Better
known as Felicity, the perky and pretty Mickey Mouse Club alum has
validated herself as a credible actress by immersing into diverse
roles highlighting her talents. Adding to a long list of TV and film
credits, Kerri Russell most recently challenged her physical limits
by choosing to accept the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III ‘assignment’.
In the forthcoming film WAITRESS,
Russell embodies a young, sweet, and unhappily, pregnant pie creator
helplessly stuck in a miserable marriage.
Conceived,
written, and directed by the late Adrienne Shelley, WAITRESS is an
uplifting and inspirational romantic comedy, which demonstrates the
beauty of friendship and a strong bond shared between three women
who help one another weather individual storms. Tragically, Shelley
didn’t live long enough to enjoy the fruits of her labor, which
was received with great love at the Sundance Film Festival. As an
homage to Shelley, a very pregnant Russell sat down with us last
week to share her thoughts on making this unique film, on entering
motherhood, working with a wonderful cast, baking pies and the life
of WAITRESS after Shelley’s death.
Keri
Russell
You
recently made out with Zach Braff on Scrubs. Was that your first
time on the show?
That
was my first time on Scrubs, yes. I had never done that.
What
appealed to you about the character in Waitress?
Sorry,
I just came back from lunch. I have to snap to it. I have pregnancy
brain. OK, Jenna. Where am I? What planet am I on? The thing about
this movie, when I was read the script, it’s the kind of movie
that I love to go see. It feels like the movie…I loved You
Can Count on Me, where it’s not just funny. It’s serious
just when you need it to be and true, sort of. I just thought that
Adrienne [Shelley] wrote a great character.
And
it really was all on the page, very much. This movie, more than any
movie I have ever done, Adrienne had 100 percent control over. She
wrote it, directed it, and acted in it. I mean, the jokes were
EXACTLY the level she wanted, down to ‘How are you going to do
that face? Nnnn-nnah, I don’t want you to do it like that.’ And
I’d be like, ‘Jesus Christ.’ This was her movie. She wrote the
songs that I sing in it. She wrote everything. She chose the color
of our outfits, the diner set, all of it. She was very, very
involved.
Did
you learn how to bake a pie?
We
shot the movie in 20 days. Come on, there wasn’t a lot of
pie-baking going on. But we always had pies around. We ate two
different pies every day for lunch.
How
much weight did you gain doing the movie?
I
don’t know. Working those hours, not much. We literally shot the
movie in 20 days.
But
you baked a little?
A
little bit, a little bit. You know, cookies, easy stuff. Pies are a
specific thing. The crust is a whole delicacy. It’s got to be
cold. There’s a whole art to it and spending so much time on the
road, as you do on location, in different cities and hotel rooms,
there’s not a lot of time for cooking, especially when you’re
shooting nights or until 11 o’clock at night and you come home and
you eat a bowl of cereal. You’re not going to be cooking a pie. So
now, maybe that I’m home a little bit more maybe I will.
This
character is a smart woman who gives us her real thoughts in the
voiceover narration, but she’s in marriage that makes you wonder
why she’s there. Why doesn’t she just walk out?
I
don’t think it’s that uncommon of a story. Yeah, it looks really
horrible up on screen, but I don’t think it’s that uncommon.
There are a lot of people in relationships who, you wake up and
you’re like, ‘Wow, how did I end up here? Why am I still here
and not satisfied?’ And I think she doesn’t have much
self-esteem. Being poor is an issue. And it’s an issue for women.
She’s a waitress. It’s not like she has a ton of money and a lot
of options.
She
doesn’t really have anywhere to go and she has no family. I think
when you don’t have self-esteem it’s hard to see your way out of
something bad like that. And I think what Adrienne also did really
well in this movie is the bad guy, the bad husband is awful, but
he’s not this monster. I think in that scene towards the end you
see how weak he is, how pathetic he is. Clearly there’s something
in that pathetic quality that Jenna danced with. She was part of
that, as a lot of women are.
How
realistic do you think Jenna’s relationship with the gorgeous
doctor is?
How
realistic? It is a fantasy, but I think it’s totally realistic.
It’s this catalyst to change her life, which I think is realistic.
And I love how not sexy it is, how they’re both so awkward and
carnal and just like… embarrassing.
How
was it to work with Andy Griffith?
He’s
so great. He’s just a dream. He’s just a beautiful man and so
professional. I think he had more to say, script-wise, than anyone
else, and when you’re older it’s not easy to memorize. He talked
about that. He said, ‘It’s really hard to memorize lines and
everything now. I have to really work on it.’ And he was a dream.
He knew his lines better than anyone else. And dancing with him…
And the part, it’s such a great part because at that point in the
movie you SO want to hear someone say that to her, like, ‘You’re
great.’
What
was it like working with Cheryl Hines and Adrienne Shelley?
I
loved Cheryl so much and had so much fun with her. We would be
having so much fun off set, like telling stories, and they’d say,
‘Well, we’ve got to shoot,’ and we’d say, ‘But Cheryl’s
not done with her story! (She then whispers): Just keep talking.
