{"id":1144663,"date":"2026-08-12T16:36:33","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:36:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1144663\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T16:36:33","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T16:36:33","slug":"matthew-rhys-and-keri-russell-couple-interview-widows-bay-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1144663\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell Couple Interview, Widow’s Bay and More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThis year marks the first time Keri Russell<\/a> and Matthew Rhys<\/a> will attend the Emmys together as nominees for different projects: Between Russell\u2019s morally conflicted ambassador on \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d and Rhys\u2019 small-island mayor on \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay\u201d and his psychopathic real estate scion on \u201cThe Beast in Me\u201d \u2014 plus executive producer nominations for both \u2014 the pair have racked up five nominations.<\/p>\n

\n\tCouples have been Emmy-nominated in the same year before: Tracy Letts and Carrie Coon, Sarah Paulson and Holland Taylor, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. But fans may feel a special tie to Russell and Rhys because of how witty and charming they were the last time they attended the Emmys together as nominees, back when they starred on \u201cThe Americans.\u201d After that show\u2019s final season in 2018, when Rhys won best actor in a drama, he quipped in his speech that if he proposed onstage, Russell had promised to punch him \u201cclean in the mouth.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tWhy had she said that? \u201cWell, do you remember that guy?\u201d Rhys asks as the two reminisce about the night, and he retells the story: Prior to Rhys\u2019 win, Glenn Weiss, accepting an award for directing that year\u2019s Oscars telecast, proposed to his then girlfriend, dropping to one knee after bringing her onstage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI took some heat for that,\u201d Rhys recalls.<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell is incredulous. \u201cYou did?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTwisting his lilting Welsh accent into a pinched American one, Rhys says, \u201cWhy shit on that guy\u2019s moment? I was like, \u2018Because we were all given 45 seconds, and that guy got eight minutes.\u2019 You know what I\u2019m saying?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDo it on your own time, man! For me to have to do anything public is horrifying,\u201d Russell says. Had Rhys proposed, \u201cI would die. I would say no. Good night!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys imagines her response: \u201cGet off the stage! Take your little award the fuck offstage!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn fact, the pair still haven\u2019t gotten engaged eight years later, on national TV or otherwise: Russell tends to call Matthew \u201cmy guy.\u201d Whatever work to define the relationship the pair have done, after 13 years, has happened off-screen \u2014 and that\u2019s the way Russell and Rhys, at 50 and 51, want it. But they\u2019ve decided to give a rare joint interview at the upstate New York hotel they use as an escape from their Brooklyn home, to decompress with the friends they call their \u201cMountain Family.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI tried to visit them a couple days earlier, but floods had wiped out the roads between Brooklyn and their retreat. Instead, I\u2019m now crashing the final day of their vacation, a break between wrapping Season 4 of \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d in late June and a return to normal life. They\u2019re clearly wistful about their pending reentry into reality. A hotel employee they seem to know well asks Russell if she wants lunch; she declines, saying she\u2019s saving room for \u201cour last Mountain Family dinner,\u201d and performs a keening cry that comes close to a wolf\u2019s howl.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tThis trip has followed a particularly charmed period for them professionally: Rhys\u2019 \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay,\u201d a horror-comedy from Apple TV about an isolated community whose mayor refuses to acknowledge the town\u2019s malign forces, has become a surprise zeitgeist hit and Emmys overperformer, earning the most nominations of any new series this year. \u201cThe Beast in Me,\u201d a Netflix limited series in which Rhys gleamed with malevolence as a suspected murderer, debuted atop the streamer\u2019s viewership charts. And Russell \u2014 facing off against Zendaya of \u201cEuphoria\u201d and Rhea Seehorn of \u201cPluribus,\u201d among others \u2014 may be the night\u2019s most overdue nominee, given that she\u2019s been anchoring TV hits since the college soap \u201cFelicity,\u201d which premiered when she was 22, yet has never won. This year, she received the Actor Award for \u201cThe Diplomat,\u201d which, along with the Netflix political drama earning its highest Emmy nomination tally for its third season, makes her the night\u2019s dark horse.<\/p>\n

