I met Russell at a Manhattan hotel the week before the show aired to discuss this new role, her life in Brooklyn with her partner, Matthew Rhys, and what she read to bone up on the life of a career diplomat.
Vogue: Why did you want to make this show?
Keri Russell: I wasn’t out hunting for another show. I had a really satisfying experience with The Americans, and I have a full life at home. I have kids still in school, and so I tend to just find reasons to not do a show. But I guess it was Debora [Cahn], who wrote the show—her specific brand of acerbic political jargon mixed in with her humor and the fun, sparkly wit that she has.
Had you been a fan of Debora’s shows in the past? I watched the show and then I said “It has elements of The West Wing and Homeland.” And then I looked at her bio, and I was like, makes sense.
It’s no accident that she’s so good and experienced. I just, I love her humor and the specificity with which she writes about the minutiae of living.
You mentioned your kids. Were they old enough to watch The Americans? Is this a show they’re going to experience in real time with you?
Right now they’re six, 11, and 15, so I don’t think they care really about me. [Laughs.] And they certainly didn’t care about The Americans. I was like, “You know, I beat some dude up last night. It was really cool. You wanna see it?”
Diplomacy is less exciting than that.
Yeah—the hierarchy of introductions, like when you’re being introduced to a president—maybe not so interesting to them.
My husband works for the government, and I was pretty impressed by the level of accurate-seeming acronyms.
So much political jargon on this show! There was one day in the middle of the summer that I was like, please, let me get COVID. I can’t talk about Iranian sanctions anymore or any of this diplomatic speak. I just need two days to lay in my bed and not say those words.
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