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Keri Russell still has that great hair, but as the deadly Soviet spy Elizabeth Jennings on “The Americans” she is a long way from the shy college coed she played on “Felicity” a decade and a half ago. Unlike either of the tightly wound characters, though, Russell is loose and personable.

The now 37-year-old actress does have something in common with Elizabeth, as she is the mother of two. Russell’s children are 6 and 2, younger than her TV children, 14-year-old Paige (Holly Taylor) and 11-year-old Henry (Keidrich Sellati).

“What’s fun about the show is that Elizabeth goes on all these spy missions, and then she’s in the car flipping out like a normal mom about something that her 14-year-old girl is doing,” Russell said.

That strange dynamic has made FX’s “The Americans” both a hit with fans and a critical success, with two Emmy nominations as well as being named the best new program by the Television Critics Association. Continue reading Keri Russell reflects on the second year of spying in ‘The Americans’

Sex has fueled spycraft since Delilah seduced Samson into spilling the source of his superstrength. But throw love into the mix and, well, things get murky. In Season 2 of FX’s smart and sexy Reagan-era thriller The Americans, married undercover KGB agents Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth (Keri Russell) Jennings find out just how dangerous such liaisons can be.

“There’s a deep change in their marriage,” explains show creator Joe Weisberg of the couple, who have posed as Virginia suburbanites since they landed stateside in their early twenties. “Elizabeth finally loves Philip as much as he does her. They started out with a fake marriage, and it’s starting to turn real. They’re like newlyweds who have two kids and more than 15 years together.”

Just don’t expect the pair to waltz off on a honeymoon anytime soon. When the show picks up after the events of last May’s finale, Elizabeth is recovering from the gunshot wound she received while on a retrieval mission. (Thin silver lining: The shooter, FBI agent Stan Beeman [Noah Emmerich] — who is also the Jennings’ neighbor — remains blissfully unaware of his target’s true identity.) And Philip’s current assignment yields its own major obstacle. He’s now “married” to another woman — FBI secretary Martha Hanson (Alison Wright) — who believes her new hubby is a federal Internal Affairs snoop named Clark. Not that Elizabeth has any room to grow resentful. This, after all, is a woman who spent much of the first season luring men into bed so she could blackmail them into turning over secrets. But “real feelings have crept in between Elizabeth and Philip,” Rhys admits, “so for the first time, they do have to negotiate jealousy.”

“This really happened historically,” explains Weisberg, who, as a former CIA officer, would know. “The KGB had their illegals [deep-cover agents] marry secretaries and proceed to gather intel. That’s about as sick and twisted a thing as I’ve heard in the world of intelligence, and Philip beginning another fake marriage with Martha fits beautifully into our story.”

Indeed, while the first season emphasized the cracks in the Jennings’ relationship, “this year,” says Rhys, “they’re a united front against external forces.” In addition to unsuspecting Hanson, that includes Beeman, whose own professional responsibilities may be derailed by an illicit relationship. The married fed is falling deeper into a passionate affair with Nina (Annet Mahendru), a gorgeous KGB operative he believes he’s turned. (She reports his every reveal to her Soviet overseer.)

But the most serious threat for the Jennings remains the Cold War itself, and as the conflict intensifies all over the globe, the couple’s missions become all the more treacherous. In the premiere, Philip poses as a Texas oilman eager to sell weapons to an Afghan rebel group bent on killing Soviet invaders. While that encounter doesn’t go particularly smoothly, a truly horrific event that follows shakes the family to the core. “What happens is a brutal reminder that they’re not immortal,” Rhys says. “And for the first time they realize their kids aren’t either. Philip hopes that Elizabeth will slowly change her mind about their job, because the more she invests in family, the more she’ll pull away from that other responsibility. And that’s Philip’s long game.”

The Americans returns Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 10/9c on FX.

Source: http://www.tvguide.com

It’s a cold, wintry December day in New York, and Keri Russell has a short break between filming scenes for The Americans. Though she’s now sitting in a heated van, there’s still a slight shiver in her voice as she explains what’s in store for Season 2 of the Cold War drama, which set network ratings records for FX during its Emmy-nominated debut last year. The Americans Season 2 begins Feb. 26.

“I think the main difference is last year when we started, Elizabeth wasn’t really even engaged in the marriage,” she says of her character. “It was questionable how much she was involved and wanted to be there, and I think this year she really wants to be in it. She’s trying to engage in that relationship in a really strong way that she hasn’t before. We start this year and continue as a team, less each one trying to jump ship and more how do we deal with all these obstacles as a married couple.”

Russell forever shattered images of Felicity (except for that hair, which we will always adore) with her hardened portrayal of Elizabeth, a Soviet spy sent to live deep undercover in the Washington, D.C., suburbs with Philip (Matthew Rhys), a fellow KGB operative. They go so far as to have a marriage and two children, who know nothing of their parents’ true identities. In addition to tempting fate each time they carry out missions from their bosses, Elizabeth and Philip have to deal with a new neighbor, Stan (Noah Emmerich), an FBI agent who is getting uncomfortably close to the truth. Continue reading Keri Russell talks about The Americans Season 2

In the second season of The Americans, the stakes are higher, the wigs shaggier, and the sex more dangerous: The FX drama’s 2013 pilot first introduced Keri Russell’s character, Elizabeth Jennings—a KGB spy living undercover in the U.S. during the Cold War—with a scene in which she poses as a prostitute and performs oral sex on an FBI agent from whom she steals intel. But early in the season-two premiere, an even more daring (especially for basic cable) sexual act between Jennings and her husband, Philip (Matthew Rhys), is cut short when their teenage daughter interrupts. “Paige is certainly affected by it,” says Russell, laughing. “She’ll never, ever, open a closed door again.”