\n\tMost actors will say they don\u2019t care about awards attention. But Emmys night seems especially far away in our rustic setting, as Russell picks at a small charcuterie plate and Rhys tells dishy stories about his early career. They\u2019re recognizably in vacation mode: Ten minutes after the early-afternoon interview is slated to begin, Russell finds Rhys and me in our out-of-the-way attic lodge, beer in hand. (\u201cI love the fish. It has a little iridescence on it,\u201d she says, showing me the logo on the can. \u201cIsn\u2019t that cool?\u201d) He\u2019s in a beat-up white tee, hair long and unkempt; she\u2019s in a denim jumpsuit and scuffed white Keds. It\u2019s a whole vibe. Russell and Rhys are relentlessly self-deprecating, and when they aren\u2019t actually completing each other\u2019s sentences, they\u2019re certainly yes-and-ing them in short order.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhether it\u2019s how scarcely they\u2019re on the record as a couple or due to the tractor beam of their respective styles of charisma \u2014 she\u2019s amiably blunt, while his soft-spokenness invites one to lean in \u2014 much of what they say feels like a secret told in confidence. Sometimes, that\u2019s literally true. As Rhys talks about wanting each new role to feel like a departure from the one that came before, Russell\u2019s eyes gleam. She wants to gossip.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTell the job that you just got offered,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys demurs.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s OK \u2014 who cares? The one that you literally just got offered today. It\u2019s so funny!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe high-profile writer could very well read Variety and say, \u2018Oh, he\u2019s mocking me in the fucking news.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019re not mocking him, it\u2019s just hilarious!\u201d Russell insists that she has to tell me, and does so off the record.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tThe point Russell is making is that it\u2019s easy to get pigeonholed, to be asked to do the same thing again and again. Coming off the six-season run of FX\u2019s \u201cThe Americans,\u201d on which they played Soviet spies embedded in the U.S. during the Cold War, this phenomenon felt especially fraught. Rhys, asked about what I\u2019d thought was his first post-\u201cAmericans\u201d TV job, HBO\u2019s \u201cPerry Mason,\u201d reminds me that he actually did the BBC limited series \u201cDeath and Nightingales\u201d in Ireland right after he wrapped \u201cThe Americans.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re not as picky about things,\u201d Russell says. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018Great, I\u2019ll do it.\u2019 It was scary for me.\u201d Five years passed after \u201cThe Americans\u201d before Russell appeared as a TV lead again.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tFor her, the arrival of the script for \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d answered the question of what might be her next great role. But it also presented a problem. The show, whose central character is the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., was to shoot in London. Russell, who\u2019d built a life in New York and worked there on \u201cThe Americans,\u201d was faced with the idea of leaving what she loved.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI do like my life \u2014 my quiet little life,\u201d Russell says. \u201cI like pitter-pattering around the house and doing my little laundry, and putting everything in its order. Lately, the type of jobs we take, we tend to be one of the main characters. So that\u2019s full-on. You have to be willing to do that and only that. So it\u2019s a negotiation with yourself. It was a big leap for the family to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDebora Cahn, the creator of \u201cThe Diplomat,\u201d tells the story of Russell\u2019s ambivalence. \u201cShe was not in the market for something like this,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was very clear in my mind that if she wasn\u2019t having a great experience, it wasn\u2019t going to happen again. If it didn\u2019t work out for her life and for her family, there wasn\u2019t going to be a Season 2.