Keri Russell can’t get enough of the political playground that Debora Cahn has built in Netflix‘s The Diplomat.
The actress, who recently earned her second Emmy nomination for her role as U.S. Foreign Ambassador Kate Wyler on the political drama, radiates glee when she discusses the project, which she tells Deadline “is one of my most favorite jobs I’ve ever worked on.”
“It’s just hitting such a sweet spot, I think, with age, for me, and comfort in yourself and comfort with the way you are in the world. I love it so much. I don’t want Debora to ever get sick of writing it, because then what am I going to do?” she laughed.
Though she’s nominated for her performance in Season 2 of The Diplomat, she’s also already shot the third season and the series has been renewed for a fourth. So, naturally, it’s a little difficult to discuss the episodes that debuted nearly a year ago when there is so much yet to come that Russell can’t wait for audiences to experience. In Season 2, Kate’s investigation into the bombing of a British aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf led her straight to U.S. Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) who, thanks to Kate’s husband Hal’s (Rufus Sewell) grand plan to clue the President in on the VP’s involvement, is now about to be leading the country in Season 3.
Considering the apt timing of the second season’s release, just as former Vice President Kamala Harris had stepped in to lead the Democratic Presidential ticket after former President Joe Biden stepped down from the race, there is no telling the ways in which upcoming episodes might feel like art imitating life.
At mention of the eery clairvoyance Cahn exhibited with Season 2, Russell gasps: “I tell her she’s a psychic witch all the time! It gets crazier. Just wait.”
In the interview below, Russell explores more about what draws her to Kate Wyler and all her flaws. She also teases the upcoming third season, which is set to premiere in October.
DEADLINE: Congratulations on your Emmy nomination. Do you remember how you celebrated?
KERI RUSSELL: Oh, my gosh. I’m trying to remember. When you live with children you don’t get celebrated that much. When did that all happen? That was in the summer. First of all, this is one of my most favorite jobs I’ve ever worked on. It’s just hitting such a sweet spot, I think, with age, for me, and comfort in yourself and comfort with the way you are in the world. I love it so much. I don’t want Debora to ever get sick of writing it, because then what am I going to do? To be acknowledged for something that is so fun to make is just such a rare bird. I’m not a huge celebration person where the focus is on me, but I was just like, quietly, really content and happy.
DEADLINE: I know that it’s been a minute since you filmed Season 2. What stands out to you from filming that season?
RUSSELL: There’s so many aspects of this show that I love. It scratches so many itches for me. The context of the show is about something that I care about. In this country, we don’t pay that much attention to government. It’s a show about the inner workings of the Foreign Service and what they do, which is sort of unknown, but then also we package it in this really fun, palatable, tasty little treat, or I hope. I love Debora’s humor. I love it so much. So I think it’s, for me, the balance of that really fun, smart humor with writing about something that is actually important.
DEADLINE: You’d already had a veteran career before The Diplomat and came into this role a seasoned actor. Is there anything about this character and these scripts that you feel has stretched you as an actor or pushed you in unexpected ways?
RUSSELL: I think it’s been really fun to work with the humor of Debora’s writing. That has been really enjoyable that I haven’t always done. It’s interesting. I do feel like so many things that we make or that we watch now are such a blur of comedy and drama. I think we’re all getting a lot more accustomed to the blend of those. I feel like this show is really comfortable in that. It really dips into a joke about Gloria Steinem not being dead and something really serious right after. I think it’s really comfortable in the way life is…I love the physical comedy. Growing up being a dancer, I feel like that has been really fun. I think some characters lend themselves to a kind of physicality — even, like, Kate’s walk. I walk a certain way [in the show]. I think that my dance background has been helpful to me in this role, but I just can’t say enough the good things about this job that I love so much. It’s been a really good ride.
DEADLINE: You know, after I saw Season 2, I asked Debora if she might be psychic…
RUSSELL: I tell her she’s a psychic witch all the time! It gets crazier. Just wait.
DEADLINE: How has it been for you to film this show in the middle of the current political environment? I don’t so much mean the party divides but more so the way that all eyes have been on the machinations of government in a very particular way recently…at the same time you are on a show that is all about pulling back that curtain.
RUSSELL: I love it. I think it couldn’t be a more perfect time to dive in to all of the tiny little parts of government and how monumentally important they all are. It was devastating to sit with people who we knew in the past and then sat down with recently, like Samantha Power, who used to head USAID. I don’t think people understand and realize how much work those people do and how many lives they save, and how integral they are to the well being of a lot of people in the world. I have enormous respect for every part of the government and all the little pieces of it, and I’m proud and excited to shine a light on what they do. I think our country has been flourishing for so long that sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are all these little pieces that help it thrive. So I feel good about it. I think it’s a good thing to show all the little pieces those people work on.
DEADLINE: In Season 2, you spar so much with Allison Janney’s Grace Penn. I can only imagine that continues in Season 3…How has that experience been?
