Hollywood co-stars playing on-screen lovers only to fall in love off-screen is a tale
as old as time.
And for The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys, it was no different.
Their spark was instant and undeniable.
There was just one problem; the actress was already married.
From how Keri and Matthew went from co-stars to lovebirds to parents, this is their story.
The year was 2012 when Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys were cast together on The Americans…
Wait, we need to backtrack about ten years.
*clear throat* The year was 2002 when Keri and Matthew actually
met, an entire decade before the pair landed the lead roles in The Americans.
Although the actress had initially completely forgotten about the experience until they
reunited again ten years later.
The actor explained that the meeting took place in a parking lot after a kickball party.
He asked her to open a beer and then very drunkenly asked for her number.
Rhys knew when he was 26 that she would be the woman he would end up with.
“After a heavy dose of fight training, all sweaty, at lunch, he said, ‘Oh, you know
we’ve met before.
I said, ‘No, we haven’t,’ and he said, ‘yeah, we’ve met before, like 10 years
ago at kickball.’
As soon as he said that, I knew exactly what happened, and I was like, ‘Oh! of course,
I remember that,'” she recalled.
As we already said earlier, Russell and Rhys were then cast as husband-and-wife spies,
Elizabeth and Philip Jennings in The Americans.
At the time, the actress was married to carpenter Shane Deary.
The couple shared two children and had been married for seven years.
However, it was just seven months after the first season of the series aired that the
couple called it quits.
The separation was amicable, and their focus was on their children.
As it happens, the newly single Keri had a bit of a scare when her townhouse was burglarized
while she was asleep.
She was not harmed and returned to work the next day.
As for the burglars, they were arrested and charged.
Nearly a month after the news of Russell’s separation broke, rumors began to swirl about
an off-screen romance between her and Rhys.
Although many speculated that this was the cause of her divorce, this was not the case.
Were the actors just so convincing at portraying the slow-burning intimacy between their characters,
or was there truth to the gossip?
Evidence began to pile up in favor of the latter when the twosome was spotted together
several times, looking very much like a couple as they shopped for furniture hand-in-hand.
Even with all signs pointing to love, Matthew laughed off the rumors about a brewing romance
with his leading lady.
He even deflected questions from his own mother!
"I've told her a million times that there are a million inaccuracies that she's read,
but she still calls and goes, 'Is this true?'
I tell her, 'No!
When are you going to get it?
You have to take your Google alerts off,'" he said.
Although the pair managed to hide their relationship for a while, one of their Americans directors
eventually caught on to their chemistry.
“We had to do a very explicit scene together, and the director was like, ‘Well, this might
be kind of awkward let’s see how this goes.’
We kind of just did it right away.
And he told the script supervisor, ‘These two have definitely fucked, they’re way
too comfortable together,” Kerri recalled.
Something the both of them never hid was how they felt working on set together.
Rhys gushed about the upbeat atmosphere on The Americans set.
According to him, they laughed maybe a little too much with practical jokes.
But all the laughter became a great struggle during the intense sexy scenes, which were
difficult at first until they realized the perfunctory element of it.
"The cameramen shouts, 'Hand up more!
Down with your elbow!
Lift your leg higher!'
The clinical element of it kicks in, which sort of takes away from that embarrassment,"
he shared.
As for Keri, she shared that acting opposite Matthew always felt easy and safe, which is
what she enjoyed the most.
She always felt like she was in safe hands, especially with their raunchier scenes because
he would take on all of the difficult things.
In 2014, Russell and Rhys confirmed what fans had long been expecting…
they were a couple and had been for a while!
From then, they couldn’t stop sharing inside details about it!
Well, of course, it always related back to what it was like to work together.
While discussing her romance with the actor, she said there was obviously something sexy
about the whole spy world.
“It was a fun, sexy place to live in for years, especially being with someone I was
so in love with.
It wasn’t like we were growing plants.
