Source: Crazy Days and Nights

Break Free

It was a bold choice.

At the time, it was the talk of every tabloid and gossip columnist.

It all took place before social media and not even that many online gossip blogs.

Still though, it got the attention of everyone.

That is how powerful the statement was.

It was self inflicted but wasn’t just a moment of I want to do this to make a change to my looks, but doing it to be able to break free from being controlled. This actress  was being controlled.

Every part of her life was being managed and planned out for her.

The hit television series was first and then they had multiple movies lined up where she would essentially play the same character as in the show.

They then saw her doing more adult roles.

They wanted her in some se.x scenes, also to keep her under their control.

Never know when the extra footage may leak.

They had a decade of her life all planned out.

She didn’t want that.

She tried telling them she didn’t want that, but they peer pressured/shamed her to keep on track.

She was A list.

The show was a hit for a very new almost network.

She was one of the faces of this network.

She was tired of it.

So, she made the change.

She says it was the greatest relief.

There was no more pressure.

There was a ton of blow back but she realized it was from people she didn’t care about anyway.

She got to do things her way and pick the projects she wanted.

It was a long struggle.

The decision had repercussions.

Work was hard to come by at first, but eventually she got it and managed to get back to A list on television too. On her own terms.

Keri Russell
Statement: cutting her hair

Series: Felicity

WB Network

Managed to get back to A list on television: The Americans

The Real Story Behind Felicity’s Infamous Haircut That Caused Death Threats, a Ratings Crash and Changed TV Forever

30 Rock, Gilmore Girls, Six Feet Under, Happy Endings, and, yes, even Family Guy have also made Felicity’s hair-related references during their runs.

But what was the real story behind-the-scenes of Felicity choosing to chop off her infamous illustrious curls?

When it came to the storyline of season two, with Felicity reeling from her break-up with Ben, the guy she’d literally followed to New York, it made total sense. What girl hasn’t believed at one point that changing her hair would magically cure her of all of her heartbreak?

“It’s such a typical college-girl story,” Russell said on the show’s reunion panel in June at the 2018 ATX TV Festival. “The guy breaks up with her and then she goes and cuts her hair and it’s really bad.”

However, the classic girl-cuts-hair-after-despair moment wasn’t initially in the showrunners’ plans…until Russell decided to play a practical joke on them.

“The way it all totally went down, was they were wrapping up the first season…and the hair people were putting away everything they had into boxes and there was a little boy’s wig,” Russell explained. “We put it on me at like 2 in the morning as a joke…and we took a polaroid and over the summer we thought it’d be really funny to send to J.J. (Abrams) and Matt (Reeves) and say, ‘I cut my hair — hope you like it.’ Totally as a joke.”

Her joke became their inspiration, as Abrams then called Russell to ask her if she would seriously consider cutting her hair.

“I was with my girlfriends at some lake and I got this phone call…and [Abrams] said, ‘Hey, we got your picture.’ No laughing. No nothing. ‘Would you really cut your hair?’ And I was like, ‘I guess?'”

As for how the actual act of cutting off her hair went down, Russell did actually begin the process on-camera, which was used as the ending of the episode, with viewers being forced to wait with bated breath to see the final look the following week.

“We shot that scene at like 4 a.m. on a Friday. And the hair girl actually…it’s in slow motion, like her cutting my hair, sniping it,” she recalled. “And then a few hours later I went to a hair salon and someone cut the rest of it off.” – Source

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