"Keri Russell"

26:17But then it all worked out because after that show ended, I took a big break and I didn't act anymore. I didn't think that's what I wanted to do anymore. Really? So was that a conscious decision? you were like, hang on a second, I need to... Yeah. Yeah? No way. Yeah. And where did you think you were going to go? Well, I thought I was going to go back to school or go to school because I hadn't gone to school. Yeah. And because I graduated early from high school because I was on Mickey Mouse Club. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. Because when you're on the Mickey Mouse Club, like if you're a kid, you're tutored on set so you can finish as quickly as you can.

26:53Same with Mr. Bateman. Yeah, we know about that. Sometimes they have buses to do that too. um and then uh but but but so god most kids me part of it um like as soon as the the kid show is done there's a panic like okay what's the next show going to be like what's what's my career going to be now that i'm kind of like almost an adult yeah and you're dying to get another job and get back into that television series cocoon you know the safety of employment you were the opposite that you were like, not only do I not want to work, I don't even know if I want to do this occupation anymore. Yeah, so doing that show, that was back in the old days when we would do 22 episodes.

27:36Now, you know, the nature of television tends to be like eight or 13 episodes, but we were still doing network 22 episodes. And especially back then, we were working, because Matt Reeves was one of our first directors and set up the show, we were shooting it like film. you know we were shooting on film in the beginning um but really yes we were shooting on film yeah we were working 18 hour days you know five days a week so my friday as a 21 year old would end about five in the morning and then i would start again at five on monday and i loved that job and it was great and i i'm so thankful i'm still really close with a few of those people but in many ways it was life arresting.

28:19Like I, I, I wanted to, you know, be with girlfriends and, and, you know, whatever, kiss boys or you like do simple, stupid things that I knew I was sort of missing. So when it ended, I had no time to spend any money or do any of that. So I took the money I had saved and rented this amazing apartment, one bedroom apartment in the village, which was really great still back then. And I had no furniture. I moved to New York with two giant boxes of books. I got mattresses. I put them on the floor. And I did all those things I wanted to do. I had two really great girlfriends there. And we would go out dancing and get drunk and walk home drunk in the snow.

29:04And we would watch The Bachelorette and eat shitty food. And it was everything I wanted it to be. And I got to just fucking be a kid. And I think that's what I wanted. Did you end up going to school? I didn't. So I thought that's what I was going to do. And that's probably what I should have done. I still think about it. But I think I just sort of did it myself. Like I just read what I wanted to read about and took all that time off. I took, I think, a couple of years and then just slowly started inching my way back in. I took a job where I wasn't the lead. I was like a part of a family. And actually, we shot in London with Mike Binder.

29:49And I was just a part of these sisters. And Joan Allen was the lead. Right, right. And I was like— Was that the upside of anger? Yeah. And I was like, you know, she's cool and smart and classy. And if I can watch her, if she's managing her life okay, you know, maybe it's possible. And she was. And so then I slowly dipped back in. She stuck with it. What was the other industry that you were thinking about maybe going into? Oh, God. I don't know. I think I just wanted to learn. I think I wanted to just go to school. I think I'm interested in every—I feel like I could do lots of things. Right. You know, I'm curious, you know, but I'm generally agreeable.

30:31You know, I'm curious about a lot. But you didn't, like, start, like, one particular career that you were thinking, maybe I want to kind of go into it. And then, like, that was kind of like, eh, it's not that great. and then you went back to acting? No, I didn't. Yeah, so you didn't really started anything. Okay. No, I didn't. You didn't get into like microplastics or anything. That's a big industry apparently. It's a gross industry. It's everywhere. Yeah, it's a gross industry. Wait, Carrie, this is kind of to Carrie and JB because I'm always interested, curious about people who start performing when they're younger and are able to sustain it.

31:02When you were doing Mickey Mouse Club or JB, you were on various shows when you were a kid. Were you cognizant of, and did people talk amongst you and your peers and your friends and your families like, hey, how can we make the jump to adult actors? Yeah, how conscious were you? How conscious were you that there's a sort of a bar there, that there's a separation between being a kid actor and then making it a life and a career? Were you aware of that? I wasn't. Were you? Yeah, I was scared shitless of that transition. Yeah. Yeah, I thought no one's going to, you know, you're a kid actor, so why would anybody want to see you do adult acting when you're an adult?

