The characters of The Diplomat couldn’t be facing a bigger crisis when the third season of the hit political drama picks up. In the preceding season finale, Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) discovered that the president of the United States had a heart attack, making Vice President Grace Penn (Allison Janney) the leader of the free world. Did we mention that Kate recently learned Grace orchestrated a terrorist plot? 

“It’s second-by-second what happens, which is actually really interesting — the whole breakdown of what happens when there’s a death of a president and how important it is, how they go through all the protocol,” says Russell. The Emmy-nominated series’ return whisks Kate, her husband, Hal (Rufus Sewell), and Grace through the chaos of succession and the selection of a new VP. “If you’re playing someone who’s confident, it’s really good to get to play them absolutely rattled,” says Sewell. “You get to see another side of all of us.”

The latest season of the drama, created by Debora Cahn, delves into the underbelly of another political power couple: Grace’s husband, Todd (three-time Emmy winner Bradley Whitford), enters as the “first lady” — a moniker he begrudgingly gives himself. “Having the character of Todd come on [means] you get to see … the private-facing Grace, not just the public-facing Grace,” Janney says. “It’s so great that it’s Brad, because we have a relationship already.” 

Whitford reunites with his West Wing collaborators Janney and Cahn, who began her career writing and producing the White House drama. “Shows that really hum, that resonate and become a chord, are the ones where the political issues are resonating with the personal issues,” says Whitford. “The thing that I love about this show is the diplomacy is always just amplified and resonating with what’s going on personally. I realized it the moment I saw the first episode. And that’s really fun. There’s a power dynamic. There’s negotiation.” 

Bradley Whitford, Allison Janney, Rufus Sewell, and Keri Russell

Alliances shift over the course of the season, often from episode to episode, as Grace chooses Hal over Kate as her VP despite his impulsivity. Meanwhile, Kate and Hal move forward with a public marriage despite a private separation, and Todd struggles to make sense of his role within this reluctant foursome. “What’s so great is we have this huge choice to make as individuals and as a couple this season, and it’s enormous for [them] and for their individual lives. It shifts everything,” Russell says. Adds Sewell, “This season is about getting what you want and what that does to you.”

Even as their characters navigate turmoil, Russell, Sewell, Janney, and Whitford found nothing but harmony among themselves: Since the series premiere, The Diplomat has been nominated for 11 Critics Choice Television Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, five Actor Awards, and three Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Drama Series, with Russell recently winning the Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series before celebrating with her castmates. “Acting is a team sport,” says Janney. And with a fourth season on the horizon – with Janney and Whitford expanding their roles to series regulars alongside Russell and Sewell – they get to keep playing it. Here, the performers look back on the making of the third season of The Diplomat, some of the most jaw-dropping moments, and more. 

As actors in but also fans of The Diplomat, what was it like getting the scripts for the season?

Allison Janney: It was pretty great to see where it was going to go in Season 3. Debora made the great decision to start right where we left off. So here I am, thrust into the role of being president. It was a pretty dramatic season for me.  

Rufus Sewell: The first decision she makes is such an incredible shocker for us. Everything that we’ve established in terms of the dynamic, the tables [are] completely being reversed, which is fantastic for all of [us].

Keri Russell 

There is such an intimacy this season between these two couples and the way their partnerships cross between the personal and the political. How has it been playing with those dynamics?

Keri Russell: I love the variety of it. Everyone has their own rhythm, and each couple has its own energy, and they’re all equally different and fun in their own ways. 

Janney: Grace gets to choose between [Hal and Kate], and I think she realizes that Hal is more aligned with the way she operates in the political world. She’s willing to go a little way to the left to get to the right. She’s willing to do whatever it takes. I think Kate is a little more by the book. 

Sewell: It’s very illuminating. This idea of what is in character and what is out of character can be very, very misleading. It could be a very dangerous road to go down and to find different aspects of who you are by who you’re dealing with.

Janney: The old axiom that politics makes strange bedfellows? It’s perfect for this. 

Though he’s just been introduced this season, Todd has loomed over the series since the first episode, when a scandal that surrounds him requires Kate to be placed in the UK. Bradley, what was it like to be approached to play him?

