When I first heard about Covert Affairs, I saw its simple premise about a new femme fatale CIA agent balancing her adventurous life with her romantic desire as being an Alias knock-off. Replace Jennifer Garner with Piper Perabo. Replace Michael Vartan with Eion Bailey, Victor Garber with Peter Gallagher and there you have it.
But after screening episode after episode of the first episode in preparation for a season 2 set visit arranged by USA, I realized that the focus of this show compared to the ABC primetime drama of yesteryear is quite different. While Sydney Bristow kept changing costumes in her attempts to break down SD-6 on Alias, Annie Walker’s focus seems more on the relationships she has with the other characters on the show including her budding relationship with Jai Wilcox, her past flame Ben Mercer, her sister Danielle Brooks, and her supervisor Joan Campbell. So while the show revolves around the idea of the DPD (Domestic Protection Division), it’s truly about Annie’s growth and the people around her.
Usually when I attempt to meet and interview a celebrity, it is successful. Through a combination of contacts, connections and sheer tenacity there are very few celebrities that I haven’t been able to interview.
Really, there have been only two that escaped me. Jennie Garth (or Kelly Taylor from 90210 for those of you that have been living under a rock for the past few years and Piper Perabo (star of Covert Affairs). What can I say? I have always liked blondes.
When I was invited to visit the set of Covert Affairs, I was really on my own covert operation to attempt to secure a photo with Piper Perabo. The starlet from Coyote Ugly and Lost & Delirious has been somebody that I have wanted to interview for many years and I was thrilled when I was given the opportunity to ask her about her new show that is now airing in its second season on USA. During a panel discussion with online journalists, I asked her about the transition she has successfully made between television and film
“They’re both so separate, you know, I did, I did an indie right before I came up here to start this season, and now doing film seems like so slow,” she said. “You know, like theatre seems slow compared to film, ’cause you get all this time to rehearse, and you can really take your time, and you talk about every little minutia. And now film seems slow compared to television, because you shoot 10 pages a day on TV, you would never shoot that many… in a way I’m glad that I did TV third, ’cause I think you have to really trust your instincts, you’re really-, it’s going so fast that you’re just making decisions kind of in the moment, so you have to kind of be open and available to, to do that. I hope it comes out okay.”
Certainly, Piper has breathed new life into her career with the show. When I finally did work up the nerve to get the photo taken with her, it was certainly a life’s murtzssion fulfilled.
In addition to chatting with Perabo, other castmembers also stopped by to provide insight on the current season.
Sendhil Ramamurthy talked about how much fun he was having playing the layered character of Jai instead of just the straight-laced hero.
“He’s kind of a naturally flirtatious character and cocky and arrogant, and that can turn some people off. You know, some people just don’t really respond to that and some people do,” he said But it, it’s a lot more fun than playing, like, a full-on good guy, and I think it’s more realistic, simply, like CIA-wise, just because I don’t think anybody in the CIA is all good or all bad. It’s impossible. If you’re going to be successful, anyway, in the CIA, you have to be willing to do some pretty messed up stuff, and I think Jai is more than willing to do that, which is why, I think, ultimately, he’ll probably do very well at the CIA,” he said.
I asked him about whether he prefers playing the good guy or the bad guy in relation to his portrayal of Mohinder on Heroes.
“It’s much more fun to, to, to not have scruples. It can be a dangerous road to go down for a character, certainly, but it’s definitely a more fun road,” he said.
When I asked him about playing the spider on Heroes, he laughed.
“You know, I pretty much played a good guy on Heroes and that was fun, but it’s nice, it’s always nice to do something different and that’s what attracted me to [this] part, is that they were like, no, this guy is not going to be apple pie, and I said, let’s do it!’
The USA network has basically been promoting itself as the home for character-based drama (in fact, it celebrated the five-year anniversary of its Characters Welcome campaign last year) and in that regard, Covert Affairs is a strong example of the way the channel has managed to avoid the pitfalls of all-reality on cable and establish itself as a scripted powerhouse.
I discussed the idea of character with Christopher Gorham (Auggie) on set as well, but not before apparently ruining the fact that he was the killer on Harper’s Island for some of the other reporters who were in attendance. I asked him if he enjoyed taking on challenging parts. The bad guy on the summer thriller and now the blind tech guru on Covert Affairs.
“I mean, Harper’s Island, for instance, is a perfect example where, you know, I suspected that I was going to be the killer on that show, but I didn’t really know until we were halfway through,” he said. “Auggie on the other hand, you know, there were no secrets, and I was really excited about doing it, and doing something really different. I mean, starting with Ugly Betty, which in itself is a very distinct character and not me, you know, and then to go to Harper’s, and then to come to this show, and, and you know, kind of taking everything that I’ve learned, and bringing it into this part, the big challenge with the blindness it’s such a specific physicality that you can’t wing it.”
The actor also admitted to me that the role of Auggie has been the most challenging one that he has undertaken.
“This is more difficult. Any kind of interesting complex character is always going to be challenging but a physicality like this that’s so specific that you have to get it right. I can’t just kind of it it my way, you know? I can be creative within that and go in different directions with other things about Auggie, but the physicality of his disability has to be accurate and that takes extra work.”
The day itself was a whirlwind as we got to tour the studio set of the show and I got to walk around and even answer a phone call at the DPD. I sat at Annie’s desk, checked out her closet and even got to hang out in Arthur’s office. In this regard, my favorite part was seeing the manipulated photos of Arthur with Hilary Clinton as the attention to detail was precise.
From there, we were shuttled over to a secret airstrip at the airport where scenes were being shot for an upcoming episode. There was a particularly poignant scene between Annie and Ben where she appeared to be whispering something in his ear but it was too hard to discern from our vantage point. In a recent interview, Piper referred to our set visit.
At the end of the day, it wasn’t a covert operation as the set visit and USA showed me that you can’t judge a book by its cover and that Covert Affairs is a lot more than just another spy show.
I met Piper Perabo!
Watch Covert Affairs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on USA.
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