\n\t\u201cI think we\u2019re seeing authoritarian behavior out of the leaders of a number of Western democracies, and at a certain point, it felt like we weren\u2019t talking about the world that we exist in if we weren\u2019t addressing some of that,\u201d Cahn tells The Hollywood Reporter. \u201cIt just felt like we were in a fantasy land, and not in the right way. I want to be in a fantasy land a little bit, but I also want these people grappling with what this generation of diplomats is facing, and so whether or not the behavior you\u2019re seeing is authoritarian or proto-fascist, I think, is a question that a lot of people working in a lot of different governments are asking themselves every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe most-recent eight episode installment of the Netflix series sees U.S. President Grace Penn (Allison Janney<\/a>), recovering from an early-season assassination attempt, undertake an increasingly aggressive approach to foreign policy<\/a>, ultimately sending warships to keep Russian vessels out of U.K. waters<\/a> and threatening to fire on any ships, Russian or British, that get in their way, a threat that, as first gentlemen Todd Penn (Bradley Whitford<\/a>) puts it could \u201cend NATO\u201d or at least jeopardize the U.S.\u2019 role in the group. At the same time, Grace dismisses anyone who questions her judgment, muzzling Keri Russell<\/a>\u2018s American ambassador to the U.K. as she\u2019s unwilling to carry out the president\u2019s orders and appointing Todd, now special envoy to the U.K., to convey her message and, perhaps most chillingly, recalling deputy chief of mission Stuart (Ato Essandoh) after he lodges his disagreement with Grace\u2019s plans via a cable in a State Department dissent channel.<\/p>\n \n\tThe real-world analogues for Grace\u2019s bold behavior aren\u2019t lost on Janney as she mentions the threat to attack anyone who stands in the way of U.S. foreign policy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s wild to make decisions like that with your closest ally; I can\u2019t imagine anybody doing that,\u201d Janney knowingly tells THR. \u201cIt\u2019s not ripped from the headlines, but I\u2019m sure Debora was influenced by what\u2019s going on in our country right now and decisions that are being made with longtime allies.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe efforts to suppress dissent also ring true to her.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThat\u2019s similar to what\u2019s going on today too. I mean, anyone who disagrees with you, you\u2019re out. I don\u2019t like the way you cover my administration, you\u2019re out,\u201d Janney says just days after President Trump banned CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s not a pretty picture of Grace. It shows \u2014 I don\u2019t want to say desperation but \u2014 [that she] doesn\u2019t want to be made vulnerable by anyone ever again. I think it all comes from the assassination [attempt].\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCahn concedes that she hadn\u2019t initially envisioned the Grace character as someone who would take this severe of approach to foreign policy, but that shift came out of the work that Janney did as an actress and \u201cunfolded over time.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis was not an idea that was in my head from the get go,\u201d Cahn says.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd Janney wonders aloud how much the shooting and possibly sexist concerns about whether Grace is tough enough to get back to work might influence her more aggressive foreign policy.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cShe has always been a woman who was very confident in her instincts and loves being having the power, and now it\u2019s new to her being vulnerable. She doesn\u2019t like it, and she doesn\u2019t like the way people are treating her,\u201d she says. \u201cSo she\u2019s sort of doubling down on making decisions that people start to question. \u2018What is she doing here? Is this because she got shot? Why is she being so?\u2019 She\u2019s extra making some hard-line decisions that the people around her start to question her, and then it of course affects her relationship with Todd because he is someone who knows Grace way before she was in politics. And he is worried about her. And when she looks at him, she sees the worry on his face, and she doesn\u2019t like how that makes her feel, so it puts a real strain on their relationship. She basically sends him across the ocean so she doesn\u2019t have to have him there because he makes her feel even more vulnerable or doubting herself. So it very much changes the whole trajectory of this season. The assassination attempt changes everything.