The Cold War Is Over

The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys aren’t as sad about the end of their show as you might think.

- Jen Chaney

I don’t have that feeling anymore. Pulling things off.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“I’m serious.”

This exchange is giving Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, who play married Russian spies working undercover in the Cold War–era D.C. suburbs on FX’s The Americans—which ends forever in May after six seasons—some trouble. The scene has them removing pieces of the disguises they’re wearing as they speak, which sounds easy enough on the page. (“They begin removing their disguises,” says the script for episode seven out of the final season’s ten.) But it requires Russell, as Elizabeth, to pluck out bobby pins and lift off a wig and Rhys, as Philip, to peel off a mustache and beard that need to stay intact for reuse later, while timing their movements and staying centered, sitting on a hotel bed in front of a mirror, so cameras can capture their reflections. Oh, and they have to look completely natural the whole time.

“This fucking scene,” Russell says, to no one in particular, in-between tries. But they shake off their frustrations and go again.

“I don’t have that feeling anymore,” Rhys begins. “Pulling things off.” He removes his beard and mustache. They reach the end of the scene—then have to do it again.

“Sorry for trying to make a scene look real,” Rhys shouts out wryly to the crew after take four. “Ah,” he adds. “I’ll miss this.”

When The Americans debuted back in 2013, it looked to some critics like the latest spin on the anti-hero formula made popular by shows like Mad Men and Breaking Bad, this time with