When it comes to TV couples, you could say Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell, have form. They met and fell in love on the Emmy Award winning drama, The Americans. Now they’re starring together again — albeit in different episodes — in Extrapolations, Apple’s new series about climate change.
And we may yet see them in another TV project — well, if Rhys has anything to do with it.
“I am always pitching to Keri that we should remake something,” says the Emmy Award-winning Welsh-born actor, who is chatting to STM from New York, where he’s doing press for the Apple TV series.
“There was an old TV show called Hart to Hart that I am always joking we should remake.”
It’s a fun prospect — and let’s be real here: we would 100 per cent watch. But the froth and fun of a series like that is a million miles removed from the couple’s current project, a show that can only be described as… “serious.”
Extrapolations is an eight-part anthology drama which examines the devastating effects climate change has on the planet over various points in the future.
Rhys stars in the first episode (Russell pops up in episode five), which is set in the year 2037 — and things are looking bleak. The story paints a scary picture of a not-too-distant future blighted by climate inaction. Temperatures are rising, forests are on fire, people are being flooded out of their homes — it’s not exactly Hart to Hart.
But it was a project both Rhys and Russell felt they wanted to be a part of.
“I think what drew me to the series was the fact that it was a piece about climate change that was presented in a very human, very micro way,” Rhys explains.
“I think the great thing, and always what (creator) Scott Z. Burns (is about), is his writing — his way in is very personal. I think any kind of bombardment of science wouldn’t have worked.
“He presented something in a very human way, and that’s certainly what drew me to this project.”
It’s certainly not painting a sunny picture of the future, showing us, through eight interconnected stories over 33 years from 2037 to 2070, how humanity grapples with the consequences of global inaction on climate change, rising sea levels and temperature rises — it’s grim.
But as the show’s creator, the man behind Contagion, An Inconvenient Truth and The Report, explains, there’s still hope.
“It is tempting to call our show science fiction, but we prefer to think of it as science fact,” he explains. “Like Contagion, the show was researched to illuminate what is possible, and perhaps even probable, unless we find the courage to change course.
“Each episode looks at another part of the planet and another consequence of our actions and our inactions. The problems that confront our characters are human in scale but global in stakes.
“There’s been so much great storytelling done about climate change that focuses on the end — and we don’t know the end. But we do know enough science now to comprehend that there are a lot of steps between that point and where we are today.”
Rhys shares Burns’ optimism, though admits that when it comes to matters of climate change, the clock is ticking — and we’d better start taking notice.
“I may be a dancing fool, but I still hold on to this thin veil of optimism that if we do, at this moment… take the opportunity to change things, then yes, we do have a chance,” he explains.
“Though I have discovered through the research I did on this project, that (the window) is becoming slimmer and slimmer for us to redeem ourselves.”
Extrapolations boasts an exceptional cast, including Sienna Miller, Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Marion Cotillard — the list goes on. As one publication recently put it, “Every actor on our ruined planet will star in Apple TV+’s Extrapolations”, and they’re not wrong — it’s little wonder that Rhys and Russell decided they wanted to take part.
“I had an idea of how this incredible cast was shaping,” Rhys admits. “And I certainly knew Meryl Streep was on board. Basically once they got Meryl, we all followed — as we should.”
Rhys stars as Junior, a real estate developer who’s eying off a potential casino project in the Arctic. Now that the ice is melting he hopes to increase his fortune by also exploiting the mineral wealth that’s being laid bare.
He’s not exactly what you’d call a nice person.
“My character is highly unlikeable in that he is a firm climate denier, which sadly, I just discovered there are far more than I thought there was (out there),” Rhys says.
“He’s also a climate opportunist. Obviously, with the new challenges of climate change, there are new prospects and business opportunities, and he is one of those people who chances and seizes upon that.”
When they were ‘world building’, creator Burns and executive producer Dorothy Fortenberry were careful to make the near-future in their series feel relatable.
“We wanted it to be far enough in the future to allow for new possibilities but not so far away that it allows the audience to think they won’t be alive and dismiss it,” Fortenberry explains.
“We think everyone has their own event horizon for things they need to contemplate. After all, climate change moves slowly until the day it burns down your house.
“I think the hope of what the audience takes away is that this is a very personally affecting story,” Rhys adds. “I think at times… there’s a tendency to be overwhelmed with science and facts that don’t always relate or equate to your life.”
In his own life, things are, well — hectic.
Professionally, it’s been another busy year for both Rhys and Russell, each starring in other high-profile projects.
“I shot (Extrapolations) just before I shot the second series of Perry Mason,” says Rhys of the critically acclaimed crime drama, currently airing its second season on Foxtel.
“It all worked out rather well. Although that was the kind of beauty of the series, and one of the reasons Scotty (Burns) put the cast together that he could — the series was shot as eight individual stories, therefore the commitment was relatively small.”
While Rhys was busy with both these projects, partner Russell was filming the hugely successful film, Cocaine Bear. Rhys also has a quick cameo, a role he scored because Russell was already involved and he thought it looked fun.
With three children at home, life is a juggle. So how do they make it work?
“The whole life/work juggle when you’re both in this circus can be difficult, so we don’t always make it work properly,” Rhys admits. “But we try.”
They’re based in New York, and manage to live a relatively low-key life — by Hollywood standards at least — and it’s clearly the way they both like it. But when he’s not filming, Rhys does have one other passion — he recently acquired a wooden boat, a 1930s Wheeler Playmate — Ernest Hemingway famously owned one — which he painstakingly restored, and which he now charters to sail around New York Harbour.
His boat is called ‘Rarebit’ and his business goes by the name ‘Moveable Feast’. Its website is something to behold, enticing visitors to “Join us for a cruise around New York Harbor on one of the last of the Hemingway class boats, built right here in Brooklyn!’ On one of Rhys’ cruises, guests can enjoy “cocktails and charcuterie as we sail to the Statue of Liberty and other highlights on the rivers” — and excuse us while we sign up immediately!
It feels like an improbable venture for someone better associated with film and TV success, but Rhys is not a man who likes playing by the rules. While many actors of his calibre like to stack their schedules with end-to-end projects, the 48 year-old actor admits his schedule is remarkably free right now, leaving, presumably, plenty of opportunity for cruising the harbour.
“I don’t have a next project! Which is why I shout at my agent every day,” he laughs when we ask.
As for where he’d like his own life to be by the year 2037 — the time that his episode of Extrapolations is set — he’s keeping things realistic.
“That’s 14 years away — I have no idea where I will be in 2037,” he laughs. “I certainly hope the sea levels haven’t risen as badly. . . finger’s crossed.”
Still, if they do, at least he’s got his boat.
Extrapolations is streaming now on Apple TV Plus