31:47Like you've got to start over. You know, there's not going to be an easy transition. And it wasn't. There was all through my 20s was just a barren waste field. And that's why you shaved your pubes until you were 22, right?

32:08And I did for different reasons. Yeah. Oh, it feels nice. Guys, I can still play young. Hey, it's me, JB. Check it out. I don't even have to puke. Fucked up. Check it out. Oh, my God. Oh, for fuck's sake. That is really funny. Wait. So, Gary, so you go, you do upside-down. Wait, wait, Jason, wait. Have you read, because I actually, speaking of the creepy kid actors, which, by the way, all kid actors, the whole thing is so creepy. That's so funny. There's this amazing book that someone gave me, which I loved. Are you familiar with Sarah Pauly at all? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Now she's a director, but, you know, kid actor.

32:57she wrote this book uh called run towards the danger um which is a collection of stories and it's sort of unraveling her time and kind of understanding what that was all like and i thought it was great yeah and a lot of other things but i do think it affects you and speaks probably to a little bit of what will is saying like what he's seeing as like work ethic but I just think when you're a kid actor, you know, you are, you have to show up. Right. You're not allowed to have the flu. Right. You're not allowed to, you fucking show up and you do it and you, you know, you don't complain. You don't go.

33:40Got all this adult responsibility. Yeah. You're adultified. So you are. JB taught me a lot of, I will, this is truly, and I've mentioned this a couple of times, early on we were doing Arrested Development and the first season at one point I was like, I got to the point, It didn't take long where I was like, hey, what time were you rapping today? Like, you know, I got in early in the day. I'm thinking like, what time am I out of here? And Jason turns to me and goes, we got you for the whole day, right? And it really, as funny as that was, the timing of it was perfect. His delivery was amazingly shitty and it was perfect and hilarious.

34:16And it broke me. But also the truth of it was, yeah, man, you're here to do a thing and you've got this. Yeah, you're doing the thing you wanted to do. And it really, honestly, I never forgot it, and I carried it with me for the rest of my, and to this day, my working career, which is like, I'm there to do the thing that I gotta do, not to fucking get out. And I feel equally pissed off when I feel like, yeah, I feel equally pissed off with people when they're like trying to get out. And I'm like, fuck you, dude. Yeah, yeah. That's what you signed up for. Yeah. We'll be right back.

34:52all right back to the show so Carrie what about the um the anxiety thing because I have a little bit of that too I'm I'm much better at it but how do you do you have two okay I mean sometimes these guys know it's it comes out quite often yeah but uh how do you deal with it like do you have tools that you good your go-to tools? If I wake up in the morning and I do something immediately, like, you know, I do hopefully like something outside, even if it's cold, some kind of physical activity really helps me. Even if I'm, you know, sometimes it just overtakes and you're like, fuck it, here I am. You know what really helped me?

35:36One of the first times, this is absolutely true, right at the beginning of Felicity times, before I had ever had to do any of that stuff, I had to go on a talk show. My first talk show was Rosie O'Donnell had a talk show back then. I think it was like a daytime talk show. Yeah, it was. Sure. I had never done anything like that. I kind of am a nervous person in that situation anyway. Oh, oh, well. That's horror for me. And it's like, it's a lot of energy coming toward you and the stage and all the people and blah, blah, blah. Yeah. And I got back there and the stage manager is like, come over here, come over here.

36:10And I was like, uh-oh, uh-oh, it's overtaking me. Here it comes. and the stage manager must have told Rosie O'Donnell, who was so lovely, like she's nervous. So she came back and was like, hey, are you nervous? And I was like, oh, no, no. And so I went out. This is really absolutely true. I went out, she was being completely nice. But as I was answering questions, going, yes, I'm from Colorado, a tear. No way, no way. I watched the interview. I'm smiling and I just gently wipe it away. And I'm from Colorado, No, I'm having a full panic. Full panic. I go back to the hotel, which was, you know, they flew you to New York and did the whole thing.

