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Debora Cahn received her first Emmy nomination 20 years ago as a producer on The West Wing. Now, the TV vet is up for best drama for her own show, the political thriller The Diplomat, for the second straight year — while also receiving her first-ever writing nod.

Cahn discusses with THR her partnership with star Rufus Sewell and writing the “terrifying” finale.

The show has grown in Emmy nominations over each of its three seasons. What do you make of that from your own creative perspective of evolving the show?

There’s always the hope that a show can continue to thrive past all of your first-grade ideas, which you lay out in the first season. All of the low-hanging fruit storywise goes into those first few episodes. Then it turns into this new thing that is partly a show that I had in my mind and partly the product of a bunch of people working on this thing together — the relationship that Keri [Russell] and Rufus built out of Kate and Hal and turned into this marriage that has really drawn people in and served as the spine of the series. The hope is always that you haven’t used up all your good tricks and that you have a deeper well than you knew yourself going in. That’s a little bit of a leap of faith. It’s really great when it feels like your audience is responding to that reach.

Rufus got his first nomination for the show, and it feels appropriate since Hal takes more center stage this season opposite Kate. What is it like writing for him?

He has been, from the beginning, this stellar dance partner who is in so many ways responsible for everything that that relationship is. There are a lot of people who really connect with Kate as a character, and see themselves in that character, and there is a tremendous amount of love for Hal and connection with Hal. I sense from the audience that Hal is just giving them a unique ride. He’s fucking great.

You end the season with Kate realizing Hal’s subtle, brutal betrayal. How did you get there?

When you’ve achieved a finale by blowing a bunch of people up and then you’ve achieved a finale by having a president killed, having an interesting shift in one character’s attitude toward another character … is the most terrifying finale to write. (Laughs.) It was intimidating to try and figure out how you make a finale out of a really subtle shift in perspective that you’re not sure is real. It was a relief that people were willing to watch.

You’re nominated for writing the episode “Amagansett” with Peter Ackerman, which pits the relationship between Kate and Hal against that of the president and first gentleman, Grace (Allison Janney) and Todd (Bradley Whitford). How did that parallel develop?

It certainly was an experiment in turning the Grace character into a piece of another marriage where the marriage itself was going to be a character in the way that Kate and Hal’s was. We didn’t know that it was actually going to work, but was there a ton of suspense? No: It’s Allison and Brad. We were excited to see them build a different kind of way to work together after they had decades ago. We were all a little bit nervous that we were writing into a piece of the past, but they so elegantly and joyfully have created this whole new thing with two new characters that are just such a blast to watch. Every time that epic foursome is onstage together, the whole crew leans in. It’s just without question a career highlight for me, seeing the four of them work together. Boy, does game recognize game.

This story first appeared in an August stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.

Lucy Davis, the actress who starred in the original British version of The Office, has revealed she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer.

The actress shared a post on Instagram explaining that she initially felt a lump that “wasn’t a ‘lump’ as such; rather a kind of hard spot. Really tiny. I almost didn’t bother getting it checked,” urging others to attend regular checkups. Davis also said that her cancer is “incurable.”

“A year and a half ago I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Breast Cancer, which has metastasized to my bones,” she wrote. “Specifically to my spine, right hip, and my ribs. The cancer is incurable, and too late for chemo.”

Davis shared the extent of her pain, noting that it “can really be something else.” She added, “Standing and walking for too long a time can be hard, and I need to use a wheelchair sometimes (so if you see me toddling around in one, feel free to give me a push!).”

Davis starred in the original Office throughout its three-season run as Dawn Tinsley, a receptionist at the Wernham Hogg paper merchant company. Her character formed a romance with Martin Freeman’s Tim Canterbury; Davis’ Dawn was the model for Jenna Fischer’s Pam Beesly.

“As of now, I’m trying to live out whatever might be left of my life in as fun a way as I possibly can,” Davis wrote. “I always like to find the teachable moments in anything negative that happens. And cancer has not disappointed in that regard; there’s a lot I have learned from it, and I’m grateful for that.”

The Jonas Brothers are going back to their Disney roots, both executive producing and reprising their Camp Rock roles in the franchise’s third film.

Camp Rock 3 sees the brothers’ band Connect 3 returning to the camp to look for a new opening act for their tour. This means a whole new cast of campers — led by Malachi Barton and Liamani Segura — are introduced, along with a cameo appearance from fellow O.G. star Demi Lovato (who also serves as an EP).

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter at the film’s L.A. premiere on Monday, Joe Jonas said that in shooting scenes with Lovato, they “both were looking at these new campers kind of pinching ourselves like wow, this is a pretty wild full circle moment. We’ve all lived so much life and to be where we are today and to create something like this, Camp Rock 3, as producers, wearing the producer hat, I think we were like, ‘This is kind of wild.’”

Walking the carpet alongside Nick Jonas and Kevin Jonas, Joe also weighed in on getting to know the next generation of Disney stars, and how different it is now than when the brothers were first getting famous.

“I don’t envy anybody that’s doing this now, there’s probably a lot more scrutiny,” Joe noted. “Things happen a lot faster, and with that you also have an opportunity to kind of explain yourself quicker; when we were starting, we didn’t have a lot of options — just kind of hope that the article isn’t about you. Now you can at least go on your TikTok and say, ‘Hey guys, I didn’t say that’ or whatever it is.”

Joe Jonas also emphasized that there are more resources now to speak to professionals and get support from the studio, and “we also wanted to make sure that we were running a safe space on set. That was one of our priorities when we signed up to do this, we were like, ‘We want these kids to feel comfortable,’ because ultimately we remember what it was like and it can be a lot of pressure. They’re about to be shot out of a cannon into stardom, so we wish them the best and we hope they’re surrounded by love and care.”

Lovato said she also offered the new stars plenty of advice, telling them that “this is going to be a whirlwind and make sure to take breaks if you need them; it’s so important to protect your mental health, and to soak it up and to have fun. That’s the most important part.”

The pop star explained that returning to Camp Rock almost two decades after the sequel was “really healing for me,” as “Camp Rock has meant so much to so many people and it’s meant so much to me; this was the beginning of my journey in this industry and [my character] Mitchie will always have a huge, special place in my heart.”

Camp Rock 3 premieres Thursday on Disney Channel and the next day on Disney+. 

Tiffany Taylor contributed to this report.