Category Articles & Interviews

“My favorite aspect of the show has so little to do with them being spies,” actress says of FX espionage drama

For Keri Russell, sometimes filming a compelling scene can be like pulling teeth. Literally.

With Emmy nominations voting underway, TheWrap spoke to Russell, star of FX’s period spy drama “The Americans,” about Season 3’s highlights.

Among them: An excruciating scene during which her TV husband Philip (played by Matthew Rhys) yanks a chomper out of her mouth with a primitiveness that would make the dentist from “The Marathon Man” wince.

TheWrap: What was the toughest thing you had to do this season?
Keri Russell: The tooth-pulling scene [from the episode “Open House”]. It was such an abstract scene … But luckily Tommy Schlamme directed the episode and had a really clear idea of how he wanted to do it. And I just love working with him. So I just kind of came in with no expectations and just went for it, with whatever he said. His whole take on it was he wanted it to be like a really intimate, almost sex scene. So we just kind of did that. And luckily Matthew [Rhys] is so good. Continue reading Keri Russell on ‘The Americans’ Graphic Tooth-Pulling Scene and 5 Other Emmy Contender Quickies

All this week, we’re presenting the Vulture TV Awards, honoring the best in television from the past year.

The nominees are:

The Americans
Mad Men
Better Call Saul
Transparent
Justified

And the Best Drama is …

The Americans

How many years in a row will The Americans top lists of the “Best Dramas You’re Not Watching?” As long as it’s on FX, probably — and no matter how long it runs, the writers, actors, and filmmakers involved in its production should take it as a compliment. The Americans’ commitment to its dramatic mission is so uncompromising that the show’s heroine, Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell), a warrior for Mother Russia, would approve of it.

Created by Joe Weisberg and co-executive-produced by him and Joel Fields, the series is subtle and quiet and often works in a minor key; it never had the extravagant visuals and grandiose cultural aspirations of, say, Mad Men, this summer’s Vulture TV Award–winner for Best Show, a series which, at its best, combined the exhaustive invention of a John Dos Passos novel and the ebullient showmanship of a fireworks display. And yet, week in and week out, no U.S. drama is more exactingly calibrated than this blue-gray chamber piece about Soviet infiltrators posing as suburban American travel agents. Every scene, line, cut, and performance moment reinforces the characters’ emotional journeys within the episode and the season. And the journey is ultimately tragic, because Elizabeth, her husband Philip (Matthew Rhys), FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich), and most of the other major characters are working in jobs and living out lives that are shaped largely by various forms of ideology and propaganda, and serving masters who are obsessed with replicating those worldviews without question. They seem to have little or no self-awareness, save for what little they glean in the show’s self-help groups. Every now and then you get a spectacular one-off action sequence, like the one at the end of “Walter Taffet,” or a GIF-packed squirm-inducer like the scene where Philip yanks out Elizabeth’s shattered tooth. But these scenes are exceptions. The Americans is more often concerned with the lies that characters tell each other and themselves, and the agony that results when the deception is finally revealed, as it was in the devastating “Stingers,” possibly the most perfect hour of TV I watched in the last 12 months.

Whenever I write about The Americans, I always end up comparing it to architecture and carpentry rather than fine art, because when I think about the totality of the series, I picture blueprints being drawn up, and pieces of material being cut and sanded and bolted or fitted together. This, too, sounds diminishing — the phrase fine art is somewhat diminishing in itself, when you think about all the other kinds of creative expression that implicitly aren’t as “fine” as painting or sculpture — but perhaps less so if you imagine the most elegant and imaginative end product: not an Ikea chair but a Chippendale; not a prefab McMansion but Fallingwater.

Source: http://www.vulture.com/

Emmy season is here! Voters have until June 26 to fill out their nomination ballots before the big announcement on July 16. We have a few selections in mind ourselves. Our last wish list: Outstanding Drama Series.

The Americans
If you like great storytelling, there is no show more carefully plotted than The Americans. Patient but fast-paced, the intricate series uses adrenalized, disturbing (see: tooth extraction, suitcase corpse) spy games and the bleak Cold War era to explore issues of marriage, family, faith and morality. That reached a fever pitch in Season 3 when Philip un-Clark-ed for Martha and Paige finally learned the truth, only to betray her parents’ trust that was built on lies. The Americans has a big hill to climb at the Emmys: It’s only ever been nominated for three awards.

