Category The Americans

One of the best parts of watching FX’s rollicking spy drama The Americans is getting to see just what Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell wear next — on their heads, that is.

Peg Schierholz, who leads the show’s hair department, has plenty to say about the fun that goes into creating the gorgeous 1980s styles that adorn Phillip, Elizabeth, and the rest of their Russian-American spy friends. And in fact, that’s why their hair is so big: it’s full of secrets.

Read on for eight little factoids we learned from Schierholz in anticipation of Wednesday night’s episode, which might answer a few questions fans have about one character’s locks in particular.

1. The show’s first season used around 27 wigs, which Schierholz says is above average for your standard non-Game of Thrones, non-fantasy show. Rented from two wig houses in London — Campbell Young and Alex Rouse — Schierholz receives shipments of 10 or so and holds sessions with the actors for both fitting and brainstorming, “if a certain wig gives us any ideas.” By the 10th episode of season 2, production had already surpassed the first season’s wig count. Continue reading ‘The Americans’: Hair department spills 8 tidbits about the show’s outrageous ’80s wig

Current events notwithstanding, the Cold War is in full swing on “The Americans,” FX’s Reagan-era spy drama.

The television series, filmed in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood and on-location throughout New York, follows two K.G.B. agents posing as an American couple in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys play Elizabeth and Philip Jennings, who ferret out U.S. secrets while running a travel agency and raising two children.

As it inches toward the Season Two midpoint, the show has sharpened its focus on the nebulous balance between espionage and domesticity.

Before “The Americans,” Ms. Russell, 38 years old, was best known for playing the title character in the college TV drama “Felicity.” Mr. Rhys, 39, is from Wales, and has become adept at concealing his accent in both this role and his former one, as Kevin Walker on the ABC series “Brothers and Sisters,” which ended in 2011.

Taking a break at the Russian Tea Room, the two actors discussed the show’s depiction of how spies raise children and filming through New York’s never-ending winter. Edited excerpts follow. Continue reading Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys Play Spies in Our Midst

On the back of The Americans’ hair and makeup trailer door is a photo collage of the cast and crew each in the same wig. It’s not Clark or John Denver or any other of Philip’s (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth’s (Keri Russell) follicular get-ups on the FX series — but Felicity’s famous curls.

“Isn’t it hilarious? I love it,” Russell, the erstwhile Felicity, tells TVGuide.com with a laugh. “It’s so great. I’m all about the hair!”

So is The Americans. The spy drama has never met a wig it didn’t like, outfitting Russell and Rhys in such ridiculous and fantastic espionage ‘dos, ranging from dowdy to sexy, that the wigs have become the true stars of the show.

“It’s really been a wild experience,” Peg Schierholz, the show’s hair department head, says. “Lori [Hicks, the makeup head] and I had never intended for the wigs to blow up this way. It’s really amazing how much people love them. We kept getting these interesting scripts from the writers, then we’d start playing around with ideas and it just kind of evolved.” Continue reading Underneath the Wigs: Uncovering The Americans’ Hair-Raising Disguises