Filed in Articles & Interviews
Category Articles & Interviews
Filed in Articles & Interviews Gallery Updates
How Keri Russell and Allison Janney Changed the Game in The Diplomat Season 2
The stakes have never been higher in creator and writer Debora Cahn’s The Diplomat. The second season of the Golden Globe Award–nominated drama opens moments after the first season’s climactic conclusion: Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), an American diplomat and ambassador to the United Kingdom, has just learned about an explosion in London that affects her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), and members of her staff, including her deputy chief of mission, Stuart Hayford (Ato Essandoh).
It’s only the latest crisis Kate must navigate: She’s developed a romantic connection with Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), while also unofficially auditioning for the role of vice president in a struggling administration back home and investigating an attack on a British aircraft carrier by an unknown perpetrator.
Showrunner and executive producer Cahn (The West Wing) saw Season 2 as an opportunity to examine the trauma and emotions that arise from such a terrifying event, and the lingering impact this has on relationships, both interpersonal and diplomatic. “This horrific tragedy, and what events like this do to a group of people who are working together overseas, immediately took over the season — almost more than we had initially anticipated,” explains the Writers Guild of America Award winner. “The healing and grieving process is uneven and hard to predict; it was something that we wanted to honor as realistically as possible.”
The complete interview can be read over at Netflix.
– Photoshoots from 2025 Queue Issue 19 – June 4 2025
Filed in Articles & Interviews Gallery Updates
Variety June 4 2025 Scans & Shoot
– Photoshoots from 2025 Variety – June 4 2025
– Scans from 2025 Variety – June 4 2025
Filed in Articles & Interviews TV Show
THR’s Drama Actress Roundtable
Six leading ladies — including Helen Mirren, Cristin Milioti and Keri Russell — talk beauty, breaking free of expectations and rebuffing some really bad advice: “Someone said, ‘You’ll never get work if you don’t have a nose job.'”
Six actresses at the absolute top of their game — Parker Posey (The White Lotus) and Keri Russell (The Diplomat) among them — aimed to diagnose the issue over the course of an hour during a raucous conversation that dug into everything from their most formative audition experiences to the humor and humiliation of filming a sex scene … only for it to land on the cutting-room floor.
The complete interview can be read over at The Hollywood Reporter.
– Photoshoots from 2025 The Hollywood Reporter – May 30 2025
– Scans from 2025 The Hollywood Reporter – May 30 2025
Filed in Articles & Interviews TV Show
‘The Diplomat’ Renewed For Season 4 At Netflix
Netflix has renewed its hit series The Diplomat for a fourth season. The news was revealed at the streamer’s Upfronts presentation in New York City today, and before the show’s Season 3 premiere this fall.
From creator, showrunner, and executive producer Debora Cahn, The Diplomat is a high-stakes, contemporary political drama about the transcendence and torture of long-term relationships between countries and people. It centers on Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), the new U.S. Ambassador to the United Kingdom. She was supposed to go to Afghanistan. She’s great in a crisis zone. In a historic home … less so. War is brewing on one continent and boiling over on another. Kate will have to defuse international crises, forge strategic alliances in London, and adjust to her new place in the spotlight — all while trying to survive her marriage to fellow career diplomat and political star Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell).
In Season 3, Ambassador Kate Wyler lives the particular nightmare that is getting what you want. She just accused Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) of hatching a terrorist plot and admitted she’s after the VP’s job. But now the President is dead, Kate’s husband Hal may have inadvertently killed him, and Grace Penn is the leader of the free world. None of this slows Hal’s campaign to land Kate the vice presidency. Kate steps into a role she never wanted, with a freedom she never expected, an increasingly complicated friendship with Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), and an unnerving bond with First Gentleman Todd Penn (Bradley Whitford).
