HERE IN HOLLYWOOD: The Diplomat stars on the complicated business of loving a politician

The people who run the world, it turns out, can struggle with the same domestic problems as everyone else. 

On “The Diplomat,” a political crisis can unfold in one room while a marriage threatens to unravel in the next, sometimes within the same conversation. The Netflix series, which returns for its fourth season, draws much of its appeal from the collision between public ambition and private life, finding comedy and poignancy in both.

For Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell, whose characters, Kate and Hal Wyler, have made marital friction an essential part of the show’s appeal, that tension is sustained by a working relationship built on trust, humor, and a willingness to surprise each other. 

Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney, meanwhile, bring a different history to their roles as the president, Grace Penn, and her husband, Todd. Their characters are navigating the peculiar demands of a marriage in which one partner holds the highest office in the country, leaving the other to figure out where he fits into a life that has suddenly become much larger than either had imagined.

In my recent interviews, the four actors talk about the pleasure of playing people who are extraordinarily capable in public and ordinarily human in private. 

Russell and Sewell have a particularly effective way of approaching these circumstances together. Asked what Sewell brings to Hal that makes their scenes more exciting and challenging, Russell begins her response with a deadpan provocation. 

“I’m still waiting for him to bring something,” she says, prompting laughter. Sewell plays along, agreeing that he has yet to deliver, while Russell assures him that she remains optimistic. “I’m just waiting for him to do something great. I’m like: maybe today.”

The exchange feels like a glimpse of the rhythm that makes their on-screen marriage work. Each knows how far to push the joke, and neither seems especially interested in protecting the other from a little embarrassment. Russell then quickly sets aside the teasing and offers a more sincere assessment of her co-star, though she is careful to warn him that the compliments may be difficult to hear. Sewell, she says, is incredibly funny, smart, and well-read. She also sees a considerable distance between the man she works with and the character he plays.

Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell as Kate and Hal Wyler on “The Diplomat.” Handout/Netflix“I often think we’re better sometimes playing people who are a little different than us because you can watch them from afar,” Russell says. Hal is gregarious, tough, and comfortable taking up space. Sewell, by contrast, is “much kinder and more sensitive than that in person.”

Sewell is equally appreciative of Russell, particularly of her discomfort when somebody tries to praise her. “Watching her struggle at someone trying to be nice to her is one of my favorite things on set,” he says. Russell responds with an immediate “Barf,” laughing at the prospect of being discussed in such affectionate terms.

Russell notes that she and Sewell do draw on aspects of themselves when playing Kate and Hal, even as their personalities differ from those of the characters. For Sewell, the ease of their working relationship is one of the show’s great pleasures. “There is just so much fun and lightness, and we don’t need to kind of set anything. We can keep it alive because there’s a trust there.” Russell agrees. 

This season, the Wylers continue to confront the uneasy overlap between love and ambition. One line of dialogue suggests that Hal has never wanted anything more than he has wanted Kate, with the possible exception of the vice presidency. 

Asked whether he believes the sentiment, Sewell hesitates to settle the matter. “I wouldn’t reject it whole cloth,” he says, acknowledging that Kate’s assessment may contain some truth in her own perspective.

He describes the question as something worth examining throughout the season, a way of exploring what Hal’s competing desires reveal about him. Russell promptly interrupts, as if channeling Kate: “But it could be true for me!” The exchange leaves the question open, which seems appropriate for a marriage in which even the people involved may have difficulty distinguishing what they want from what they believe they deserve.

Playing diplomats has given both actors a deeper appreciation for the people whose professional lives inform the series. Russell speaks enthusiastically about meeting diplomats and spending time with people whose work often takes place long before the public becomes aware of a crisis. 

“These are just the quickest of minds,” she says. “Such curious people and could be doing anything, and they’ve chosen service.”

Sewell shares her admiration. Working on the series, he says, has made him appreciate the work that happens behind the scenes, before a political situation reaches the headlines. The diplomats they have met strike him as funny, insightful and exceptionally talented, with an intelligence that extends well beyond their formal responsibilities. Their experiences have helped the actors understand the stakes of the world their characters inhabit, even as the series finds its comedy in the personal complications that accompany power.

