Keri Russell is spilling the tea about her time as a Mouseketeer — and it doesn’t seem as magical as one would think! At least when it comes to the icky reason she was axed from The All New Mickey Mouse Club!
The actress joined the Disney Channel show in 1991 when she was 15. But two years later, at 17, she left the series — around the time when Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, and JC Chasez joined the cast. For a blast from the past, check out all these huge stars introducing themselves in this vintage intro!
Keri told pal Jesse Tyler Ferguson during Tuesday’s episode of his Dinner’s on Me podcast “it was so bizarre” for her they were all on the show together. And it gets more “bizarre” from there…
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Jesse was curious about when the teens had to leave the show. When asked if there was “a cut-off age” where the cast could “no longer be on it,” Keri did not hold back in her response — because there apparently were some really sexist double standards at play here!
The Felicity alum said Disney executives didn’t want “pregnant Mouseketeers” on their “roster,” so they cut the girls once they started to look “sexually active!” What the f**k! Keri explained:
“It’s usually girls who look like they were sexually active, which probably I was one of the first. They’re like, ‘She’s out. Oh, she is out. That one is gone.’”
Wow, not a number, just… a creepy judgment by some suit?! That’s so ICKY!
But here’s the thing. When it came to the male cast members, it wasn’t the same! They got to stay on the show for a lot longer — no matter what they were doing behind the scenes. Keri said:
“Meanwhile, the boys stayed till they were, like, 19. I was like, ‘By the way, I had sex with that person, so I know that they’ve had sex.’ For real.”
Whoa! Unfortunately for the messy bitches like us, she did not reveal which of her future-famous co-stars she slept with back then.
However, she made it clear there was an unfair cut-off discrepancy between the guys and girls in the Mickey Mouse Club. The Diplomat star continued:
“You know, girls and sexuality [is complicated]. And by the way, me, I [had], like, a 12-year-old boy body. There’s nothing really sexy about me, but I think that was what [made Disney] nervous.”
Jeez. The House of Mouse had some strict rules! Ultimately, Keri found success elsewhere after her time on the show, going on to star in Felicity, The Americans, and more. However, she can’t help but think things could’ve been a lot different for her if she wasn’t on the Mickey Mouse Club. The Waitress star noted she and her co-stars only got “out alive” after being child stars because they were surrounded by peers their own age:
“I think 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?”
Sadly, many child actors aren’t as lucky as Keri to come out unscathed from those days. Reactions, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments.
[Image via Jimmy Kimmel Live/The Disney Channel/YouTube]
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