IN STEP WITH KERI RUSSELL

October 25, 1998
By: James Brady

Keri Russell stars in Felicity on TV every Tuesday night, right after Buffy. But instead of vampires, Keri takes on the Big Apple.

Personal: Born March 23, 1976, in Fountain Valley, Califoria. Single.
Television: Includes- The Disney's Channel's Mickey Mouse Club, 1991-94; Daddy's Girls, 1994; Malibu Shores, 1996; The BabySitter's Seduction, 1996; The Lottery, 1996; Roar, 1997; When Innocence is Lost, 1997; Felicity, 1998.
Films: Includes- Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, 1992; Eight Days a Week, 1997; The Curve, 1998.

In the new hour-long series Felicity over on the WB network, young Keri Russell plays a rather sheltered 17-year-old college freshman entering a strange new world, away from home for the first time and enrolled at a big New York City university. When Ms. Russell and I met over coffee one recent morning in Manhattan, I asked about her own educational background.
"I never set foot in college," said Keri. "I graduated early from high school. A school for [acting] professionals. A good education that really works. You miss out on the social side, but that's not my forte anyway."
Judging from the media buzz, Keri may have found her true forte as Felicity. Months before the show went on the air, the trade papers already were talking about Keri in glowing terms, and Seventeen magazine shot her for its October cover. I asked Keri how she might handle waking up one morning and seeing her face on lots of covers.
"That's comic-strip stuff," she said dismissively. "Bizarre."
But then Keri told me about a schoolgirl who showed up at her door selling candy. Keri bought a dollar's worth, and then the girl recognized her -- Keri does not quite understand how, since her show hadn't aired yet. "Are you Felicity?" the girl asked. "Five minutes late," Keri said, "her little brother was at the door, then the entire candy-selling population of the neighborhood. That's real scary."
I don't mean to suggest Ms. Russell is new to showbiz. She starred in 1996 TV series Malibu Shores, was a regular on the Disney Channel's Mickey Mouse Club and just wrapped the movie Mad About Mambo in Ireland (doesn't sound very Irish, does it?), co-produced by Gabriel Byrne's company. "Being in Ireland alone was wonderful," Keri said. "When I was not shooting, I went to Trinity [College in Dublin] and just sat on the steps thinking, 'I could drop out and just go to college and become a real person.'"
When we met, the network was guaranteeing a run of 13 episodes of Felicity. If that's it, what next? "I'd go to Hawaii," Keri replied, "and do nothing! Absolutely nothing!"

Brady's Bits

Most of Felicity is show in L.A., but Keri also was filming exteriors while in New York promoting the show. Ron Howard is an executive producer of the series, which was created by the screenwrite, J.J. Abrams (Armegeddon) and the director Matt Reeves (The Pallbearer). When they sent Keri the script for Felicity, they had her in mind for a role but not the lead. "I called my manager and said, 'You've got to get me to read for this,'" said Keri. And when they narrowed the choice down to "four or five of us," she added, "there was one girl, beautiful with blue eyes, and another much more thin and blond." But it was Keri's role. Who's the youngest on the show? "I am," Keri admitted, wrinkling her brow. (She's 22.) And do they listen to her ideas? "That role and its nuances are open to discussion," Keri replied. "J.J. and Matt are so collaborative. So is the costume designer. I bought all the teen magazines to see what this girl would wear to college. You don't want her to look nerdy." After the interview, Keri asked where to go for dinner in Manhattan - a kid uncovering the secrets of the city. Nice.

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