At least Paige’s permanent scarring helped lay some thematic groundwork: “This season is all about their family,” says Russell. “Last year was about [Elizabeth and Philip’s] marriage. But they are a unified front now, and they’ll be dealing with the things everyday parents do.” Plus the usual espionage stuff: “Getting shot at the end of last season has shaken Elizabeth on a massive level. She’s not exactly cutting it as a spy. But does it shake her feeling about the cause? I think she’s still pretty into it. Elizabeth is hard-core.”

Between seasons, Russell reunited with director Matt Reeves—who helped launch her career when he co-created TV’s Felicity in 1998—to play a doctor in this summer’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. “I’m not really summer-blockbuster-movie material. My boobs aren’t big enough for that,” she says. “When Matt called, I was like, ‘You mean I’d be doing these emotional scenes with grown men in unitards pretending to be apes?’ But Andy Serkis [who plays lead ape Caesar] and I had so many gut-wrenching crying scenes. The unitards weren’t a problem.”

Source: http://www.vulture.com

The Americans returns Feb. 26, and during a panel Tuesday at the Television Critics Association press tour, the cast and producers teased what the season has in store for TV’s Russian spy couple next door.

This season will turn the focus back on the family.
“We felt like [season 1] had been so focused on the marriage,” says EP Joe Weisberg, “and the natural place to go next was the family.” Particularly with Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth’s (Keri Russell) marriage on more solid ground, they wanted to move on to exploring “the next point of fracture” — the family unit.

Paige’s curiosity continues
At the end of the first season, the Jennings’ teenage daughter started to show signs of increasing curiosity about her parents and their ongoings, and this season, questions will start being asked and “it’s not going to go great,” says EP Joel Fields. “Teenagers are hard,” adds Weisberg. “They’re all tough on mom and dad.”

Margo Martindale returns
The actress will be back for several episodes this season as KGB handler Claudia. The fate of her CBS comedy The Millers will not determine what comes next for that character, as The Americans will be done filming the second season in March — well before broadcast network renewals are typically announced. That said, if Martindale finds herself available full time and the show gets a third season, “It’s hard to argue with more Margo Martindale,” says Fields. “We love that character and we love her.”

Martha will get a backbone this season!
Martha’s faux-marriage with Philip will actually serve to strengthen the character, who is widely thought of as insecure, the producers said. “Who she was was extremely lonely and extremely vulnerable and she’s less lonely this season, so it’s allowing her to grow,” says Weisberg. “It’s a law of unintended consequences,” adds Fields.

There’s a racy scene in the premiere
Without giving away too much, a racy scene in the season premiere had critics buzzing. According to Weisberg, the purpose was to depict a show of love between Philip and Elizabeth that was “powerful, shocking, and funny.” You’ll see.

Stan is in a power struggle.
“He’s got such an interesting season coming up,” says Weisberg. “Nina is getting ahead of him. You see that at the end of the first season, and that’s such an interesting place for him to be in and so true and so real for what happens to people when you’re playing this back-and-forth game. People who are smart and good can have people get ahead of them because they are also smart and good at what they do too.” And while Stan is a man who is used to a certain amount of pressure, what it does to him will be “great” to watch, he says.

BONUS BURNING QUESTION: Is the show ever heading to Russia?
The producers said they have “half-joked” about having a season that takes place in Russia, later admitting that such a task would require heaps of funding. But, they said, “I think we’re going to eventually have some storylines there,” teases Weisberg. In fact, he added, there will, like season 1, be some material set in Russia. But filming in the country remains on their to-do. “It would basically be a budget question,” he said.

Source: http://insidetv.ew.com/

When “The Americans” returns for season 2 next month on FX, Russian spies Philip and Elizabeth Jennings will commit to giving their fake marriage and real go, but that doesn’t mean their problems are over.

“We saw the first season very much as about the marriage,” creator and executive producer Joe Weisberg says at TCA’s Winter press tour. “At the end of the season, Elizabeth tells Philip to come home and after that there’s a sense they’re going to be solid and more together. [In season two] we’re going to see how this family struggles and tries to hold it together.”

One big factor that fuels the fire: teen daughter Paige (Holly Taylor), who started to get suspicious about her parents’ strange behavior at the end of season 1 and continues to snoop around as the new season opens. Continue reading Press Tour: More sexy spy action in ‘The Americans’ season 2

THE AMERICANS

PREVIOUSLY ON… | 
Philip moved back home, Paige started connecting the dots about her parents extracurricular activities, Nina played Stan (officially joining the double agent ranks), Claudia was on the verge of being reassigned, and Elizabeth was (seriously but not fatally) shot.

COMING UP NEXT | Whereas the first season focused on Philip and Elizabeth’s marriage, Season 2 will concentrate on “the family as a whole,” previews exec producer Joel Fields, with Paige’s continuing suspicions driving much of that narrative. Elsewhere, despite her commitment to CBS’ The Millers, Margo Martindale will be back as “Handler” Claudia for several episodes (fellow EP Joe Weisberg calls her return “emotional” and “surprising”); Philip’s “crazy and dangerous” faux marriage to Martha will continue to be explored; and Russian actor Costa Ronin joins the cast as a young KGB officer with “a talent for technology,” teases Fields.

RETURN DATE | Wednesday, Feb. 26 at 10/9c (FX)

Source: http://tvline.com/