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tThe role came to fit Russell, in part because Cahn, the more she got to know her star, wove the actress\u2019s own tendencies into the character. \u201cWe all see this incredible, breathtaking beauty and poise,\u201d Cahn says. \u201cAnd she seems to think that she\u2019s constantly falling apart at the seams, held together with spit and duct tape. Anybody who meets her says, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s not really how the rest of the world is perceiving you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe character of Kate Wyler, too, is publicly immaculate while privately plagued by insecurities. Her marriage, to Rufus Sewell\u2019s high-powered statesman, who in Season 3 becomes vice president, is riddled with resentments and hurt feelings. Both have at times felt they\u2019ve put their career on hold for the other. Now, they are attempting to be the highest-powered versions of themselves, even as that means living an ocean apart and subverting one another for the attention of the president, played by Allison Janney.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe couldn\u2019t be farther from the Mountain Family version of Russell. And yet certain themes resonate. \u201cIt is a show about marriage,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s about the negotiations of work, the competition, the negotiations of geography.\u201d Russell quotes a Cahn idea about long-term relationships: \u201cYou suddenly wake up, and you can\u2019t stand the sound of them breathing.\u201d After spending Season 3 broken up in all but name, though, the cliff-hanger finale sees the pair newly committed to making it work. \u201cI\u2019m not saying their relationship is for everybody,\u201d Russell says, but the show \u201cis really rooting for marriage.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell watches \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d: She feels a responsibility as EP to investigate \u201cthe through line of it all.\u201d And she\u2019s watching \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay,\u201d slowly, with her middle child. (Russell and Rhys share a son, age 10, and she has two older children from a previous relationship.) Rhys has more complicated feelings about watching himself \u2014 \u201cThere\u2019s some hard wincing,\u201d he says, as he evaluates his choices \u2014 but he found himself in the room as his family watched him, and managed to stand it. \u201cOf any show you could watch, this is such a fun departure that it would be easiest,\u201d Russell says.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe departure lies in part in the show\u2019s unusual, tricky tone, as crafted by creator Katie Dippold and director Hiro Murai. \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay\u201d careens between dry human comedy and grotesque gore. It\u2019s a show where Rhys\u2019 delicate, witty portrayal of a man in denial exists alongside evil spirits and magic spells.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys\u2019 Mayor Tom Loftis wants to preserve his island town\u2019s prospects as a tourist destination to rival Martha\u2019s Vineyard. But there are other reasons he avoids confronting the bizarre reality of the curse of Widow\u2019s Bay: He\u2019s also terrified for his son, Evan (Kingston Rumi Southwick), who, given the supernatural circumstances around his birth and the death of his mother, is under very real threat. Rhys held on to this fear, and let it guide his work. \u201cHis ultimate objective is to see his son bloom,\u201d he says. \u201cIt immediately grounds you, in a way. You go, \u2018I need my fucking son to flourish, and I will ignore the madness around me because I will stay this course.\u2019 That does something to me. It grounds everything in a real place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s pathos, and shrewd irony, underpinning his performance. \u201cIt\u2019s such a treat to have this person who\u2019s so funny, but will give you the most emotionally devastating scene you could imagine,\u201d Dippold says. \u201cYou see everything in his eyes. There\u2019s a version of this character that\u2019s just the fool, and you\u2019re disconnected from him, but Matthew takes you on a journey with this character. You feel everything he\u2019s feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd plenty of fans now are \u2014 but during the production in Boston, the sheer oddity of the show seemed potentially limiting. \u201cEveryone was nervous as to how it was going to be received,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cWe all kept asking, \u2018Did we get the tone right? What is this tone?\u2019 It\u2019s this great relief that people want this original programming, these risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut it\u2019s also such a delightful departure from the shit that we\u2019re in,\u201d Russell adds. \u201cDo you know what I mean? There is not a mention in the show so far for me about what\u2019s happening \u2014 the destruction of our country.\u201d She laughs mordantly. \u201cRight?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWell, there is,\u201d Rhys says. Russell expresses shock at having missed it. \u201cIn the crawlspace. That\u2019s Trump.\u201d (On the show, the creature in the crawlspace is a Pennywise-style killer clown who skitters after Tom like a spider.) Russell is dismayed until Rhys assures her he is joking. She\u2019s right that the town\u2019s monsters exist outside the framework of our politics.