It was a treat for fans of The West Wing to see Allison Janney reunite with Bradley Whitford on the small screen again when The Diplomat Season 3 hit the 2025 TV schedule. Whitford came on board to play Todd, husband of Janney’s Grace Penn, giving their characters quite a different dynamic from when they portrayed C.J. and Josh in the Bartlet White House. Janney acknowledged this in regards to having to kiss her former co-star, and Whitford had the funniest response.
The cast of The Diplomat — whose third season premiered on the Netflix schedule in October — spoke at an FYC event Saturday in Los Angeles, where Bradley Whitford said he was so impressed with the chemistry that the cast had formed over the series’ first two seasons that he was afraid to mess up the alchemy. At the same time, though, he seems pretty confident about what he brought to the table, saying (per Gold Derby):
It’s very hard for me not to be obnoxiously effusive about the opportunity to be married to Allison Janney. I’ve made this joke before, but [Janney] said it was like kissing her brother. And I said, ‘It turns out, her brother’s a really fucking great kisser.’
Whoa! If that’s not a line that would come straight out of Josh Lyman’s mouth, I don’t know The West Wing.
Bradley Whitford may be self-assured in his acumen at first base, but I think all parties involved — including those of us watching with our Netflix subscriptions — were relieved to see romantic chemistry between Grace and Todd Penn. Nobody wants to watch siblings kiss (outside of The White Lotus, I guess).
How awful would it have been to watch their scenes if they came off as old buddies and not husband and wife? That definitely would have justified creator Debora Cahn’s initial fear about doing a West Wing reunion on the Netflix political drama.
That kissing scene is something that The Handmaid’s Tale actor has discussed before, saying that it surprised him that after so many years, he and Allison Janney could channel their history into romantic roles. In fact, I thought the actors’ comfort around each other added depth to the president and first gentleman’s relationship.
Allison Janney has also described their intimate scene as easy and fun and comfortable because of her history on The West Wing with Bradley Whitford. With any potential awkwardness out of the way, it seems Whitford was just happy to have not messed up a series that he was such a fan of. He said:
I was so jealous of this show. I was just dying to be a part of it. By the way, the moment after being jealous of the show, if you get to be on it, you’re like, ‘I don’t want to fuck up the show.’
I, personally, don’t think he did any such thing, and I’m thrilled that both Bradley Whitford and Allison Janney have been promoted to series regulars for The Diplomat Season 4.
There’s no premiere date for that yet, but while we wait for an update, the first three seasons can be streamed on Netflix, while you can catch C.J. Cregg and Josh Lyman NOT kissing over on The West Wing with your HBO Max subscription.