Interview with KERI RUSSELL
KERI RUSSELL stars as Emmy Kadubic
Watch RUNNING WILDE on Tuesday nights at 9:30 EST on FOX
September 28, 2010
Lena Lamoray
FOX OFFICIAL RUNNING WILDE PRESS RELEASE: From the Emmy Award-winning creator and the star of the critically acclaimed FOX series "Arrested Development" comes RUNNING WILDE, a romantic comedy starring Will Arnett as Steven Wilde, a filthy-rich, immature playboy trying desperately to win (or buy) the heart of his childhood sweetheart, Emmy Kadubic (Keri Russell), the über-liberal humanitarian who got away - all told through the perspective of a 12-year-old girl. Steve Wilde has never performed a selfless act. But why should he? He's rich! The son of an oil tycoon, Steve hasn't had to work a day in his life and has always gotten everything he's wanted – with one exception: the love of Emmy. The daughter of a former Wilde housekeeper, Emmy is an earnest do-gooder who has spent her adult life trying to save the world. And though Emmy is content living with an indigenous tribe in the Amazon rainforest, her 12-year-old daughter, Puddle (Stefania Owen), just wants to be a normal kid experiencing her adolescence in a normal place. And she would speak up except for the fact that she hasn't spoken in a few months. When Wilde Oil's expansion in the rainforest threatens her adopted tribe, Emmy decides to attend Steve's self-thrown "Humanitarian of the Year" award ceremony in hopes of convincing him to help her cause... and also maybe because she still has a thing for Steve. But same-old Steve is unwilling to help because fighting Wilde Oil (a/k/a Dad) means putting his meal ticket in jeopardy. Rather than run the risk of letting Emmy slip away again, Steve pulls out all the stops to win her heart. To do so, he enlists the only other people in his life who can help: Oxford-accented neighbor and "frenemy" Fa'ad Shaoulian (Peter Serafinowicz); Migo Salazar (Mel Rodriguez), Steve's employee/sidekick/errand-boy; and (reluctantly) the scheming Mr. Lunt (Robert Michael Morris), Steve's "manny"--turned-secretary as well as the biggest protector of Steve... and his own job. Despite having everything he ever wanted, Steve knows he can't buy love and happiness, which falls in sharp contrast to Emmy, who has nothing but love and happiness. So with Emmy committed to doing good for nothing, and Steve being a good for nothing, will this hopelessly mismatched pair ever be able to reconcile their differences?
KERI RUSSELL gives us the lowdown on what to expect from RUNNING WILDE this season. She dishes about what it is like to work with Will Arnett. Watch RUNNING WILDE on FOX on Tuesday nights at 9:30 EST!
Q: When Kevin Riley was announcing the season he kind of said that it had been made knowing that you were interested in doing a comedy this year. Then there was kind of a rush from the different networks and studios trying to get you to do their comedy. Is that how you remember it happening?
KERI RUSSELL: Well, my take on it or my version was I certainly wasn’t shopping around to do a series again. I think I had such a great run with Felicity and it was such a positive experience in every way so I wasn’t looking to recreate that but when I read this, I’m obviously a huge Arrested Development fan and I just was so taken by Mitch Hurwitz that I couldn’t pass it up. So I don’t think I was necessarily shopping for one, but when I read it I couldn’t say no. I think Mitch’s relationship has been with FOX before. So it was a good fit and it’s just been a delight. It’s hilarious. I feel like I’m hanging out with my older brother and all his cool friends or something and I’m just tagging along every day.
Q: So you’re a fan of this brand of absurdist comedy, right? I actually like the simplicity of his solution to the tribe. I think hooking anybody up with a sweet life in a hotel might make anybody’s life better.
KERI RUSSELL: Who isn’t? It’s so refreshing and I love it. It’s something you can watch the second and third time and notice new things and get different jokes. That’s what Mitch is all about I feel like. And French fries on room service anytime you want? Yes, I know. It’s really funny because certainly, we’ve been doing press now to describe the show and I guess my hope would be that— Mitch, he writes in such a complex way so very difficult to deduce the series down into one or two sentences because the little details are what make it so wonderful and funny and different. My one hope would be to not make it be reduced to those two sentences and just give it a few weeks to watch it because I think it’s really specific and quirky and wonderful.
Q: I hear also that there’s a tiny horse pressure group that’s going to protest. Would you care to respond?
KERI RUSSELL: Are you being serious right now?
Q: I’m being funny, but would you care to comment about the tiny horse pressure group?
