Keri Russell is making a candid confession about her time on The Mickey Mouse Club. The 48-year-old actress and former Mouseketeer shares her theory on why she got the boot from the show when she was 17 while some of her male counterparts stayed years longer.
During an appearance on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's Dinner's on Me podcast, Russell was asked whether there was a cutoff age for young actors to be let go from MMC.
"It's usually like girls who look like they were sexually active," she replies. "Which, probably, I was one of the first. They're like, 'She's out! She is out! That one is gone.'"
Keri Russell appears in a 'Mickey Mouse Club' press still taken in 1992.
The Felicity alum starred on the All-New Mickey Mouse Club from 1991 to 1994, between the ages of 15 and 17. She tells Ferguson that she was, in fact, sexually active with a male co-star who stayed on the program for a few more years.
"The boys stayed 'til they were, like, 19," she says. "I was like, 'By the way, I've had sex with that person so I know that they've had sex.'"
Russell did not name the person to whom she was referring, but the actress previously dated fellow Mouseketeer Tony Lucca in the '90s.
Lucca, as well as co-star J.C. Chasez, both appeared on the Mickey Mouse Club until they were 19 years old in 1995.
"Pregnant Mouseketeers aren't on the roster!" Russell jokes.
'Mickey Mouse Club' co-stars Keri Russell and Tony Lucca in 1994.
During their chat, Ferguson expressed his surprise at Russell's career trajectory following her beginnings as a child star. She wholeheartedly agreed.
"It is weird that I was on that," she says.
"I think what's really the creepiest part of kid acting is usually it's one or two kids with all adults, and so that really accelerates the adult-ification of everything," she muses. "For The Mickey Mouse Club, there were 19 of us. The adults were invisible to me."
She adds, "I think that's what was unique. ... I wasn't completely alone with all the adults and I think that was helpful."
Keri Russell attends a reading of the play "Dear Mr. Thomas: A New Play for Voices" at 92nd Street Y on May 14, 2024 in New York City.
Russell currently stars on Netflix's The Diplomat. The show is slated to return for a second season.
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