After taking a year off from acting, "Felicity" star Keri Russell is back strong scoring the lead female in "Mission: Impossible 3" and currently appearing in "Into the West" a 6-week TNT channel mini-series set in the wild west of the 1830s.
Keri is scheduled to begin shooting MI3 in late July in Italy. She'll portray a trainee agent mentored by Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt character. The role previously belonged to Scarllett Johansson who dropped out when filming was delayed. (Also in the film will be Ving Rhames, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Philip Seymour Hoffman.)
On the small screen, "Into the West" did well in the ratings in its premier last week. Keri says she loved filming it and especially riding horses. "I hung out with the wranglers that ran the set. I learned to pull the big team horses who pulled the wagons. You really get sore in the beginning, but it's such an addictive thing that you can't get enough."
, Keri, 29, also learned to speak some phrases of the Cheyenne Indian language to play her part since her character lives for a time with the Indian tribe. She says that despite all that study, she "can't remember any of it... Literally, Hebrew's easier, much easier than this. It was so hard, so hard."
"Into the West," also stars Tom Berenger, Beau Bridges, Josh Brolin, Keith Carradine, Jessica Capshaw, Matthew Modine, and Skeet Ulrich.
Keri, 29, also learned to speak some phrases of the Cheyenne Indian language to play her part since her character lives for a time with the Indian tribe. She says that despite all that study, she "can't remember any of it... Literally, Hebrew's easier, much easier than this. It was so hard, so hard."
"Into the West," also stars Tom Berenger, Beau Bridges, Josh Brolin, Keith Carradine, Jessica Capshaw, Matthew Modine, and Skeet Ulrich.