We were shooting a lot at night, and we just really enjoy each other’s company,” she
said.
Matthew also had a few things to say about working together.
He once admitted that having a real romantic relationship with his scene partner kept him
from taking risks as an actor during the first couple of seasons.
Rhys said he was so worried about making a fool of himself in front of Russell that his
performance suffered.nything.
That’s why we didn’t get nominated for Emmys in seasons one, two, and three.
Da “My acting was worse.
I was trying to impress her so much I wasn’t doing amn you, Keri Russell,” he joked.
Then in 2016, even bigger news than the couple dating broke.
Keri and Matthew’s next mission?
Raising a child together!
While filming season 4 of The Americans in New York City, they were also anticipating
the arrival of a baby together.
Then later that year, they welcomed their first son together, Sam Evans.
This was the actress’s third child, but it was the actor’s first, so he was in for
quite the ride.
One thing the couple decided on pretty quickly was that little Sam would grow up trilingual.
There was Welsh, Spanish, and English being spoken in their home and the little man grasped
it pretty early on.
When their son was 9 months old, Russell opened up about parenting with her long-time love.
“Firstly, Sam’s a giant.
He’s walking, he’s talking, shouting.
Not talking — shouting.
Also, Matthew only speaks Welsh to him and could be saying anything.
I can count in Welsh.
Willa, the 5-year-old, speaks the best.
When you are little, that is when you should learn, but I know nothing.
I blame my parents; I only speak one language,” she said.
Later on, the Post star joked that he and his partner were spending much of their time
focused on the hours between 4:30 pm and bedtime.
They would evaluate the success of the day based on those hours.
If they got all three kids fed with their vegetables eaten, someone has asked them a
question at dinner, they were bathed, Harry Potter was read, they were in bed, and none
had cried, then it was an enormous success.
The actor also spoke about his then-toddler’s habits of mimicking him.
He was torn on whether to find it amusing or not.
“What’s frightening is sometimes they repeat exactly what you’ve just said or
done.
You go, ‘Ahh!
Don’t copy me!’
I heard this kind of echoing parrot in the corner.
I was like, ‘Ah!
I said ‘duck,’ you little turd,’” he revealed.
Keri often shared details about her home life with her children.
She once spoke about how the couple doesn’t have any pets, although they did use to have
a cat, their oldest, River, had a whole plot to take in a rodent.
“He is obsessed with having rats.
Insane because he is so afraid of them.
On the way to school once, he said, ‘Do you think if I start telling Matt that I saw
a rat in his crib, think he would let us get a cat?'”
she revealed.
How funny is that?
Since the final season of The Americans aired in 2018, Russell and Rhys haven’t had the
chance to work together again.
But the Perry Mason star has said time and time again how much he loved working with
his girlfriend.
“I loved it for many, many different reasons.
So, that lot I’ll miss enormously,” he gushed.
But, even after the finale, it didn’t stop the show from being a part of their relationship
one last time.
While accepting his Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Matthew gave a shout-out
to Keri in his speech.
For some context, earlier in the evening, film producer Glenn Weiss proposed to his
girlfriend.
“To the woman who truly got me this award, who just stands in front of me every day and
just puts up with me.
She said, ‘If you propose to me, I’ll punch you clean in the mouth.
I don’t have the words or the time, neither which would do you justice, Keri Lynn, except
thank you," the actor said.
Funny and sweet, right?
Well, the actress thought so too.
After the ceremony, she told the press she thought her beau's speech was hilarious.
Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys have been together for 8 years and are stronger than ever.
It seemed that destiny really did want them to be together when they met again 10 years
after the drunken Matthew asked for her number.
With a beautiful family and flourishing careers, it seems this couple is only going one way,
and that is up!
We cannot wait to see what the future holds for them.
What would you do if someone was drunk and asked you to open their beer only to then
ask for your number?
Let us know in the comments below!
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Thanks for watching!
This has been Rumour Juice.