What’s the surest sign that Jodie Whittaker was a massive Diplomat fan long before signing on to play the show’s major new political player? She accidentally uses Kate Wyler’s (Keri Russell) pet name while discussing the drama series.
“I keep calling her Katie because Hal calls her Katie … you know that affectionate [way he says] ‘Katie?’” Whittaker explains.
The actor makes her debut as Bethan Vaughn in the political drama’s fourth season — streaming on Netflix now — replacing Prime Minister Nicol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear) after he abruptly resigns. Stepping into a television show she loves so much felt akin to attending Comic-Con and meeting the stars. “I’m like, ‘You’re off the telly!’” Whittaker quips.
Vaughn first appears on the scene after Trowbridge, who has been pushed to his absolute breaking point, tenders his resignation. To be fair, he’s being blackmailed by Kate over a tape that shows him attacking his now-deceased adviser Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie). Plus, he’s having intrusive, haunting visions of Roylin goading him at every turn, his foreign secretary Austin Dennison (David Gyasi) was recently killed in a tragic accident, and that’s not even taking into account the consistent overreach from the Penn administration.
In Trowbridge’s final episode, he fully cracks, having visions of himself as both a king and clown, all while performing a two-act opera composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo called “Pagliacci” (which translates to “clown”). “I got a call from [The Diplomat creator Debora Cahn] and she asked if I felt comfortable singing it,” Kinnear says. “I asked how she knew I could sing, and she said that during the funeral scene in St. Paul’s [in Season 2], she heard me sing a hymn with about 300 other extras … and held on to that for two seasons.”
He quips, “A good note to everybody: Just sing out when you’re asked to.”
Cahn loved the idea of slipping inside Trowbridge’s brain and getting to the bottom of his frequently volatile behavior. “He’s always doing things that are just a little bit off, a little bit inappropriate, appropriate enough to get by in public life, but inappropriate enough where you think, ‘Did he just actually say that?’” she notes. Seeing the world through his eyes reveals a “haunted, crazy, kaleidoscopic fun house” just beneath the surface.
Trowbridge’s dueling visions of himself as king and clown didn’t come as a surprise to Kinnear. “I knew his little king feelings and how desperate he was to stay at the top of the Christmas tree,” the actor says. “He has played the role of the clown to mask his ambitions and realized, maybe that’s how they see me. I’ve played this role to get to the top and, actually, that might be my legacy.”
As he spirals, the ghost of Roylin is in his ear, taunting him and playing the bad cop. “Roylin whispered him to the top, and now she’s going to be the reason he comes crashing down as well,” Kinnear explains. “He knew he wouldn’t be able to negotiate his position with America with that knowledge [about Roylin] in their hands. It shows a self-awareness he hasn’t necessarily been known for in the previous seasons.”
While mulling over who would be the best person to replace Trowbridge, Cahn decided to create a character who filled in many of the politician’s weak spots. “He is impossible and often dangerous and an unreliable and disastrous partner, both for his allies and for his own country,” she says. “We wanted to play with the idea of — what would happen if Kate started working with somebody who wasn’t all of those things? What would happen if the person you actually want in the job gets the job?”
With Vaughn, Kate finally has a competent, even-keeled collaborator who, it turns out, wants nothing to do with her. The newly minted prime minister doesn’t trust Kate, who is desperately trying to stop her from allowing the Russian vessels into the United Kingdom’s waters, where they’ll discover the United States stole their deadliest weapon. As Whittaker puts it, “Vaughn, with confidence, says, ‘We are granting the Russians’ request because, no matter what, this has nothing to do with us. I’m not — as the first decision in my life as a PM — putting us in danger.”
That’s not to say that Kate’s plea wasn’t without merit, the actor adds. “What’s so brilliant about the show is that there’s no, ‘This person’s speaking sense, this person is the baddie who stops that person from achieving what they need.’ Everybody makes a point.” She adds that there’s also a “sadness” to Kate and the new PM’s relationship because, under ordinary circumstances, they “both know they would have gotten on.”
Amidst the chaos she’s inherited, Vaughn is a portrait of poise and stillness, attributes that Whittaker says are the “antithesis” of her own personality. “To say I lack a poker face is a complete understatement,” the actor tells Tudum. “Vaughn is someone who understands that the way you articulate something in this world —tone, emotion — everything is taken and responded to. You’re the spokesperson of this information, and you can’t tonally confuse it or play all of your cards and show exactly how you feel.”
Below that sturdy facade, though, there’s a very different story happening. “She’s a swan on the surface, but her feet are peddling,” Whittaker explains. “When it gets to the G7 [in the final two episodes of the season], she’s been in power for all of two seconds … You can emote knowledge and confidence in the message you’re giving, but everyone also does know that you’ve had the job for two minutes.”
In the last few moments of the finale, President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) throws the United States’ already fragile relationship with the United Kingdom — and the rest of NATO — into question by publicly threatening any country that comes between US warships and the Russians. While Vaughn and a roomful of world leaders look on, Kate, Billie (Nana Mensah), and Ganon (Miguel Sandoval) walk out of the summit in protest. Vice President Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) follows closely in their wake.
As a dedicated Diplomat fan, that wild cliffhanger left Whittaker hungry for more. “Every season, I’m like, ‘I can’t believe that’s the last episode. Are you kidding me?’ In that fuming way, I’m fuming. I can’t believe it ended there,” she says, musing, “Is that enough to overthrow a president? Or can that person still stay in power if their team walk away? Have you defused the bomb or have you pulled the pin?”
The Diplomat Season 4 is streaming now.
