Tavis: Keri Russell is a Golden-Globe-winning actress who of course starred on the popular drama, "Felicity." She also has appeared in a number of notable films, including "Mission Impossible 3," "The Upside of Anger." Her most regent projects - plural - include the acclaimed film "Waitress," which comes out on DVD this week, and you can catch her in theaters in the new movie, "August Rush." The film also stars Robin Williams and Terrence Howard. Here now, a scene from "August Rush."
[Clip]
Tavis: So this movie's about you in search of your son, and in real life, you not long ago had a baby, but nobody would know it looking at you, Keri.
Keri Russell: Oh, but I promise you, I did. (Laughter) I promise you I had that baby.
Tavis: And how is the baby?
Russell: He's so good, he's so good. I had a little guy. We were convinced it was a girl, and we got a guy. I'm so happy. And he's with the babysitter right now.
Tavis: So speaking of a guy, your husband is working on your house back in New York.
Russell: This is true.
Tavis: And you and I have nothing in common except for the fact that we're both in construction hell right about now.
Russell: My husband, Shane, is a carpenter, and he's completely redoing a Brooklyn - one of those old, beautiful Brooklyn brownstones. And top to bottom, literally - I just talked to him on the phone, and he is so upset because he's tearing off the roof and laying a new roof, the whole thing all by himself.
Tavis: In New York?
Russell: In New York.
Tavis: Does he know what time of year it is, Keri?
Russell: I know. Okay? It's raining. He's like - I can honestly say these are some of the worst couple of days I've had in years. He's, like, just fighting weather and everything, but he's doing a beautiful job and I can't wait to live there.
Tavis: Yeah, well, we'll both be out of this before too long.
Russell: Yeah, and you're, like, in craziness with yours?
Tavis: I'm almost there, but you guys better get done. I'm in California, at least, although we have a rainy season. But you'd better get done fast on your project, though.
Russell: I know. (Laughs)
Tavis: I'm glad you're here, though.
Russell: Oh, thank you.
Tavis: A couple of projects - you are one busy sister. Let's talk first about "August Rush." The storyline - I'll let you say it. The storyline on this is?
Russell: Well, it's sort of a fable about - I like to say it's sort of a fable about a family love story, really, and them all finding each other. And I was watching your show with James Taylor, and it's funny because he was - which by the way, oh, god, that was so great. James is, like - that was so great, your interview.
Tavis: He's an amazing guy. He's an amazing guy.
Russell: It was really wonderful. But he talked a lot about the music sort of coming to him, and then him sort of sharing it in that concert experience. And in a way, that's what "August Rush" is about. This little boy, sort of this music comes to him, and everyone's like, how do you get that? And he creates symphonies and rhapsodies, and he's a child prodigy.
And it's amazing that there are people really out there, and you meet someone like James, and you do, you go, yeah, that really happens. But so this story, it's really - what I loved so much when I first read it, it was just this idea that this kid who's been left, basically, to be an orphan - the voiceover at the beginning says I know my parents are out there and I know they want me, and I'm going to find them.
And there was something about that unwavering faith that, I don't know, especially with that kid, Freddie Highmore, saying it, I just love it. I'm a sucker for those kind of movies, about wanting to find your home and really believing that you can.
Tavis: What do you take from working on a project like that? Because you referenced the conversation with JT not long ago, and that conversation, there was so much in there, there's so much to take. You can chew on that, marinate on it.
Russell: I know, I'm like - I know, I know.
Tavis: I was so high after that conversation; I could have flown from L.A. to New York unaided.
Russell: That's what - I know.
Tavis: Just unaided, flew. But what do you take, since you made the comparison or drew the link, what do you take from - as a person, get the actress thing aside for the second - what do you take as a person from working on a project like that?
Russell: Well, in light of especially what we're talking about with him, when I hear stuff like that and when I believe in stuff like this movie is about, it makes me think, remember that what's that figure that we only use like 3 percent of our brain or something?
I really think that we all are capable of so much, that if we could just, like, kind of plug into something or maybe unplug, maybe just be open - I don't know what that is. But that's kind of what I take from it. And that faith is important. Like really believing and not giving up. And I don't mean, like, whatever - whatever your god - that's not what I mean. I think really believing in something and working hard, and I think there's something to that.
Tavis: To "Waitress." It's out on DVD. So much talk of late. I know you've been asked about this a thousand times, but the story of Adrienne Shelly - I'll let you share a little bit for those who haven't heard the story. Just a sad story. She produced something wonderful here, and yet - well, I'll let you tell the story.
Russell: Yeah. Yes, we made this movie, "Waitress," that Adrienne Shelly wrote, directed, and was also starring in. She played a character. And not only - she also wrote a song I sing in it. She picked our outfits. She was - every frame of this film is Adrienne. And we shot the movie in 20 days, it was a real low budget, just one of those kind of movies, like, you drive way out. We shot it in Canyon Country out in Lancaster. We'd get Taco Bell on the way home at 1:00 in the morning, drive home, you know what I mean? Try not to fall asleep. And then we were waiting. She'd edit it and we were waiting to hear whether or not it got into Sundance, and I got this crazy phone call that she had been killed, and tragically, tragically murdered, and it was a crazy story.
And left behind her wonderful husband and a little girl who's three, who actually, when she was two and a half, Sophie - she's the little toddler that I'm holding at the end that I'm, like, singing with.
Tavis: She makes a cameo.