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s such a delightful departure to just enjoy,\u201d she concludes. \u201cAnd that\u2019s unique.\u201d Although perhaps not entirely so: \u201cThe Diplomat,\u201d set in a world of high-stakes international intrigue, depicts statecraft as we imagine it being practiced in a pre-MAGA era. It can feel as if no time has passed since \u201cThe West Wing\u201d or \u201cHomeland,\u201d both of which Cahn wrote for. And the show is as tightly focused on the interior world of Kate as it is on the transatlantic special relationship. Kate is often on the verge of triumph just before it\u2019s seized from her, whether she\u2019s losing face in front of the president, or her husband, or prospective sexual conquests outside her marriage. This flopping is a note Russell loves to play.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou always want to be losing,\u201d she says. \u201cYou don\u2019t ever want to be, like, She\u2019s the best surgeon in the entire Northeast.\u201d She learned this on one of her first jobs, the one that made her a household name. \u201cBefore I really knew what acting was, on \u2018Felicity,\u2019 I would watch the girls.\u201d Guest actresses would cycle through, dressed far sexier than Felicity ever would be. \u201dI was like, \u2018Oh, right, I don\u2019t have to do any of that.\u2019 I didn\u2019t wear makeup and wore big, baggy sweaters, and there\u2019s a real freedom to that. You get to be funny; you get to be loose. It\u2019s hard to do the other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell\u2019s four seasons on \u201cFelicity,\u201d beginning in 1998, followed a formative time on a Disney Channel franchise that also brought us Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI have zero training, unless \u2026\u201d Russell trails off, deciding how to describe her earliest work. She settles on an evenness of tone that anyone who\u2019s been watching Russell as Kate \u2014 hypercompetent at all things, including the use of sarcasm as a shiv \u2014 would recognize. \u201cI mean, \u2018Mickey Mouse Club\u2019 was formidable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s kidding, but Rhys and I agree with her premise \u2014 she needed to learn the ropes of hitting her marks on camera on the 1990s revival of the 1950s kids-TV staple. \u201cOh, yeah, incredible, guys,\u201d she says brusquely. \u201cBut Matthew\u2019s a trained actor. They didn\u2019t train us in, to use a really lame term, your instrument. He\u2019s a trained, meticulous actor, and I don\u2019t have any of that.\u201d (Rhys studied at London\u2019s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.) \u201cI can do something instinctually, naturally, but I don\u2019t have the other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cFirst of all, you have a dance background,\u201d Rhys says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOh, yeah,\u201d Russell says, the sarcasm reentering her voice.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNo, no \u2014 wait,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cIf you notice, at the end of \u2018The Americans,\u2019 she was always doing the fighting. Because she needed no rehearsal time. So your physical awareness is \u2014 what\u2019s the right superlative? \u2014 without equal, without peer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cOh! Mmm!\u201d Russell says, as if considering how seriously to take the compliment.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd I do think \u2018The Mickey Mouse\u2019 is formidable training,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cI do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cFelicity,\u201d created by J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves, Russell played a young woman who, in the pilot, ditches plans to study premed at Stanford to follow her crush to a fictionalized version of NYU. The show won Russell a Golden Globe, earned her notoriety for the long curls she chopped off early in Season 2 \u2014 her hair, today, is elegantly wavy \u2014 and made her a star, a label she wore loosely. \u201cBack then, network TV was 22 episodes, which was a life-arresting grind,\u201d she says. \u201cOn summers off, I would get opportunities to audition for movies, and I was like, I don\u2019t want to do that. I want to go to my friend\u2019s lake house in Muskoka. And that\u2019s what I did. Of course, my goal was to be able to pay my rent, and be a real person.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019d had a relentless schedule as a teenager too. At one point, she was flying across the country to complete two Disney projects simultaneously. On \u201cThe All-New Mickey Mouse Club,\u201d she danced and performed in comedy sketches. And in 1992\u2019s \u201cHoney, I Blew Up the Kid,\u201d she played a babysitter who\u2019s placed in the pocket of a scientifically enlarged toddler as he goes on a kaiju-style rampage.