{"id":77141,"date":"2025-10-15T22:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/77141\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T22:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T22:31:10","slug":"how-allison-janney-and-bradley-whitford-judoed-their-west-wing-chemistry-into-a-the-diplomat-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/77141\/","title":{"rendered":"How Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford \u2018Judoed\u2019 Their \u2018West Wing\u2019 Chemistry Into a \u2018The Diplomat\u2019 Marriage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford knew they could take their \u201ceternal connection\u201d working together on \u201cThe West Wing\u201d and turn it into a years-long romance for \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d Season 3.<\/p>\n

The pair spent eight years playing close friends CJ Cregg and Josh Lyman on \u201cThe West Wing\u201d in the service of President Jed Bartlet. In \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d Season 2, Janney was cast as Vice President Grace Penn, and coming into Season 3, Whitford was floated to play the vice president\u2019s husband. Janney told TheWrap she only had a moment of worry that it was too gimmicky given their much-loved history working together.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was on the show before Brad was and [showrunner] Deborah [Cahn] said, \u2018How about Brad for your husband?’\u201d Janney said. The Oscar winner admitted that she feared the move was going to be \u201ctoo \u2018West Wing-y,’\u201d but it didn\u2019t feel that way \u201cwhen we\u2019re on set together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are completely different characters, and I think people are going to really enjoy us as Grace and Todd, and maybe think of CJ and Josh initially, but they won\u2019t after they see the characters we\u2019re now playing, and the writing that Deborah is giving us to play,\u201d Janney said. \u201cThese characters are different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitford added that the two were able to quickly easy take their long history playing friends on \u201cThe West Wing\u201d down that \u201cmarital road\u201d for \u201cThe Diplomat.\u201d According to him, it was fairly immediate and he thinks fans coming from \u201cWest Wing\u201d will also benefit from their connection to the characters.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day was like, \u2018Oh, all of this history we have together is completely judoed into this different road, this marital road,’\u201d Whitford told TheWrap. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s going to work that way for the audience \u2013 just our sort of eternal connection. But they\u2019re in such different circumstances and such different people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Diplomat\u201d Season 2 ends on the cliffhanger that the U.S. president died while having a conversation with Hal (Rufus Sewell) while Kate (Keri Russell) was meeting with Janney\u2019s character in the U.K. The third season begins with Penn being sworn in as the new president \u2013 albeit a more problematic one than she worked for on \u201cThe West Wing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly have gotten a promotion every job I\u2019ve taken in the White House, from press secretary to chief of staff to vice president to now president,\u201d Janney marveled. \u201cIt\u2019s been quite a trajectory for me and I felt, because of our time on \u2018West Wing,\u2019 I felt very comfortable walking into this political landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans of both shows who are excited to see the pair play a married couple in \u201cThe Diplomat\u201d have plenty more to look forward to \u2013 Janney and Whitford were promoted to series regulars for the already announced fourth season.<\/p>\n

The post How Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford \u2018Judoed\u2019 Their \u2018West Wing\u2019 Chemistry Into a \u2018The Diplomat\u2019 Marriage<\/a> appeared first on TheWrap<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allison Janney and Bradley Whitford knew they could take their \u201ceternal connection\u201d working together on \u201cThe West Wing\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[54178,54179,146,54181,85,46,54183,54182,54180],"class_list":{"0":"post-77141","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-allison-janney","9":"tag-bradley-whitford","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-eternal-connection","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-israel","14":"tag-josh-lyman","15":"tag-president-grace-penn","16":"tag-west-wing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}