Keri Russell talks Antlers, reuniting with Margo Martindale in the "nuts" Cocaine Bear
Russell teases her Americans co-star's "fucking crazy" role in Cocaine Bear, discusses Guillermo Del Toro's influence on Antlers with director Scott Cooper

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.”