The Diplomat has been nominated for multiple awards, including the Golden Globe, Emmy, SAG, PGA, WGA, and Critics’ Choice. The streamer touts that the series’ first season “became Netflix’s #1 most-viewed title during its first two weeks alone, reached the Top 10 in 87 countries, and garnered 173.46M hours viewed in the four weeks following its premiere.” Additionally, Season 2 of The Diplomat “spent 4 weeks in the Global Top 10, reaching the Top 10 in 70 countries,” the company said.
Source: https://deadline.com/
Filed in Articles & Interviews
Keri Russell has been thinking about the vice president — in ‘The Diplomat’ and real life
This article contains spoilers for the Season 2 finale of “The Diplomat” on Netflix.
In “The Diplomat,” Keri Russell plays a career diplomat covertly being primed to assume the role of vice president — without having to win over an electorate. In real life, one week before election day, Russell has just returned to her home in Brooklyn after casting her vote for Vice President Kamala Harris to be elected the next U.S. president.
“It feels emotional,” she says over a video call, her “I Voted” sticker visible on the upper right side of her cream-colored sweatshirt. “It’s so cool to be standing with everyone in your community, all different ages and all different backgrounds. And to get the chance to possibly elect the first female Black president is f— awesome.”
Time will tell if that comes to fruition. But on “The Diplomat,” a female vice president has indeed become president.
The first season introduced Russell’s Kate Wyler as a seasoned foreign service officer who has her sights set on taking a post in Afghanistan but is reluctantly enlisted by the White House to be the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom in order to quietly prep her to become vice president.
The new season, now streaming, has Kate facing the woman she’s been tapped to push out, Vice President Grace Penn, played by Allison Janney. Just as Kate had warmed to the idea of assuming the position — after learning of the VP’s questionable deal makings on foreign affairs — the plan becomes moot in the closing minutes of the season when the president dies. To make things more complicated, the president died while being briefed on the VP’s practices by Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), Kate’s husband and a respected veteran diplomat.
Russell spoke with The Times about what the finale sets up for Season 3, currently in production, the silly handoff Janney gave Russell before a scene and what it was like to work on the upcoming season in the run-up to the election. Continue reading Keri Russell has been thinking about the vice president — in ‘The Diplomat’ and real life
Filed in Articles & Interviews TV Show
Keri Russell Starts the Day by Bouncing Around in Her Underwear
Keri Russell is often dodging bullets on screen, but in real life, one of the most dangerous things she does—which is, arguably, kind of dangerous—is ride her bike around Brooklyn without a helmet.
“I’m not biking through Manhattan up Fifth Avenue like a bike messenger, weaving in and out of traffic. I’m riding on a bike path through bucolic Brooklyn Heights,” she says after noting that her family gives her grief about it. She says it’s her only vice. “I’m not doing cocaine, up all night on Friday nights. I ride a bike at 6 a.m. without a helmet, to let my hair blow in the breeze and feel like a teenager. Please give it to me.”
The actress, who famously let her hair down as an intrepid New York college student in “Felicity” more than 20 years ago, is known for portraying imperfectly powerful women in powerfully imperfect marriages. She put her stamp on prestige TV with FX’s “The Americans,” playing a Russian spy who fooled the neighbors alongside her agent husband, portrayed by Welsh actor Matthew Rhys. The show put a stamp on her personal life as well: She and Rhys are in a long-term relationship and together have an 8-year-old son. Russell has two children, ages 11 and 17, from a previous relationship.
Continue reading Keri Russell Starts the Day by Bouncing Around in Her Underwear
Filed in Articles & Interviews TV Show
‘The Diplomat’ Renewed for Season 3 at Netflix Ahead of Season 2 Premiere
“The Diplomat” has been renewed for Season 3 weeks ahead of the show’s Season 2 premiere.
The Netflix political drama is premiering its second season on Oct. 31. Production on the third season is now underway in London and New York. The news was officially confirmed by Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria on stage at the Bloomberg Screentime Conference in Los Angeles.
