The Americans

Season 6 M-Net (*101) 21:00 Action

Holly Taylor says that the finale scene of The Americans (2013-2018) is devastating. “I cried so much. Normally I cry on cue, but I couldn’t stop the tears when they shouted ‘cut’. It was like I was giving up Paige forever.” That hasn’t stopped the 21-year-old from dreaming about her spy character though and Holly knows exactly where Paige would be in 10 years: “Living in a cabin alone from the world. Definitely not in the government job she dreamt of because that’s all been ruined for her.”

Holly burst into the world the same way she did the acting business: without warning. “My folks lived not even 500m from the hospital. I was the first person in our town’s history to be born in the ambulance on the way to the hospital,” she says with a laugh. Her family moved from small-town Nova Scotia, Canada to New Jersey in 2000 and Holly told her parents that she wanted to be a Broadway dancer. She was performing in the stage show of Billy Elliot by 2007. She was one of the last on the team to realise that her onscreen parents Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys (Liz and Philip) were dating in real life. “They got on so well on set but I thought it was because they’re adults and great actors. I had no clue you were allowed to do that,” she adds. While Holly’s acting work is quiet at the moment, she does have a plan for when she retires: she wants to open an animal rescue shelter. Don’t be fooled into thinking that she’s tall. Holly is 1.6m tall and her co-stars, like Keri, are short too.