Kerri Russell On 'The Diplomat'/ Remembering Dorothy Allison
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What is the Netflix series 'The Diplomat' about?
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.
Lenkov put together the attack on the carrier, but the Kremlin did not hire him. I think the prime minister did. Of this country. Slow down. They are British police. This is a British hospital. Our people are not safe here. Kate, you think the British Prime Minister ordered a strike on his own warship, which may or may not be connected to the bomb that just went off in his own city? You think he ordered that too? I think the call is coming from inside the house. And three Americans, including my husband, just got blown up inside the house.
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.
Thank you so much.
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.
Deborah Kahn, who wrote it, sent me the script. It came through the normal channels. It was actually, it was the holidays. It was Christmas time. And it just so happened that I had three sets of grandparents downstairs in my house. I was cooking for them all. It was chaotic and fun and amazing. And, you know, I was clearly not shopping around for a new television show to join. I read this and I just – it has this combination of – or Deborah's writing does I suppose – of this political fun intrigue and almost in the world of kind of war journalism and those kind of stories that interest me. And this world of civil servants and the State Department and the people who do those jobs that we just don't know that much about. And Deborah, she writes about the minutia of life.
So it's someone going to meet the president, but then realizing there's yogurt on my pants. And you're like, I gotta get this yogurt. Like, how am I gonna get this off? And it's just great writing. And I couldn't say no.
So the show's creators called your character itchy. What does that mean to you?
That's very funny. She's a very good organizer, and she's very good at getting all the facts right and getting people where they need to be behind the scenes. And then I think if you ask her to wear something other than her one black suit that she really feels good in and smart in and tough in, and you ask her to wear a dress, it's... going to show her sweat and she's itchy and she doesn't like when people look at her. So that's really fun.
Yeah, she's much more comfortable behind the scenes, right?
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