36:50And I locked myself in the bathroom and I was just mortified that I had done such a bad job. Wow. And was so embarrassed and beating up on myself. And my awesome friend, Canadian friend, Will Arnett would love, we had gone out for drinks after or like maybe the next day. and I remember Alana said, I said, oh my God, I did such a bad job on this thing and I was so bad. And she said, you know who I just saw on David Letterman? Kim Basinger was on David Letterman and she was so nervous. And I remember I liked her so much because I thought I would be nervous on that thing too. It's very real. It made me stop hating the nervousness about myself so much.

37:34And I went, I'm nervous. What are you going to fucking do? And people who are like so, no offense to everyone who's so funny, because you guys are all so good at it. You guys are so good at it. But not everyone is so good at all this. But the dirty little secret is that even the flashy sort of funny sort of I don't seem very nervous person is petrified underneath. They just have this flashy coping skill that is basically acting. They're just able to act twice. right you don't know what I'm thinking well you are very easy though in front of people you are very he is but he's so he's a fucking mess inside he is a mess he is a mess obviously just like I am a fucking disaster inside and so is Sean we're all we're fucking nut jobs we're all crazy crazy you just figure out different ways to fake it and then and then you get comfortable with that and it kind of becomes a part of your personality too Like, all this little suit that I put on to kind of deal with it is also just kind of me too.

38:42Well, I'll get real with you. So my version, through a lot of kind of work and exploration over the last few months, this is totally honest, is I first went away to boarding school when I was 12. You did? I didn't know that. Wait, where did you go? I went to all boys, up in Canada, and I went to all boys boarding school. I'm not going to give them the benefit of telling me. Okay, but like what area? Sorry, where in? North of Toronto. Like up by Muskoka? Like up in the... A couple, yeah, a little east of Muskoka. Okay, okay. North of Peterborough, Ontario. Okay, okay. That's them to come pick you up again, right?

39:17Yeah, but south of Fenland Falls. Oh, right on. So you could just narrow it down, eh? Like right near Stony Lake, but I'm not going to say where, eh? So there you are. So there I is, age 12. And I think that one of the things... I didn't know that. Yeah, yeah. And one of the things about that is when you're that young, I can't imagine my sending my kids. Can you imagine? No, I can't. Or seven when they go? Seven? Well, my roommate, first year, when I was seventh grade and I was 12, my first roommate, he had just come from England, and he had been at boarding school since he was seven. Wow. So he'd been there for five years.

39:59I mean, I know it's a way of life, but can you imagine? Yeah. Sending your kids. And he was very, and by the way, he was a very sort of troubled kid and I felt badly for him. But my point was at that age, and I don't know if it's dissimilar from, you know, being out on your own and working at that time. I learned how to cope with being, you know, with not having my mom and dad around and how to manage, certainly in a situation with other, basically other boys my age. You know, there's a lot going on. It's kind of very Lord of the Flies-y in a lot of ways. Not that bad, but you know what I mean.

40:36I do, yeah. And so I think that that skill or whatever that thing that I put up, I carry over into my life. I think that's what it is. I do. I've sort of been spending a lot of time breaking that down this summer, which has been interesting. Well, whatever it is, I like it. I like it, too. I stayed vague enough that I didn't start crying. That's after the show. So, so, so Carrie, so you do, you do all that and you think you're going to quit and you think you're going to do it. And then you go, because you have, not only do you carry over from, from, uh, excuse the pun, from being a child actor to then having success in your twenties.

41:16But then you decide that you're going to maybe shift gears or not do it anymore or whatever, or go to school or try something else. And then you end up having a third act, which you're in right now really successfully, which is you start doing a bunch of films. and you have two really successful television shows. It's really unusual to be able to sort of carry that on in all these ways. And I would say that you two, I pointed to Jason and Carrie, you guys are very unique in that way, that you've managed to carry that on. Yeah. It's kind of remarkable, actually. What was the thing where you went like, okay, now I'm in gear, I want to start doing more and kind of...

41:52Was there a job? Was there a particular thing that kind of fired you up? Well, The Americans was just a, the writing was so, I have to say, even in the beginning, it was a slow burn. It was, you know, I really think the show became good about episode five in the first season. And then it started becoming this other thing, which was really this dark kind of unravel of a marriage. And I always thought the spy stuff was just a way to push and pull the marriage, like sleeping with other people. So when you went into it, then you were thinking you were going, hey, we're going over here, and you ended up kind of going over here?

