Allison Janney on The Diplomat Season 2 End: Threw Script Across Room

[The following story contains spoilers for season two of The Diplomat.]

As viewers of Netflix‘s The Diplomat know, the second season of the series ends with a shocking moment for both the characters and viewers.

As Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell) tells his British ambassador wife Kate (Keri Russell), the president (William Rayburn) has died after he got so upset when he learned about his vice president Grace Penn’s (Allison Janney) involvement with the attack on the British warship that launched the series. The moment means that Penn has been elevated to president, and her staffers run to protect her.

Janney was as astonished by the turn of events when she read the final script as viewers likely were when they saw it unfold.

“I literally threw the script across the room,” Janney said, prefacing that remark by noting that she had “never had this happen” previously in her career, on Monday’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! “It was like what the? … It is such a spectacular ending, I get chills thinking about it.”

The Diplomat showrunner Debora Cahn previously told The Hollywood Reporter that the idea for the season-two ending was connected to knowing Janney was boarding the series.

“Once we knew that Allison Janney was coming, it became clear that we wanted her to be a strong center of gravity in the story. And at that point, it sort of seemed obvious that that was the move,” Cahn said.

Earlier, Janney told Kimmel that she “loosely” based her character on Hillary Clinton, “because of how seasoned she is as a politician and all of the experience she has.”

Janney added, “And I love Hillary, but she doesn’t come off as a very warm and fuzzy person. I kind of thought that would be good for Grace Penn.”

Clinton, and the superficial scrutiny she faced during her political campaigns, also served as inspiration behind the second season’s memorable scene of Penn criticizing Kate’s appearance, part of which was played on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

“Just talking about the level of granularity into your life, yourself, your body that happens when you are being crafted into a product for the public, I just found it so striking that I had been waiting for two seasons to find a place to put it in and finally did,” Cahn said, adding that the comments about Kate’s hair and bra came from things people had really said.

Production is already underway on the third season of The Diplomat, and Sewell told THR that things only get more complicated and thrilling in the next season.

“The end of season two is one thing but very quickly even more extraordinary things happen,” he said. “Allison Janney coming in, the dynamics of the story after what happens at the end of season two really gives us some extraordinary things. Also it changes dynamics that might have been in danger of playing out. And it’s getting really complex.”

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