Keri Russell may be a well-known actress, but her partner Matthew Rhys explains that she is “naturally a very shy person. ”
Rhys, 49, who met Russell while costarring in FX’s The Americans from 2013 to 2018, shared in a Variety profile about the actress that being in front of the camera is one of her least favorite things.
“It’s rare that she’s enthusiastic about acting. I mean, there’s a genuine — it’s not so much a ‘dislike’; that’s too strong a word — it’s a discomfort, I think,” he told the outlet in an interview published on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
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“She is naturally a very shy person, and to expose herself in that way day after day, I think she finds both taxing and challenging. But she is a mind, and she loves being challenged, and she loves words — books are her biggest passion,” continued Rhys. “Words and narrative are her great love.”
The actor told the publication that Russell, who now stars in the hit Netflix political thriller The Diplomat, is so shy that she won’t answer the doorbell and will get stressed about Zoom calls — something she doesn’t deny.
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“I hate being watched. Oh my God, it’s the worst. I had to do two photo shoots last week, so I had to drink a beer,” Russell, 48, told Variety. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, they’re gonna be watching me.’ It’s my nightmare.”
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The actress credited this as a reason she doesn’t automatically say yes to acting projects.
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“I never want to work. So it takes me a lot to get to the point of saying yes,” she told the outlet. “And what usually is the unshakable thing that moves me out of the comfort zone is that it’s just a story I can’t stop thinking about.”
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Season 2 of The Diplomat arrives on Netflix on Thursday, Oct. 31.
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