‘The Diplomat’: David Gyasi Talks Dennison’s Moral Quandary In Season 2 & Ponders Whether An Ascension To Prime Minister Is In The Cards
SPOILER ALERT! This post contains details from the second season of Netflix’s The Diplomat.
In The Diplomat, David Gyasi plays Foreign Secretary Austin Dennison who, as much as he holds an allegiance to his country, values his moral compass above all else. That is, until Season 2, when things start to become much less black and white.
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He and Kate Wyler (Keri Russell) seemed to have been forming a quick alliance in Season 1, but that gets tested when Kate starts to make decisions without him and keep certain information from him in her quest to uncover the truth about what happened to that British aircraft carrier — and the car bomb that nearly killed her husband.
After Kate’s miscalculation nearly gets Margaret Roylin killed (and Dennison witnesses the Prime Minister nearly commit murder as a result of sad miscalculation), the Foreign Secretary is ready to switch sides, realigning with Prime Minister Nichol Trowbridge (Rory Kinnear). In the final episodes of Season 2, Dennison tells Kate their partnership is over, as is the sexual tension that has filled every moment they’re together.
“That was a mistake … all of it,” he says. But, is it really? And even if it is, does that mean it’s truly over?
In the interview below, Gyasi spoke with Deadline all about Season 2, Dennison’s continuous moral dilemma, and his ongoing relationship with Kate, romantic or not.
DEADLINE: I think we need to start at the end and work our way back. How is Grace Penn’s ascension to the Oval Office going to shake things up?
DAVID GYASI: I think it’s just brilliant. I thought the end of Season 1 was a was a massive deal, and that doesn’t even scratch the surface. If Season 1 didn’t even scratch the surface, this just scratches the surface. There’s a whole other layer, a whole other level of layers that we’re about to uncover. When they revealed that to us, they had redacted those pages…it was only at the read through that we found out what was going on. It’s so nice for them to do that, as much as it is frustrating and annoying. We had that read through maybe three quarters of the way before we finished shooting, and it just gives us an energy and an uplift. This is really impactful ending. Because we experience a little bit of what the viewers experience when they watch it and see it, I think it fuels us to invest even more in what we’re doing.
DEADLINE: So, what was the reaction when you all were finally able to read this final scene?
GYASI: Lots of swearing. Ato’s [Essandoah] reaction is always one to look out for, because the dude jumps out of his his seat pretty much every time. We didn’t read the end of Season 1 together. They hadn’t redacted the end of Season 1, but they had sort of handed it to us all on a day where we were filming. I had some coverage, so Ato was a few pages ahead of me, and then he had some coverage, and I got to catch up, and so on and so forth. So I remember him, myself and Miguel were reading at the same time…I remember seeing his reaction to Season 1, which is all, it’s just a delight, really.
DEADLINE: How did it feel knowing you already have a renewal, even before this season was out?
GYASI: Really blessed, because our industry’s taken a real kick in, like the whole world really, over the past four years. The pandemic, and then we had the strikes. So to be in regular work is not lost on me or any of us, and regular work that we care about and that we respect and that we’re proud of is a huge blessing. So all of those things intertwine, really, and you just kind of [put] prayer hands up to the sky.
DEADLINE: What are you looking forward to in Season 3?
GYASI: I’m very proud of the work I did in [Season 2], but there was a little tinge of sadness for me when I was doing that work, because I found him to be quieter. I’m always interested in the silence between characters, the silence between words. What I found when I would sit in that silence with Dennison was a reminder of him being a first, and all of the things that comes with that — a first and the son of immigrants. And what does that mean? Maybe, if you’re in a government that has a rhetoric of, like, ‘We are Great Britain,’ and that great in Great Britain, what does that mean to that government? And is it any different to someone else across the pond saying, ‘We are going to make America great again?’ What links those two words? And if Putin were to be asked, he might say, ‘I want to leave this earth and be considered Putin the great.’ So, what are these greats?
Then for Dennison to be in a government that is operating in that sort of sphere and in that sort of world, and be brought up by parents that are very much like, ‘Listen, this country is great. Why? Because all of my children went to university. It has afforded us this kind of ‘life.’ Look at London. Look at New York. Look at LA — these massive cities with a mix of people and the love and the joy and the different food, different cultures and different musics, the different rhythms and different vibes. That’s what makes this country great. So Dennison, I think, is in that camp of like, this is what he believes this country’s greatness is built on. In Season 2, when it starts to become about self preservation for leaders of whole countries and whole nations, rather than serving the people, and he starts to slip into that as well, with his ambition and whatnot…So when I think about Season 3, I’m hoping that there are moments where we get release for Dennison, where we get to hear some of that internal dialogue out loud, and we get to see him explore some of that stuff. So that’s what I’m looking forward to, the release of the scream.
