Keri Russell Joins Jimmy Fallon to Reveal Huge ‘The Diplomat’ Season 4 Twists
Keri Russell is heading into the biggest season of her hit Netflix political thriller with a spring in her step, and her latest chat on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon made clear why the moment matters. The actress has been riding a wave of recognition for The Diplomat — including a Screen Actors Guild Actor Award earlier this year and two Emmy nominations — and she told Fallon that the new run, which premieres October 15 on Netflix, raises the stakes considerably. Season 4, she explained, zeroes in on a timely dilemma: loving your country and your work while your boss asks you to do things you disagree with, or even things that might be illegal. Russell described the season as big and full of twists, and her enthusiasm for the project came through as she said she's having the time of her life with it.
Russell also offered a candid look at how she survived awards season, and it turns out her favorite kind of show is one she doesn't win. She joked that her dream is always to be nominated but never take home the trophy, because that way she avoids the pressure of giving a speech — a wish that came true at this year's Emmys, where Rhea Seehorn took the category and then gave Russell a shout-out. The moment was made sweeter by a tradition of Russell's: before the ceremony, she sent handwritten notes to every nominee in her category, along with a Gloria Steinem message about women being linked rather than ranked, and a small light. She argued that acting awards aren't really a competition, and that the gesture matters especially for women in a high-pressure room — a point underscored when Zendaya came up to thank her.
Her partner, Matthew Rhys, had his own nervous run through the ceremony, where he picked up two Emmys plus one for the show itself. Russell revealed that the couple deliberately take each other off their thank-you lists before they speak, so Rhys's failure to mention her twice onstage was entirely by her own design — and she insisted she's already thanked enough. The good-natured exchange captured the down-to-earth dynamic the couple has kept even as their awards-season profile has climbed.
There was also a note of welcome nostalgia when Russell reacted to Felicity, the 1998 J.J. Abrams and Matt Reeves series that launched her career, landing on Netflix. She called the show a sweet little poem and said she's been touched by a new generation of fans who tell her they discovered it while raising their kids — though she admitted the timing of the arrival, right as The Diplomat returns, is something she still can't quite believe. For Russell, the message is a simple one: she took The Diplomat partly because it shot in London while Rhys was working in the UK, it made little sense for her life, and it turned out to be exactly the right call — which is why the October 15 premiere of Season 4 is the thing she most wants viewers to have circled.
