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Let’s face it: calling a celebrity “real” is a huge cliché—but we just couldn’t help ourselves with Keri Russell. She arrives—early—at a bakery near her Brooklyn, New York, home, her hair in a loose bun, toting packages bound for the post office. When I offer to pay for her scone, she scoffs.

The 33-year-old star of TV’s Felicity grew up in Texas, Arizona, and Colorado, and moved to this quiet corner of Brooklyn in 2007 with her husband, Shane Deary, a carpenter, and their son, River, now 2.

She’s passionate about children’s-health issues and recently teamed with Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser in Extraordinary Measures, based on the true story of a couple whose two youngest children are diagnosed with a rare, fatal disease; as the clock runs out, they and Ford’s character start a biotech company to find a cure. Over breakfast, the self-deprecating star talks about the importance of downtime, her favorite new way to exercise, and fighting for better health care for kids. Then, she’s off to the post office. Continue reading The Realness of Felicity Star Keri Russell

Motherhood has made a definitive impact on Keri Russell as an actress. “Reading a script like this, you definitely are more vulnerable to those kinds of feelings, or maybe they’re easier to access, (where) before you had kids you’re sort of on the outside experiencing it,” the mom to 2 1/2-year-old son River (with husband Shane Deary) tells iVillage about her role in Extraordinary Measures, which hits theaters on Jan. 22. In the emotional drama, Russell stars as Aileen Crowley, who, along with her husband (played by Brendan Fraser) works with a researcher (Harrison Ford) to cure their children’s rare genetic disease.

Juggling her career and mommy duties has its challenges, but Russell has struck a rhythm. “Luckily, right now the schedule I get to keep with film really allows me to do both,” says the 33-year-old actress. “I get to work really hard for three months but then I get to be home for four months where I get to put him to bed every night. I like getting to be in the adult world a little bit and then getting to be in the mom world and cook dinners. And for me that balance is what makes it nice.”

And would Russell ever consider doing a doing a Felicity reunion, the ’90s show that first made her famous? “Two of my really close friends were on that show and we just saw each other recently and sure, I’d get to hang out with my friends,” she says.

The Measure of Our Success
By Marian Wright Edelman

The background: Edelman is an incredibly accomplished person: She was the first black woman admitted to the Mississippi bar; she worked with Martin Luther King Jr.; and now she leads the Children’s Defense Fund. This is a love letter to her three sons in the form of 25 lessons.

Why she chose it: In the introduction, Edelman discusses her worries that her children were brought up in a too-privileged era. “Giving up and ‘burnout’ were not part of the language of my elders…you did what you had to do and you got up every time you fell down and tried as many times as you had to to get it done right,” she writes. That really hit me—I have such a huge fear of failing. I read the book ten years ago, as a young adult, and I found the lessons inspiring. Now, as a parent, I see them in a whole new way. Continue reading Books That Made a Difference to Keri Russell

In “Extraordinary Measures,” Keri Russell stars with Brendan Fraser and Harrison Ford as a remarkable mom. Based on a true story, the film chronicles the lives of John and Aileen Crowley, a New Jersey couple who fought to find a treatment for an enzyme deficiency that threatened to kill two of their children. Doubling as executive producer, Ford plays a scientist helping to develop a life-saving drug.

The 33-year-old actress, who launched her career on the popular 1990s TV series “Felicity,” explores new dramatic terrain portraying a mother of three. To prepare for the role, Russell, who became a mother two years ago, visited the Crowleys at their Princeton home and spent a day with Aileen. The couple’s daughter, Megan, and son, Patrick, were born with Pompe disease, a rare condition characterized by the accumulation of a complex sugar known as glycogen in the body’s cells. Continue reading ‘Extraordinary Measures’: Keri Russell grows into the role of mom