Six contenders for the best drama actress Emmy — also including Vera Farmiga, Sarah Paulson and Jessica Pare — talk to THR about the roles that got away, the difficulty of filming romantic scenes while seven months pregnant and the pressure of their jobs.
Six contenders for the best drama actress Emmy — also including Vera Farmiga, Sarah Paulson and Jessica Pare — talk to THR about the roles that got away, the difficulty of filming romantic scenes while seven months pregnant and the pressure of their jobs.
Keri, speaking of shocking, there was a pretty explicit sex scene in the season-two premiere of The Americans featuring yours and Matthew Rhys’ characters performing oral sex on each other.
KERI RUSSELL: I’d like to re-create it right now for you. (Laughs.) I actually fought against that scene. I just didn’t know if that was the best emotional place for those characters. I wondered if there was a different physical act that could be happening other than that one. But they thought that it had to be something that the daughter was walking in on that was so much more graphic than just sex and then keep her from walking in again. It’s funny, though; sex has never been something I’ve done in my career — at all. But I don’t mind it on this show. It may be the nature of them being spies helps inform the characters. It’s not sexuality for sexuality’s sake.
Claire, how difficult for you was the death of Damian Lewis’ character, Brody, at the end of Homeland’s last season?
SARAH PAULSON: Oh, I can’t even talk about that. Not that you’re asking me!
RUSSELL: You ask me, that was the hardest to deal with!
Keri, you had a lot of success at a young age. Did you feel a lot of pressure coming off a hit network show like Felicity?
RUSSELL: No. I just didn’t want to work anymore after that. I was just tired. I think for me, I was younger, and I didn’t like it enough. It felt life-arresting on many levels. I wasn’t experiencing life. I wanted to read books, travel, be a kid for a minute, so that’s what I did. I left L.A., which didn’t feel good to me anymore. I had this great apartment in New York, and I just took over a year off. I got to show up to birthday parties, go out dancing with girls and walk home in the snow. I have to fill myself up, and that’s not what my experience of network TV was. It was really hard to be that young.
What’s the most physically demanding thing you’ve had to do onscreen?
DANES: Working while pregnant.
FARMIGA: Yes.
DANES: I was pregnant for the second season of Homeland, and as my baby progressed, the show got more action-packed. At one point, we were shooting in an old sewage factory. I was kidnapped, I was chained to a pipe, it was 4 a.m., I was 7½ months pregnant, and I was like, “This sucks.” They were like, “Sorry!” At one point, the baby was on my sciatic nerve, and I was charging down the halls of pretend Langley. I also had to do love scenes pregnant.
RUSSELL: Yeah. It’s creepy when your belly’s up against them. You’re like, “This is wrong.”
DANES: At the very end, I was a month and a half shy of popping, and I was doing a romantic scene.
RUSSELL: Oh my God.
Keri, how did The Americans come to you?
RUSSELL: Through the usual channels. I was just at a place where I didn’t think I was going to be working. I had a brand-new baby, a week old, and I was like, “Guys, a Russian spy? Why do you keep bringing this to me?” But I’m so glad they kept pushing, especially [FX Networks president] John Landgraf. It’s been such a fun surprise.
Keri, had there been social media when you cut your hair on Felicity, it probably would have broken the Internet.
RUSSELL: But it wouldn’t have because today, haircutting would be nothing! It’s much more salacious now. You think a haircut’s going to beat out blow jobs? That’s so tame compared to what’s going on now.
Are you a good baker?
PAULSON: What about you, Keri? What are you going to bring into our store?
RUSSELL: I’m going to just keep having kids and my kids will come eat the cookies.
Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com
