In season three of The Diplomat, things aren’t going so well for CIA London Station Chief Eidra Park (Ali Ahn), who’s dealing with the fallout of the loss of a key source, Margaret Roylin (Celia Imrie), and the unpredictable movements of a Prime Minister (Rory Kinnear) who’s infatuated with the U.S. Ambassador (Keri Russell) but seems intent on playing games with her husband Hal (Rufus Sewell), who just happens to be the new U.S. Vice President working with another unpredictable player, President Grace Penn (Allison Janney).
Awards Buzz spoke with Ahn about what it’s like to play Eidra when nothing is looking up for her when that wasn’t the case before this:
“She was definitely killing it. I think Eidra is a killer, maybe literally. I think you’re right that this is the first time we see her out of her depth and a little at a loss. I think it’s always interesting with characters who are, she’s so defined by her competence, and it’s always exciting to be like, what happens if you take that away? What does she do? She really is at a loss for most of the season. I think that part of what makes her a good spy is that she’s really good at observing. But if you’re somebody that’s observing, you have to be able to step back and watch everything else. She wants to be in the background with nobody noticing her.”
“I feel like I’m always interested in where the cracks are in a person. She’s such a masked character. So much of what she’s doing is covering what she’s actually thinking and feeling. It’s always fun to peel back a layer. I think the thing that’s hard to know or that I’m always figuring out is, what does Eidra show? What does Eidra being emotional look like? Because it’s still going to be less than other people.”
She also shared her experiences on Agatha All Along and other projects she’s getting to work on in between seasons of this well-received series which has already been renewed for a fourth season.
The first three seasons of The Diplomat are streaming on Netflix.