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDisney would find these kids in the middle of America \u2014 in my case, Colorado \u2014 whose parents knew nothing about business, and they sign you to this overall deal,\u201d Russell says. \u201cThey own it all. I would work all week in L.A. on the film and then take the red-eye and film \u2018The Mickey Mouse Club\u2019 on a Saturday.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys says he\u2019s seen \u201cHoney, I Blew Up the Kid,\u201d even though the two have never discussed it. \u201cHer!\u201d he bellows, imagining his younger self encountering Russell\u2019s character. \u201cShe will be my wife!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell seems to prefer to leave her early career behind. For Rhys, memories of early work are easier to access. While Russell was on \u201cFelicity,\u201d he was an emerging star on the London theater scene. After working with various classical theater companies there, he got a big break: the lead in a 2000 West End stage production of \u201cThe Graduate,\u201d opposite Kathleen Turner, who notoriously appeared nude onstage as Mrs. Robinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019d never experienced the thing whereby famous people just go and see famous people after the show,\u201d Rhys recalls. \u201cShe\u2019d always very graciously invite me down to have a glass of Champagne with whoever was in, and I\u2019d always say, \u2018Did you know that person?\u2019 She\u2019s like, \u2018No, never met them.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThey just \u2014 stop in!\u201d Russell marvels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re famous, I\u2019m famous, let\u2019s talk,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cThe roll call that came through was just eye-watering. And then Dustin Hoffman came, and he didn\u2019t come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Mike Nichols\u2019 1967 comedy of disaffection, Hoffman originated the role that Rhys played onstage, so the snub was startling. \u201cWe don\u2019t think he liked it,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cProbably. I don\u2019t know. Maybe he\u2019s just shy. Who knows!\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell can relate. One of her greatest roles between \u201cFelicity\u201d and \u201cThe Americans\u201d was as a pie-baking restaurant server in \u201cWaitress,\u201d the 2007 film that was adapted into a beloved musical, debuting on Broadway in 2016. Russell says she just can\u2019t see it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt just feels weird,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s weird to think about this character that you did, and suddenly they\u2019re like \u2014\u201d She bursts into song. \u201cAnd now I\u2019m making a pie \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys can\u2019t help egging her on, chanting: \u201cPie, pie, pie-pie-pie!\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cFelicity\u201d and in \u201cWaitress,\u201d Russell had a certain winsomeness. That made her right, in an upside-down way, for a secret agent driven to bring the U.S. to its knees. FX chief John Landgraf chose Russell to lead \u201cThe Americans,\u201d she says: \u201cThere was a list, and he\u2019s like, \u2018That\u2019s who it should be. It should be someone that you don\u2019t expect.\u2019\u201d Who might have guessed that America\u2019s college sweetheart had such a hard edge?<\/p>\n

\n\tBeneath the rage Elizabeth directed at anyone who stood in her way, there was a character who felt things deeply, who\u2019d been badly wounded. \u201cThere was a softness to you,\u201d Rhys tells Russell. \u201cAs much as people go, \u2018Oh, Elizabeth\u2019s a bitch\u2019 \u2014 when you look at your performance, you didn\u2019t play that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys got cast after a lucky break: He had been planning to move back to London after a spell in Los Angeles, but ended up filling in after Cillian Murphy dropped out of a play in New York. Rhys got the pilot script, and ran lines with his onstage castmate Adam Driver, with Driver playing the Russell part.<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys was coming off five seasons of \u201cBrothers & Sisters,\u201d on which he played Kevin Walker, the high-achieving gay attorney son of a wealthy Los Angeles family led by Sally Field\u2019s matriarch Nora. \u201cMy education was Sally Field,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen a No. 1 on the call sheet lead like that: This is how you conduct yourself on set. This is the professional standard. This is what you should be, coming to set every day, and taking note of the lighting and understanding every crew member\u2019s job. She\u2019s second to none at that. She said, you need to show up and be this prepared, because it\u2019s a very privileged position. Don\u2019t mistreat it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tHe compares Field to Russell, and