Keri Russell leads the cast of “The Diplomat,” with Rufus Sewell, Allison Janney, David Gyasi, Ali Ahn, Rory Kinnear and Ato Essandoh also starring.
“After an amazing summer shooting in the UK, we brought London home to NY,” said series creator Debora Cahn. “Best of both worlds — filming in Brooklyn. We love doing this. We’re so excited to get to keep going.”
“The Diplomat” originally debuted on Netflix in April 2023 to strong critical and audience acclaim. Russell was nominated for both an Emmy and Golden Globe for Season 1, with the show itself picking up a Golden Globe nod for best drama series among several other accolades.
In addition to creating the series, Cahn serves as showrunner and executive producer on “The Diplomat.” Russell executive produces in addition to starring. Janice Williams and Alex Graves also executive produce.
The official description for Season 2 states:
“A deadly explosion in the heart of London shatters US Ambassador Kate Wyler’s world (Russell). Struggling to rebuild the lives that broke and the team that split apart, Kate’s worst fears unfold: The attack that brought her to the UK didn’t come from a rival nation, it came from inside the British government. As Kate chases the truth, her only real ally is her almost-ex-husband Hal Wyler (Sewell), very much alive, and very much involved. She faces a fraught marriage, a complex dynamic with British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (Gyasi), and a threatening visit from Vice President Grace Penn (Janney).”
Source: https://variety.com/
Filed in Articles & Interviews News
Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell Talk Starring in New Dylan Thomas Play and Praise Taylor Swift for Introducing the Welsh Poet to a ‘New Generation’
Mathew Rhys has been an “unabashed” fan of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas for as long as he can remember.
He cemented his love of the writer — best known for his poem “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” — when he portrayed him in the 2008 biopic “The Edge of Love.”
“When you tell most English people that you love Dylan Thomas, they go, ‘Grrr,’ because it’s such a cliché,” Rhys says. “But I’m unabashed that I’m a lifer.”
He’ll play Thomas once again on May 14 in a one-night only stage reading of “Dear Mr. Thomas: A New Play for Voices,” a production by Christopher Monger about Welsh’s time in New York in the 1950s when the 92nd Street Y organized four U.S. tours for Dylan. He wrote the play “Under Milk Wood” during that time while also becoming a rock star-like celebrity known for his drunken escapades and womanizing. He famously stayed at the Chelsea Hotel before dying at a nearby hospital in 1953 when he was just 39.
Keri Russell will play Welsh’s assistant and mistress Liz Reitell. Rounding out the cast are Kate Burton, Gopal Divan, Betsy Zajko and Taylor Trensch.
I caught up with Rhys and Russell over Zoom from their New York home to talk Thomas, Taylor Swift referencing him in the title track of “The Tortured Poets Department” album and what other plays they’d like to collaborate on. Continue reading Matthew Rhys and Keri Russell Talk Starring in New Dylan Thomas Play and Praise Taylor Swift for Introducing the Welsh Poet to a ‘New Generation’
Filed in Articles & Interviews
White House Correspondents’ Dinner Preview: POTUS, Politics Media & Showbiz Converge For D.C.’s Party-Palooza
This year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner likely will see an uptick in the celebrity quotient.
The star power could come as a function of the 2024 election year and a dinner lineup in which Saturday Night Live “Weekend Update” co-anchor Colin Jost will be the featured entertainer following President Joe Biden‘s own stand-up act. POTUS himself probably will stay mum on the court drama of rival and predecessor Donald Trump unfolding in NYC this week, but expect Jost to get a zinger or two in there.
Among the showbiz types expected to attend are Chris Pine, Da’Vine Joy Rudolph, Jon Hamm, Scarlett Johansson and Rachel Brosnahan. Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell from Netflix’s The Diplomat also are planning to attend, after headlining a Deadline event with series creator Debora Cahn at the Irish Ambassador ambassador’s’ residence on Saturday morning. Also planning to attend: SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland.
Source: https://deadline.com/