42:31Yeah, I didn't know. I was like, first of all, why do you want me to play this tough Russian spy? What? Don't you want Rocky's wife, that lady with the short blonde hair? Bridget Nelson. Her name was, yeah. I was like, me? What the fuck? I was like, oh, God. That's hysterical. But she's not available?

42:51I'm getting drunk with my friends walking in the snow. No, what do you want me? I don't want fucking this shit. I'm still hung up on that image of you and your friends drunkenly walking down 7th Avenue. It was, you guys, it saved my life. It really did. So that was just lucky. Total luck, just getting to do that show and then meeting Matthew and all of that. You know, that was just good writing. So fun to be a part of something that was well-received. And then I took another long break. I feel like that's what keeps me in it is I go in and out. I take little pockets where then I'm just home doing laundry and, you know, seeing my friends and taking the kids to school.

43:30After the Americans you did. After the Americans. And it's on the Americans that you met Matthew. Matthew, mm-hmm. And the great Matthew Reese who we've had on the program who is just an absolute delight. Yeah, love that guy. I love Matthew. So cool. I just, I always just, I just love seeing his face. I love hanging out with him. I had a nice lunch with him about a year ago. With Chris Dickier. With our mutual friend, Christy Kieh. Yes. Who's equally as great. Oh, my God. Who's equally as delightful. Oh, my God. Delightful. Yeah. And that was a lot of fun. And so you meet Matthew, and you guys are on the show together.

44:07And then, of course, it makes sense. You guys, it makes sense to me, by the way. Yeah, he's great. He is really, really great. You guys had never met before the show? We had met, which he reminded me about, which I don't know if he told you guys on the show. I think I remember this. Yeah. We had gone to fight training or something in the first week. Well, you know, we screen tested everything, blah, blah, blah, did the fight training. And so I'd known him just like that, you know. And then we were having lunch after doing some kind of crazy fight training. And he said, we've met before. And I said, no.

44:46Yeah, I remember this. Yeah, we have. and he said we you know we were at that kickball party in rustic canyon yes we were the last people at the barbecue or whatever and i was trying to get you to stay and so i was trying to open a beer without a beer he tried to do it with his thumb and i knew exactly i said oh my god of course i remember you left a drunk message on my machine and i was moving to new york that day and so it had been 10 years had passed wow wow and and then yeah and then game was on that's so great well so Sean, don't feel so bad that she didn't remember seeing you in the garden of the acting teacher.

45:21That's fine. She didn't remember meeting your husband. You remember her husband, yeah. Okay. I get it, I get it. I get it. I have one of those faces. But I love a good love story. So to the extent you feel comfortable, what changed from the, you know, when you try to open the beer for you. You had the kickball party. And you didn't clock. Did you do a lot of other hipster stuff at parties, like playing kickball that are like ironic games? No, but like what changed for you 10 years later that didn't spark for you the first time? Who knows, Sean? Who knows, okay. Okay, I'm trying to think, I'm trying to think.

45:52No, you don't have to answer. It's probably a haircut. Matthew had his haircut better the second time. Number one, you know, I don't ever want to go back to my 20s. I'm not saying, there are certain things about our bodies now as they're aging, but I like who I am so much more now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I look at my girlfriends, I think they are so beautiful now. I don't ever want to go back to 20s. I love our age now. And I think in our 30s or when I met him again, which would have been in my mid-30s or about then, I just was a different person. You know what I mean? I was, and I wanted something different.

46:38I also think that, Carrie, and this is a couple of it to you, Carrie, which is that you probably don't remember because you're such an authentic person. And I don't think that like, I think you'd remember somebody if you actually had a real conversation, you really connected in that way. Yeah. And not through a beer bottle. Yeah, you're not distracted by shiny moving objects at all. Like you're really a real person. Go ahead, Sean. No, I'm distracted by shiny objects. Anything with frosting on it. Yeah. It's going to get his... Oh my God. Shiny pretty things are nice too. Right? Yes. But Mission Impossible, Incredible.

