Diksha Sundriyal
Netflix’s ‘The Diplomat’ follows Kate Wyler as she is assigned to the UK as the ambassador during a very delicate situation. After a British Naval ship is blown up, the Prime Minister, Nicol Trowbridge, is on a mission to make the culprits pay for it. The USA, among others, is worried that his impulsive actions might lead to a world war. Kate’s job is to help defuse the situation, but she also needs to get to the bottom of the truth, which leads her to some very shocking discoveries. Meanwhile, Trowbridge is on a warpath of his own. While the series follows a fictional series of events, the PM seems to share some characteristics with a public figure.
The Fictional Nicol Trowbridge Has Vague Similarities to a Real British PM
‘The Diplomat’ comes from the mind of Debora Cahn, known for her work on shows like ‘Homeland’ and ‘The West Wing.’ Delving into the world of diplomats, Cahn stayed on the fictional side of things while concocting fake scenarios for Kate and her team to handle. However, even though all the characters in the show remain fictional, some sense of realism trickled into them one way or another. The same happened with Nicol Trowbridge. Eli Attie, who serves as the writer and consulting producer on the Netflix series, revealed that while crafting the character of Trowbridge, they drew inspiration from former British PM Boris Johnson. He confirmed that while Trowbridge is not entirely based on Johnson, the writers did borrow a few things from his character and his policies to make Trowbridge feel more realistic.
In the show, Trowbridge hails from the Conservative party, and as we get to know more about his ideologies, a thinly veiled reference to Boris Johnson, who served as the Prime Minister of the UK from 2019 to 2022, comes to light. The physical similarities are non-existent, but the writers embedded some very subtle references to Johnson. For example, in one scene, Margaret Roylin talks about Trowbridge in his early days and how he would throw off the audience by adopting a nonchalant demeanor, which seemed to point toward his unpreparedness and spontaneity. But the second time she saw him on the stage, she realized that his every move was calculated and how grossly she had underestimated him. Something like this has been referenced about Johnson in Jeremy Vine’s 2019 article. It is obscure things like this that go into building the character, but at the end of the day, Trowbridge remains fictional.
For actor Rory Kinnear, who has previously played the role of Prime Minister in the very first episode of ‘Black Mirror,’ titled ‘The National Anthem,’ the main purpose of his character is to stay in power, no matter what it takes. While he hasn’t revealed whether or not he looked towards Johnson to prepare for playing Trowbridge, he has revealed that he sees his character completely motivated by the thirst to remain in power and always thinking about the next move that could consolidate his position. It is this thought process that the actor factors into his performance and portrays Trowbridge as a flawed, complicated, and somewhat relatable character.
Read More: The Diplomat: Who Was Behind the Blast? Is Trowbridge Guilty?
