The demands of Broadway are not for the faint of heart — just ask Keri Russell. The star of Felicity and The Americans makes her Broadway debut this season in Lanford Wilson’s romantic tragicomedy Burn This. Russell stars as Anna, a grieving dancer, alongside Adam Driver’s Pale, a, uh, very sexy restaurant manager. The play involves a great deal of physicality between the two actors, who will also soon appear together in a slightly bigger production, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. So did the physical demands of Star Wars (you know, lightsabers) help prepare Russell for a grueling run on Broadway?
“You know I can’t answer any of that,” she told Vulture at the Burn This opening. “But, I feel like when you do this, it’s like training for the Olympics. I feel like nothing could prepare me for this … but Star Wars was so fun, I mean, it was just so cool. You know we can’t say anything, but it was really cool.”
In the meantime, Burn This will be keeping her busy for eight shows a week through July 14, so what does she like to do with her downtime? Step one is to unwind beside her snoozing husband and Americans co-star Matthew Rhys: “I’ve been getting home very late at night, and Matthew’s asleep. I’ve been watching something he made me watch on Netflix called Sunderland ‘Til I Die about this football, soccer, England team that got demoted from the premier league.”
And how does she keep from burning out? “Uhh … alcohol? Beer? Beer and naps.”