to Claire Danes, his co-star on \u201cThe Beast in Me\u201d: Danes was \u201ca very forward-leaning No. 1. Comes with immaculate preparation, and demands it out of everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAs you get older, you just want to work with nice \u2014 maybe \u2018nice\u2019 is not the right word,\u201d Russell observes. \u201cStable. Professional. I don\u2019t need any new best friends. I have great friends. I have a partner. But I just don\u2019t want to put up with people\u2019s bullshit anymore. Figure that shit out. Go do that on your own time. Don\u2019t bring it to work. I just want to work with professionals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWork, for Russell and Rhys, is an expression of passion. But all the stuff that comes along with it is trickier. \u201cWe had to do the photo shoot yesterday,\u201d Russell recounts. \u201cIt was, still, nerve-racking. Yeah, I definitely had beers.\u201d She has become known for bringing beer to interviews, a little treat to help her let down her guard, despite how strange it can be to open up to a stranger. She reminisces that when she taped a Variety \u201cActors on Actors\u201d segment last year with \u201cFelicity\u201d co-star Scott Speedman, he brought beer to the studio to make sure she was stocked up.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell has been thinking about what, other than beer, might relax her before the Emmys in September. Both partners feel odd about the ceremony. It\u2019s not that the recognition is unwelcome \u2014 it\u2019s just funny to perform happiness. \u201cDoing awards shows is unnatural,\u201d Russell says. \u201cThis year I was like, \u2018Should I get a beta blocker? Would that actually help, or would I do something really embarrassing?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAm I going to try Xanax?\u201d Rhys says, echoing her. \u201cWe do say this every year: \u2018Let\u2019s enjoy this, because it \u2014\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u00a0\u201c\u2018Could be the last,\u2019\u201d says Russell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI still get very nervous going to them every time,\u201d Rhys continues. \u201cIt\u2019s not comfortable. And as much as we say, \u2018Let\u2019s enjoy this,\u2019 I never enjoy it, because I\u2019m always scared and worried and anxious.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWorking isn\u2019t stressful in the same way: When I remark that it must have been hard inhabiting the madman he plays on \u201cThe Beast in Me,\u201d Rhys says, \u201cI\u2019ve always been quite good at the switch \u2014 it usually happens when they say, \u2018Cut.\u2019\u201d And meeting the public isn\u2019t hard in the same way either: Stephen Root, Rhys\u2019 co-star on \u201cWidow\u2019s Bay\u201d and \u201cPerry Mason,\u201d tells me a story about Rhys greeting tour buses on his way to the set of the latter series, a dark detective drama, chipperly asking, \u201cDo you remember me from \u2018The Americans\u2019?\u201d But Russell hides her nerves \u2014 if not thoroughly, then charmingly: She appeared genuinely stunned by her win at the Actor Awards, bestowed by her peers in SAG-AFTRA, where she praised her castmates and wished \u201cHappy St. David\u2019s Day to my Welsh guy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell can\u2019t admit that she gave a nice speech. \u201cHe\u2019s very good at it,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re very good at it,\u201d Rhys fires back. \u201cYou were very, very good. Because you were heartfelt and sincere and funny.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOnstage, Russell felt the pressures of our tense national moment: \u201cThe political climate right now is just so tricky and heavy, and that makes me nervous too.\u201d Her voice begins to crescendo. \u201cLike, you say one fucking wrong word \u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAnd also,\u201d Rhys jumps in, \u201cyou\u2019re on a show about politics.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo that is a stress point,\u201d Russell says. \u201cPoliticians choose to be in that space, and I don\u2019t want to choose to speak for anybody. I can barely speak for myself. I don\u2019t want to speak for anyone else. We\u2019re in a tricky time where there\u2019s not a lot of room for mistakes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe idea of working together again comes up, and Russell, the choosier one, wouldn\u2019t want to do just anything. \u201cIt would have to be the right thing for many reasons,\u201d she says. But the idea excites her. \u201cThere\u2019s a real electricity that happens between people when it goes well \u2014 and that was such a part of our formative experience together.