‘The Diplomat’ Star Keri Russell on the ‘Fun’ of Playing ‘Harried’ Ambassador in Netflix’s Political Drama
thewrap.comThe conversation has been edited for clarity and length.TheWrap: You’ve delved into the world of politics and foreign policy before in “The Americans,” was there anything that was completely new to you?Russell: The details of this entire army of people and what they do for our government was new to me.
We know so little about what [State Department officials and diplomats] do, and yet they are so monumental in keeping democracy alive, and our government working correctly.
I did a ton of reading about it; there’s this amazing book called “The Ambassadors” by Paul Richter. It’s about a certain type of ambassador, who is a little bit more like the character I play.
They tend to work in the Middle East, or they’re promoting peace in the world, or setting up voting rights somewhere or establishing democracy in an area that hasn’t had that; versus the diplomats who are usually given [the role] as a gift for a healthy donation to a presidential campaign, and they live in Paris for a couple of years or something.
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