For Whitford and Janney, the marriage at the center of their story is shaped by a history that predates the presidency. Janney, who plays Grace, sees that history as essential to understanding the character’s predicament. The demands of the office may change her circumstances, yet her relationship with Todd remains rooted in who they were before politics became their daily reality.

Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney as Grace Penn and her husband Todd on “The Diplomat.” Handout/Netflix“Grace is the real person behind the presidency, and this marriage has existed way before she became president,” Janney says. 

That history becomes harder to manage as Grace makes decisions that leave her less comfortable with Todd seeing her up close. She begins to want a little more distance, creating complications for a relationship that has to adjust to her new position without losing its older foundations.

Janney believes audiences can sense that the marriage will endure. Whitford shares her confidence, describing “The Diplomat” as fundamentally optimistic about marriage and the connections that allow people to remain together through difficult circumstances. The show’s affection for its couples comes from their ability to keep working at a relationship even when the terms of their lives have changed beyond recognition.

“Both of these marriages are forced to sort of continue to navigate very complicated territory,” Whitford says. He finds much of the comedy in the contrast between political competence and domestic confusion. The characters can make consequential decisions on a geopolitical scale, yet they “don’t quite know, you know, how to share a bathroom.”

The joke captures something that the show understands about long relationships. For Todd, the challenge is to find a place beside a wife whose responsibilities have expanded dramatically without making himself the center of her world.”

I asked whether the storyline has made him think about the people who have had to find their own place around his fame. Whitford answers immediately. “I worry about that all the time.”

Both actors experienced the success of “The West Wing,” the political drama that helped define their careers, after years of working in the profession. Janney remembers the punishing schedule, with 18-hour days that left little time for relationships outside the show. 

“We lost touch with a lot of people in our lives, and I felt it definitely changed a lot of my relationships with people,” she says. But looking back, she believes their later success helped them remain grounded. They had enough life experience to understand that professional recognition was only one part of who they were.

Whitford is similarly conscious of the disproportionate attention that show business receives. The people around actors, he says, must learn to accommodate the attention that comes with their work, even when partners, friends, and family members have little interest in participating in it themselves.

He describes their careers as a process of being “boiled frogs” until they suddenly realized, in their 40s, that a great many people knew who they were. Whitford regards that slow progression as emotionally healthier than becoming famous overnight, when the public can begin interpreting every aspect of a person’s life before that person has had time to understand the changes.

“It’s really great to get lucky in show business, but it’s not really emotionally healthy,” he says. Sudden attention can make people self-conscious, he explains, as they become aware of being watched and interpreted. Whitford mentions Lena Dunham’s book as an example of the challenges of navigating sudden public attention, particularly when fame happens before someone has had time to adjust to it.

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler on “The Diplomat.” Handout/NetflixJanney shares an observation while filming this season of “The Diplomat” in Florence that mirrored some of their on-screen relationship but in reverse. “Brad gets recognized all the time. His hair wasn’t this short in Florence; it was Todd-length, and he’s very recognizable. I am not, for some reason, but whenever I was with him, people would recognize us and come up all the time,” she says.

Whitford sees a parallel between that experience and Todd’s attempt to establish an identity beyond his wife’s presidency. His own character has spent years supporting his wife, and the change in Grace’s circumstances forces him to reconsider what that support looks like. 

He sums up Todd’s predicament with a laugh: “I was always in love with a brilliant, ambitious woman. But now, you know, I’m playing tambourine, I guess.”

The line carries the affectionate frustration that runs through the show’s marriages, and the actors’ own relationships with their work illuminate that tension. While Russell and Sewell rely on a shared sense of play to keep their scenes unpredictable, Whitford and Janney draw on years of friendship and professional experience to bring warmth to a marriage under pressure. 

The show works because of its willingness to let characters be difficult, vain, vulnerable, or ridiculous without withdrawing the affection that makes them worth watching. In its fourth season, “The Diplomat” continues to find its most revealing material in those contradictions.