‘The Diplomat’ Team On Making Pivotal Scene In Season 3

A tray of bloody oysters, served during the middle of an international crisis, was the key to unlocking relationships that changed the dynamic of The Diplomat.

In the scene, two couples are ruminating on the events of the day, including the President of the United States debating whether to tell the British Prime Minister that she was responsible for a major attack on one of its aircraft carriers, as well as dealing with issues in their own marriages.

These are not, however, two ordinary couples: there’s President Grace Penn, played by Allison Janney, and her husband Todd, played by Bradley Whitford, and Vice President Hal Wyler, played by Rufus Sewell, who is married to Keri Russell’s Kate Wyler, who also happens to be the Ambassador to the UK.

Creator and showrunner Debora Cahn said the scene, which appears in “Amagansett”, the sixth episode of the third season of the Netflix political thriller, helped her shape the fourth season, which returns on October 15.

“The oyster scene, in a way, was the proving ground for what then became a real spine for season four, which is how are these couples relating to each other and dealing with the same set of circumstances very differently? It’s such a fun, delicious little scene,” Cahn told Deadline as part of The Backstory series.

The scene starts with the Penns arguing as they enter the room and the Wylers discussing the British situation before Todd cuts himself shucking oysters. The Shinnecocks are then brought out, but they have blood on them.

“I just gave a fucking tone poem to the bivalve,” Todd says before realizing the bloody mistake.

Some 425 local fresh oysters and 72 impoysters were used during the scene.

“He’s not a full-on method actor, but there are certain things, like he’s definitely eating all the oysters and wasn’t going to spit them out after,” said Cahn.

“I’m the kind of actor when I’m off camera, I’m going to eat the oyster,” joked Whitford. “My favorite thing is writing that combines the most serious and the silliest.”

“The sound of them schlooping into the garbage was such an important thing,” added Cahn. “The amount of money that got schlooped into that garbage, there are so many oysters on that tray, the waste. [Todd] keeps talking earlier in the episode about how Grace hates waste.”

The foursome then sit down where President Penn opens a bag of pretzels and squishes the empty bag behind the side of the sofa.

“One of my favorite prop moments is with the pretzel bag. I’m not going to go back to the kitchen. I’m like going to ball it up. I thought of something I think I’ve seen my mother do, I was just shoving it behind the pillow,” said Janney.

Whitford called it “Hall of Fame of prop work”.

Rufus Sewell added, “She’s the President of the United States, but she’s also a person with an empty pretzel bag in her hand, and it’s the empty pretzel bag in the hand, and the dramatic contrast between that and the position and the uniform and the status as perceived, that’s where the show lives.”

It’s scenes like this that helped The Diplomat receive seven Emmy nominations. Russell, Janney, Whitford and Sewell were all nominated and the series also picked up a nod in the Outstanding Drama Series category.

The oysters and the pretzels are amusing moments, but the real tension comes as the group are just sitting and talking. It’s clear that Todd is an intelligent and successful man, but he’s not involved in the administration and Kate Wyler is on the outside as ambassador.

“Writing two roles that are both juicy and delicious in one scene is not so difficult. Writing four in one scene is a lot. It’s a lot, and wanting to make it kind of equally substantive for everybody in the room is a thing,” Cahn said. “I came from theater… and am always just looking for opportunities to be doing theater in a television show, and it’s not an easy thing to do. Most scenes on TV shows are two pages, three pages, maybe a page and a half. To put four characters in a room for nine pages is not common.”

“When I read it, I just it felt very much like a play, and I thought this is going to be so much fun to act with Carrie and Rufus and Brad, and the fact that this is the first time you’re seeing these couples as outside of their environment, outside of their you know political operativeness,” said Janney.

“You live for writing like this. It was like a scene out of Virginia Woolf,” added Whitford. “We’re human beings here, terribly awkward human beings in complicated relationships without the sort of armor of our roles.”

There are other things at play as well; Todd is clearly jealous of his wife’s relationship with her Vice President and Kate Wyler is aware that her husband has a certain charm. This is also where we begin Season 4, which sees Janney and Whitford promoted to series regulars and the group handles the fallout of the carrier attack.

“Not many things are tied up with a neat little bow, said Sewell. “Things continue to iterate out, and it’s certainly the case for Season 4 that there’s even more of that. It gets even more complex.”