KERI RUSSELL: Oh my god! … never know these days! But yes, you should definitely give Will Arnett a hard time if you’re going to interview him and make it seem like it’s really serious. Please, please. Tiny horse pressure group. I don’t know except everyone loves tiny horses. All people love tiny horses.
Q: Was there a particular scene that you really enjoyed doing that was really funny?
KERI RUSSELL: Nothing’s very funny. Everything’s very sad on the show. No, it’s all so funny. Let me think of some of my favorites. We just had an episode concerning a junior high school dance, which I think everyone is obsessed with junior high school dances. So I particularly liked that one and that’s an episode where Andy Richter is in it. He is so wonderful in it. What he does is so ridiculous and so wonderful. So that’s one that’s fresh in my mind, but we are doing one this week all based around a renaissance fair, which is really good.
Q: Is there any part of any where you come out personality wise?
KERI RUSSELL: I don’t think I’m as bossy as she is, but I certainly think I know everything and at least my husband would agree with that. Shane is my husband’s name. Will keeps joking that Shane is an un-credited writer. That Shane gives him all the bad things about me and then they write it in the show.
Q: Can you talk a little bit about the difference between doing comedy and drama because you’re known mostly for doing some dramas in Felicity and the movies, but how has been kind of flexing the comedic muscles?
KERI RUSSELL: You’re right this show is unlike anything I’ve really done before. It’s such a different ride and I feel like I’m learning so much every day. It’s fast. It’s furious, especially with Mitch. He’s rewriting things seconds before we shoot them. I’m not talking a line, I’m talking pages of rewrites and then, “Go ahead,” and he says, “I’ll just stand off to the side and I’ll give you your line.” I say, “Mitch, that’s not how it works,” but by-the-way for Will it is. Will is just so sharp like that and they have such a quick, I don’t know, just such a … relationship that they just know each other’s jokes. So yes, it’s working completely different muscles. I just have to say it’s a delight. I’m enjoying it so much. I’m getting to work in New York, which is wonderful, where I live. I’m just laughing all day. They’re super smart, they’re funny and it’s just refreshing for me. It’s an absolute change of pace.
Q: What do you think has been actually easier than you expected? I’m sure you were a little trepidations going into this, but has anything been easier than you thought it would be?
KERI RUSSELL: I would say, no. I’m definitely the new kid. I feel between David Cross and Will and Mitch … know each other so well so I’m still the new kid trying to be on best behavior and show up on time and put forth my shiniest best possible version of myself and I’m a nerd. I feel like I’m just surrounded by a group of older brothers who are just constantly making fun of me all day long.
Q: I was wondering, does it feel like an Arrested Development reunion because you’ve got Will, Mitch, David Cross? Is there any plans to get Portia and Jeffrey Tambor and Michael Cera on the show?
KERI RUSSELL: There was already some talk of Jeffrey but he wasn’t available. It was a great part but done brilliantly by someone else. So yes, I think when something works well you have this chemistry together and you just want to keep using that chemistry. I feel that same way with J. J. Abrams and Matt Reeves who created Felicity. J. J. calls me all the time to do stuff and I always want to work with him because you have a shorthand with someone and you kind of know what to expect. So yes, there is the Arrested Development flavor but I do think it’s innately a different show. There is that attempt at the romantic comedy aspect of it. I’m not saying it’s a romantic comedy exactly, but its Mitch Hurwitz version of a romantic comedy, which is a great version by the way.
Q: There’s some wonderful comedies coming out this season. Why will people want to take their time to tune in and watch Running Wilde?
KERI RUSSELL: For me it’s just …. I was a huge fan of Arrested Development and there’s just something it tickles in me and it’s bright and it’s hilarious. I know a lot of people don’t know Peter Serafinowicz as well, but he is so wonderful on this show. He plays Steven Wilde’s frenemy next door neighbor named Fa’ad. I don’t know if you guys know his work at all from London but he has his own show and he plays all these different characters on our show with different accents. They’re doing crazy stuff and it’s just really wonderful. I feel like they’re really great at what they do and then I think it balances out a little bit with Stefania Owen, who plays my daughter, Puddle. I was doing a scene just recently with Stefania and she has this kind of real moment and I looked at her and I thought, “Oh, right, that’s why she’s … in the show,” because amidst all this hilarity and my craziness then there’s this grounded person. It’s a funny, off center balance the whole ride and I think it’s really fun.
Q: I know that Running Wilde has gone through a couple of changes before it’s finally gotten to air. Can you talk a little bit about maybe some of the different adaptations it’s gone through and maybe how the shows become a little bit different from how it started out in the original incarnation?
