“The Diplomat” Season 3 is now streaming, and it was a rough one for just about every character. But for Ali Ahn’s Eidra Park, it was particularly scary, and especially fraught between her and Keri Russell’s Kate Wyler — but according to the actress, it led to some of her “best acting.”
Perhaps it’s implied, but just in case, this is your explicit heads up that we’re heading into spoiler territory in this story. If you aren’t caught up on all the episodes of “The Diplomat” yet, perhaps return when you are!
Following the season 2 reveal that Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie) was responsible for coordinating the attack on the HMS Courageous, she was taken into protective custody by Eidra’s team at the CIA. But, at the start of season 3, Roylin decides to kill herself, rather than face justice for what she’s done.
There was no way to see it coming, and no way to stop it, but nonetheless, the blame falls to Eidra, and she immediately comes under the risk of losing her job.
Kate (Russell) could help with that, given her position, but she’s kind of distracted with her own issues as Second Lady (yes, she’s the Second Lady now, because President Penn chose Hal as her VP). As it becomes clear that Kate isn’t coming through for her, Eidra starts to unravel.
So, what does her future look like now? We went straight to Ahn to find out.
The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
TheWrap: My God, poor Eidra is just going through it this season.
Ahn: I know. She’s having a really bad day (laughs).
She had a really bad day, and it’s not even her fault! She’s doing quite literally everything she can to just survive and save her job. It’s a little bit different than what we’ve seen from her in the show, so I want to know how that was for you, to kind of mix it up.
I mean, it’s always great as an actor to mix it up, and especially a character like Eidra, who’s so capable. And listen, we love to see people being good at their jobs, but it’s always interesting to see what those people do when things are not going their way. So I was actually really excited to be like, “Oh, what does Eidra do with failure?”
But it was definitely a challenge to figure out because, as you said, there’s many days where things are not going well for her. So I think the challenge was to figure out, how is each scene a little bit different? Like, she keeps going to talk to Stuart in his office, and I was like, “It’s not gonna be interesting if I’m going there for the same reason every time.” So that was kind of tricky to be like, “What is the nuance you can bring to just, day after day that’s just s–ty?” (Laughs)
I’m kind of curious how you approach the desperation of her. Because she gets pitched this idea of running this program she doesn’t want, but she wants to keep her job, and eventually offers to do it. So how’d you figure out her desperation levels on that?
Yeah, I mean, that’s a really interesting question, because Eidra keeps everything so close to the vest. So I feel like a lot of what I have to do for Eidra is churn up all this stuff, and then put a lid on it, you know?
And I think the truth is too, is that she’s confident! I think it’s certainly the first time she’s like, “I don’t know what my move is here.” But I think that her ego is really hurt by taking on a task that she thinks is beneath her pay grade. And so I think that everyone can probably relate to this moment, where you’re like, “I’m not going back. I fought this hard to get to this place,” and I think she has to eat a bit of humble pie and realize in that moment, she is really in no man’s land. She doesn’t have any allies, no one’s going to help her.
Honestly, I think of it — that moment when she’s in the office, and she sort of pitches that … to the head of MI6 and the British Foreign Secretary — it’s a little bit like she’s choking back the vomit in her mouth. I think that’s really the visual, is like, you’re nauseous, but you’re trying to just swallow back the bile.
You mentioned that she doesn’t have any allies, and I think that was the most heartbreaking thing for me this season, Kate not coming through for her for a bit. From your standpoint, what kind of damage are we looking at long term here, for their relationship?
I think the the reason why Eidra is good at her job is she doesn’t take things personally, or she tries not to. So, I think she’s good at compartmentalizing. But obviously, whatever that kind of alliance they built in Season 2 — I think Eidra does not trust Kate. I think she respects Kate. I think that she recognizes that Kate is really intelligent and smart. But I think she sees Kate, and her relationship with Hal, as messy, and I think she’s trying to stay out of harm’s way.
But I am curious. I mean, the thing is, too, is Kate is keeping a secret from Eidra. And I think Eidra, in a lot of Season 3, she’s really trying to figure out what is going on. I think a lot of why she doesn’t trust Kate is because she really doesn’t trust Hal. And those two are obviously in cahoots with each other in some way.
I will say, it’s hard to play like I’m mad at Keri Russell. That’s hard. That’s actually probably the best acting I’m doing is to act like I don’t want to just hang out and shoot the s–t with her, you know?
I don’t know, man, you playing stoic next to Kathryn Hahn [in ‘Agatha All Along’] probably rivals that kind of challenge, I think.
(Laughs) Fair!
Let’s also talk about Eidra’s relationship with Stuart. It’s just so sweet, and she really has this moment of breakdown. There are real tears that come, and he forces her to say, “I want you to stay.” What is this relationship looking like?
There’s so much of this season where Eidra is just wrong, and I think her sort of putting Stuart to the side to be like, “This guy is never going to get me, doesn’t get my job, doesn’t understand boundaries” — at the end of the day, he’s the only one that keeps sticking up for her. And I think that there’s no way that she can’t acknowledge that.
But I think that last scene that they have together is so great, because Eidra comes in like she’s going to school him, and give him some tough love, and basically prevent him from throwing his career away, which is how I think she’s convinced herself that’s why she’s so invested. And so I think she’s really surprised by him sort of taking it to that place.
I think in the absence of her work going well, Stuart and that relationship, and what it means to her, it probably grows because she doesn’t have other things kind of buoying her sense of worth, you know? She’s really out there by herself, and he is the only one, and he doesn’t have to! If anything, he should be really pissed at her for keeping the secrets that she’s kept, you know?
He’s just a good guy!
He’s such a good guy, and Eidra is so complicated. And he’s just steady Eddie, you know?
We do know that a season four of “The Diplomat” is happening. Do you know anything yet? Have you read anything?
I know absolutely nothing, and it’s killing me!
Is that the truth? The thing about you actors is you’re good at keeping secrets.
No, no, I genuinely have no idea what is happening. I mean, to the point that I am like, “Do I need to get my hair cut to be matched back? Are we time jumping?” I literally know nothing. I wish I could tease it out for you, but I really have no idea.
So then let’s play it this way, give me your hopes. What would you like to see in season 4?
You were mentioning Kate and Eidra’s relationship, I would love to see if Eidra senses that something is up with Grace Penn. Because right now, she doesn’t know that Grace Penn is involved. She doesn’t know that Kate is keeping that big of a secret.
And it’s fascinating, the layers of the secret that we all know. I feel like Eidra knows like 70%, but that last 30% is really important. So I am curious to see if she kind of digs there.
And I’m also like, “Is Eidra gonna go public with this relationship?! What is going to happen there? Or is there even any time?” I mean, listen, the country is in chaos. So, you know, it’s a little meta. I’m also really curious to see what happens with Hal and Grace Penn’s relationship.
Season 3 of “The Diplomat” is now streaming on Netflix.
