Rufus Sewell at the 2026 AFI Awards held at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills on January 09, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (AFI=American Film Institute).
"AFI Awards 2026: Rufus Sewell nahm am 9. Januar 2026 am AFI Awards Luncheon in Beverly Hills teil. Diese Veranstaltung ehrt die zehn herausragendsten Filme und Fernsehserien des Vorjahres; Rufus Sewell, Keri Russell und Bradley Whitford sowie Deborah Cahn und Netflix-Chefin Bela Bajaria vertraten dort die Serie The Diplomat, die als eines der besten Programme ausgezeichnet wurde."
I have been imagining it's just Hal (like the S in Harry S Truman doesn't stand for anything) but this question sent my mind off on a delightfully wild headcanon of Hal being the child of frustrated theater kids so he's named something off the wall like Halcyon, or Hilarion (for the character in the G&S operetta Princess Ida not the monk).
OR his parents were unhinged patriots and named him Hale for Nathan Hale ("I regret I have but one life to give for my country") and he changed it to Hal because he got sick of having to explain it wasn't "hail" or "hell."
“You’re not going to guess, Katie,” Hal said, but he sounded entertained and not annoyed and she could tell it had perked him up, more than the whiskey and her wearing what was her most intentionally provocative top, a black tee-shirt that had a purposely low neckline, not one of the ones all stretched out that she ought to chuck.
“It’s something completely unexpected then, like Albert or Ignatius. Or John,” she said, leaning forward. His eyes dropped briefly to what she would generously call her décolletage and she had to revise her earlier assertion. Given how rarely he looked at her that way, she was flattered rather than irritated and actually more self-satisfied than either.
“You think my name is John? Or Ignatius?” he said. He did that thing with his eyebrows that shouldn’t have been so hot but it was or maybe it was just a normal thing and she found everything he did hot. Some of it was empirically hot, that move he had with his left hand when she’d already come once was unequivocally incendiary, but right now they were sitting in the corner of the café-slash-bar everyone hung out at, nursing whiskeys and a poll of the straight women and gay men in the room would not necessarily have come down on her side re: his eyebrows.
“I mean, not now, because you didn’t make a face like I got it right and you’re forced to eat your words,” she said.
“You’d like that,” he said.
“Sometimes,” she said.
“Well, you’re not close, I’ll tell you that,” he said. He took another sip of the whiskey. She didn’t really like how it tasted, but it tasted better on his lips. She could stop messing around and cut to the chase.
“Your father was a huge nerd and nicknamed you Hal after 2001,” she said.
Hal laughed, loud enough to draw attention anywhere that people paid attention to loud laughter or any dramatic emotional expression, which wasn’t this bar.
“This is very amusing, but I have to say, you’re getting colder. I don’t think my father ever watched a movie for fun, not that he would have enjoyed 2001,” Hal said.
“Halberd. Hallelujah, Halloween,” she said. She did a little head toss because she thought, given the expression in his eyes and the fact that he’d glanced at her lips and her boobs a second time, that she could get away with it. This might be the one night of her life when she was a successful coquette and she was going to run with it.
“I hate to see you get it so wrong but I do appreciate the effort you’re putting into it,” he said.
“I can go all night,” she said.
“So can I,” he replied and the blatant innuendo, in contrast to his usual restraint, made her dizzy. And stupid.
“Oh yeah?” she said.
“Yeah, and I’d rather, so I’ll tell you but you have to promise to keep it a secret,” he said. A secret, said in that intimate tone, the curve of his lips nearly a smile.
“Cross my heart,” she said, letting her forefinger drag at the neckline of her top.
She counted it a victory that he had to pause for a second.
“Hallam,” he said.
“Hallam?”
He shrugged, a colossally elegant gesture that made her want to literally jump his bones.
“My mother liked Tennyson. She would have made a good English teacher. She was a frustrated housewife who never found a pot roast she couldn’t burn,” he said.
“I guess I’m ignorant, what does Hallam have to do with Tennyson?” Kate said. She’d majored in politics, minored in econ, took the required freshman writing class and a class generally referred to as “Kiddie Lit” with her best friend Jill. What she knew about Tennyson could fill whatever tiny fancy teaspoon British aristocrats used for caviar.
“Arthur Hallam was Tennyson’s best friend. He died young, Tennyson wrote In Memoriam about him, named his son after him. My mother thought it was touching. I thought it was silly, embarrassing, shortened it to Hal with my friends. Never looked back,” Hal said.
“Hallam,” Kate repeated. He’d just told her more about his family than she’d ever known. It wasn’t like she was going to call him Hallam in the throes of passion, but she liked the feel of the name in her mouth, the tenderness of it. The trust.
“My middle name is Liesl. My mom was kind of obsessed with The Sound of Music,” Kate said.
“So now we’re even,” Hal said.
“And we can get the hell out of here,” Kate replied.
@broadwaybaggins and @kivrin obviously I was going to weigh in on this irresistible prompt, this time, with more Victoriana.
“Process of elimination. It’s not Henry, and it’s not Harry,” Kate began, leaning over the chipped wood of Hal’s desk. You’d think that the US government would spring for a decent desk for their ambassador, but beggars couldn’t be choosers out here and Hal insisted the desk had character. He liked to compare one particular deep groove in the wood to the birthmark on the back of Kate’s left shoulder, in a way that made her blush and wonder why him comparing her to a desk, of all things, could possibly be sexy.
“Correct,” he said with a smile, clearly loving her growing frustration.
“We’re sleeping together, I should know your name,”
“You do know my name. It’s Hal.”
She fixed him with a hard stare. “Is it not short for anything? Is it just Hal? You know, I could look in your files and find it out in a second.”
“And yet, here we are.” He sat back and studied her. “I know my girl. I know how competitive you are, you won’t put this to bed until you guess it or I tell you. And no, it’s not Just Hal, to my deep chagrin.”
i just found my hal/kate story in my drive that i was writing after watching the diplomat's 2nd season... it needs to be checked and polished a bit, do you guys want it published? :')
i just found my hal/kate story in my drive that i was writing after watching the diplomat's 2nd season... it needs to be checked and polished a bit, do you guys want it published? :')
we know Hal is a mastermind in terms of politics and power plays, but I don't think we should underestimate Grace, at least not yet... maybe there's an even darker side of her we haven't seen and she's just like Hal or at the very least, can compete with him. What if she can foresee his intentions and it's HER who throws him under the bus before he can see it coming?
I know the last minutes of the finale made it seem like they're besties plotting world domination together and Hal could pin everything on her, especially with the photographs of them whispering close and Todd's observations about their proximity (which i believe has ZERO to do with attraction but the poor man doesn't know where he's standing). However, I believe what they could also be telling us is: who will stab the other first?
I said this back then, I’m saying it now as well, where are the Hal/Kate fics we all deserve?! After seeing S3, I really need to read something with a hurt/broken Hal, and Kate realizing how much she hurt him, etc…
Just finished watching S3, great portrayal by Rufus, watching his micro expressions is always a joy and I deeply felt the pain and torment he was going through in every.single.scene...
Also I'm so glad that they decided to renew for S4 :') Come chat with me if you're loving Rufus as well :D
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