47:16I'm a big popcorn movie guy. Did the mission, sorry, did any of those? Awesome death. Did the mission end up being possible because they didn't do it, right? So I think that's a little bit of a - Well, you never knew what the rabbit's foot was. You never knew what the rabbit's foot was. No, but I kind of want to like, I want to be like, well, turned out it was possible. It's kind of like NeverEnding Story. Did the movie end? It sure did. It sure did. Don't hold your arms. Yeah. So, I mean, class action lawsuit much? I mean - But I loved that. And then when it was revealed that was you in Star Wars, I mean, I was blown away.

47:47Like, that was the coolest thing. Oh, fuck, here we go. Sorry, Carrie. No, I love it. Go. I mean, I was watching it, and even Scotty and I were like, who is this? I recognize your voice, but I couldn't, because we didn't see your face. I was like, did you ever reveal yourself? I don't think you did. Well, JJ never wanted me to reveal my face, or I never wanted to reveal the face. And then at a certain point, I think it was the studio where someone said, you have to show her face. And JJ was like, no, it's my whole idea. It's like, it was like that girl, there was some cartoon with a girl on a motorcycle from when he was a kid who always had a helmet on.

48:21And then he was like, well, what if we just show her eyes? And so that was, but I think they wanted me to take the helmet off. But, you know. The studio was like, yeah, we got Keri Russell. We're not going to not reveal her. Yeah, yeah. But with such a kick-ass, amazing character. It must have been cool. Sean, just knowing Sean that she was from Endalore, I mean, that must have been for you, right? Knowing how many moons it was away. Yeah, yeah. It was incredible. From Tatooine, you must have been like just freaking out. I mean, as an adult, paying attention to a kid's story, it must have been so cool for you.

48:54I love this. I love this. And then I haven't seen Cocaine Bear and I really, really want to see it, but I heard it's great. And it's been out for a while. It's so stupid and crazy and nuts. And Margot Martindale is, And I mean, you guys, what she did, it's ridiculous and wild. And it was just an antidote to COVID and everyone being stuck in their houses. And the great Liz Banks. And our friend Liz Banks. We love Banks. She's so funny. You guys were in Ireland, I want to say? Yeah, she just called me. She was pitching me this completely other, legit, serious, really good idea for this limited series.

49:33and, you know, we're just on with these writers and having these serious conversations. And then text me the next day and just says, hey, um... Or I've got this. Do you know that? I'm doing this crazy movie called Cocaine Bear. Do you want to read it? I was like, sure. And I told my girlfriends, I have these few girlfriends in New York here and I was up in the mountains with them and they said, I told them, I pitched them the idea for the story and they said, if you don't do that movie, we're not going to be friends with you anymore. Wow. Really? Really? And it was so fun. Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Margo Martindale, and I traipsing around Ireland out of control.

50:15We were out of control having the time of our lives. Why did you guys shoot in Ireland? I forget. Because the COVID numbers were down. Right. And because it's an island, I guess. And because it's a good match for that forest we were looking for. Margo's one of those people, she's so, years ago, So she wanted, Krasinski was doing a movie and he wanted her for this before like the Don't Talk movies or whatever. Or Quiet Place. Quiet Time. Quiet Place. No, I think it's Look Who's Talking. Don't Talk. Look Who's Talking. Time Out. Look Who's Talking, too. In place. And he said, and so I said to Margo, I said, hey, John Krasinski wants to get in touch with you.

50:53Is that okay? And so she talked to myself and she, then she called me and she goes, I'm going to do this fucking guy. I'm going to do his movie. Before she, it better work out because you better not have fucking put me on with this fucking guy. She literally like kind of like pseudo threatened me. And like I was like, I just put you in touch with him. It's not my fault. You didn't have to do it. I'm doing it because of you. When I read Cocaine Bear that next day, she texted me and it just says Margo and she says, are you fucking doing this movie? I was like, are you fucking doing this movie? What?