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn the final minutes of season four, after talk of the bold U.S. strategy ripples through the Italian compound hosting the G7, Penn makes her plans perfectly clear at the beginning of the international summit. Ultimately, Russell\u2019s Kate and a number of other U.S. officials can\u2019t take it anymore. One by one, Kate, chief of staff Billie Appiah (Nana Mensah) and secretary of state Miguel Ganon (Miguel Sandoval) turn in their badges and publicly resign and walk out of the conference. Finally viewers see vice president Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell<\/a>), Kate\u2019s husband, walk out, taking a moral stand as he seemingly gives up his very powerful seat at the table. While it\u2019s not made explicitly clear in the closing minutes of season four, Sewell and Russell see his walkout as a resignation.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI don\u2019t think you get to walk out and then walk back in again,\u201d Sewell tells THR, as he and Russell joke: \u201cI changed my mind. Actually, sorry, I just want to see how \u2014 are you good?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tBoth Russell and Janney are moved by the resignations, with Russell seeing it as the kind of tribute to foreign service officers that reminded her of why she initially wanted to star in the series.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI love the way it ends,\u201d Russell says of the season four finale. \u201cIt\u2019s why I signed on to the show. It\u2019s about this world of people that I really respect and this army of people behind the scenes who work and run the foreign service, USAID, all of that. This was meant for them, and where it lands, that\u2019s what I love so much about this show.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tJanney adds, invoking the current U.S. political climate: \u201cSpeaking for Debora, I\u2019m thinking that it\u2019s probably wish fulfillment to say, \u2018Yes, this is what you do when you disagree with what someone is doing in power.\u2019 You go, \u2018No, I will not serve for this administration.\u2019 I mean, how great would that have been to see Republicans standing up against Trump and saying, \u2018No, I\u2019m not going to serve.\u2019 That would have been so amazing to see, but it didn\u2019t happen. So we show it happening.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCahn is more circumspect on whether such dramatic resignations are the right thing to do, but she wanted to explore the decision to take a stand (and whether that involves leaving or staying).<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cA lot of individuals have resigned and, in the State Department and all over the government, a lot of people have resigned in protest and retired in protest, and obviously hundreds of 1,000s of people have been forced out, fired,\u201d Cahn says. \u201cFrom a distance, it seems really easy to make the call: \u2018Well, if I was there, I would, I would put a stop to all this,\u2019 And that\u2019s hard to do. And there are like hundreds of 1,000s of really good people who work for our government who aren\u2019t toppling it. So kind of pulling apart a decision to take a stand and speak out against something that a head of government is doing, I really wanted to tease out what does that feel like from the inside.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd in making their decisions to leave, both Kate and Hal are weighing the trade-off between access and ideals.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIt\u2019s something we keep talking about, especially for these two characters, to be so close to why you started all of this, so close to what you wanted,\u201d Russell says.\u201dThey both wanted to be in that room, and they\u2019re the closest they\u2019ve ever been to that. And yes, there are compromises along the way, and you just tell yourself, \u2018I know, but once I get in that room, I\u2019ll be able to do the right thing. I\u2019ll be able to affect the change that I want to see, influence the right people.’\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tFor Hal, Sewell says, \u201cIt\u2019s a similar story in terms of his belief that access outweighs almost everything. You have your principles. You have the things that you want to do, and sometimes you might need to whittle down the visible aspects of those principles in order to get into the room in order to have access. And he\u2019s gone as far as he possibly can. He has his reservations. He\u2019s noticed the same things. But his belief is that to be beside her with a minuscule chance of arresting her behavior is the best chance. But the problem is he\u2019s so used to living in this gray world, he doesn\u2019t get to see where it warps, and he\u2019s compromised too much. He loses his grounding a little bit, and it takes [Kate] to give him that extra nudge.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tOf Grace\u2019s foreign policy approach, Sewell adds, \u201cI think he thinks it\u2019s very dangerous. And I personally think he thinks she\u2019s veering off course. She\u2019s making reckless decisions. I think she\u2019s decided on an attitude which has lost some of the nuance. And he thinks if he says too much about that, then he will be sidelined, and his ability to affect the outcome will be taken away, and he\u2019ll be replaced by someone way more dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tStill, Hal walks out, joining his wife<\/a> in protest, but neither Sewell nor Russell see his move as a romantic gesture aimed at their spouse.