Spoiler alert: This article contains details about Season 4.
While The Diplomat kicked off Season 4 with a literal bang, the pressure on Ambassador Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) and the rest of the U.S. delegation in Britain and Washington, D.C., didn’t stop there.
In fact, as President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) tries to figure out how to handle both the Russians and the Brits, all while juggling a bored husband (Bradley Whitford), Kate must navigate her own path around the increasingly authoritarian president as well as her own marriage to Vice President Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell).
“For me, this season was about getting pushed to the absolute limit,” Russell said at a Netflix FYC event in Hollywood on Sunday. “[Kate’s] trying so hard to do the right thing.”
Russell joined series creator Debora Cahn, actors Ato Essandoh, Ali Ahn, Nana Mensah, and Sewell, along with executive producer Janice Williams and casting director Julie Schubert, on the panel.
“For a couple, these two characters start out and they’re trying to do these things in the world,” Russell said about Kate and Hal. “The first season, they’re just a little bit closer to power. And then the next season, they’re a little bit closer to power. And now they are so close to power.”
The Emmy-nominated actress told Gold Derby that starring in this series has been her “dream job.”
“I love watching Kate and Hal, both in their own ways, walk right up to that line and then ultimately do the right thing,” she said.
While political machinations make up a large part of the Emmy-winning political drama, romantic relationships among the characters also play pivotal roles.
Tension escalates between the president afirst and the first gentleman (Whitford) as he tries to find a place in her orbit and she heals from a gunshot wound from the first episode.
Cahn admitted that Whitford wasn’t an inevitable choice to play opposite Janney, even though the pair starred together on The West Wing, a series on which Cahn worked as a writer and producer.
“The Brad idea was sort of a joke. Like, ‘You know we need to bring in her husband. Wouldn’t it be funny if we…,’ and they were like, ‘No, that would be too silly,’” Cahn explained. “It felt too referential. You know, I’m chasing Aaron Sorkin enough already.”
However, she said, instead of recalling their West Wing characters when they performed scenes together, “they came in and immediately it was a completely different relationship.”
“He’s like nuzzling around in her belly and calling her a focaccia,” Cahn recalled about one of their early scenes. “What they were both able to do because they’ve been colleagues and friends for decades, there was just such a comfort level with, ‘Let’s build something totally new.’”
Another coupling on the show that has seen just as many, if not more, question marks is Kate’s deputy, Stuart Hayford (Essandoh), and CIA station chief Eidra Park (Ahn).
“She’s trying so hard to be a good girlfriend,” Ahn”said. “It’s fun to see the ways in which she’s, ‘Oh, this is what I’ve heard a girlfriend should do.’”
For Essandoh, he sees Stuart as doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
“I love the idea of Stuart taking the quote-unquote feminine role, right. Like he is stating what this relationship should look like, and he wants to state the intentionality,” the actor explained. “Seeing that develop and taking the reins of that from Stuart’s side was really sort of weird and exciting for me.”
As for Kate and Hal, Sewell told Gold Derby, “I think that what’s strong about their relationship will survive any marital state.”
Mensah, who plays the no-nonsense chief of staff Billie Appiah, didn’t hesitate to mention that she would like a romantic entanglement of her own.
“So poor Debora and [writer] Anna Hagen, who is not here, have had to listen to me talk about how badly I want a boyfriend on this show,” she said. “Because it’s a show about relationships, and I don’t have a man.”
She then added that Cahn “set me straight,” alluding to the idea that Billie is “married to the presidency.”
“Her spouse has literally died, and now she’s married to this shell of a thing, this signifier that Allison has now stepped into,” Mensah explained. “That I have pledged my allegiance toward.”
That said, a lot has changed from Cahn’s original strategy for the series.
“I had a plan coming in, and I stated it with confidence to Netflix, about what a seven-year arc would be,” Cahn shared. “And we veered off that quickly. I think by Episode 7 of Season 1, we had committed to killing Stuart.”
She added, “Literally, we hired the guy for seven out of eight episodes, and then I was like, ‘We can’t lose that guy.’”
The showrunner had the same idea about Janney’s Penn.
“Allison coming in, that was easy,” she said. “That was like, ‘You know, what a great thing. Let’s get her for a couple episodes, two and out.'”
However, Cahn said the chemistry, particularly with Russell, was “unbelievable.”
“And it was like, ‘Let’s try and keep her for the rest of her life,’” Cahn said.
As Season 4 ended on the series’ typical cliffhanger, Season 5 is already in the works.
Russell, for her part, is eager to keep diving into the chaotic political and relationship intrigue.
“It’s not just the shiny people giving speeches, and that’s why I love this show,” Russell said. “It’s also Debora’s specific brand of relationship and the messiness and craziness and fun and wild relationship of this, which is just unlike anything else I’ve seen.”
