“It’s so fun to play in that world and to be criticized on such a level by this person who she respects,” Russell said
The Diplomat Season 2 came to a dramatic end, with the show’s stars Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell joined by Allison Janney as U.S. Vice President Grace Penn. While many of the scenes between Russell’s character Kate Wyler and Grace are about Kate possibly being the next vice president, there’s one particular moment that stands out.
In Episode 5 of the The Diplomat Season 2 on Netflix, Grace wants to talk to Kate. Not about policy or the Senate, but rather, to talk about her “packaging,” meaning how she looks physically, which leads Kate to tell her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell) Grace called her a “sloppy hussy.”
“It’s a visual world. No one will read your policy papers. Best case, a sound bite will go viral once a year,” Grace says to Kate. “Your face will appear in the media an average of 12,000 times a day. Every classroom in America, every embassy in the world, will hang your picture on the wall. It’s soft power.”
“Looking to the north, you probably think your hair says you’re too busy serving your country to get a blowout, which sends a signal, I think in this case, that’s better unsent. East and west, try a bra with a little padding. I know there’s not much to hide, but when your jacket opens, I’m getting headlights.”
‘The Diplomat’ Season 2: Keri Russell on the ‘fun’ of ‘sloppy hussy’ exchange with Allison Janney (Netflix)
Russell said her scenes with Janney were “so fun.”
“You read those scripts and they are just so fun. I love this character so much,” she said. “It’s so great to be so messy.”
“It’s so fun to play in that world and to be criticized on such a level by this person who she respects. And Janney is just a dreamboat. She is equally as fun, funny, smart. She’s a total pro. She shows up and that stuff is just easy to her. I mean, she was just a total asset to have and good fun too.”
As showrunner and creator Debora Cahn explained, these conversations are very much part of the job in this political landscape.
“Those conversations happen and I know people who work in those worlds, and the idea that somebody’s going to tell you that you’ve got to get a different kind of bra because this one is not cutting it is so horrifying, but so true to the situation,” Cahn said. “We put people under that kind of lens, … we want them to run the world. We want them to understand the trade-offs between nuclear power and nuclear weaponry and renewables, but we also want them to be able to be camera ready in every moment and relatable, and that’s impossible. That’s just totally impossible.”
“And how do you kind of bridge that divide? And it’s very, very human. It’s very personal. It’s very intimate. To hear that, or to be the person who has to say it, the person who has to be like, ‘You know, you think that your hair is OK, and I’m just so sorry to say it isn’t, and it isn’t on any level, and it can never look like that again.’ Those are tough moments.”
Spoilers for The Diplomat Season 2 finale included beyond this point
Debora Cahn explains appeal of shocking ‘The Diplomat’ season finales
Of course, the vice president question is particularly up in the air with the big shock in the season finale that the U.S. president is dead. While we were waiting to see if Grace will face repercussions for the British warship attack, now that Grace is going to step into the role of president, the big question is what will this enhanced power mean for Kate and Hal?
“It’s nice to keep people engaged and the end of the first season really did, in a way that kind of surprised us,” Cahn said. “We were delighted to hear how connected people were with these characters, and pissed off that they might not be coming back.”
“So we want to do that again and then we also want to realistically look at what it’s like to be in these positions where you, one second to the next, are rocketed into the glare of the centre of the spotlight of the world.”