51:26I was like, now I'm definitely doing this movie. and Margot's doing it. One of the hardest one of the hardest laughs I've ever had in my life was doing that series The Millers with Margot and we did this episode it was this thing where Bo Bridges was doing this saying this thing and Margot and I started laughing and she got me laughing I couldn't it's the first time in my life I was like I don't think I'm going to recover I don't think we're going to get it I don't think I can do this I think it's a wrap I have to go and I couldn't look at her she had me laughing so hard I know she's a delight she's a delight Kara what are you excited about that's coming up other than the diplomat what are you going to do the rest of the day so I'm going to be honest I stayed up late too late last night so I woke up in the morning I had leftover Indian food it was fucking delicious I'm having a beer with it oh I love that gosh you're so cool I'm gonna we made our first it's kind of chilly here in New York this morning right so we made our first fire and it was just nice oh nice and you don't even have a fireplace place.

52:28Yeah. No, sorry. That's great. That's fun. What a fun day. So the rest of the day going to be kind of cozy. Kind of cozy. My kids, my kids start school for the first day tomorrow. So I'm getting everyone, I'm going to make a nice dinner, family dinner, early dinner for everyone, early to bed. What are you going to make? What are you going to make? I'm going to make skirt steak and a bunch of vegetables and rice. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I love that. By the way, I've never been to Brooklyn. I should, I want to come, I want to go check it out. We could have you. We could have you. I might have to walk around there.

53:00Carrie, I'm coming to New York in a couple weeks, for real. Will, remember when I ran into you? Which time? With your car? No, you were shooting something. Oh, yeah, we were shooting in Brooklyn. And you were coming home and you were drunk. And I was wandering home drunk. And I was like, Will, what's up? Oh, boy. Dude, I was shooting and there was a whole, like, the crew we were doing. What were you shooting? One of those Ninja Turtle movies. What? She just blew right by the lockup, huh? Now I know him. And we were shooting right on the river overlooking the city. And here comes Carrie. And of course, nobody stops her.

53:36Nobody in the crew stops her because they're like, oh, it's Carrie Russell. And she just basically walked through our set. It's like, what's going on? Hammered. Hammered, just walking home. Walking home. I know. But I was going to say, I'm coming in a couple of weeks. Let's have dinner and or lunch. You, me, and Matthew. Can we do it? I would love it. I would love, love, love, love, love it. fucking done. Oh, God, Carrie, I wish we would just hang out forever. We will. I would love to see you. We have chance encounters from mutual people, satellite people, but I would love to see you. Okay. Well, Carrie, you just brightened up our day.

54:13It's so great seeing you. It's always a delight. Always a delight. Let's all see each other. I would love it. Let's do it. Say hi to Matthew for us, please. Yeah, please say hi to Matthew, and I'm going to reach out. I'm going to reach out to you in the next couple of weeks. Please, please, please, don't, please do, please. I won't hesitate. I would love, love, love it. Okay. Bye, guys. Thank you. Bye. Thanks, Carrie. Bye. Thanks, Carrie. Bye, Cady. Bye. Just a delight. Just a sunny delight. How cool is she? She's just a Sunday afternoon. She's just drinking a beer. Drinking a beer and eating some leftover Indian food because she's a little hungover.

54:42She seems like one of those people that everybody wants to be friends with. She's so fun. When we did Running Wild together, and she would be, we had so much fun. She's the kind of person doing her off camera would be throwing shit at me. Like a super easy, fun hang. Really, really fun, really prepared, really in it, really just disciplined and professional, but cool and real. You could laugh with her and then you could tell her, you know, she and I both, there were times where we were both going through stuff in our personal lives and she was such a good friend to me and we would talk about stuff and it really, just awesome.

55:21I love it. Awesome. And by the way, She drives her entire career. Like she makes the decisions. And speaking of driving, by the way, I sent you guys a video when we were in New York of an Uber driver. Do you remember that? Oh, I do remember this. Remember that? And he was really kind and he was from China. And his real true, this is a true story. His real name is called B-A-I-Y-I. and I got in the car and I asked him how you pronounce it and I sent it to you. Wait, wait, spell it again. B-A-I-Y-I. Yeah. And how would you pronounce that? And how did he say that he pronounced it? How did he pronounce it?

56:07Sean, I'm glad you brought this up. How did he say that he pronounced it? Bye. Bye. There it was. Bye. Bye. Smart. Nice.

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