Keri Russell has come a long way since the days when she played a gamine coed on “Felicity,” but in the years since, the 30-year-old hasn’t lost an ounce of her fresh-faced appeal. Having just wrapped up a starring role in the Sundance hit “Waitress,” Russell is turning her attention to her latest endeavors: a baby due this summer with husband Shane Deary (they wed on Valentine’s Day) and nesting in their new house.
“Waitress” made headlines even before its arrival at Sundance: Its writer/director/co-star, Adrienne Shelly, was murdered in her Greenwich Village office in November. At the festival itself, the film was snapped up by Fox Searchlight for $5 million, the highest price tag at Sundance.
Russell has her own theories as to why the bittersweet comedy did so well. “People just seemed to be rooting for it, laughing at the right parts and crying at the right parts,” she recalls. “Maybe people are just ready to see a story about hope.
“Film festivals tend to celebrate the darker, more morose films and maybe this one took everyone by surprise,” she continues. “It couldn’t have gone better and Adrienne would have been so happy.”
The movie role of expectant mom presented no challenge for Russell, it turns out. “I feel like my last four jobs I’ve played a pregnant woman, so I don’t know if I have a face that looks like I’m a little, innocent pregnant girl or what,” she jokes, adding it was “so bizarre” to see her prosthetic bump on the big screen just as she was sporting a real one.
Although her movie character is an unhappily married woman with mixed emotions about her impending motherhood, Russell says her own experience has been just the opposite. “I am obviously very excited as far as this [pregnancy], and I’m just ready for it,” she attests. “I’m with someone whom I really care about, and who cares about me. And I will warn you I’m having a ridiculously easy, fun pregnancy.”
That’s partially because of her new husband. Russell says Deary helped her memorize her lines and thought her portrayal was “hilarious.” And since he’s a contractor, he’ll also be renovating their new East Coast home while Russell takes some time off — well-deserved, as she has two films coming up: “August Rush,” with Robin Williams, and “Girl in the Park,” with Kate Bosworth. “We’ll just be picking out house paint and getting ready for a baby,” she says, noting she has no plans to become a Hollywood mom, trendy as it may be. “Ugh,” the Colorado native says at the thought.
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One thing she will be doing during her days off is catching up on her reading. Her bookworm-ish ways even influence which roles she takes. “When I don’t have time to read books I’m not very happy, so for me — which probably isn’t always the correct thing to do, being an actor — if the script doesn’t read like a good book with a great character, I’m just not interested,” she says. “Even if it has some interesting f–ked-up character, I’m not as taken with it.”
In the meantime, she’s also enjoying her changing body. “I think it’s better when you wear something tight that shows it,” she says gleefully. “And for me, who’s never had boobs in my entire life, like, just having a little bit is awesome! I look at myself, and I’m like, ‘Whoo, whoo!'”