David Gyasi (‘The Diplomat’) on portraying a character with ‘true ambition’ to be ‘a historical figure’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

David Buchanan
·5 min read
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This article and video contain spoilers about the first season of “The Diplomat.”

“I felt like a lot of the roles I was offered didn’t reflect men that I aspired to be or men that I knew,” shares David Gyasi about many of the opportunities presented to him over the course of his acting career. But his latest role as Austin Dennison on Netflix’s “The Diplomat” is different. On the series, the actor plays the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary, a real position about which the actor says, “We hadn’t had a British foreign secretary that was a person of color that looked like me at that point. Since then, we’ve had one… That appealed to me.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

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Gyasi was not intimately acquainted with all of the duties of the office he would soon inhabit. “I obviously knew of the position and I knew that it was important, but I didn’t know quite the feel of its importance or its intricacies,” admits the actor. One facet of the job that struck him, which series creator Debora Cahn brought to his attention, was that the Foreign Secretary’s office “is four times the size of the PM’s [Prime Minister’s] office, which seems mad.” He goes on to explain the significance of this, noting, “Britain had the empire and the colonial times and the powers… That office had to be that big, needed to be that big… That was a good way in to learning of the position and the power of that position in office.”

WATCH our exclusive video interview with Keri Russell, ‘The Diplomat’

To immerse himself in the universe of international affairs and diplomacy, Gyasi did a lot of research. In addition to working closely with Cahn and doubling the amount of time he spent each morning reading the news — from both right- and left-leaning sources — the actor called upon real-life figures to mine their insights: “I went and interviewed some people that worked with the government, some people that were in the government, and I found it helpful to interview a person of color that wasn’t in the current government but was on the other side… that particular MP’s [Member of Parliament] politics are more akin to Dennison’s.” That meeting, he adds, surfaced “some fascinating, fascinating stuff.”

Dennison’s central relationship on the series is with his new American counterpart, the U.S. ambassador Kate Wyler, played by Keri Russell. Gyasi feels that at their first meeting, there exists a “slight annoyance” on Dennison’s part toward Kate because of her “energy that lacks tact, that lacks subtlety, that’s just bold and brash.” “What he didn’t account for,” continues the actor, “was that that bold and brashness and lack of tact is actually driven by a passion to do what’s right and to save the world… That is where I think there is this kind of connection and kindred spirit, on that level.” On working with Russell to build their characters’ changing rapport over the eight episodes, the actor says, “I found her to be so generous and amenable… it felt like a joy to go in and explore that.”

WATCH our exclusive video interview with Rufus Sewell, ‘The Diplomat’

Late in the season, the audience learns that Dennison made a significant career sacrifice to come to the aid of his sister, played by T’Nia Miller. This character detail certainly rings true for Gyasi, who mentions “how carefully a person of color has to be if he has true ambition to go on and change the world, which he does… He wants to change the world, he wants to be a player, he wants to be a historical figure.” In terms of what backstory the actor himself brought to the role, he says he thought about what Dennison would be like if he had a similar upbringing to his own as “the son of immigrants that worked three jobs to send myself and my brother to a good school, that had all sorts of financial upheaval and difficulty and all of that.”

“The Diplomat” shot in many remarkable locations over its first season, but those sites certainly do not come without their historical baggage. Gyasi mentions the moment in which his character is introduced in the pilot in the U.S. Embassy in London, which features a painting that “depicts America as this glorious woman of justice and Britain as this glorious woman, and Australia’s naked with this bush hat, and Africa’s this little boy with fruit. Africa, a whole continent, as a little boy with fruit on his head, naked.” “Wow, still up there. Still walking past that every day, and then we’re surprised when we hear of some of the ramifications of the decisions that are made and overlooked. That’s quite revealing,” remarks the actor.

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