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Keri Russell Still Traumatized By ‘Felicity’ Haircut Backlash

By Niki Cruz
Published on: 06:29 PST, Mar 24, 2016

Remember 1999? It was a time when the WB was still functioning as a TV network, and when cheesy cast music videos like this existed. It was also the year that Keri Russell decided to chop all her hair off, following a very successful first season on Felicity.

Russell, who played the title character, chopped her lovely curly hair off, and this set the tone for the whole season season of Felicity. Fans cried, sent letters, and went nuts about Felicity’s hair. There were even comparisons of the short crop of curls, comparing Russell’s new do to Nsync’s Justin Timberlake’s look — and that was before memes. It was a bad time, folks.

Although the show went on for years, it never quite rebounded from that moment in time, and as it turns out, neither has Keri Russell — sort of. Keri decided to film a segment for the late night show, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and during the segment, which included John Goodman and John Stamos, Keri gave advice to her younger self.

In the video, Russell says, “Your life is going to be so exciting, but whatever you do, don’t cut your hair short during the second season of Felicity. No, I’m serious. People will freak the hell out. You’ll get hate mail. You’ll even get death threats.”

Russell continues, reaching a silver lining about the horrifying hair situation:

“Gradually, your hair will grow back and your fans will forgive you, but you will never—and I repeat never—forgive your fans. And you will have learned a valuable lesson: Never trust anyone.”

That said, even though she didn’t come out of that situation unscathed, Russell still thinks fondly of her time on Felicity. During a 2013 interview with Glamour, to discuss her new RomCom Austenland, Russell spoke about her favorite moment on Felicity.

“There were a million favorite moments—so many fun moments between Noel and Felicity, the banter back and forth. I loved their relationship. One of my favorite scenes was, especially in the first season, the Thanksgiving one—because all of us had to be around the table, and we all liked each other so much. It was just ridiculous and funny.”

One moment we’re almost positive she doesn’t want to relive is this scene where she cuts her hair.

Russell has come a long way since Felicity. She’s currently into her fourth season on The Americans with partner Matthew Rhys. In the show, she plays Elizabeth Jennings, a Soviet intelligence agent living in America, and is posed with the task of spying on the American government with her husband Philip Jennings, also a spy.

As it turns out, the magnetic on-screen chemistry between Russell and Rhys translated off-screen. The last we heard from Russell, she was expecting her third child, and her first with co-star Rhys. Friends of the pair confirmed the news to People back in January of 2016. Russell has two children with her ex-husband, Shane Deary.

During an interview with TV Guide, it was easy to pick out that the couple might run into a problem, due to Deary’s hesitance about being in the limelight, as someone married to a celebrity and a public figure, like Russell.

“It’s definitely something to get used to. But I think it’s good that it makes him uncomfortable. I think anyone who is too comfortable with all this stuff is strange. It’s normal that he’s uncomfortable. Like, if someone takes our picture on the street, I tell him, ‘Act however you want to act. It’s uncomfortable; you can look uncomfortable.’ “

[Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images]

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