In an interview with Jesse Tyler Ferguson, the former The Mickey Mouse Club star shared why she left the Disney Channel series.
What’s Happening:
- Deadline shared a new interview with Keri Russell where she breaks down her experience working on Disney Channel’s 1990s revival of The Mickey Mouse Club.
- The interview, from Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s Dinner’s on Me podcast, showcased the actress's views growing up in the acting world.
- Speaking on her exit from the show, she joked “‘Yeah, it’s usually, like, girls who looked like they were sexually active’ had to leave. Which, probably, I was one of the first. They were like, ‘She is out!’…Meanwhile, the boys stayed till they were like 19. I was like, ‘By the way, I had sex with that person, so I know that they’ve had sex.’ For real.”
- Russell co-starred with Ryan Gosling, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.
- Speaking on joining the cast at 15, Russell shared “I was living in Colorado at the time… And some of my friends were going to a giant casting call for Disney at the downtown Denver Convention Center. And I went, I stood in line, and did my little nerdy, you know, dance. And they had me read a little skit, like, about a mermaid brushing her teeth, or something, with chocolate, or something stupid like that. And then I just happened to get it.”
- The actress also spoke on avoiding the depredations faced by child stars stating “I think what’s really the creepiest part of kid acting is usually it’s one or two kids with all adults,” she said. “So, that really accelerates the adultification of everything. And for The Mickey Mouse Club, there were 19 of us. The adults were invisible to me… So, I wasn’t completely alone with all the adults, and I think that was helpful.”