The Americans is a drama about the complex marriage of two KGB spies posing as Americans in suburban Washington DC during the Reagan administration. Having revealed their true identities to their teenage daughter Paige, Philip and Elizabeth struggle to keep her best interests at heart while ensuring that their cover identities – and thus their lives – remain protected.
The Americans was created by Joe Weisberg who, along with Joel Fields, serves as an Executive Producer and Writer. Graham Yost and Chris Long are also Executive Producers, along with Amblin Television heads Justin Falvey and Darryl Frank. The Americans is produced by Fox 21 Television Studios and FX Productions.
The Americans is one of the most critically acclaimed series on television and the winner of numerous awards, including Outstanding Achievement in Drama from the Television Critics Association Awards (2015), Best Drama Series from the Critics’ Choice Television Awards (2015), a 2015 Primetime Emmy® Award (Margo Martindale, Guest Actress in a Drama Series), and a Peabody Award (2015). The series also received an AFI Award for TV Program of the Year in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
1. Medium shot tilt up Keri Russell
2. Medium shot tilt up Keri Russell 2
3. Medium shot tilt up Matthew Rhys
4. Close-up tilt up Matthew Rhys
5. Medium shot tilt up Noah Emmerich
6. Close-up Holly Taylor
7. Close-up Keidrich Sellati
8. Close-up Lev Gorn
9. Close-up Alison Wright
10. Medium shot Boris Lee Krutonog
11. Medium shot tilt up Joe Weisberg, left, and Joel Field, right
12. Close-up tilt up Vera Cherny
13. Close-up push in John Ales, from left, Elaine Hendrix, Elisabeth Gillies an John Corbett
14. Photographers
15. Pan right Jack H. Skirball Center for the Performing Arts
16. Tilt up ‘THE AMERICANS’ poster
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Keri Russell, “Elisabeth Jennings”
“I think this season is a lot about kind of more domestic issues. It’s less—it feels less to me about stunts and big things and more about the emotional personal cost of what we’re doing.”
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Keri Russell, “Elisabeth Jennings”
“She’s such an interesting character and to be, to get to do this character as a woman on TV is really, it’s just so much more interesting compared to the jobs I normally get offered. So, she’s still tough she’s still a tough mom and this season I think you see—I don’t know—she has some good emotional growth.”
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Rhys, “Philip Jennings”
“I mean Philip always has a rough ride you know I think he is..I like to think of him as somewhat the moral compass for these cold-hearted killers so you know he struggles season after season with what it is they do and how it will affect his family.”
20. SOUNDBITE (English) Matthew Rhys, “Philip Jennings”
“You know all of the stuff is based on truth um, on very specific stories. I’m not sure I’m allowed to say what because it will come out soon but yes it’s all very much based on truth.
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Holly Taylor, “Paige Jennings”
“Well Paige is definitely going through a lot of emotional turmoil right now she has a lot going on. She basically just found out her whole life is a lie so that’s kind of a lot to handle for a teenage girl so um we’ll see a lot of different emotions with her and we’ll get to try and understand how she’s trying to understand everything.”
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Holly Taylor, “Paige Jennings”
“It’s a little nerve racking when you get all of the material and there’s a lot going on but at the same time I’m really happy that the writers and the show runners trust me with the role and giving me the opportunity to um, show Paige’s story and develop it.”
23. SOUNDBITE (English) Keidrich Sellati, “Henry Jennings”
“Henry’s becoming a little bit of a computer nerd and (laughs) he kind of has trouble with a male role-model but he tries to find it in Stan and Matthew and sometimes his own dad but he can’t really clasp on his own dad.”
24. SOUNDBITE (English) Keidrich Sellati, “Henry Jennings”
“It’s not going to put the family in danger. His relationship with Stan is simply friendly. Henry doesn’t know anything he’s just an innocent little boy so far.”
25. SOUNDBITE (English) Noah Emmerich, “Stan Beeman”
“It was a rough couple of years for Stan but he’s I think sort of doubling down and re-energized and committed to finding these illegals.”
26. SOUNDBITE (English) Noah Emmerich, “Stan Beeman”
“To me Stan is a hero. He’s a great guy of course. He’s dedicated his life to protecting his country, to serving and protecting at great cost to himself so I mean he’s made a quite a big sacrifice.”
27. SOUNDBITE (English) Annet Mahendru, “KGB Agent Nina Krilova”
“Speaking of a real survivor she’s really surviving this year. It is the most she’s ever—she’s really hanging by a string so it’s the roughest, toughest season yet I think for pretty much everybody.”
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Lev Gorn, “Arkady Inovich”
“As the show is really a relationship show you know um you see a lot more sort of turbulence between the couples in the show you know and some really unpredictable chaotic events.”
29. SOUNDBITE (English) Costa Ronin, “KGB Officer Oleg Burov”
“Look it’s every boy’s dream to grow up and play a spy and play someone who’s running around and gathering secrets around the world so it’s really a dream come true.”
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Alison Wright, “Martha”
“We left her in dire straits at the end of last season with all this new information about who her husband was and in this first episode we’ll see that picks up and she just, she’s in a brand new situation where she has to deal with all these truths that she managed to ignore so far and she can’t ignore them any longer.”
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Weisberg (LEFT) Creator and Executive Producer/Writer, Joel Fields (RIGHT) Executive Producer/Writer
“I think the key thing to remember is that we’re starting Season 4 right where we left off Season 3 and that means really just an hour or so later and so all of the crises that were building at the end of the season, last season, are going to propel us into this season. It’s been a lot of fun to keep telling these stories.”
32. SOUNDBITE (English) Joe Weisberg (LEFT) Creator and Executive Producer/Writer, Joel Fields (RIGHT) Executive Producer/Writer
“You know it was really interesting to me at the CIA was working with people who lied all the time for a living so there’s a lot of that in the show you see a lot of constant lying but trying to take the idea of lying seriously what it means to people what it feels, and what it feels like to lie to your own kids you know I thought that was really interesting that people lied to their own kids and then one day sat them down and told them truth so that’s a storyline that came out of real life”
SHOW CLIP - :32
FRANK LANGELLA, KERI RUSSELL, MATTHEW RHYS
6 March 2016
