After three seasons of being snubbed by the Emmys in favor of the increasingly dusty Downton Abbey, FX’s The Americans was finally nominated for Outstanding Drama Series this year. Speaking of being ignored: the spy drama’s stars, Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, are fine actors (Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series-acknowledged actors, in fact), but showrunners Joe Weisberg and Joel Fields aren’t interested in hearing their story pitches. They’re pretty bad.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Russell said that at the beginning of last season, she asked Weisberg and Fields, “Are we seeing cracks? Is there any way this could be Elizabeth saying, ‘Maybe we should double agent or something?’ And Joe looked like I had said the most blasphemous thing.”
Rhys added, “These spies were called ‘illegals,’ and so we had a real illegal come to set who did exactly what we did. We caught some flack in the press about having an FBI agent living next door, but that was his story. He had an FBI agent who lived next door to him who turned him, so I was saying all this to Joe and Joel. I was like, ‘This is perfect. Noah Emmerich will turn us — we’ll become double agents.’ This whole massive pitch. And they went, ‘Yeah… no.'”
It’s best to keep Russell and Rhys out of the writer’s room, and in the boudoir.
RUSSELL: I know you might find it surprising, but people don’t cast me for my voluptuous body all the time. “We’re looking for a woman with a 13-year-old boy’s body. Who can we get? Yes, you!”
RHYS: Don’t say that because what does that say about me? (Via the Hollywood Reporter)
They’re the best.
(Via the Hollywood Reporter)
