
As we prepare for the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards, Backstage is breaking down this year’s film and television ensemble nominees for your consideration.
Main cast: Ali Ahn, Sandy Amon-Schwartz, Tim Delap, Penny Downie, Ato Essandoh, David Gyasi, Celia Imrie, Allison Janney, Rory Kinnear, Pearl Mackie, Nana Mensah, Graham Miller, Keri Russell, Rufus Sewell, Adam Silver, Kenichiro Thomson
Casting by: Lucinda Syson, Natasha Vincent, and Julie Schubert
Created by: Debora Cahn
Distributed by: Netflix
An actor needs to know their character’s motivation to make a scene work. The ensemble of “The Diplomat,” however, proves that the audience doesn’t always need that same information. The Netflix political thriller created by Debora Cahn returned for a second season full of juicy unknowns.
Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), the U.S. ambassador to the U.K., tries to nail down the mastermind of a deadly terrorist attack—even if all clues point to Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear). Deputy Chief of Mission Stuart Heyford (Ato Essandoh) struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder after last season’s cliffhanger explosion, but the same brush with death hasn’t stopped Kate’s calculating husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), from treating his wife’s career like a chess piece.
Season 2 introduces another big player: Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney). Is she Kate’s enemy or an ally? Like everything on “The Diplomat,” that’s on a need-to-know basis.
Russell’s charmingly disheveled performance remains the series’ emotional core. This pragmatist walks a tightrope—visibly uncomfortable with the schmoozing and deceit of diplomacy, but able to lock in when stakes are high.
This season, Russell demonstrates how much Kate has grown into her role. Her composure dramatically changes when duty calls. In a tense Episode 5 moment, she quietly defuses the prime minister’s nervous breakdown at a party with the steely poise of a hostage negotiator.
Rufus Sewell in “The Diplomat” Courtesy Netflix
Meanwhile, Hal finds that old habits die hard. Sewell’s man of contradictions is oily and arrogant, often overstepping his bounds and keeping big secrets from his spouse. And yet, in quiet bedroom scenes, Hal looks at Kate with utter devotion. The audience never knows what he’ll do next.
As U.K. Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison, David Gyasi finds himself with a new assignment. The character’s close alliance with Kate skirted dangerously close to an affair last season; that bond, now strained, snaps over the course of Season 2. Gyasi steers his character’s charismatic competence into exhaustion and bitterness.
Standout Ali Ahn gradually reveals CIA agent Eidra Park as a tough operator with a tender core. She plays fast and loose with the law—wiretapping, detaining civilians indefinitely, things of that nature. Ahn embodies the ensuing stress, looking like a camel’s back just waiting for that last straw.
As hawkish blowhard Trowbridge, Kinnear rides emotional extremes. One moment, he blusters about ordering an assassination; the next, he broods over career catastrophe. Celia Imrie plays Trowbridge’s personal Rasputin, Margaret Roylin, who’s smug and slippery as a snake. The two come to gasp-worthy blows in the season’s climax.
The real clash of the titans, though, is seen between Russell and Janney. Grace knows that Kate is in line to replace her as vice president, and Kate doesn’t quite know what to make of Grace’s arrival in the U.K. The actors dance through these shifting impressions of each other, revealing their hands one card at a time. In a show-stopping monologue, Grace picks her rival’s image apart from head to toe, and Janney delivers each line with surgical precision. The audience might think they’re watching “The Devil Wears Prada” for a second.
These performances capture big personalities clashing with even bigger consequences. That’s statecraft for you.
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