Sam Brigger
speaker
1,127 appearances
24 recordings
1 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 6 Jun
Sam Brigger’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 8 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 2.
Appearances
Well, we'll hear the song in a second, but first, Gerard Paxson, I just want to thank you so much for coming in today to bring your instruments and playing some music for us. Thank you very much.
This is Fresh Air. I'm Sam Brigger. If you like to distract yourself from real-world crises with the fictional kind, then you can now watch season two of the Netflix series The Diplomat. Keri Russell stars as Kate Wyler, a career Foreign Service officer with an excellent reputation for handling international crises, often behind the scenes.
Her husband Hal, played by Rufus Sewell, is also a diplomat and former ambassador. Let's hear a clip from the current season. But first, a little exposition. Last season, Kate Weiler and her British counterparts had been investigating the terrorist attack of a British aircraft carrier.
She had been told that a Russian mercenary named Lenkov was behind the attack, but that it was secretly planned by someone within the British government, and she suspects the prime minister. Last season ended with a cliffhanger. A car bomb went off, severely injuring Kate's husband, her deputy steward, and another staff member named Ronnie.
In this scene, Kate meets the embassy's lead CIA agent, Idra Park, at the hospital and fills her in on the investigation. Park is played by Ali Ahn.
Kerry Russell has played two iconic roles on television, the lead on the show Felicity as a young college woman in New York, and Elizabeth Jennings, a Soviet spy in the 80s living undercover in the United States in the critically acclaimed show The Americans. she received three Emmy nominations for that role.
She got her start on television as a teenager on the all-new Mickey Mouse Club, with a cast that included Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. I spoke with Keri Russell in 2023 when The Diplomat premiered. Keri Russell, welcome to Fresh Air.
It's an honor to be here. Well, it's great to have you here. I just wanted to ask you first how you were pitched the show The Diplomat and the character Kate Wyler.
So the show's creators called your character itchy. What does that mean to you?
Yeah, she's much more comfortable behind the scenes, right?
So, as you said earlier, the job of the American ambassador to the UK has a lot of ceremonial aspects to it. And you said that the job is often a reward to like a big political donor or bundler and Kate's supposed to attend all these parties and teas. She's supposed to wear dresses and do photo shoots. And she really bristles against that. Like she just wants to do the diplomacy.
And I was just wondering if that's something that you relate to as an actor. Like do you enjoy movie openings and galas or would you just prefer to do the work?
Right. Well, let's just take a short break here. Let's talk about your last TV show, The Americans. The show ran for six seasons on FX. It ended in 2018. It was critically acclaimed. The show won two Peabody's and you were highly praised for your performance and you were nominated for three Emmys. So for people who don't know the show, I guess there are some people out there.
The show takes place in the 80s during the Reagan administration and you play Elizabeth Jennings, a Soviet spy posing as an American. You're in a KGB arranged marriage to another spy played by Matthew Rhys. And when the show starts, you've been living in the United States for 15 years. You have two American-born kids, which was initially just like part of your disguise.
And you've thought of your relationship to your husband as more of a work relationship rather than a romantic one. Although at this point, you're starting to have real feelings for him. So could you just tell us how this role came to you?
Well, I'd like to play a scene from the show. This is from season three. So your daughter Paige is a teenager at this point. Well, I guess she was a teenager all along, but she's getting a little older. And your handlers, the KGB, want to recruit her for the cause. And Philip is strongly against this. He wants Paige to have a normal American life.
Your character, Elizabeth, is more resigned to the idea. And this is a real rift in the marriage at this point. But Paige has been suspicious of your behavior for a while. And in this scene, she confronts you both. And you decide to tell her the truth. And Paige here is played by Holly Taylor.
So that's a scene from The Americans. That's a real turning point in the show. And it's ironic. You finally telling your daughter the truth about their lives just lays bare all the dishonesty that they've been living with and that their family is based on a foundation of lies.
It's interesting because parents, whether they're Soviet spies or not, they conceal things from your kids all the time for all sorts of reasons, like to maintain their innocence, to simplify things, and just to keep the parents' lives private. And that even continues as the kids age. One of the things I found really fascinating with your relationship with Paige is that even –
When Elizabeth reveals that she's a spy, like she still can't tell Paige about all the stuff she does, like all the honey traps and the murders. Because she doesn't want Paige to think she's a monster. Yeah.
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