“The win is getting to go to the award show, but not winning, so you never have to speak. That’s the secret,” Keri Russell confesses to me as a late summer darkness descends on our evening video call. Russell, fresh off her FLAUNT shoot, is not being facetious. She’s a pragmatic person, an actor that’s been a part of our collective viewing consciousness since she turned 15, so her insider secrets are worth some weight.
Russell is, of course, in on the joke: in order to “never have to speak at the award show,” one must be part of a class of elite artists, and must have delivered a performance so outstanding that it was isolated from a sea of media content released in the entire year. Keri Russell knows that the real win is in the work.
Russell, who made her mark as Felicity in the eponymous early 2000s rom-com series created by J.J. Abrams, has become known for the signature brand of warmth and onscreen charm she brings to her breadth of work. And, truly, Russell’s face is ubiquitous: she’s in action and fantasy franchises (Mission: Impossible III [2006], Dawn of the Planet of the Apes [2014], Star Wars Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker [2019]. She’s in long-running television shows (The aforementioned Felicity; FX’s The Americans, and Running Wilde). She was in the riotous Cocaine Bear [2023]. She voiced a fantasy video game (Open Roads). She’s had guest spots on some of the most prominent series of the last three decades (Scrubs, Arrested Development, Sesame Street, Boy Meets World, et. al). All of these have earned the California-born actor a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and helped secure a permanent place in her viewers’ hearts (as well as a multitude of Emmy and Critics Choice nominations, with a Golden Globe win.) Continue reading Keri for Flaunt magazine