Allison Janney’s Addition to ‘The Diplomat’ Season 2 Cast Had the Show’s Creator in a ‘Full-on Immobilized Panic’
Allison Janney is stepping into Kate Wyler’s (Keri Russell) world in The Diplomat Season 2. For Debora Cahn, the creator, writer, and executive producer of the Netflix original series, the addition of the award-winning actor “stressed” her out. Why she spent weeks in a “full-on immobilized panic,” ahead.
Janney plays the U.S. vice president in ‘The Diplomat’ Season 2
After being mentioned only by name in season 1, Kerri Russel’s Kate Wyler finally comes face to face with Janney’s U.S. Vice President Grace Penn in season 2. The trailer for the new season showed the two exchanging a tense glance—but no words—as they arrive at a big event in the upcoming season.
Fans might remember Penn as the woman some want Kate to replace in light of an impending scandal. As for whether Janney’s character will be a friend or foe, the official synopsis doesn’t give much away. Instead, it teases that Kate gets “a threatening visit from Vice President Grace Penn.”
Cahn previously described Penn as someone who will “defy expectations” so viewers will have to wait and see how it plays out once The Diplomat Season 2 gets underway.
‘The Diplomat’ creator felt pressure with ‘so much riding on’ Janney’s episodes
Speaking at PaleyFest on Oct. 20, 2024, Cahn revealed how stressed she felt about Janney’s guest-starring role. “I went into a full-on immobilized panic for a number of weeks when the first big Allison episode was coming,” she told the audience (via People).
Why? “Because it just felt like so much was riding on it and I wanted it to be good. I wanted it to be good for her and I wanted it to be worthy of these guys [the cast of The Diplomat] in terms of what she brought to the table.”
“I didn’t want it to be a stunt,” Cahn went on. “I wanted it to be a good part of the story for all of these characters. So, yeah, it was pretty stressful.”
She also worried about making ‘The Diplomat’ too similar to ‘The West Wing’
The pressure Cahn felt went beyond making good TV for viewers and the cast. She also didn’t want Janney’s episodes to be too much like The West Wing, where she and the Ocsar winner worked together years earlier. (Cahn had a job as a writer on the award-winning political drama and Janney played C.J. Cregg.)
“I was worried that it was going to feel like a gimmick,” Cahn said. “I was worried that it was going to be like, ‘Ooh, C.J. Cregg grew up and is vice president.’” Then there was the concern about “writing a character that would be distinct enough.”
“A lot of the way that I write, I learned from writing for Allison,” Cahn explained. “So there are certain things that I hear that kind of come from her rhythms. So those are in all of these characters. I just didn’t want it to feel like sort of all the same thing.”
The Diplomat Season 2 hits Netflix on Oct. 31, 2024.