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRhys\u2019 passion project, though, is what he calls \u201cWelsh \u2018Braveheart\u2019\u201d \u2014 so much so that when Mel Gibson\u2019s \u201cBraveheart\u201d came out in 1995, a young Rhys felt heartsick that someone had told a story of rebellion in the British Isles before he did. He\u2019s gotten Welsh director Gareth Evans, of \u201cThe Raid,\u201d attached to his project, and is planning to redevelop the script with a writer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGavin Bond for Variety<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think because we\u2019re such a small country, it makes you louder and prouder and more fervent,\u201d he says. \u201cBecause the Scots and the Irish have done very well. You know, culturally \u2014 in literature, in film, in music \u2014 they\u2019re the muscular Celts, and then Wales is the little engine that could.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow would Rhys and Russell describe Welsh culture?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would say passionate,\u201d Rhys says. He notes that an ancient description of the Celts was \u201chigh-spirited and quick to battle. And I think that was accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe whole culture is incredibly artistic,\u201d Russell says. \u201cIt\u2019s steeped in the arts and storytelling. But I would say less quick to battle and more melancholy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s because we lost all the battles,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cIf melancholy were an Olympic sport, the Welsh would podium every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOn \u201cThe Diplomat,\u201d Russell\u2019s Kate finds herself negotiating the cultural differences between can-do, forthright Americans and Brits who speak in enigmatic shades of meaning. Her partnership with Rhys, though, feels like a happy meeting in the middle. Russell speaks more brightly and Rhys more pensively in the sentences they\u2019re finishing for one another. But, you know, they are finishing each other\u2019s sentences.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tSo how do two regular awards show attendees who met in the glamour and intrigue of a fictional spy game stay so seemingly \u2026 normal?\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve been through so many highs and lows careerwise where you are very grateful for the times you do work, but you also know it\u2019s part of the roller coaster,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cYou have very little control. So it makes you grateful and aware of its fragility.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPerhaps unsurprisingly, Russell is less philosophical, more realpolitik, in her analysis. \u201cThe majority of our friends are not actors,\u201d she says, \u201cand we\u2019re not that famous.\u201d Not that famous? Russell continues, undeterred. \u201cPeople don\u2019t really care about us \u2014 in a great way. Some people in our neighborhood are very famous, and their life is very different. And it seems so hard.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRussell doesn\u2019t face those challenges \u2014 luckily for her. \u201cI love the level of our life,\u201d she says. \u201cI love having a job. I like occasionally getting into a restaurant when I can\u2019t.\u201d Russell says that she sometimes buys her own clothes for awards shows. \u201cI sometimes can\u2019t get a dress, because I am not, you know, someone famous. But that\u2019s the reality of our station. And I think it\u2019s perfect.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYeah,\u201d Rhys says. \u201cIt is the perfect balance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tPhotographed at Deer Mountain Inn; Styling: Anna Katsanis\/Walter Schupfer; Grooming: Tina Turnbow; Hair: Anthony Campbell\/Campbell and Campbell Salon; Look 1 (grey sweater): (Keri) Black dress: Fendi; Boots: Gabriela Hearst; (Matthew) Full look: Prada; Look 2 (bicycle): (Keri) Top: Prada; Overalls: Levi\u2019s; (Matthew) Sweater: Loro Piana; Look 3 (swing): (Keri) Dress: Flora Nikrooz; (Matthew) Shirt and pants: Calvin Klein; Boots: Loro Piana; Look 4 (solo portraits): (Keri) Black dress: Fendi; Boots: Gabriela Hearst; (Matthew) Shirt and pants: Calvin Klein; Boots: Loro Piana\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This year marks the first time Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys will attend the Emmys together as nominees…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1144664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,311287,5528,16,15],"class_list":["post-1144663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-keri-russell","tag-matthew-rhys","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117083519316657121","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1144663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1144663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1144664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1144663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1144663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1144663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}