An excerpt from our profile of actress Keri Russell, in Issue 7 of Corduroy…

Keri Russell has made a career of playing the sweet and approachable young woman that men want to marry and women like to befriend. But she swears it’s all been a facade.

“My good friends will tell you I’m not as nice as everyone thinks,” she says, laughing. “They’ll hear me say something about someone and tell me it’s an awful thing to say. They know better.”

It seems the girl may not be so next-door after all.

Snarky, funny and free with the use of the F-word, Russell has adopted a down-to-earth, yet sophisticated and charming way of being that can only be explained by having lived in Brooklyn, New York, for the past several years. Settling in for lunch at a small café, she unselfconsciously sets about eating a plate of food built around the kind of faux-bacon that is de rigueur in this hipster part of town (For the record, Russell says she is an equal opportunity omnivore; whether it’s meat or soy, she’s eating it).

One decade after earning a Golden Globe for her performance in the television series Felicity — a show so popular it set the mold for the never-ending spate of teen dramas that came in its wake, and inspired tomes dedicated to Russell’s haircut during the middle of the series — the actress has maintained a relatively low profile in New York. Though she’s no longer leading Hollywood headlines, she remains busy as ever, juggling the new roles of wife and mother in addition to her still burgeoning movie career. It’s a steady pace, and one that Russell says she’s glad to finally be walking…

- To read the full story, pick up Issue 7 of Corduroy, due out next month…

(photo by Peter Ash Lee)