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Five years after The Americans ended, Keri Russell is finally back on TV with a worthy leading role in Netflix’s politically charged The Diplomat. The actor has always been a tour de force, from her heartrending turn in the 2007 film Waitress to escaping a coked-up creature in 2023’s big screen hit Cocaine Bear. But it’s on TV where Russell has really made her mark, starting with a breakout performance on the young adult drama of the ’90s, Felicity, (who can forget “The Felicity haircut?”), where she earned acclaim for essaying a character who learns to rise above society’s expectations.

Since then it’s become Russell’s forte to play a woman who delights in breaking norms. At first glance, for instance, The Americans’ Elizabeth Jennings is a ruthless Russian spy. But Russell shepherds her into an all-timer by bringing gravitas and surprising warmth to the role. Now, Russell takes those skills to The Diplomat. Created by Debora Cahn, a producer and writer for The West Wing and Homeland, the series follows Russell’s Kate Wyler, a motivated U.S. ambassador who is unexpectedly stationed in London after an apparent terrorist attack. She’s tasked with curbing the potential for war between several countries while also navigating a complex marriage with her ego-driven political husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell). Continue reading Keri Russell on The Diplomat: “I have to really like something to pursue it”

Keri Russell has made a career of playing the kinds of heroines who lodge themselves in the television-viewing public’s consciousness with single-name resonance: Felicity (from, you know, Felicity), Elizabeth (from The Americans), and now Kate from The Diplomat. On this new Netflix show, which premieres on April 20, Russell plays Kate Wyler, a civil servant who has conducted her diplomatic career largely offstage while her husband, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), a foreign policy wonk with front-of-house energy and Lawrence of Arabia hair, occupied center stage. They are moving into a new phase of their careers and their relationship: Kate is headed to Afghanistan, or so she thinks; the couple is not so amicably headed for divorce. Both those plans are upended, however, when Kate is told she will, confoundingly, be given the plum (but too soft, for her tastes) post of London; the divorce, too, is put tentatively on hold.

The role is a rich and juicy one for Russell, whose spine of steel—the backbone of so many episodes of The Americans is deployed here with more diplomatic grace. Kate is tough but also human, adept at internalizing a complex geopolitical issue, but also personally annoyed that she has to devote her time to figuring out the right attire to wear to the negotiating table. She’s extremely competent and also subsisting mainly on yogurt that she eats standing up. The show reads something like a cross between The West Wing and Homeland (its showrunner, Debora Cahn, worked on both), with fast-paced banter laced with D.C. jargon and the looming backdrop of current events foregrounding the interpersonal struggles. Continue reading Keri Russell Is the Ultimate Diplomat in Her New Netflix Show

On a recent Thursday afternoon, the actress Keri Russell paused in a corner of Brooklyn Bridge Park to admire a starling.

It was technically spring, though the weather had other ideas, and Russell, in subdued plumage, braved the wind in chunky boots and a black puffer jacket. Her hair was tousled. Liner ringed each eye, possibly a souvenir from the previous night’s too many margaritas with friends. She didn’t look much like a woman who devoted years of her life to undermining the American democratic project. Or like a woman now charged with safeguarding it.

But Russell has been both of those women (and a lot of other women besides). At this point in her career, she is probably best known for her six seasons on the FX drama “The Americans” as Elizabeth Jennings, a Soviet sleeper agent with an ambitious collection of ruses and wigs who earned Russell three Emmy nominations. Now Russell has taken on an opposing role: In the “The Diplomat,” a Netflix series debuting on Thursday, she stars as Kate Wyler, a savvy U.S. civil servant tasked with upholding America’s reputation abroad.

A veteran ambassador, Kate is about to take a post in Kabul when an international incident shunts her and her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), to London. An English manor house is not a war zone, but Kate behaves otherwise. Armored in punishing heels and sleek sheath dresses, she treats even polite conversation as battlefield maneuvers. But in a departure from “The Americans,” Kate’s work is almost entirely aboveboard. She wears no wigs.

Continue reading In ‘The Diplomat,’ Keri Russell Shows Her Good Side