Rufus Sewell (‘The Diplomat’) on his ‘initial flashes of instinct’ for playing a character with ‘robust’ ego [Exclusive Video Interview]

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

“It was the relationship dynamic… the wit of their pairing,” shares Rufus Sewell about what drew him to his starring role in the new Netflix series “The Diplomat.” The Emmy-nominated actor plays opposite Keri Russell as husband and wife duo Hal and Kate Wyler, who both work for the foreign service and are experts in diplomacy. He adds, “The script was just so good, it was all there. It’s so much easier when you’re working with the best people, the best scripts.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.

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Hal had worked in the Middle East and now, through his wife’s new role as the American ambassador in London, enters into a thorny diplomatic crisis with hostile nuclear powers when a British carrier is attacked. Sewell explains that in order for the character’s expertise to feel authentic, the jargon “needs to be so second nature” and “you need to put the time in for that.” “One word is enough to put me off if I’m watching something. Something landing the wrong way takes me out and I never quite forget it,” explains the performer about why he feels so strongly about preparing thoroughly. In addition to his research, he also holds “onto the initial flashes of instinct that I get when I read, because that’s actually the most important thing.”

SEENew Netflix political drama ‘The Diplomat’ starring Keri Russell drops first trailer [WATCH]

A great deal of the drama in “The Diplomat” hinges on Sewell’s chemistry with Russell, and the actor admits, “So much of what we have together was there on day one.” He knew of his costar as “a great actor” and felt “from watching her that we’ll work well together.” Their characters’ dynamic is so rich in part because, in the actor’s words, “He was the number one, the main guy, she was working for him… now she is going for the number one spot.” Despite how it might seem, the Emmy nominee doesn’t define Kate and Hal in terms of “competitiveness,” but rather that their role reversal is just “not a natural fit for either of them.”

Sewell has a terrific arc across the show’s eight-episode first season, at first struggling to and then embracing his role as a silent political spouse for his wife. The actor doesn’t think Hal’s evolution on screen was as difficult to pull off as it may appear, in part because “he hasn’t changed his super-objective… He doesn’t have any problem with self-belief… He’s not a challenged little ego. He’s quite robust in that sense.” It certainly helps, too, that according to the performer, Hal “genuinely loves” Kate despite their challenges.

WATCH our exclusive video interview with Debora Cahn, ‘The Diplomat’ creator

Although “The Diplomat” depicts serious situations and complex issues of foreign relations, it also incorporates into its fabric a lot of humor and physical comedy. “My favorite roles have always been comedic,” notes Sewell about this component of the show, continuing, “I’m actually more clownish in my actual persona.” He commends creator Debora Cahn’s writing for its tone, sharing, “This was really, really smart and the level of the humor was always perfectly matched to the requirements of the scene… You didn’t have to dumb down for it.”

Some of Sewell’s favorite scenes to shoot come in the back half of the season, when at the English country manor of British Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi), Hal meets and forms a connection with Dennison’s sister, played by T’Nia Miller. “It was kind of blissful really, this beautiful, beautiful place,” reflects the actor of shooting on location in the countryside. Hal’s “rather taken with this very clever and languorous, witty, and super bright woman,” and the two take a romantic dip in a “Victorian slimy lake.” The dalliance reinforces how much Hal cares for his wife, though, a detail the series star finds “very, very moving.”

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