RUSSELL: Oh, my God. She’s the best. She is so great. The way that those characters are set up is highly enjoyable. She’s so mean to me, which is funny in and of itself, because Janney being mean, it’s so funny. She is, in real life, so kind and great and easy. But yeah, she’s not so nice to Kate. She’s such a pro, and she is so wildly talented that to do anything with her so fun, and she’s great. She’s a hard worker. She shows up. She’s done the work, and you always feel like it’s a safe pair of hands. There are other people you work with and you’re like, ‘Ugh what’s this gonna be like?’ No. You’re here with Janney. It’s gonna be fun.
DEADLINE: I love how excited you sounded when you said that Allison Janney is really mean to you in the show…
RUSSELL: [Laughs].
DEADLINE: I really appreciate how much you lean into the messiness of the show and of the characters. Where does your reverence for that aspect of The Diplomat come from?
RUSSELL: Listen, it’s really boring to see people win all day long. What’s exciting about a sports event is that they’re losing, they’re losing, they’re losing and, OH MY GOD! They’re finally going to win!!! Or they’re winning, and they’re winning, and they’re winning and oh my god…the other team is coming at it. Now they’re going to lose. It’s the losing that is enjoyable. What’s so great [about what] Deborah writes is the constant fucking up or messing something up or being wrong and having to clean it up or having to own up to it or having to show up and make it better. That’s life…That’s where growth happens. Those are the important things when you look back. I just like embarrassing situations. I’m embarrassed all day long. So I get pleasure in watching someone do something stupid. I love Alison. The way she was playing Grace is so cool and kind of removed and watching Kate like, ‘Oh yeah, that’s cute that you think that you know.’ Her reserve judgment is so good.
DEADLINE: You’ve spoken a lot about how much you love great writing. Have you thought about writing yourself?
RUSSELL: I don’t think so right now. That’s the way I follow things, and that’s the way I decide projects. For sure, writing is what connects me to something. I mean, I read all the time. That’s what I like to do, but writing scripts just takes such a talent, and it’s really rare that people have an easy, conversational dialogue voice, and they’re a great writer. A lot of times there are writers who come in and do a dialogue polish. It’s rare when they have it all, and just Debora does. She’s just that good, and I felt super lucky she picked me.
DEADLINE: What stands out to you in the scripts that made you so enthralled with this series?
RUSSELL: Debora’s fierce, intelligent humor. It is so precise, and it’s so sharp. That is number one. Then I would say that she’s able to continue that with the backdrop of these weighty world issues that are important…she’s able to keep them all afloat, all while voicing it through this disaster of a marriage, which is no easy feat, and she does it effortlessly. What I want people to understand about Debora’s writing is things in the show can feel very like off the cuff or improvised, but a lot of it is written. I wish I had a good example for that now, but a lot of that is written. It’s not like me just changing the script. These are little tiny moments that she has written, and then we get to perform.
DEADLINE: I was reading another interview you did closer to when Season 2 was released and you mentioned that Hal and Kate’s relationship is bigger than a lot of the marital problems that they have…but now he’s kind of culpable in the death of the president. What is bigger than that?
RUSSELL: Exactly! Exactly! First off, he’s the best character on the whole show. He’s such a disaster. But, like, an enjoyable, powerful, handsome disaster. Now it’s so crazy that Kate is married to this person, connected to this person — you can’t even believe how crazy it gets. It’s so fun. Kate puts up with so much shit, which I’m sure every woman in a relationship feels. It’s so enjoyable from that perspective.
DEADLINE: Something else I was really fascinated by reading those previous interviews is the way you speak about your experience meeting State Department officials and being in some really powerful rooms of people over the last few years. What have you taken away from the conversations you’ve been apart of that has informed your lens of the show and of Kate?
RUSSELL: I would say — which is something I said before, but it really is so true and something that Debora and I both say — this show is meant to be a love letter to the Foreign Service, and especially right now. To your question, being in the some of those rooms that I’ve been so lucky to be in, the main thing I come away with is, number one, how smart they are and how much they have given of their whole motherf*cking lives. People who are that smart and that capable could be doing anything. Some people choose to make money. Some people choose to invent things. These people have chosen service…because that’s really what it is. They care about this country more than anything, and they care about even more than that. I would say [they are] people helping people. I think there’s a lot of noise in politics right now, but at the heart of most of those people who are [or] have been in politics, the ones that we really talked about on the show and were the basis for a lot of these characters, they care about people, and they’ve given their lives and their careers to service. That is, I guess, what’s most important to me and what feels special about getting to do the show.
The post Keri Russell On Her Second Emmy Nomination For ‘The Diplomat’ & The Exhilaration Of Playing A Messy Foreign Ambassador: “It’s The Losing That Is Enjoyable” appeared first on Deadline.
