who are now 1 and 5. At 36, she’s a different person — a mom, for starters. And it’s made her a different actress. Continue reading Motherhood changes Keri Russell’s outlook

The name of Keri Russell’s new film may be “Dark Skies,” but in reality, the light is shining brighter than ever on the acclaimed actress’ already successful career.

In a recent interview, Russell told me that she’s read several scripts in the horror and supernatural thriller genre, but there was really nothing that piqued her interest until the script for writer-director Scott Stewart’s “Dark Skies” rolled overhead.

“It’s one of those scripts that I read and instantly thought, ‘That’s going to work.’ It has all the rights for me. It’s scary, but fun scary, but at the core, it was like a family drama,” Russell said. “For me, those are the kinds of movies I like, where you believe in the family, first, to set things up, and then things start happening — like in a ‘Poltergeist’ vein. That’s more of what we were targeting.”

Opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, Russell and Josh Hamilton star as Lacy and Daniel Barrett, a pair of suburban parents whose peaceful existence is turned into a living nightmare as a mysterious alien presence invades their home and preys upon them. Continue reading Keri Russell thrilled to navigate ‘Dark Skies’