Source: http://www.tvguide.com

THR asked: When were you the most panicked as an actress this season and how did you overcome those fears?

Keri Russell
The Americans (FX)

“The first thing I think of is that scene when we have to tell our daughter, Paige [Holly Taylor], this incredible truth that’s going to change her life forever: We’re spies. It felt like such a big moment in the story. My favorite thing about our show is when the spy stuff falls back and it becomes a family or marriage drama. I had to watch this teenager who’s in so much pain and realize that, as parents, we’re a cause of that because of all these lies. It was complicated on many levels. Holly’s a sensitive, graceful creature, so watching her cry, instantly I’m crying and trying to stuff it in. You just want to make sure she’s OK. And also, I was a kid actor, which I think is Creep City anyway. It’s a complicated way to grow up, and it’s not something I think I’d ever let my kids do. So there was that part of me watching her on this tightrope, and my heart was going out to her. As painful as it was, it became easy to shoot because you’re just reacting in a human way. The character of Elizabeth can be perceived as a not-great mom, but I feel like in that moment, she was trying to be there for her daughter.”

Source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com

Morality is only moral when it is voluntary.

The Soviet sympathizer Lincoln Steffens wrote that a few centuries ago. Now, Elizabeth and Philip Jennings are learning that lesson the hard way, and it’s made for a captivating season of The Americans. You could argue that every episode was building toward that thrilling moment this season when the Jennings finally told Paige that they’re spies, attempting to rope their daughter into the family business as a “second generation illegal” whose U.S. citizenship could help them infiltrate American intelligence agencies. Though, judging by the season finale, they will soon discover that forcing your own moral agenda on your kids doesn’t work.

The fact that Paige divulged her parents’ secret to Pastor Tim doesn’t necessarily mean the Jennings are doomed. I still think he might be a KGB operative in disguise. This is what makes The Americans so gripping: It allows you to experience the crazy paranoia that Elizabeth and Philip feel, always second-guessing the motives of every new person you meet. For me, it doesn’t make sense that Claudia and Gabriel would allow Philip and Elizabeth to take the massive risk of revealing who they really are to Paige if the higher-ups hadn’t already safeguarded that secret from leaking. And Pastor Tim’s cover is perfect. Who would suspect a Jesus-loving pastor of being a godless Communist? What better way to recruit teenagers for “the cause” than by staging anti-American protests in the name of peace?

Whether or not he’s in on the plan, the idea of Paige turning against her parents is the perfect twist for the show. The Americans has always wrestled with the ways that parents enforce their values on their kids. Now it’s zeroing in on the ways that kids shape their parents’ values, too. Continue reading The Americans season 3 finale: EW review

Warning: The following interview contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “The Americans” titled “March 8, 1983.”

How much longer can Philip and Elizabeth Jennings hide the truth? The carefully crafted lies of the undercover Soviet spies played by Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell are slowly leaking out. In the final four episodes of the season, their daughter Paige (Holly Taylor), Philip’s “second wife” Martha (Alison Wright), and now, it appears, Paige’s confidante Pastor Tim (Kelly AuCoin) all learned the couple’s true identities. During the FX drama’s eventful finale, Philip almost even came clean to Sandra Beeman (Susan Misner), the soon-to-be ex-wife of his FBI agent neighbor, Stan (Noah Emmerich).

Meanwhile, Stan saw his own covert plan to reunite with exiled lover Nina (Annet Mahendru) go up in flames when he finally revealed the details to horrified boss Agent Gaad (Richard Thomas). But even as Stan lost a friend in Gaad, he gained a powerful supporter in the form of Deputy Attorney General Warren (Cotter Smith), who was impressed by the way Stan played romantic rival Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin). Continue reading ‘The Americans’ Season 3 Finale Postmortem: Joel Fields On the Martha Mystery, Reagan Speech

[WARNING: The following story contains spoilers from Wednesday’s Season 3 finale of The Americans. Read at your own risk.]

Paige couldn’t handle the truth.

On The Americans’ Season 3 finale Wednesday, Paige (Holly Taylor) made the trip abroad with Elizabeth (Keri Russell) to see Elizabeth’s ailing mother. While the visit went off without a hitch, the troubled teen still couldn’t deal with the weight of her parents’ KGB identities and endless lies, placing a desperate call to Pastor Tim in her room upon their return. “They’re liars and they’re trying to turn me into one. … They’re not who they say they are. They’re not Americans,” she whispers. “You can’t tell anyone. They’re… they’re Russians.”

