Holly Taylor is, for the most part, your typical 18-year-old teenager. She goes to school, hangs out with friends and loves her family. Paige Jennings is the polar opposite. She skips class to try to unearth family secrets and has spent a lifetime questioning everything her parents have ever told her.
Holly, born in Canada and raised in New Jersey, appreciates big cities like New York but prefers the peace and quiet of the rural suburbs. Paige, on the other hand, has unknowingly been thrust into the center of a global power struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Holly can usually be found listening to Childish Gambino or Chance the Rapper while watching Jennifer Aniston movies or doing her calculus homework. Paige clings to the stability of church where she's found more solace in the comfort of religious strangers than she ever has at the dinner table of her own home.
Would you have guessed that the two are actually the exact same person?
Holly Taylor plays Paige Jennings on FX's hit Cold War spy thriller "The Americans," which kicks off its fourth season this Wednesday night. But despite the endless stream of contradictions between her personal and professional life, the young actress comes across remarkably down to earth.
"I feel like a normal teenager all the time," Taylor told Headlines & Global News. "I do go to school every day that I'm not working, and I really enjoy public school. I have my friends who are friends with me just because of me. No one really talks about the show at school. ... A lot of people just see me as Holly and not a character from the show, and I love it that way. I have a really nice balance of the best of both worlds."
Is she really trying to tell us that she's never been offered extra credit in exchange for juicy spoilers?
"Sometimes teachers ask me questions, but my lips are sealed. I'm a spy," Taylor said with a knowing laugh. Her on-screen secret agent parents would be proud.
Taylor has been performing since she was 3 years old and was dancing eight shows a week by the time she was 11 as a member of the cast of "Billy Elliot" in New York City. She's used to the spotlight and comfortable under it. That mixture of self-confidence, talent, poise and maturity is a rare thing to find in someone so young, but that is where the chasm between her and her character grows ever deeper. Behind Taylor have stood two unwaveringly supportive parents throughout her entire life. Behind Paige has stood a wall of lies that would have made Berlin's divider look insignificant.
"I think that's one of the relatable storylines that the show really highlights to the audience: how important that parental structure is at home," Taylor said. "That's one thing that I can't really relate to Paige with. I have such a solid foundation at home. My parents are always there for me and I can always talk to them about anything. It's so foreign for me to see a child who doesn't have that experience and have to search elsewhere for it. I think that is really sad to see Paige have that struggle."
Paige's struggles aren't quite over yet either. When last we saw her character, she had finally been told the truth by her parents. What she hadn't been told, however, is that the Soviet Union now wanted to groom her for a place in its geopolitical war.
Just as Holly and Paige stand at two opposite ends of the spectrum, this looming storyline represents yet another juxtaposition of epic proportions (maybe not quite Apollo vs. Soyuz, but you get the idea). While Taylor has previously expressed excitement about a potential spy turn, she realizes it conflicts with her character's current set of beliefs. Still, she won't completely rule it out for this upcoming season.
"I think at the moment where [season 4] starts off, I think Paige would immediately think that is absurd, for her to join the KGB and be recruited," Taylor explained. "I think to her that would be a betrayal on her parent's part. It's not something she believes in right now. It's not something she fully understands or fights for. A lot of it contradicts her beliefs with the church; fighting in a peaceful manner and protesting is obviously not the way Philip and Elizabeth go about their missions. But I think that in the future if Paige did come around to understanding the parallel lines of their passions, I think she could come around to the idea."
Contradiction. Conflict. These words come up often in our discussion, and perhaps that's because there's such a world of difference between the talented actress and her character. Taylor balances the rigorous demands of being on a hit TV show while navigating the potential treachery of high school - we all have regrets there - with the aplomb of a seasoned pro, whereas her character is practically the physical embodiment of inner turmoil as the Cold War drama heats up for the upcoming season.
"I think Paige doesn't even know where her own head is at going into season four," she said. "There's so much going on emotionally, mentally, just everything in her life is shifting...It's very stressful for Paige right now.
"I think that it's just been a very draining season for the cast emotionally. There's so many dramatic storylines, the drama is at the forefront of everything. The stakes are so high, so many characters are in danger. It's a very, very intense season."
And yet Holly talked breezily about what her philosophy class discussed last week and which rappers she's currently listening to.
Would you have guessed that the two are actually the exact same person? Me neither.
Follow Brandon Katz on Twitter at @Great_Katzby
