How to Get Cast on Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’

Debora Cahn’s political thriller follows U.S. diplomat Kate Wyler (Russell), who’s set to assume her new position as ambassador to Afghanistan. But her plans are thrown into disarray when a British aircraft carrier comes under attack off the coast of Iran. Kate’s trip to Kabul is then canceled as U.S. President William Rayburn (Michael McKean) informs her that she’s being reassigned as the ambassador to the United Kingdom amid the turmoil.

Though Kate has no interest in nurturing the U.S.’s critical alliance with the U.K., she becomes invested in finding out who was at the center of the deadly attack, hoping to keep an all-out war at bay in the process. Along with this potential international crisis, Kate must also work to salvage her marriage (or not) to her husband, Hal (Sewell), a fellow ambassador. But can Kate keep her world and the world from the brink of conflict as she gets closer to the truth?

Netflix’s “The Diplomat” Season 1 featured:

• Keri Russell as Ambassador Kate Wyler
• Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler
• David Gyasi as Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison
• Ali Ahn as Eidra Park
• Rory Kinnear as U.K. Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge
• Ato Essandoh as Stuart Heyford
• Celia Imrie as Margaret Roylin
• Miguel Sandoval as Secretary of State Miguel Ganon
• Nana Mensah as Billie Appiah
• Michael McKean as U.S. President William Rayburn
• T’Nia Miller as Cecilia Dennison

Season 2 will introduce Academy Award winner Allison Janney as Grace Penn, vice president of the United States.

Lucinda Syson (“Wonder Woman,” “The Sandman”), Natasha Vincent (“The Boys in the Boat,” “The Alienist”), and Julie Schubert (“House of Cards,” “Manifest”) served as casting directors on Season 1 of “The Diplomat.”

Syson told Casting Networks, “Acting is very vulnerable and hard work. There aren’t many professions where you can do your best and be faultless, but you still don’t get the part because someone else fits it better. Casting directors are very aware of how tough that can be. We see so many wonderful actors and performances that it’s such a shame to have to make a final choice.”

And if you want to impress Schubert, you’ll need to make your own choices. “Make choices with what you have. And be specific. The fastest way to lose me in an audition is to start by asking what I’m looking for. I’m looking for someone who makes the most of the material in their hands,” Schubert told NYCastings. “At the end of the day, I don’t want to micromanage an actor’s performance where none of their own thoughts are present. I’ll help shape an audition to get it where it needs to be for the creatives, but the joy of acting is making those individual choices and sharing a unique perspective.”

As Schubert told The Wrap, it’s rare to secure your first-choice leads when casting—but that’s just what happened for her on “The Diplomat,” as Russell and Sewell were her top picks from the very start. “Keri Russell was on the very first list,” Schubert shared. “She is truly one of the nicest human beings you will ever meet in your entire life. And one of the hardest working people you will ever meet in your entire life. She’s, top to bottom, pure joy.”

Schubert had nothing but high praise for Sewell as well. “Rufus was also number one on the list,” she said, having cast him on Netflix’s “Kaleidoscope.” “The thing about Rufus [that] I think a lot of folks…haven’t necessarily experienced from him is that he is funny. So smartly funny. And you saw a little bit of it when he did the guest spot on ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ [in Season 2]. He’s always kind of a bad guy; he’s brilliant at it. But there’s such a charm to him.”

McKean was seemingly Schubert’s first choice to play President Rayburn, but with many strong opinions coming together on the character, casting the “Laverne & Shirley” actor did not happen right away. “President Rayburn was the [character] that I think we all had a point of view of what we thought it would be. And I remember emailing everybody, saying, ‘What do you think of Michael McKean?’ ” Schubert said. “And then conversations continued and continued. And while Rayburn is incredibly important to the story, it is a character that kind of comes in and out. And then, about two months later, someone said, ‘What about Michael McKean?’ and I was like, ‘Yes, genius idea; let’s do it.’ ”

But for those actors whose existing body of work does not yet have CDs clamoring for their participation, there is always the audition room, which Schubert aims to make “warm and welcoming,” she told NYCastings. “An actor can only do their best work when they are comfortable. And part of my job is making sure they have a judgment-free space to play and make choices and do what they love to do,” she said. “So, if an actor comes in and I can see they are nervous or not grounded, we’ll chat a bit, try to loosen it up. If an actor comes in super tense, trying hard not to make a mistake, I tend to tell one of my many awful dad jokes. It comes out of nowhere. It’s so weird and confusing and not connected to anything in the moment that it kind of jolts you out of your own head.