Russell: She does. And yeah, so it's really upsetting. Like, two days later we found out we got into Sundance, and the only thing I can say is it's absolutely a tribute to Adrienne, any success of this. And the wonderful thing is that her husband, Andy, immediately in need of, like, create some sort of action amidst all of this formed this foundation, the Adrienne Shelly Foundation, which he's raised all this money, a bunch of us are on the board, really cool people - not that I'm really cool, but some other really cool people.
Tavis: But you are, yeah. (Laughter)
Russell: Really cool people are on it, and raised all this money for women filmmakers, just to support their work. The statistics of even like Sundance, for instance, the submissions, the statistic is crazy about the ratio of men versus women. I think there's, like, of hundreds of men, there's, like, five women directors. So it's really about supporting people like Adrienne and letting their work be heard.
Tavis: Well, it's powerful of him to do that, but it's kind of you all - beyond kind - to participate and support what he's doing in her memory. What does having a show like "Felicity" for those four seasons do for one's career? Speaking of cool, such a very cool show.
Russell: It was a cool show. What does it do? Well, I think TV, it definitely - there's a different visibility, obviously, if you're in someone's home versus being in a film that only certain people see, so that was good for me. And it also makes you a hard worker. I think that's something that people don't know about hour TV.
Tavis: TV is crazy, isn't it?
Russell: It is crazy, that schedule.
Tavis: Those hours, yeah.
Russell: And doing an hour of drama with - we did have an ensemble cast, but I was pretty much in every scene. So I don't think people realize, you go to work at 5:00 in the morning and then you start finishing Friday nights at 5:00 in the morning. (Laughs) Because turnarounds, and you're working on average about 15-hour days, 17-hour days.
Tavis: Is it worth all that? And I don't mean to be arrogant or pompous about that or arrogant. I'm just asking. So much time.
Russell: It's a lot of work. It's hard. It's really hard work. I think it would be great if everyone could just share that amount of work. It was too much work for me. For me, honestly, it was sort of life-arresting. I love, love with all my heart JJ and Matt, who created the show. Still friends with them, still really good friends with other people that were on the show with me.
But I needed a break, and I took a break after that. I moved to New York, I didn't act for a year. I was, like, do I want to do this anymore? Maybe I just want to go to, like, school and read books.
Tavis: See, I'm struck now by the juxtaposition of spending your entire life on that set for four years, and doing this in 20 days.
Russell: Twenty days.
Tavis: Yeah. So as an actress, you're challenged how, when you're doing something in 20 days? That makes Sundance, no less.
Russell: I know, it's funny. It's weird, just sometimes it works. You, like, throw it out on the wall and whatever's going to stick. And with that, it just did, and I think it's a complete testament to Adrienne's script. It was just - in reading it, it was so fresh and funny and sharp, and then really true when it needed to be true. And that's what worked, and having people like Andy Griffith, who is such a dream, and just everything kind of fit together.
Tavis: This is a long way from the "Mickey Mouse Club."
Russell: So long, but I don't know, that was so good.
Tavis: Yeah. (Laughs)
Russell: The "Mickey Mouse Club," I loved. It's so funny.
Tavis: So who, you, Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears - a long list of folk.
Russell: (Laughs) Christina Aguilera.
Tavis: Christina Aguilera, yeah.
Russell: Ryan Gosling, who a lot of people don't know is a fabulous actor.
Tavis: Great actor, yeah. So would you recommend something like that? You've done the child actor thing, and you seem so well-adjusted.
Russell: Oh, well, gee, thanks. If my kid - no, I would never let my kid do it. I do not regret for a second my life, and I really am grateful for my life, but I think it's a slippery slope. I think for a kid - well, let me say one difference about me being a kid actor is I wasn't a kid on a movie set. I wasn't one, and then there were like 300 adults.
I was one of 19 kids. I think that's a big difference.
Tavis: That's a good point, yeah.
Russell: But that being said, I think it's a very strange world when a kid has to be in an adult, responsible world. Childhood is all about making mistakes, and that's when you figure out, oh, I shouldn't do that, that didn't work. When you're a kid actor, there are no mistakes. There's money on the line. Anything with money on the line, it's weird.
And I always say the term; those kid actors are creepy, because it's creepy. (Laughter) They're doing interviews with, like, Barbara Walters, and they're like, "Well, Barbara -" and I'm like, you're 10. You don't say "Well, Barbara," like, who are you?
Tavis: But it is true, though. I hear your point and I feel the same way when I see kid actors talk that way to adults. And yet it's also true that when you're a kid actor -
Russell: I was never allowed to do that.
Tavis: - you grow up so much faster, though.
Russell: You have to. Well, because you have to - you're in an adult-rules world, and I do think you miss out on some - at least I can only talk for myself, I guess. I missed out on some social things. Like, I never - I missed out on college and the end of high school, and I think you learn important things. I love my life, I love where I am, I made it, but I completely understand why some people lose their way.
Tavis: She is a fine actress, awfully talented, and I'm honored she had time to come by and see us. A couple of projects, as I mentioned earlier, "August Rush," in theaters now. Rush and go see it. And on DVD now, "Waitress." Got some love at Sundance. And so Keri Russell, an honor to have you on the program. Nice to meet you.
Russell: Nice to meet you.
Tavis: Thanks, Keri Russell.
Russell: Thank you very much.
thanks kochie and archana
Love her hair!