Bradley Whitford: I was a huge fan of the show, and jealous [of it]. Debora’s writing is incredible. Exploring adult relationships in the metaphor of international diplomacy is a brilliant fucking idea. And so I was like, “I’ll do anything, anything, anything.” [Todd has] just been so much fun. I think he’s a guy who thought he was a supportive, evolved male and is just struggling with the fact that suddenly he’s going to be playing tambourine for a couple of years.

Rufus Sewell

Allison, what was it like when you heard that you were going to be reunited with Bradley as your onscreen husband?

Janney: I was like, “No, please rethink this!”  No, I couldn’t have been more excited. It was the perfect way [to be reunited], because these characters are so not our characters in The West Wing. He was the perfect choice for Todd, and I couldn’t have been more excited to have him, because I knew what he was going to be able to bring to a role like this. When you’re in this business, and you have a significant other, they always have to hold the purse, and this is just on the largest scale [of] ‘He’s got to hold the purse.’ Oh, it’s making him feel so emasculated.

One of the season’s highlights is the episode where you all collide at the Penns’ Amagansett home —  what was it like to shoot that episode where so much happened under one roof?

Russell: So good. Oyster episode.

Whitford: My favorite line I’ve ever said is, “I don’t have hepatitis.”

Sewell: I’d been looking forward to it for a long time, just going to the same place every day. It was so much fun.

Janney: It was like a play. 

Whitford: When I got the script, I was like, “Oh my God.” I mean, knowing I was going to be with [Allison], knowing I was going to be able to do an episode and a scene like that. I’m a very lucky person.

Allison Janney

Debora Cahn works so closely with political consultants to shape storylines and plot points, but are there any real-life figures you hold on to as you’re thinking about your characters?

Russell: There are so many. One of the coolest parts of this job is getting to meet all of those people. The person early on that we talked about a lot was Samantha Power, who ran USAID. Because of this show and the nature of when we were filming it, Ambassador Hartley was in post[production] in London. I became close with her, and we had dinner with her. Those circles are exciting. They are so smart, capable, and curious.

Sewell: Richard Holbrooke was an influence, and Bill Clinton also, and [their] relationship. It’s very useful to absorb as much information as you can, just to see what sticks and what doesn’t, but then just to take it from anywhere. When you do meet the people, it’s not the “jobness” that you get from them, it’s the “personness” you get from it. Because actually the sense of humor, the sense of the reality of a person wearing a uniform and the discrepancy between that and the public figure, is what this show is about really. 

Whitford: It’s interesting, shows like this. I realized halfway through West Wing, “Oh, it’s a backstage drama.” The joy of these things is putting heart and muscle and bone and the idiocy of everyday life in the midst of these titanic responsibilities.

Bradley Whitford

In the season finale, as Kate understands what Grace and Hal are capable of as president and vice president, you realize how quickly things can shift between the political alliances of these couples and how terrifying power can be when there is so much uncertainty of how it will be used. What was it like to play that moment?

Janney: I just got chills when you said that. Just to see it on Keri’s face, like she realizes, “Oh my God, what is happening now? How far are these people willing to go?”

Russell: The other thing that’s also scary is — in real life too, and scary on the show — it’s who’s in power, but [it’s also] who’s in their ear? Is it a wife? Is it a partner?

Sewell: What I really love about the writing in general is that no matter how things are framed in one particular scene, especially like a final part of a final episode of a season, nothing is black or white. No person is entirely wrong. And the writing is so good that everyone has the entire benefit of the writer’s intelligence. No one is written dumb. Everyone, when given their moment, can explain every intelligent reason for doing what they did. People don’t suddenly become one-dimensional in order to push the story forward.

The four of you are just some of the pieces of an incredible ensemble. What’s it like to be a part of this troupe?

Sewell: There’s this thing that I’ve said before … that there are people who uniformly deserve to be there, but also, like Brad was saying, have been around long enough to know that just because you deserve it doesn’t mean you can’t be grateful. You don’t have to be grateful to the man — you’re grateful, just grateful to the universe, because they’re not all like this. Everyone here is so grateful for the luck that they have.

Russell: This show feels so unique in that — and we say this often — every single person that Debora has cast could have their own show. The quality of the actors is so high and so good. They come at it with all of the things. They have incredible emotional intelligence, they’re funny, they’re in the world that is the specialness of this show. Everyone is so good.

Whitford, Janney, Russell, and Sewell