Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys give adorable interview. (VIDEO.)

Adorable Video Rockets Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys Into the Celebrity Couple Stratosphere

Adorable Video Rockets Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys Into the Celebrity Couple Stratosphere

The XX Factor
What Women Really Think
Aug. 5 2016 3:01 PM

Adorable Video Rockets Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys Into the Celebrity Couple Crush Stratosphere

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Russell and Rhys at the Aug. 2, 2016, White House state dinner honoring Singapore's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

The internet has many boyfriends—be they handsome actors with smooth dance moves, cave-loving premiers of massive North American nations, or Tom Hiddleston. Thus far, however, the roster of couple crushes has been scandalously skimpy. It’s basically the Obamas and the Carters. Now, thanks to the Hollywood Reporter, we can add Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys to the pantheon.

It’s not that Russell and Rhys’ cuteness has heretofore gone unnoticed. Slate’s Christina Cauterucci raved about their “spellbinding” chemistry back in January, when it was revealed they were “pregnant with a real-life spy baby.” (Their son, Sam, was born in May.) It was also evident in the co-star couple’s joint appearances on Slate’s TV Club Insider podcasttheir discussion of the intense finale is especially delightful.

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Still, this video. Rhys, wild-haired and flannel-clad, looks like a rugged Amish woodworker. Russell’s sheer blouse and jeans is a more surprising sartorial choice for the setting—a rustic inn in Tannersville, New York, close to their country home in Woodstock—but apparently heterosexual couples are discouraged from dressing alike. Prolonged exposure to Rhys’ gregariousness and quick wit, not to mention his magnificent Welsh accent, seems to have liberated Russell from the prison of shyness. Their banter now proceeds with the easy give and take of a neverending improv sketch.

Russell and Rhys also stage a masterclass on how to be candid enough to provide interesting answers to a reporter’s questions without going too far. Russell manages to observe, inaccurately, that she has the body of a 13-year-old boy, while Rhys plays the part of a man who has landed himself in hot water with his partner by speaking out of turn. All those actors whose idea of a revealing interview is gushing about how much they loved the script should be forced to watch—and learn.

June Thomas is managing producer of Slate podcasts.