Keri Russell talks Antlers, reuniting with Margo Martindale in the “nuts” Cocaine Bear

It’s been far too long since we’ve seen Keri Russell on our screens, especially considering she wears a helmet for the entirety of 2019's The Rise Of Skywalker (it should be a crime to hide that hair!). But she finally returns to cinemas—and the horror genre—with Antlers, a supernatural thriller from Crazy Heart director Scott Cooper, which was delayed over 18 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m so glad this movie got saved for the big screen,” Russell admits to The A.V. Club. “It would be such a shame if it was released to be just a laptop movie in your bed.” Both she and director Scott Cooper hope that Antlers is worth the wait, promising a “hauntingly beautiful” folk tale just in time for Halloween weekend. “The best horror films are best experienced communally,” Cooper adds, agreeing with Russell’s sentiment that Antlers thrives off the energy of an audience.

Russell plays Julia Meadows, a grade-school teacher in small-town Oregon with a troubled student (Jeremy T. Thomas) who may or may not be keeping a supernatural evil trapped in his home in order to protect his family. Antlers doesn’t shy away from the shocking or the fantastical, which makes it quite a change of pace for Cooper, a director known for gritty and grounded dramas like Hostiles and Out Of The Furnace.

Of course, the pieces start to fit together when you realize Antlers is produced by Guillermo del Toro, whose knack for the extraordinary helps bring the film’s otherworldly threat to life. Cooper shares how the Shape Of Water filmmaker convinced him to step out of his comfort zone:

“Our sensibilities and aesthetic are almost diametrically opposed, in my very grounded experience and his kind of whimsical and fantastical [approach]—and he’s such a master at monster creations. It’s a miracle that any of it works! But Guillermo approached me and he said, “You know, Scott, your last three films have been horror films, but nobody knows it. Would you consider actually directing a horror film?” And I said I would love to. My earliest and fondest memories were going to see horror films at too young of an age, and they’ve stayed with me.”

As a long-time fan of both Del Toro and Cooper’s work, Keri Russell says Antlers felt like a “win-win” for her. She cites the former’s Pan’s Labyrinth, which presents a fascinating through-line in the directors’ filmographies: Like that Oscar-winning dark fantasy, Antlers follows a young protagonist in “incredible peril,” one who has to put on a brave face to move through horrifying things in their life. The perils may be supernatural, but the horrors they represent are very, very real. As Russell sums it up, “The combination of both [filmmakers] really created this sort of intimate, elegant horror movie in the tone of Scott’s films.”

And, speaking of threatening creatures in the woods, Russell just wrapped filming on Elizabeth Banks’ perfectly titled Cocaine Bear, inspired by a one-paragraph story in The New York times from 1985. She leads an eclectic ensemble cast, which includes character actress Margo Martindale—an especially exciting reunion for fans of FX’s The Americans.

Considering the series ranked among our favorite TV of the decade, The A.V. Club couldn’t resist asking what was like for the erstwhile Elizabeth Jennings to reunite with her former handler:

“Margo is so fucking crazy in this movie. I cannot even tell you how much you’re going to love Margo Martindale in this movie! I was—oh my god, she’s out of control in this movie. The whole movie’s nuts and really fun, and just such a lark—so not what I think either of us do. And it was hilarious. We shared many cocktails in an Irish pub after work, just getting into trouble. She’s amazing. The whole crew, after she left, was just like, [in awe,] ‘Margo!’”

And, with that, Cocaine Bear just shot to the top of our “most anticipated movies” list for 2022.

You can watch our full interview with Keri Russell and Scott Cooper in the video above. Antlers hits theaters on October 29. Below, watch our video Random Roles with Margo Martindale, in which she lovingly reflects on The Americans and the time Russell beat her up for.