Inside Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell’s Top-Secret Love Story

It turned out, however, that she and Rhys already knew each other, having met after a kickball-and-beer-fueled party in L.A. more than a decade prior.

“I very drunkenly asked her for her number when she was a young, single, slip of a thing,” Rhys shared during a 2017 appearance on Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen, “so I sort of knew then when I was 26.”

Years later, according to Russell, “We did all the readings together and all the things, and after a heavy dose of fight training, all sweaty, at lunch, you said, ‘Oh, you know we’ve met before. I said, ‘No we haven’t,’ and you said, ‘Yeah, we’ve met before, like 10 years ago at kickball.’ As soon as he said that, I knew exactly what [he meant] and I opened my eyes, like, ‘Oh! Of course I remember that.'”

The Diplomat star cracked, “You were that buffoon that wouldn’t stop calling.”