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s romantic about it is he\u2019s taken a moral stand,\u201d Sewell says. \u201cBut he did the right thing for himself. I think where we\u2019re at in that story and in this place in our lives has nothing to do with their romantic relationship at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThough Hal does walk out, Todd does not, seemingly standing by his wife.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think there may be a big part of Todd that would love to walk out. But I think his devotion to her sees [people leaving] as a wildly inappropriate betrayal, and I think Todd\u2019s love and respect for Grace, no matter what his concerns are about her, is banking on the possibility that there is something Todd doesn\u2019t know that maybe they don\u2019t know, that maybe Grace is is playing a much longer game here,\u201d Whitford says. \u201cSo I think it\u2019s a mixture of the sort of dog park loyalty and true devotion, and I think in the moments when they stand up and do this publicly, I think it\u2019s wildly disrespectful and inappropriate. I remember sitting there going, like, if you\u2019re going to do this, do it in the back room. Don\u2019t have a little piece of theater here at my wife\u2019s expense.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tCahn highlights how Todd and Hal \u201chave very different agendas.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey each have a kind of a prime directive of their own, and they aren\u2019t the same,\u201d she says. \u201cTodd is there to be the president\u2019s spouse, and that\u2019s his job. He\u2019s a guy who took an oath to her. Kate and Hal took oaths to the Constitution. Those are different.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAnd while Janney indicates Grace is heartened by Todd\u2019s support, she says her character feels \u201cshamed\u201d by the resignations.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen we shot that scene, it was really hard not to feel embarrassed or shamed. And I think at first she was trying to [act] like, no, it\u2019s just someone who\u2019s not well and good riddance. And then the more and more people come, I think she\u2019s there just trying to hold her power in the face of all of this dissent. It\u2019s a very hard moment,\u201d Janney recalls. \u201cWhen Rufus finally goes out, you wonder what\u2019s happening in the G7. I know that she looks at Todd, and I think Todd is there for her and is not going to leave her. It felt like you were being shamed, and it was not fun.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIt\u2019s unclear what the fallout from those resignations will be as the screen fades to black when Hal begins to address a group of reporters assembled outside of the G7.<\/p>\n \n\tWhile The Diplomat has yet to be renewed for another fifth season, Janney, Russell and Sewell hope they get to find out what\u2019s next for their characters.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat\u2019s the culmination of this behavior and what she\u2019s doing?,\u201d Janney wonders aloud of Grace. \u201cIs she going to resign? What does she do? What the hell is going to happen if we get to another season?\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAs for Kate and Hal, it\u2019s unclear what their futures will look like after spending their entire careers in diplomatic posts. But Russell and Sewell have some ideas of presumably less stressful endeavors, including \u201crunning a tiki bar.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe idea of a downgrade is fantastic,\u201d Sewell jokes, adding of the tiki-bar hope, \u201cLocation-wise, these are our ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tRufus Sewell and Keri Russell share a romantic moment in Italy near the end of The Diplomat\u2018s fourth season.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNick Wall\/Netflix<\/p>\n \n\tAll episodes of The Diplomat are now streaming on Netflix. Read all of THR\u2018s Diplomat coverage<\/a>, including an interview with Rory Kinnear about leaving his role<\/a> as U.K. prime minister Nicol Trowbridge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[The following story contains spoilers from the fourth season of Netflix\u2019s The Diplomat.] When it came time to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636746,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[65104,65105,156,65106,111,139,69,296749,63274,437],"class_list":["post-636745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-allison-janney","tag-bradley-whitford","tag-entertainment","tag-keri-russell","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rufus-sewell","tag-the-diplomat","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636745"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636745\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-hollywoodreporter-2021\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\")
<\/p>\n