Keri Russell: Intrigue of ‘Diplomat’ is its messy humanity
Keri Russell lost her voice.
The actress whispered a hoarse apology after canceling an interview, unable to muster much more lest she worsen her condition. She calls days later, sounding better and joking about all the time she spent promoting her new Netflix series, “The Diplomat,” while barely speaking.
The mishap might as well be straight out of “The Diplomat” itself, in which Russell’s title character, while competent at her work in the Foreign Service, is always a bit out of sorts.Ambassador Kate Wyler is our comfortingly human lens into the high-stakes realm of international relations. Well into preparing for a post in Afghanistan, Kate is suddenly reassigned – after a hostile, anonymous attack on a British vessel – to serve as U.S. envoy to the United Kingdom. A career diplomat, Kate is dismayDennison ed by the change and rejects what she considers to be the empty formalities of her new position. She feels like a fish out of water – until the situation gets more dire.
Pitching the role to Russell was a “moon shot,” according to series creator Debora Cahn. As America’s sweetheart in the teen drama “Felicity” and then its Soviet enemy in the spy thriller “The Americans,” which earned her three consecutive Emmy nods, Russell has established through her television career alone her penchant for “emotional depth and subtlety and nuance,” Cahn says.
Plus, Russell can do physical comedy. The actress was drawn to the humor baked into the series.
Kate’s job requires her to work closely with members of the British government, in particular its haughty prime minister, Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear), and high-minded foreign secretary, Austin (David Gyasi). These personal alliances – and others – shift throughout the season, in part because of clashing personalities and at other times actual political agendas.
And yet, Britain and the United States must remain allies. Cahn frames her series as a study of long-term relationships, between both countries and people. While getting used to her new position, Kate must also navigate her tumultuous marriage to Hal (Rufus Sewell), a fellow career diplomat.
“A relationship goes through a lot of different phases, and people change,” Cahn says. “When two people are married to each other and working together, you can’t escape the reverberations of professional changes in your relationship. That’s just woven into the fabric of it.”
Russell is no stranger to a professional relationship turning romantic. She speaks on the phone from a car headed to her house in New York, where she eventually steps out and, after a brief conversation with the driver, issues a playful plea to be let into her home. “Matthew’s locking me out,” she says, referring to the Welsh actor Matthew Rhys, with whom she starred for six seasons as KGB agents pretending to be an American married couple in FX’s “The Americans.”
“There are huge pros to being in the same business,” Russell says. Being able to speak in shorthand is nice, as is the partner’s built-in familiarity with specific challenges of the job. “Of course, there are times when competitiveness is part of the equation. That’s just part of life. I personally loved working with Matthew. He’s such a good actor, so he was an incredible partner to work with.”