“I try to read the room and provide what I think will be most helpful in the moment to make sure the actor is ready to go,” she added. “But mostly, I tell actors that right before they walk into any audition space—if their nerves are high—just say, ‘Fuck it,’ and go. I don’t [know] what it is, but there is something about that phrase that just gives permission to let loose. I do it before any meeting I’m nervous about. I get nervous, too!”

According to What’s on Netflix, Season 3 of “The Diplomat” already wrapped in September, having filmed back to back with Season 2 beginning in June 2024. Keep an eye out on this page for updates on Season 4’s fate!

Credit: Alex Bailey/Netflix

Currently, there are no open casting calls available for “The Diplomat.” However, there are several Netflix projects currently casting with us now. Along with bookmarking our main casting page, which regularly updates as new opportunities become available, we also recommend exploring our guide on how to audition for Netflix. This guide explains how the Netflix audition process works and includes audition tips from current casting directors.

Find strength in your weaknesses. While Russell once described auditioning as “the most soul-stealing experience of my lifetime,” telling us she “still gets so unbelievably nervous that it sort of stuns me from doing anything,” she’s accepted that nerves will always be part of her process. “I try to find one moment that I can click into. Just one. I don’t have to find every moment,” she explained. “And I stopped beating myself up about it because I’ve been in the room enough where I’ve seen the process, and a lot of the times it’s not about the perfect read. It’s just what fits. Maybe that person’s voice goes well with that one. It’s not always who’s the best actor or who’s prepared. You have to give yourself a break. You go in, you do the best you can, and then you let it go. I think being nervous is OK. It means you care. If you’re not nervous, you don’t give a shit.”

Embrace what makes you weird. Sewell realizes much has changed for actors since he started his career in the 1990s, but deep down, his advice remains the same: Be yourself. “There are different kinds of problems that actors have to have now; but I think the only thing really I could ever say is what I would always say to young actors, and that is: Try to keep hold of everything about you that you think makes you odd and wrong and not like other people, because that is the heart of who you are,” he said. “And I think it’s very tempting to kind of compare your insides to other people’s outsides, when, in fact, everything that makes you the wrong shape to fit into what you see as a whole is what’s best about you. I think that’s generally true for people, and it’s definitely true for actors.”

Remain calm. McKean might be best known for his comedic stylings on “Laverne & Shirley” and in 1984’s “This Is Spinal Tap,” but he also knows that auditions are no laughing matter. That’s why he wants actors to remain calm in the face of said stress—and have fun! “If you’re at an interview and you’re terrified, there’s really nothing to be afraid of, because the [worst] thing they could do to you is not give you the part. And guess what—you already don’t have the part,” he told Backstage. “You walked in there without the part, so that ship has sailed; just go in and have as much fun as you can.”

Don’t try to please people. Many actors enter the audition room with a preconceived notion of what the CDs want to see, and that’s how Janney used to approach the dreaded audition process. As she told us, she “got too nervous for the process, and as a result, I didn’t feel I did my best and I’d come out and cry.” It wasn’t until she finally began to own her auditions that Janney found being herself was key to getting hired. “I stopped trying to be who I thought they wanted me to be in the audition and just started being myself, being comfortable,” Janney shared. “The real trick to auditioning is just letting go of trying to please them. Make it your own. That took me a long time to learn.”

Show your support. Not all opportunities start in the audition room. Sometimes, in order to get your foot in that door, you need to be in the right place at the right time, which means building connections any way you can. “No one will be more important to you or your career than your friend network,” shared Mensah. “So go see your friend’s one-person show in a crumbling black box theater on Avenue D. Offer to read a friend’s play or attend a reading, and send notes if they ask. Stand in the rush line to catch a friend’s Off-Broadway debut, and greet them with bodega flowers at the stage door. This is a highly challenging business that can be steeped in negativity, so put out all the good vibes you can. Trust me—it comes around.”