Keri Russell

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Keri Russell is a sweet-mannered, fresh-faced actress who once caused a stir simply by cutting her hair. Those voluminous golden locks have since grown, and in the process, so has Russell. Earlier this year she got married, became a mother, and starred as an unhappy pregnant piemaker in the critically acclaimed indie flick, Waitress. Her maternal instincts must be kicking in, because she also plays a mother in her new film August Rush. Russell is Lyla, a classical musician whose chance encounter with a handsome Irish guitarist (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) results in a child which Lyla must give up for adoption. The child grows into a musical prodigy and plans to use his gift as a way to reunite with his birth parents.

The heartwarming tale was appealing to Russell for many reasons. 'I love these kinds of movies,' she says. 'Movies that are about kind of finding your home and your place'I totally go in for these kinds of movies. It is magical, but I'm always in the mood for those kinds of movies. Just going and sitting for two hours and believing everything works out. And what [director] Kirsten [Sheridan] kept saying to me during shooting was everything that was propelling the story was having an open heart. As cheesy as that sounds these days, it's true. Sometimes it's brave to have an open heart that often. That's sort of what takes every character to the final meeting point.'

In order to play the role of the talented Lyla, Russell had to train to look like a professional. 'I play a cellist and that's the joke'you're never just ok at the cello, you're like a child prodigy on the cello playing with the New York Philharmonic,' she says. 'So I went from 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star' to Bach solos in about 12 weeks. Many, many hours a day and just to be able to fake the fingering'that was an extreme part of doing this film. But the cello's obviously a beautiful instrument.'

Though the actual sound was dubbed over for the movie, Russell went through all the motions of playing. Was it strange to hear herself play beautiful symphonies in the film' 'The first time you see everything you think oh God, I would've done something different,' she says. 'But I had a great cello teacher who spent hours with me every day. I had about four hours a day that I was supposed to be learning these three impossible pieces. And you know, I feel good about it. I think it's great and it's a beautiful instrument to be played. Everything sort of surrounding the cello is romantic. I'm glad it wasn't my sound, for the love of god!'

She learned a lot about the instrument in only a short period of time, including one intriguing observation. 'One thing that someone told me that I thought was pretty interesting is that the cello is the closest instrument to the sound of the human voice and that's why it's always used for really emotional parts of movies and symphonies,' she says.

Adding to the emotion of August Rush is young actor Freddie Highmore, who portrays Russell's determined son. 'I love that he's still a kid,' she says of Highmore. 'Sometimes you see kid actors and they're just sort of creepy because they're ten but they're really 40, and he doesn't have that to me. He still seems genuine and he's just special. I know it has probably been written about him so many times, but he really is.'

Russell is also quite close to her romantic co-star Rhys Meyers. 'We did two films back to back'MI: 3 and August Rush, very different films,' she says. 'One we were rescuing each other with machine guns firing and this one we were meeting on rooftops singing like Van Morrison under the moonlight. And Jonathan he plays the guitar but he doesn't play all the time, and he just looks like an expert. I feel like you could give him the harp and he would be like, 'I'm amazing at this!' He's just a performer.'

Being friends with your on-screen love interest can have its awkward moments, though. 'It's funny like knowing someone and then having to make out with them,' Russell says. ''Cause we had known each other and then it's weird when we're like, oh this is the part where we have to kiss.'

So what's next for Russell' Can we expect a re-teaming with her Felicity and MI: 3 director J.J. Abrams for the highly anticipated Star Trek movie' Unfortunately, while they had originally spoken about a possible role, it doesn't look like it's going to happen. 'I just saw J.J. last week and if we could find something I would,' she says. 'I want to be in anything he does. Literally, I would be the caterer. But I don't think the thing we had talked about is going to work out.'

With so much joy and success coming her way, it doesn't seem like she'll be resorting to a catering job any time soon.