The scene was wonderfully intercut with footage of President Reagan’s infamous speech on March 8, 1983 (the episode title), in which he dubbed the Soviet Union an “evil empire” — which Elizabeth made Philip (Matthew Rhys) watch just as he was about to divulge his own inner turmoil about the mounting burden of their job. Earlier in the episode, while Elizabeth and Paige were away, Philip had taken care of the “Martha thing” by killing Gene (Luke Robertson) and framing him for Gaad’s bugged pen. He also began attending EST sessions solo, where he bumped into Stan’s ex-wife Sandra (Susan Misner), who suggested that they tell each other everything. Continue reading The Americans Boss Breaks Down Paige’s “Big Move,” Martha’s Fate and What’s Next

After a certifiably nail-biting string of episodes on FX’s The Americans, season 3 has finally come to an end—and lo, the finale managed to raise more questions than it answered.

Has Paige (Holly Taylor) truly picked a side in her battle between faith and family? Is Philip (Matthew Rhys) struggling under the weight of his mission at the same time that Elizabeth (Keri Russell) is reaffirming devotion to hers? Stan (Noah Emmerich) is finally on the rise, but will he ever get the chips to trade Nina (Annet Mahendru) back? And what does Martha (Alison Wright) think about it all!?! (No, seriously, what does Martha think? We have no idea.) Continue reading The Americans season finale: The showrunners break down Paige’s decision and what it means for season 4

“I’m sure the next time mom and dad have … ‘business’ out of the country, and they have an extra ticket, it’ll go to … you.”

Bravo to actress Holly Taylor for nailing that line from a number of directions as the season finale for The Americans begins. Paige says that to her little brother as she walks through the airport with her family, on her way to West Germany with her mother (Keri Russell) to pay a farewell visit to the dying Russian grandmother she never knew existed.

“I’m sorry I never got to meet her,” Matthew Rhys’ Philip whispers in his wife’s ear.

“You wouldn’t have liked her,” Elizabeth replies.

I have to admit, this episode—titled “March 8, 1983” for reasons that will become clear later—frustrated me as a season finale. It felt more like an incredibly good penultimate episode, and ending on such a stark cliffhanger with many other plot threads dangling, feels like a mistake. The creators of The Americans have manufactured some savage tension, but that will only dissipate as we await season 4, rather than leaving us with a completed story line, as they did last year.

As Paige and Elizabeth head toward the Berlin Wall, Yousaf (Rahul Khanna) informs Philip that their plot to trick one visiting Mujahideen visitor to slaughter his fellow emissaries successfully scared the House Armed Services Committee away from giving them Stinger missiles.

The Pakistani ISI operative Yousaf is only cooperating because Philip helped him cover up his cold-blooded murder of Annelise earlier in the season. (Who can forget the crack-and-pack luggage scene as they smuggled her corpse out of the hotel?) Of course, Philip also is responsible for putting the two of them together, and Yousaf hasn’t forgotten that—even if he is crying crocodile tears now over the poor lover he murdered.

“Annelise finally paid off for you,” he says. “The weapons stay out of your enemy hands. Was it worth it?”

Way to get judge-y, Mr. Strangler.

“I don’t think like that,” Philip says. But he totally thinks like that. “I know a lot of young men who won’t be blown out of the sky because of what I did. Because of what Annelise did. Because of what we did. A lot of young men who …”

Philip stops. He’s done lying. “Yousaf, I feel like shit all the time,” he confesses.

Over at the Rezidentura, the staff is warned against carrying out threats or assassinations without appropriate departments from The Center signing off. This is a dog-whistle to the ear of Oleg Burov (Costa Ronin) who previously threatened the defector Zinaida Preobrazhenskaya for speaking out against the Soviet Union and its incursion into Afghanistan as part of a ploy to determine if she was actually a double agent.

Now he knows—she is. And he and FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) plan to use this information to get her arrested and trade her for their shared love, Nina, (Annet Mahendru) whom they both betrayed and got sent to a Siberian work camp. Continue reading ‘March 8, 1983’ TV Recaps