Get to know
a girl named Keri

Kids Stuff
By William Feldman

Welcome to Kids Stuff. Today’s column includes an interview with Keri Russell, actress, wife, mother and truly a real nice person. I also have an important health note.
I was very excited to find out I was able to obtain this interview with Keri, as I enjoyed watching her weekly drama, Felicity, when I was younger.
Keri was born on March 23, 1976, in Fountain Valley, Calif. School is cool, she said. Keri feels that reading books was a major influence on her while she was growing up.
"I read books all the time when I was younger," she said. "Nancy Drew had a major impact. I really didn’t watch TV, instead I read a lot."
So, listen to your parents when they say reading will expand your mind and open new doors.
I was surprised when Keri noted, "I didn’t really decide to become an actress. I was a dancer and very involved in dance, probably very seriously from age thirteen to fifteen."
She said some friends from the dance studio where she was living in Colorado went to an audition for a show called The Mickey Mouse Club.
"I just went with them and happened to get it. I haven’t stopped acting from then on," she said.
Presently, Keri is starring with Robin Williams in the movie August Rush. In case you haven’t seen the movie, Keri portrays a cellist, Lyla, who is performing as a soloist from a very young age. She has missed out on a regular kid’s life. One night she meets an Irish rocker and has a romantic affair and becomes pregnant. Months later, Lyla is hit by a car and told that her unborn baby was killed. Ultimately, she becomes devastated and loses her interest in music. Ten years later she learns that her son is still out there and goes looking for him. This basically causes her to come back to life. The baby was secretly given away by Lyla’s father.
"I can relate to her," Keri said. "I always love stories about finding your home."
I wondered what it was like to work with such a great comedian and actor like Robin Williams.
"The thing about August Rush is that it became three different movies," Keri said. "It is really a story about this little boy looking for his parents. Freddy (Highmore), who plays the little boy, is working with Robin Williams as he searches for his parents. I have a separate part in the movie in which I am looking for the little boy. Jonathan Rhys Meyers is looking for me. We kind of don’t see each other in the movie because we are searching for each other. So, I didn’t really work with Robin."
As most are aware, Keri’s claim to fame came from the drama Felicity. Was she prepared for the early fame?
"I don’t think you are ever really prepared," she replied, "but I have to say I don’t know if it is, because I played a nice character; people are really nice to me."
Keri noted her greatest memory of Felicity was the friendships she made.
"That job was the first time I really felt like an actor," she said. "Before, I just kind of was going along and taking jobs that were offered to me. Felicity was actually a part I really auditioned for. I saw the story in it more than anything else that I had done previous."
Keri explained that doing an hour-long drama involves really long hours. You work 15-17 hour days, five days a week, with only two and a half months off in the summer. Movies are different, she said, adding that there might be one big scene a day. While there may be a few other scenes to shoot, the big scene that requires a lot of emotion happens just one time a day.
"But with TV, you might have to do it multiple times a day. You really have to be on top of it," she said.
In four months after Felicity premiered on the WB network, Keri was honored with a Golden Globe Award for best performance by an actress in a drama series. How did she feel when she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Felicity?
"Nothing went through my mind because my mind went absolutely blank," she joked. "I was such a kid when that happened.
"When I was nominated for that I didn’t even know what the Golden Globes were," she added. "I think I got my award from Michael J. Fox. I don’t even remember what I said at all. In the larger scheme of things, the award doesn’t change anything. But like any business, for one moment it gives you credibility in the business world."
What was it like working with Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible 3?
"That movie was so much fun. They actually came up to me before one stunt and told me if my hair catches on fire just stay still we will get to you," she said. She was fine. They didn’t get a double because Tom Cruise does all of his own stunts, she said, adding that when she has watched the movie, she actually sees Tom Cruise looking over at her to make sure she was OK.
I wondered if Keri preferred one medium of acting over another.
"They all have great things about them, obviously," she said. "The cool thing about film is you get to do something for a short amount of time, but it is such an intense amount of time. It is almost like going to a summer specialist camp.
"When I did Spielberg’s miniseries," she added, "I learned how to ride horses: to ride bareback, learned to mount by grabbing the back of the horse’s hair, and run the horses hard and jump. On Mission Impossible 3, I learned how to do different stunts. In August Rush, I learned how to play the cello. I would go from learning how to play Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to Bach solos. I had to be able to fake my way through cello solos. That is the neat thing about film."
Keri still loves to ride horses and misses the time she spent with them. Keri also learned that the sound of the cello is the closest instrument sound to the human voice.
As if she is not busy enough, she also became a spokeswoman for Cover Girl two years ago.
"It is actually kind of fun work. It involves shooting TV commercials, photography campaigns that run in magazines, and it is fun. They also give you free makeup," she said.
Keri has starred in a number of other major motion pictures including The Upside of Anger; We Were Soldiers; Mad About Mambo; The Curve; Eight Days A Week; and the romantic comedy Waitress. Her recent TV credits include the miniseries Into the West, produced by Steven Spielberg.
The personal side of Keri: She lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., with her husband and son. Keri’s son, River, was born on June 9. He is not named after anyone, she just really liked the name.
How does she find the time to be mom and a star?
"I don’t know, I like being a mom," she said. "A lot of my friends are not in the business. I also think it is nice that we live in Brooklyn and not in Los Angeles. My husband is a carpenter and not an actor. All of that stuff keeps things a little more normal."
She would like to instill in River the belief that "if you love yourself, then you can love everything else around you." She also wants him to have a sense of humor, "because a sense of humor gets you far."
My next question is very relevant to the stories we hear about every day — how does Keri hope to keep her son out of the tabloids?
"I think you just don’t end up going to all of the parties," she said. "Don’t bring the baby with you."
What does she hope to be doing five years from now?
"Hopefully, be a good mom and my family will be happy and healthy," she said. "We will see if I still will be acting. Right now it is good, but maybe later on it won’t be. I would like to just have a nice house with a yard and a great family."

* * *

Faces of Influenza, an initiative of the American Lung Association, will host an influenza vaccination clinic in Philadelphia on Thursday, Dec. 13.
The clinic will be held in the north waiting room at 30th Street Station from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Vaccinations will cost $15 each, and can be paid for with cash, MasterCard, Visa or American Express. People with traditional Medicare Insurance ID will receive a vaccination with no out-of-pocket cost. Vaccinations are available for adults and children over the age of 4.
Spokespeople for the Faces of Influenza campaign will be present, including former Philadelphia Eagle Mike Quick and Dr. Tyra Bryant-Stephens, founder of the Community Asthma Prevention Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. For more information, call 1-800-LUNG-USA. ••
Columnist William Feldman can be contacted by e-mail at wmkidscolumn@aol.com