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So what routine has Russell, newly minted theater star, settled on over these past few months? When she finishes a show, she takes a melatonin and begins what she calls \u201cthe wind down.\u201d She meditates a lot. She tries to stay off social media, having deleted it altogether during The Effect<\/em>\u2019s initial London run. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t make me feel great,\u201d she says. \u201cI know that when I\u2019m not on it, my life is better.\u201d She loves to walk around New York. And while she doesn\u2019t tell me this part directly, a regular outpouring of gossip, photographs, and speculation reveals that she\u2019s also been spending time with Harry Styles,<\/strong> with whom she\u2019s been romantically linked since June of last year.<\/p>\n Theater is very new for Russell, and so is frenetic tabloid attention. I ask Russell about the media now circling her everyday life, and how she\u2019s learning to balance that reality with focusing on the play. \u201cMy concern and my focus is going to be on the work,\u201d she says after a few moments of silence. \u201cMy work is the most interesting thing to me, so that\u2019s what I\u2019ll say about that.\u201d But has she found the prying frustrating or difficult amid such an intensive professional period? Russell thinks carefully about this, staring off in silence for about 25 seconds before responding.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are going to be things all the time around you that feel like they\u2019re trying to pull your attention in different places in your life\u2014whether that\u2019s stuff with your family, or having a really bad day, or just different things,\u201d Russell says. \u201cYou have to find ways in which you can keep yourself really balanced and really safe. I feel like a lot of my work in the world, for myself personally, is about carving out areas in which I\u2019m with safe people and feel really grounded.\u201d<\/p>\n Russell conveys that grounded quality in conversation, even if she comes at it with a certain guardedness. Given the rawness of her work in The Effect<\/em>\u2014by its final act, the tears streaming down her face are unmistakable\u2014I wonder what about the play and its themes of love and happiness resonated with her most strongly. But she prefers to view its impact in terms of the audience: \u201cI get reflections all the time of what it means to people in different ways, and that\u2019s the more interesting stuff because it\u2019s a new fresh take on it every night, whereas mine is more focused on specificities.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s most obvious, both in the way that Russell carries herself on stage and the way she\u2019s able to shake it off when the show is done, is that we\u2019re talking about a pro here, still just beginning to reveal what she\u2019s capable of. \u201cEvery time I do a project, I\u2019m like, \u2018Let\u2019s see if I can pull this thing off,\u2019\u201d she says, throwing her hands in the air as if she\u2019s on a rollercoaster. After eight months, her journey with The Effect<\/em> is nearly over. \u201cI feel like I\u2019m at the end of my inspiration here, and I need to kind of go away and recoup and build up some new muscles somewhere else.\u201d What might that be? Russell will soon head to Korea to film Hope<\/em> opposite Michael Fassbender;<\/strong> beyond that, \u201cthere\u2019s some other things this year, which I can\u2019t say yet.\u201d She smiles.<\/p>\n It must be exciting, at least, to have high-profile projects too secret to even put on the record. \u201cI know, it\u2019s so annoying\u2014 \u2018Oh, big thing coming, can\u2019t tell you!\u2019\u201d Russell says with a laugh. \u201cWell, I actually don\u2019t even know the last time I\u2019ve said that. Usually I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, I hope<\/em> there\u2019s something coming that I cannot tell you about soon.\u2019 So, that\u2019s good. That\u2019s a good change for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
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