🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐 

In The Diplomat, Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell play Kate and Hal Wyler, the newly appointed American ambassador to the UK and her former diplomat husband — also known as her overly involved, possibly-soon-to-be ex-husband. 

“The Diplomat is a show about long-term relationships, about marriages between people and marriages between countries and it gets hard to keep that going for a long time, be it a marriage or a military alliance,” series creator Debora Cahn (The West Wing, Homeland) told Netflix. “We change, we grow, the world changes and yet we want these relationships to last. It’s a show about a bunch of good people doing their best to keep their partnerships alive, while trying not to kill each other.”

That tension certainly makes for intriguing viewing, and if you want the inside scoop from Russell on Sewell and the complexities of their on-screen couple, look no further. We sat down with the stars to talk love languages, tickling Yasser Arafat — and why the show’s stunt doubles never got to work. 

Alex Bailey/Netflix

Let’s start with Kate and Hal, this wonderfully dysfunctional couple at the center of the show. What was the thing about them that you loved and the thing that you weren’t so sure about playing?
Keri Russell: What I loved is the constant discomfort and sweatiness and nervousness and just overall unpolished quality of her –– matched with the bossiness to everyone, which I think is really funny. And the thing I don’t like is how much she has to say. I would love to not ever have to speak. I could just mime my scenes. 

How about you, Rufus?
Rufus Sewell: From the first moment I read the script, I knew it was going to be [Russell]. I knew a little bit about Debora [Cahn], and I was a big fan of them both. When I read it, it was so funny and so quick. And I love that kind of slightly screwball energy of that. What I was really looking forward to was the scrappiness and the banter and the rhythm that they had. I suppose the thing that’s a bit more frightening is having to deliver on someone who’s talked up so much to be this guy. 

You mentioned the tone, Rufus, which is quite a blend of thriller, comedy, drama and romance. How was it threading that needle?
Sewell: There’s not a lot like it. It was the humor that got us. 

Russell: It was absolutely there in the writing. The scripts read so well. So well, in fact, that I thought, “Ooh, how are they going to pull this off?”

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a couple like Hal and Kate. At times their connection reminded me of an addiction, how they can’t seem to function without the other even though they’re horrible for each other. 
Russell: It’s a fine line. I love when Hal says, “Have you ever been married?”

Sewell: [Their dynamic is] very recognizable in real life, if not on TV.

Russell: Oh my god. It’s such a fine line. You’re getting divorced. The next hour, you’re not. Long-term relationships are complicated.

Sewell: Just a weekend can have all of those things in it — so I hear.

Russell: It’s a tricky relationship. One thing we talked about a little bit with Debora is that: the fun is the specificity of them in this setting, and that their strange love language is this political banter, debate and even criticism of the —

Sewell: And giving each other s**t. 

Russell: And that’s their language with each other.

Sewell: They’re petty robust.

Russell: They are. And that’s what they do. They’re a team, very much so in this treacherous world.

Was the chemistry there right away between you two?
Sewell: It was immediate.

Russell: We didn’t meet ahead of time. We just kind of…

Sewell: I met her in makeup. We’re like, “What’s up?” And I walked away from that and thought, “Oh, she’s nice.” Which is a big part of it. In fact, it might even be all of it. Just to meet someone and think, “Oh, they get jokes. They’re nice, they’re quick.” You don’t have to finish your sentence. They know where you are. 

Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell Fight in The Diplomat Season 1.

I imagine you have to be comfortable together to film the epic, over-the-top fight scene Hal and Kate have in Episode 3. How was it filming that day? 
Russell: Total screwball.

Sewell: It was a riot. It was a bit like having a Fraggle thrown at you.

Russell: It was so —

Sewell: She enjoyed it.

Russell: It went so crazy so quick. I love how we go from this acerbic fun, witty banter show to having a really meaningful relationship scene where you’re like, these are old hurts. And direct questions straight to f**king insanity. It got so crazy so quick. And it was so fun. There is an unspoken language everyone has. You get people’s humor or you don’t. There’s an easiness or there’s not. And some people you have to work harder with. And there was just, “Are we going to do this?” And he’s like, “Yep.” We didn’t use the stunt doubles. 

Sewell: I didn’t want to deprive her. She’d been looking forward to getting at me. It was enormous fun. Especially when you start picking up [branches of] trees and stuff and playing dead. It was just so stupid.

Russell: That was hilarious.

They actually had stunt doubles on set that day and you said you’d do it all yourselves?
Russell: They did. The [stunt doubles] were probably like, “They suck. Those stupid actors.”

Sewell: Yeah, but it needed to not look professional.

Russell: We didn’t want it to look like a fight. It should be stupid and messy. Flailing and ridiculous and so stupid. 

Alex Bailey/Netflix

Did anyone land a true punch?
Russell: You took some hits, but nothing —

Sewell: Took a couple of hits, but only with a tree. Not with your fist.

Russell: I know. I slapped you a lot.

Sewell: She slapped the f–– out of me.

Keri, this seems to be a theme with you. Didn’t Matthew [Rhys, Russell’s husband] just tell a story about you slapping him across the face during your Americans screen test?
Russell: This is the way I roll.

Sewell: Everyone has a method. Hers just involves violence. She says, “Excuse me. It just helps me get into my...” Bam. Lights out.

Was there something that you read that was particularly helpful in figuring out the world of diplomats?
Russell: Yes. Debora talked to a lot of people and we just cheated off of her. And then we also read a book called The Ambassadors by Paul Richter. Another film that I found really useful was called The Human Factor, the documentary about the Israeli Palestinian conflict. It’s about all those negotiators who were behind [the Camp David Summit in 2000], who started at this young age within the Clinton administration, which is very apropos to our show. 

Sewell: And I did the same and I read the Richard Holbrooke book because he was one of the references [for Hal]. But you think, “Okay, that’s useful up to a point.” Your little blips of inspiration or the little flashes that come to you could be from a teacher, or a guy on the street or something like that. The moment that I remember from The Human Factor is Bill Clinton tickling Yasser Arafat outside Camp David and kind of cuddling him, trying to cajole him. It was an incredibly human moment. It was just an incredible, incredible moment of people connecting. That’s diplomacy. 

Alex Bailey/Netflix

I love the behind-the-scenes moments when the facade of diplomacy crumbles, like when Kate and Hal just want some snacks and bust into the prime minister’s pantry.
Sewell: We ate so much. 

Russell: Oh my god.

Sewell: I’m a voracious eater and I grew up hating watching actors not eating their food. It would just piss me off. Also because I’m greedy, I was like, “Don’t waste a... What are you doing?” So I eat every take.

Russell: Much to your stomach’s demise.

Those houses, those grounds you filmed in the UK looked so insanely gorgeous.
Sewell: It was a lovely summer. It’s really nice. As an English actor, if you really want to work in England, move to America. You come back to England and play Americans. That’s what I do now.

Russell:  Yeah. It was beautiful. Debora said that she was shooting a night shoot in the slums of Morocco going, “Why? I wrote this. I could write something [that’s] not a night shoot… somewhere lovely with people wearing nice clothes and having tea.”

How was the lake where, shall we say, Rufus doesn’t have much on to keep him warm?
Sewell: It was wonderful, actually. They were pumping warm water into it. But they didn’t need to, because the temperature was amazing and it was deep and dank and green. Very Victorian kind of color. Everyone was going there and swimming in the mornings.

Who struggled more with the political jargon?
Russell: I probably have more.

Sewell: It’s much easier for me. I come in for half an hour and grab a muffin and leave. She did mess up more but she had more.

Russell: There are a lot of acronyms that I choose to forget now.

Stream The Diplomat now.