Keri Russell as Elizabeth Jennings in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Matthew Rhys as Philip Jennings in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Noah Emmerich as Stan Beeman in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Annet Mahendru as Nina in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Alison Wright as Martha Hanson in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Richard Thomas as Agent Gadd in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Susan Misner as Sandra Beeman in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Holly Taylor as Paige Jennings in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
Keidrich Sellati as Henry Jennings in 'The Americans' season 2![]()
One of 2013’s best new shows (and our 8th favorite overall), FX’s The Americans returns for season 2 this Wednesday. Starring Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as Russian spies posing as a married couple in early 1980s Washington, the series earned raves from critics and viewers for its blend of thrilling espionage and equally intense relationships.
Last week, we spoke with creator/showrunner Joe Weisberg and executive producers Joel Fields and Graham Yost (creator/showrunner of FX’s Justified) about casting The Americans and what’s ahead for Phillip and Elizabeth Jennings in season 2.
When did season 2 start to get mapped out?Joel Fields: I’d say it started to take shape towards the end of season 1 as Joe and I began taking long walks, which is generally a key part of our writing process, walking together and talking and sharing ideas. So it started early on and continued to form as we met with an incredible team of writers within our staff, and talked about what we wanted to accomplish. It’s still taking shape, we’re still finishing up the last episode, which we’re doing today.
Can you say what some of the goals for season 2 were?Joe Weisberg: Early on, we knew that we wanted to pick up one very important idea that we planted back at the end of season 1, which is when Paige is in the laundry room poking around, and feeling kind of suspicious. And we knew also that the Phillip/Elizabeth marriage, which is so tumultuous in season 1, was going to be on some more solid footing in season 2. So the couple is going to be in better shape, but the family was going to be having some problems, and that’s really a lot of the direction we’re going in season 2. They’re going to have trouble with the kids, and keeping the family solid.
Graham Yost: Season 1 was about the coming together of Phillip and Elizabeth –it was an arranged marriage and in the pilot they start to really fall in love, and they fall in and out of love. In season 2, that’s where that picks up, her homecoming. If season 1 was about the marriage, season 2 continues to be about the marriage, but it also really becomes more about the family.
Is it a challenge keeping that marriage fresh as writers, seeing as most people find it difficult to do that in real life?JF: [laughs] Well put. I think that is why we chose to expand the dramatic circle one concentric level this season, and focus on the family and on the marriage in the context of family. Last season we explored the question of “is this arranged marriage real?” and by the end of the season, Elizabeth said “come home,” and they are trying to be married. Now the question becomes, can the center hold for this family, given the circumstances under which they’ve come to have a family?
JW: I don’t think that marriage ever gets dull. I think there’s 500 interesting seasons worth of material about marriage. So I don’t worry about that.
For the casting process, were you involved in the selection of Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell?GY: It’s a big team; there’s FX, and FTBS, and a lot of us had an input in the casting. But Keri Russell was the first choice, and John Landgraf had already reached out to her about the idea of her doing something for FX. She had a baby that Christmas though, so we couldn’t just rush into production in February or March, that’s why we waited until June. But she was the first get. It took us a while to find Matt, and once we did –I think he was on Broadway and Joe went to see him and he is spectacular – he just fit perfectly. We knew that Keri would be great, and we hoped Matthew would be great, and he surpassed all expectations.
JW: The show was Look Back in Anger, and he played this kind of tough but also brutal character and it was just a side of him that you didn’t see in, for example, Brothers and Sisters. I saw this range that he had, that he could do so many different things. When he came in and he read with Keri, there was this great moment. We were watching them read, and there was this great moment where Keri just slapped him, an important moment of the pilot, and she, I think accidentally, slapped him about as hard as I’ve seen a person slap another person. And the way he took that slap was really something. It was really how Philip Jennings would take a slap. He didn’t flinch, he was just very impressive, it seemed like he was the character in that moment. And they kept going with the scene, but as soon as the scene ended, Keri sort of melted and apologized. It was really something.
You’re willing to introduce characters and get rid of them once you’re done with them. Does that mean season 2 is going to be about re-building out the backbench, or are we going to be focusing in?JF: Well I think both, we’ll see new agents develop, and we’ll see old agents return, as it is in life. One of the things that’s so great about what Joe created is that the spy drama is a metaphor for all of our human relationships. We’re all spies in our own lives, we’re spies in our own marriage to a certain extent, and in our own families.
Should we be expecting a lot of new faces to show up in season 2?GY: Yeah, a fair number. Because of what happened with Claudia, Margo Martindale’s character, there’s a new handler that comes in. There’s also new agents that they’re working, new spies that they’re running, but there’s also the inciting incident in the first episode. Something happens involving them, and another set of illegals also with a family. And that really sets the whole season in motion.
We got Margo Martindale in the first season, any chance we’re going to see any more familiar FX players showing up soon?GY: No, because it’s a New York show and Justified is almost entirely cast out of L.A., so there’s not a lot of back and forth. I would keep your eyes open though, you might see a little Margo this season, even though she’s on The Millers. It’s still possible for her to get on a plane and don her spy garb again.
JW: We had a couple things that seemed almost to happen, and that we considered. One of the characters who plays largely in our first season is now in a pilot for FX, so that worked out nicely. They certainly do like to cast inside the family. Names came up, but nothing unfortunately worked out the way it did with Margo.
Are you ever worried about throwing too much out, too quickly? Have you ever felt the need to hold some things back?GY: Never, not for a second. I always felt that that was part of the whole fun of the series, was that it was a fast-moving spy show. That a lot of stories come in and out was really one of the attractions for me.
JW: I worry about going too slow! With each season, it’s hard to go more than a few months at a time, and we’ve got a lot of history to cover, so no, I worry about the opposite.
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123The 80s, Russian spies and amazing wigs all return on Wednesday! Who's excited?![]()
