Keri Russell says husband Matthew Rhys asked for Cocaine Bear role
Keri Russell has revealed that her husband Matthew Rhys asked for a part in Cocaine Bear.
The couple, who starred together in The Americans, play Sari and Andrew C Thornton respectively in the upcoming film, which is due to be released on Friday (February 24).
In an exclusive interview with Digital Spy, Russell revealed just how her husband ended up in the movie.
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"We were all getting ready to go to Ireland to shoot and Matthew had read it – I was like, 'You've got to read this'," she said. "He got to the first scene and he said, 'Who's playing that guy?' and I said, 'I don't know.'
“He said, 'Text [director Elizabeth] Banks and tell her I want to play that guy', so I did," continued Russell. "They knew each other from a long time ago, so she was like, 'Great, see you in Ireland!'"
The film, which is loosely based on a true story, sees a bear go on a killing spree after ingesting 500 lbs of cocaine, and it was this "wild" premise that attracted Russell to the role.
"Liz called me, we were on the phone talking about this other project [that was] very different in tone to Cocaine Bear," she began. "She called me the next day and said, 'Hey, do you want to read this other crazy thing that I'm directing?' and I was like, 'Yes.'
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"Because it was in the midst of Covid and all the craziness that the world was going through, I think it made us all want to do a movie like this, for pure escapism and to laugh so hard and do something so wild and not real," she explained.
Russell and Rhys aren’t the only stars from The Americans to appear in the film, with Margo Martindale also in the stacked cast. Russell said the casting of Martindale was another reason to join Cocaine Bear.
"The fact that Liz had casted Margo, I was like, 'Oh I see the tone of what you're going for' and it just made me that much more interested in it because I could see the wackiness of what she was trying to do," she said.
Cocaine Bear will be released in cinemas on February 24.
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