Success and scandal have been synonymous with the talent produced inside the Mickey Mouse Club back in the ’90s. Just look at former members Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake.
But Keri Russell, who managed to evade some of the unfortunate child-star narratives that others succumbed to, is shedding light on a scandalous story of her own: why she was potentially kicked off the show.
Stopping by Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, “Dinner’s on Me,” Russell suggested that maturing was likely what got certain cast members, including herself, removed from the show. Ferguson prompted Russell’s startling admission, asking whether there was an age cut-off for being on the show.
KERI RUSSELL CLAIMS SHE WAS MICKEY MOUSE CLUB’S ‘LEAST TALENTED,’ JOKES ‘NOT EVERYONE GOT OUT ALIVE’
“Yeah, it’s usually girls who look like they were sexually active, which probably I was one of the first,” she admitted. “They’re like, “She’s out! She is out! That one is gone!” she joked.
“Meanwhile, the boys stayed ’till they were like 19,” Russell lamented. “I was like, ‘Um, by the way, I had sex with that person. I know that they’ve had sex.'”
“Pregnant musketeers aren’t on the roster,” she stated. “So I left at probably 17-ish.”
Russell also explained how she landed the role on “The All New Mickey Mouse Club,” having attended a Denver casting call with some friends.
“I think back then Disney was looking for kids that were kind of, like, normal,” she told Ferguson. In a candid interview with W Magazine last year, Russell claimed she was “the least talented” of the cast.
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“I was there at a time when there were a lot of famous kids there,” she told the outlet. “And I say this completely truthfully: I was literally the least talented one there. I’m not kidding. When I look at those kids, I’m like, why in the world did they pick me? Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears. It was wild.”
Speaking of how her career trajectory deviated from other big names, Russell told Ferguson, “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 adultification of everything. And for the ‘Mickey Mouse Club,’ there were 19 of us. The adults were invisible to me. You know what I mean?”
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All of the kids appearing on the show did have to have a parent with them, according to Russell. “I was 15 to 17. So I think that is what was unique about being a kid actor at such a young age. So I wasn’t completely alone with all the adults. And I think that was helpful.”