KERI RUSSELL: When we first shot the pilot, we shot it up in Vancouver, which was wonderful, but one of my favorite changes—and nothing against Vancouver because it’s so beautiful—is they moved the show to New York. Will only had to sleep with, I don’t know, was it four guys to get that done? Okay, yes. But he took it for the team and I appreciate it and I know his wife appreciates it because … have her baby here. We got to shoot in New York, which is wonderful. We get to be close to our families and not have to move our whole lives. Plus just the energy of New York and the character actors in New York and all the people we can plead and beg to come be on our show. They’re that much closer. Then also, you guys know how shows work, they shoot the pilot, whatever and then they test screen it and they see what’s working and what’s not and I was so pleasantly surprised by all the changes. They did end up making a few cast changes. I love Mr. Lunt who is one of the new guys. Robert Michael Morris just the addition of him adds a whole other color to that relationship. I also that they souped up the music a little bit, which they made it kind of more modern and fun. I think the biggest difference to me is it was just we decided as a group and a whole to make it a little bit more current and fun and I think it’s a good time for that.
Q: As you said, Will Arnett is always picking on you making fun of you as the new kid on the block. Are there any funny backstage or behind the scenes anecdotes and pranks you’d like to share?
KERI RUSSELL: Literally, you’re asking me to describe every minute of my job. He’s humiliating me or berating me in front of people, in front of the crew. I feel like they are 75% on my side, though. I feel like they like me a lot more than they like him. Yes, I’m pretty confident about that. I’m trying to think if there’s something funny that happened recently. I don’t know and they’re probably gross and I can’t repeat them. I really do, and I tell him every day, I have an older brother already. His name is Todd Russell; I don’t need a second one. He makes fun of me every day of my life. I don’t need another one. I’m trying to think if there’s something specific. Literally, just daily humiliation. By the way I throw it back. Any chance I can tell him he’s balding, any chance I can tell him he’s old I let everyone know.
Q: We’re just wondering over here what it’s like to be a full time mother and actor and any tips you can give out to other women who are looking to balance career and babies.
KERI RUSSELL: I think anytime you’re working and you have kids, mom or dad, I think it’s hard. My little guys first week of preschool was last week and of course I want to be there for that. I never imagined I wouldn’t be walking him to class. Luckily, just by chance, I didn’t have to go into work until 1:00 that day and so I got to drop him off at least and then my husband picked him up. But, oh yes, of course it’s hard, but I think it’s hard for my lawyer friends, too, or advertising friends. I think you just have to make time. During the weekends, I try to do less friends stuff and be there to make dinner and be there for breakfast time and make the little bits count. He does come visit me on set and the great thing about this show is Will and Amy have two little guys, too. So we’ve gotten them already together to play and they’re all about the same age; they’re all under three. This is sort of the best possible version of it because Will is also having this young family, as well.
Q: Could you be a little more specific about working with David Cross? What is he like to work with and be with?
KERI RUSSELL: Obviously he’s so funny, you read something on a page and then … what he does is so above and beyond what was asked of him in the crazy most ridiculous way. I have to say because the pilot was the first time I met him or worked with him, he’s a really good actor. There’s one specific scene I’m thinking of where I do a lot of the talking and he’s just listening. I’d be every little single tiny thought I had, he had a thought and I thought, and I said thought again, too, but he was matching me move for move. I guess that was something that was educational for me, too, that watching these really skilled comedic actors that how they’re just great actors, bottom-line. He’s so brave. He’s just fearless. He’s doing ridiculous sounds and expressions and I mean it’s been really eye-opening and a wonderful experience for me learning wise.
Q: Your character is kind of this intense environmental activist. Do you think that any of that’s going to rub-off in real life or would you consider yourself a “Greenie” at this point?
KERI RUSSELL: Well, I think what I love about what Mitch is saying with this show is yes, we’re completely calling Steven Wilde out and saying, “You’re a buffoon, you have no responsibility in your life.” But at the same time, Emmy’s character, my character is living the life of a public servant but wanting credit for it and P.S. preaching it as loudly as possible and telling everyone how they’re doing it wrong. I like that aspect because it’s such a big thing right now. It such a—celebrity causes and all that stuff and I love Mitch’s version of saying, “Just because you’re doing this work in the rainforest or whatever doesn’t mean you don’t secretly covet going to the fancy party and wearing a fancy dress.” It’s okay and I like that. I think it’s true and I think it’s smart.