[Keri Russell] Feel like Elizabeth Taylor? 

[Rufus Sewell] A little, but I always feel a little like Elizabeth Taylor.

[Keri Russell] Success, got it on film.

[Rufus Sewell] [laughs] Yes, exactly.

[epic music playing]

[Rufus Sewell] At the end of Season 2, I have taken the initiative, quite rightly, to tell the president something directly for fear of how that news would be given to him to someone else's advantage. What I can't predict is that he will drop dead of the news, which puts us in a really, really precarious position with the vice president, who is now president.

[Keri Russell] Wow, pretty good memory.

[Rufus Sewell] Pretty good, wasn't it? 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] He's dead, Katie. I was talking to the doctors.

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] What did you tell them? 

[Rufus Sewell] No, it's straight in. It's straight in. Like, literally right in that moment. There is no jump because you want that. 

[Keri Russell] Like, second by second, the whole breaking down of what happens when there is a death for the president, and they go through all the protocol, which is interesting.

[Rufus Sewell] It's fascinating, considering Hal's involvement and the repercussions for us. Extremely high stakes. If you're playing someone who's confident, it's really good to get to play them absolutely rattled. You know, you get to see another side of all of us. 

[Keri Russell] That's true. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] Kate.

[tense music playing]

[Keri Russell] Season 2, there's this insurmountable problem to be prepping someone, prepping them. Everyone, "You're gonna be VP. You're gonna be VP." And then it to all be taken from you and given to your partner. [chuckles] 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] I need to make sure you understand that my wife is your vice president. 

[Rufus Sewell] What I loved about reading episode one and two was how much he desperately wants a good position for her. He doesn't want to just go off himself. It's like, "No, what about Kate?" "What about Kate?" I love the fact that it's an opportunity for him to at least try to really support her. People have fun speculating about what Hal actually wants and to what extent he's manipulating her to get what he wants. I'm a big defender of Hal. He has ambition, but he has enormous ambition for her. And this is not something that he's been planning.

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] This is an opportunity. You want to make a start on cleaning up the mess we left in Afghanistan? Done. You want to deal with Iran? I will have a portfolio. You tell me what to put in it. 

[Rufus Sewell] Hal is very good at, what is the play here? What is the opportunity? And let's put all of our energy into making that opportunity happen. The opportunity has been, to this point, to make her vice president. However, if I'm suddenly vice president, even though that wasn't my plan, this is an opportunity.

[Keri Russell] It's interesting to me, this idea of what women do in relationships. And there tends to be one person in a relationship who leads and makes the choices, and they make the calls about where you live. I mean, we all have versions of that. 

[Rufus Sewell] This season is about getting what you want and what that does to you. You think you want something, then you get it. But now there are countercurrents. There can be a sadness. You think you might want some space from someone, and then you realize what that actually means. You think you might want to be on a certain level, and then you realize what that means. You know, it can be very, very dramatic because like in real life, it can show you that you've been fooling yourself. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] Sorry there isn't another bedroom. 

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] Whatever. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] I mean, there is, but…

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler]  What would the staff say?

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] What? Yeah, it matters. 

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] I know it matters. That's why I flew across an ocean. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] Well, thank God for the staff. They had to remind you to pretend to love me.

[Keri Russell] I think they both suffer, and that's what's great about the writing. Just when you think Kate is really happy, he shows up and disrupts everything. 

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] You chose this. You chose the vice presidency. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] I know that. 

[Keri Russell] Hal is choosing the presidency. Kate is choosing herself and not to be in the marriage. And Kate is clearly struggling, rightfully so, with all these big things, and Hal sees the struggle and still goes, "Well, I'm still choosing this." This is my shot. I'm choosing it. Hal is getting on that plane, and I am not getting on that plane. It's enormous for the couple and for their individual lives.

[Rufus Sewell] They have a pattern of being apart and kind of getting back together. And you can get used to something being in a certain level of disrepair, a pattern of basically being forgiven. You can't help but expect that, even when you're telling yourself not to.

[Keri Russell] I think they're undeniably tied.

[somber music playing]

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] [chuckles awkwardly] Wow! Whoa! This is, oh my goodness. 

[Keri Russell] What is it about him that makes her more relaxed? 

[Rufus Sewell] Is it that he's young and hot? 

[Keri Russell]  Oh, I… I didn't notice.

[Keri Russell] It can be anything. It can just be that someone new. You don't have any of the baggage with them. They don't know your ****. They think you're great, and they haven't heard your jokes. And, you know.

[both chuckle] 

[Keri Russell]  Things catch up quick. [laughs] And I think Hal is a real force, which is what is so attractive. And I think Callum has a very different energy and speed. 

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] You are not being cheated on. You and I agreed. We are no longer partnered in that manner. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] We are no longer partnered in that manner, Callum. 

[Keri Russell] Can she come back to the relationship?

[Rufus Sewell] Come back? Yes, they're gonna come back to the troubled relationship where they don't trust each other and Hal's done something. That's what they're coming back to.

[both laugh] 

[Keri Russell]  Um, that's not new. So I-- 

[Rufus Sewell] He's done something wonderful and possibly naughty. If we are warring, if we're together, if there's other people, the DNA of their relationship is not dependent on them being whole or apart or whatever. It… it's fun for us. 

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] Cocktails, though. Scoot on out. 

[CLIP] [Rufus Sewell as Hal Wyler] That'll continue. The bossing around. Except much, much worse. 

[CLIP] [Keri Russell as Katie Wyler] You are correct, sir. I can make this much, much worse.

[music ends]