The Hollywood Reported has this great piece where they gathered 6 talented TV actresses and asked them questions about their TV shows and their careers. The women in attendance were Keri Russell from The Americans, Claire Danes from Homeland, Jessica Pare from Mad Men, Vera Farmiga of Bates Motel, Julianna Margulies from The Good Wife, and Sarah Paulson from American Horror Story.
The whole thing is amazing and you can read the entirety of it here. But for now, I’m just going to highlight Keri’s answers from the article.
On the surprising sex position of the season 2 premiere:
“I’d like to re-create it right now for you. (Laughs.) I actually fought against that scene. I just didn’t know if that was the best emotional place for those characters. I wondered if there was a different physical act that could be happening other than that one. But they thought that it had to be something that the daughter was walking in on that was so much more graphic than just sex and then keep her from walking in again. It’s funny, though; sex has never been something I’ve done in my career — at all. But I don’t mind it on this show. It may be the nature of them being spies helps inform the characters. It’s not sexuality for sexuality’s sake.”
On her early success on Felicity and what she did after it:
“No. I just didn’t want to work anymore after that. I was just tired. I think for me, I was younger, and I didn’t like it enough. It felt life-arresting on many levels. I wasn’t experiencing life. I wanted to read books, travel, be a kid for a minute, so that’s what I did. I left L.A., which didn’t feel good to me anymore. I had this great apartment in New York, and I just took over a year off. I got to show up to birthday parties, go out dancing with girls and walk home in the snow. I have to fill myself up, and that’s not what my experience of network TV was. It was really hard to be that young.”
On how she got to be part of The Americans:
“Through the usual channels. I was just at a place where I didn’t think I was going to be working. I had a brand-new baby, a week old, and I was like, “Guys, a Russian spy? Why do you keep bringing this to me?” But I’m so glad they kept pushing, especially [FX Networks president] John Landgraf. It’s been such a fun surprise.”
On her famous hair cutting scene on Felicity and how it could’ve broken the internet if it happened now:
“But it wouldn’t have because today, haircutting would be nothing! It’s much more salacious now. You think a haircut’s going to beat out blow jobs? That’s so tame compared to what’s going on now.”
Side Note:
One of the funniest things the women talked about is their frustration with the death of (Spoiler Alert) Damian Lewis’ character Brody on Homeland. There are a lot of interesting things that the actresses said so I highly suggest that you read the whole thing.