DEADLINE: I think we also see Dennison kind of confronted with the limits of his moral clarity in this season, as he starts to distrust Kate and find himself back in Trowbridge’s good graces. When we leave him, he’s ready to allow the truth about the bombing to all get buried. Will he have a reckoning in Season 3?
GYASI: It’s a really interesting question, because a part of that internal scream is to deal with his humanity, right? We know that humanity is a complex kind of collection of different motivations, different stimuluses, different emotions. So I think as we begin to peel back and see what’s underneath, I think there will be some moral clarity, there will be some survival. There will be some some feeling of altruism. I’ve been told by some civil servants that decided to stay during the Trump presidency, regardless of wherever anyone is with their support of that, the fact of the matter is, some people left and and felt like, ‘I can’t operate with this guy.’ And some people felt like, ‘If I leave, who is gonna help control the reins as to what this country will head into?’ So I think Dennison’s caught in that. I also heard an interesting thing recently about navigation sponsorship and mirrorcracy. What was interesting about those three things was what people of color have to do if they have any level of ‘success’ navigating a space that is predominantly filled with white people. How do you navigate that space?
When I look to see who the person is that sponsored Dennison, it’s really interesting, because actually, in the backstory, it’s Margaret Roylin, who then crossed him. So it’s like he’s got no one doing that for him. I think it’s a long winded way of saying it, but I think there are elements of all the above. There’s elements of self preservation. There’s elements of serving his country, and then I hope there’s elements of serving himself as well, because I think the feelings that he has towards Kate are there. I think the feelings that he has towards his ambition are there as well, and serving the country.
DEADLINE: On that note of him not having anyone to trust, he’s at this point where he feels like he can’t trust Kate either, even though she was becoming a confidant for him. Can she do anything, in his eyes, to gain his trust back?
GYASI: I don’t know if there’s anything that Kate can do, per se. I think with Austin, the women that have been close to him that we know of — his wife committed suicide, his sister attempted to commit suicide. We see in Season 2, what happens with Roylin. So I think there is certain guards and barriers that are up for him. I think the explosion in Season 1 had a metaphorical aspect to it, where everything just got blown up. But I’m not sure that all the pieces got completely disintegrated…Do you know what I mean?
When we talk about this humanity and the humane aspects of Dennison, I don’t know what he can quite do with his feelings towards Kate, because logically, no, this shouldn’t happen. It crosses all sorts of things, but I don’t know what he can do with that. I don’t know what Kate can do with that. Then also, as the dust begins to settle, like I say, things got blown apart, but maybe not got blown up. So everything he learnt about Kate in the first season in this world where he doesn’t have any sponsorship and doesn’t really have that many allies, what he learned about her was someone that had integrity…and that cared. I think that that doesn’t go away. Those things don’t change for them, even though they might have different approaches. So we might see some places where their agendas cross or align, but it’s also quite nice to see where they misalign as well, and explore that as well.
DEADLINE: The finale also sets up this idea that Dennison could become Prime Minister, if Trowbridge really does resign. What do you make of that? Do you see that as a potential future for him?
GYASI: I would think that any politician has a certain amount of ego and and that ego ties in with ambition, which was mentioned before, but I don’t know. When I sort of jump in the skin of Dennison, I don’t know how important that is to him. I think the weight and the history of it as well, because in the world of The Diplomat, similar to in the real world, Britain has never had a Black Prime Minister. So I don’t know whether the weight of that would be too much for him or not, but I do believe that he’s someone that’s like, if he is genuinely the best person for the job, then…he’s been bred to think that way, not only by his schooling, but by his parents. I think there’s unfinished business there, because, again, in the backstory, he was being primed to be the guy, and then a coin was flicked, and it turned out to be Trowbridge.
Underneath all of that hurt, I think there’s a layer of love and respect. I’m sort of confused, because we’ve started a bit on three, so I don’t know what I can say and can’t say. I’m unsure whether this is [Season] three or this is two…There is a moment that you could miss if you’re not completely au fait with the backstory of the two of them, but Trowbridge acts in a very wild way, and Dennison is the first person to spot it and stops Trowbridge from doing something that literally would end his career and would actually make Dennison become Prime Minister automatically, but Dennison’s the first person to jump in and stop that happening. I think that that’s based around that sort of undercurrent of love that they have for one another.
DEADLINE: So in the final two episodes, how much of Dennison’s allegiance to Trowbridge is that respect you’re talking about and how much is self preservation?
GYASI: I think the majority of it is self preservation, to be honest. I think as human beings, I don’t know that we’re that black and white. So I think there is an element of the respect or the love or the connection that they have… I do try to find the detail and the nuance in, what does it take for Dennison to stand alongside Trowbridge? There’s an element of self preservation, there’s an element of biding your time. There’s an element of love respect. I try to stand in all of that.
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