Keri Russell slams Disney over casting – 'That's seriously the truth'

Keri Russell looked back on her time as a child star at Disney and said girls who “looked like they were having sex” were cut from the cast.

The 48-year-old actress was among a number of stars who appeared in the 1990s revival of The Movie The Mickey Mouse Club. At the age of 15, she made her television debut as the Mouseketeer in The all new Mickey Mouse Clubstays between seasons 4 and 6.

It became a springboard for her successful career and its cast included future actor Ryan Gosling as well as budding pop stars Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and NSYNC's JC Chasez.

Russell spoke about her time under a Disney contract during a recent appearance at SmartLess Podcast that there were methods to weed out certain female actors.

“This is seriously the truth: Whenever the girls looked like they were having sex, they were like, 'Uh, get this out of here,'” the movie star said. “And the boys stayed until they were about 25. They said, 'Uh, that one's out.'”

“She looks like a breeder, get her out,” Russell jokingly added of the alleged modus operandi.

Russell added that her time at Disney “was so much fun. I mean, looking back, it was so cheesy, but it was so much fun.”

Newsweek has reached out to a Disney representative via email for comment.

The movie star, who was 17 when she left her role, made similar comments while appearing on Jesse Tyler Ferguson's podcast Dinner is on me in July.

“Yes, it's usually girls who looked like they were sexually active,” she said People. “I was probably one of the first. They said, 'She's out!'”

“Meanwhile, the boys stayed until they were about 19,” she added. “I thought, 'By the way, I had sex with this person, so I know they had sex.' Really.”

Russell also talked about how she successfully avoided the pitfalls all too often seen with growing child stars.

“I think the really scariest thing about child acting is that it's usually just one or two kids with adults,” she explained. “So this really accelerates the obsolescence of everything. And for.” The Mickey Mouse Clubwe were 19 people. The adults were invisible to me.

“So I wasn’t completely alone with all the adults,” she added. “And I think that was helpful.”

At an appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show Last year, Russell talked about spending her time on set in Florida with “really famous kids.”

“They were all very talented,” she remembers. “Christina, Britney, Ryan Gosling and Justin – all these kids were 12 when I was 17. So I was a little older. I could drive a car. I was cool. But they were incredibly talented.”

In an interview with W Back in August 2023, Russell, who was an avid dancer at the time she joined Disney, compared her talent to the others.

“I'll say this honestly: I was literally the least talented person there. I’m not kidding,” she told the publication. “When I look at these kids, I ask myself: Why on earth did they choose me? Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake and Ryan Gosling and Britney Spears. It was wild.”

Russell later starred in the sequel to the Disney classic Honey, I blew that kid upbut it was her adult acting career that really put her on the map.

In 1998, Keri got the lead role blissfor which she won a Golden Globe.

Since then, she has received wide recognition for her performance in FX drama series The Americansand in 2019 she joined it star Wars Family, appears in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Russell is currently promoting the second season of the Netflix political drama The diplomat.