Rufus Sewell makes troublesome men worth listening to. Often cast for brooding menace, he is particularly good when allowed to be funny, as The Diplomat demonstrates whenever Hal Wyler starts an argument.
Fi1m perspective
In The Diplomat (2023), Rufus Sewell's Hal Wyler seems to know which remark will irritate his wife before he makes it. Keri Russell's replies suggest she has had plenty of practice. We laughed at their squabbling because both actors make each fresh disagreement sound like part of a quarrel that has lasted years. They give these exchanges a history without stopping to explain it. Sewell is good company here, though Hal would be hard work.
His casting has not always made room for this ease with comedy. It is worth remembering that he originated Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (1993), a role built around demanding language. His television breakthrough as Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch (1994) also preceded the familiar run of screen antagonists. Those beginnings suggest more possibilities than another stern face in a period costume.
John Murdoch, the lead in Dark City (1998), and Count Adhemar, the antagonist of A Knight's Tale (2001), are plainly different jobs. Yet Sewell has described being repeatedly cast as stoic or villainous men in parts that did not always suit him. As John Smith in The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019), he had a long-running television role in which to make another antagonist recognisably human. The subsequent move to Hal in The Diplomat gave that troublesome presence a welcome chance to be funny.
Russell is crucial to how well Hal works. Sewell and Russell suggest two people who know each other's weak spots and still cannot resist testing them. Their private disagreements hold our attention more reliably than the workplace plotting, which does not always make the consequences of a bad decision feel real. The actors cannot repair that weakness, but their scenes supply the personal cost the wider plotting sometimes struggles to establish. For the funny, aggravating Sewell, start with The Diplomat; a taste for office melodrama will help.
Biography
Rufus Sewell is a British actor. He trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London.
In film, he has appeared in Dark City (1998), A Knight's Tale (2001), The Illusionist (2006), The Holiday (2006), The Tourist (2010), Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), The Father (2020) and Old (2021). On television he stars as Hal Wyler in the series The Diplomat (2023–).
On stage he originated the role of Septimus Hodge in Tom Stoppard's Arcadia (1993) and the role of Jan in Stoppard's Rock 'n' Roll (2006), for which he received an Olivier Award.
