start by asking the question i think is on everyone's mind it's the white
elephant in the room doesn't listen to record use a private email server like a
big story on a bad idea
obviously people have compared the character to hillary Clinton has no
going to second season you're probably hoping that that sort of days away but
considering that her tenure as Secretary of State is so much in the news how do
you deal with those comparisons in the beginning I really trying to move away
from that question just by the whole thing I'm I was focused solely on
kissinger obviously yeah I thought it was clear but and then as you know the
truth is we've had three very impressive female secretaries of state and and i've
been stealing from each three fairly equally and and Hillary you know I mean
it's it's it's not bad thing in life time somebody come up with a hairy doin
hillary was way too many trained in all I think we're just exploded quote we do
you guys think about you try to avoid making sort of obvious parallels or is
it just out there and you just kind of deal with it as it comes
don't think is right I was really so focused on trying to create a secretary
of state that was their own creation for TV and I did read all of their stories
and pay attention to their particular styles they all have very different
styles and I took a little bit from each of them but you know it's enough of a
challenge to try to create our own original character and that's what we're
all focused on ya
so tell your sort of famous for turning down projects and you decided to say yes
to this one why did this one appeal to you and and change your mind about
wanting to do another TV series of the stage by the way that this sort of came
to me you know well a strong female character who's a bit of a fish out of
water I tended gravitate towards that end and it was a new Morgan had worked
together along time ago and seeing his name right of the front I knew that I
would be protected organization great feminist and I knew that he would help
us protect don't know that the integrity of this character and that was really
important and then I read the thing and I was knocked out by Berbers writing and
I love not only the political aspects but also this relationship that was
gonna be between Henry and Elizabeth this idea of seeing very powerful woman
with you know husband character who was somebody so strong and Israel ego and as
I don't know that he could be alongside whether we haven't seen that I thought
it was very interesting so that was it was sort of close to a no-brainer and I
guess for me I just know after I read it and then I couldn't not do it that's how
I kinda tend to back into projects due this one and Barbara Lori what made you
think of 10 on the attacks are also was involved in the decision as well me what
made you think you'll be right for this kind of role well I'm here for a long
time especially I met her one-time quickly on a deep impact and there was
just a strength is gone
guys got like everyone on set loves her all the women on the man she really
makes everyone comfortable she walks in we call it you know she's number one on
the call sheets of everyone's a little differential but he makes everyone feel
like we're on number one on the show and it's really great woman to be around in
a real on this night and I can just add when I said Morgan unit after was
thinking of tea leoni this is Morgan did and how important factor was achieved
health powerful women behind the scenes as well on on this project very
absolutely and and and it's proven to be as important and impactful as well as I
thought yeah there's a guy with each other on personal experiences of what it
is to be coming up and not just in this industry but in this world and it's this
is a really great experience I have to say I'm really get a kick out of you you
do have a theory on the Showtime and that you are the husband of the
secretary of state what appealed to you about about taking on this character
when they initially approached about well two things that the first is sort
of a superficial thing that I've never seen a professor of religion portrayed
on television before I thought that was fascinating and that lent a lot of sort
of death and layers to the relationship and the relationship of someone who is
dealing with a geo-political affairs all the time because unfortunately a lot of
our conflict around the globe globe remain
conflict of religion and I thought that he would have a particular insight into
those things but more than that I this may be sort of a contrary point of view
but I saw Henry is kind of the primary role model in this show because I think
we have seen in real life a lot of strong women who've been secretary of
state we've seen a lot of strong women on television but to see a guy who is
confident enough not to sabotage his wife but to be able to say you know go
girl be as big as you can be I'll be right here doing my own thing I thought
was a really great message for men who dichotomy here in a sense is this
political woman shoes in politics after very high browse she's married to this
professor of ethics religion and they never run counter to each other as a
result of that as a matter of fact they seem the weave together sorry minister
to work in the foreign policy stuff into the the home life and home life in the
foreign policy suffered a look at a clip in a minute of a breakfast table seemed
has been kind of iconic for the show that you know just as they're getting
ready for their day they're also dealing with these you know where it matters how
do you kind of nitrate that out how much of each to kind of put into each episode
from the beginning I really had this approach that I called the three-pronged
approach to storytelling which is that every episode I wanted to have an
international event i wanted to have a story about inner office politics which
i think are pretty universal I wanted to show that you know even in the state
department people are unhappy about their parking place their office you
know and then I wanted to put that in context of family life because early on
I was talking to Lori Morgan about it and I said this story is really only
interesting in full context and we all were in agreement about that this is the
Secretary of State story when she also has to go home and deal with what she
has to deal with where she's dealing with president United States in the
morning and the president of pgm in the evening is sort of you know the context
we wanted to give it and so we're very devoted to to serving all of those
aspects of the storytelling