Just keep talking.’ A lot of times we’d sit around, Adrienne,
Cheryl, and I, and talk about motherhood, babies, and things like
that. So I love them both, and I think that’s part of the film
that is very real, the relationship with the women. It’s something
that I have in my life and, specifically, what I think southern
women do real well is, even if their life at home isn’t so great,
they really have in-depth, romantic almost relationships with these
women in their lives who are kind of more of an emotional connection
for them than what’s at home.
What
has it been like for you to promote the film without Adrienne
Shelly?
It’s
definitely a unique situation that we’re in. And, yeah, it is
difficult not having our ringleader, not having our main person
here. I get questions all the time, ‘What would Adrienne say
about…’ And it’s like, ‘I don’t know.’ I don’t know
what she would say. So it’s hard.
Your
experience of impending motherhood is obviously so different from
your character’s in terms of being happy…
Yeah,
it is very different, although I find her experience totally
refreshing and fun, too. But, no, my experience is very different.
How
are you enjoying being pregnant?
I’m
having a great, really easy one compared to my girlfriends’. This
is my first.
Have
you spent much time with Adrienne’s child since the tragedy?
Oh
yeah. Oh yeah. I have seen her. And she’s in the movie. I’ve
seen her and Andy, thank God, is a great dad and a great husband.
They’re doing the best they can.
Were
you inspired by this movie (to get pregnant)?
Well,
I think it’s just my age. I’m at that age. I’m in my ‘30s
and that’s when people are having their kids.
How
do you think you’ll carry on your career after your child is born?
Who
knows? I don’t know. I find it fascinating how people can do it,
do both. It seems impossible to me right now, but I watch my
girlfriends do it. They do it. We’ll see how it all goes.
What
can you tell us about August
Rush, which is you with Freddie Highmore.
Freddie,
who’s so great in it. That comes out this fall. I play a young
cellist, like a prodigy, who is touring and doing concerts.
Basically, the story is that she’s very young and she has a
one-night fling with this Irish rocker, who is Jonathan Rhys Meyers,
who is also a really talented musician. So two musicians have this
one-night stand, never see each other again, and she gets pregnant.
Believe me, I’m typecast as the young, pregnant mother. I don’t
know what it is in my face that screams that. My last four jobs, I
think, I’ve been pregnant.
In
Into the West?
Into the West, I was pregnant, but then there was some other TV thing with
Skeet Ulrich… God, why can’t I remember? Anyway, that whole
thing was being pregnant. And the last movie I just finished with
Sigourney Weaver, I was pregnant. That’s called The
Girl in the Park.
And
August Rush?
The
dad, my dad, who is kind of in control of my career and everything,
lies to me, basically. I get in this accident and he tells me that
the baby has died, and he gives the baby up for adoption. So I live
the next continuing years obviously not very fulfilled and
depressed. Basically it’s the story of this little orphan boy who
runs away from this orphanage. It’s kind of like a fairy tale
Oliver with music, and he goes in search of his parents. It’s
really beautiful and sweet and Terrence Howard plays a really great
part in it. They got great people. It’s shot in New York and it
uses New York really well. It’s like a big, sweeping, beautiful
movie.
Having
started your career at such a young age are you still as passionate
and wholehearted about performing and would you condone your kids to
act?
I
think I’m probably more passionate about it now than I was a kid.
When I was a kid, I didn’t know what I was doing. I think the
first time I realized I was acting was during Felicity. I think I
was just going along for the ride. They were like, ‘Do you want to
do this?’ and I was like, ‘Sure.’ I don’t think, as a
15-year-old, that you… maybe you do, I don’t know… think,
‘I’m a serious actor.’ I never studied acting or anything when
I was that age. So I think I’m more serious about it now, or more
conscious of it, I’d say. And, no, I wouldn’t let my kid do it.
Do
you think motherhood will affect your choices in movie roles in the
future? Some actors take into account what their own kids will be
watch of their work later on.
I
have no idea. I have no idea. It would easy for me to say, ‘No,
I’m not going to change.’ But I’m sure you change to some
degree.
What
do you think WAITRESS says about and to women?
That’s
interesting that you say that because watching it for the first time
at Sundance… you make a movie and you have a whole experience
making it. I wouldn’t say that my experience making it was
necessarily uplifting, but watching it with an audience, I was
surprised at how hopeful it was at the end. And really, it was sort
of a story about believing in yourself ultimately, and caring enough
about yourself that you say, ‘I deserve to have a great life and I
deserve better than this,’ which I think is a really common story.
So, yeah, I do think it speaks to that for women, and it was
surprising to see it for the first time as a movie all put together
with music. I really saw that and I liked that.
Given
the circumstances with Adrienne Shelley, is it hard to watch the
movie without getting emotional for reasons other than what’s on
screen?
Yeah,
it is weird. Cheryl and I sat through two screenings at Sundance and
the second one we kind of said, ‘You know, we don’t have to get
sad about this. Let’s try to enjoy this one. Let’s see it.
It’s just a happy movie.’ But as soon as that kid comes on at
the end, it’s just like, ‘Jeez.’ It’s right there. So it’s
pretty weird. It’s a weird situation.