Covert Affairs creators Ord and Corman talk Piper, Gorham and Twitter
Jim Halterman talked to the co-executive producers/writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman about the decision to make Chris Gorham's character blind, the impact of social media, how they came up with the idea of the show, Sendhil Ramamurthy's character (who's joining in tonights episode!), the relationship between Annie and Auggie - now and how it might develop - and crafting the arcs and mythology.
[...] Question: Can you tell us how you came up with the idea of the show and how is it going to be different from other shows of this kind like Alias.
CO: When we came up with the show, we originally conceived it as more of a workplace show. That was our way into it. We really wanted to examine the CIA as a workplace and all the politics that go along with that and just what it's like to actually work in such an odd institution.
When you really look at the CIA, you realize that if you work there, A, you don't get a lot of credit for the work you do because you can't tell anyone about it. B, you don't make very much money. And so it's a very interesting person who chooses do this because the upside is just about self-satisfaction and knowing you're helping your country and doing what you can to help your country.
Question: Moving forward in the series, there's a character coming up that we really haven't seen or really anything of yet and that's [Heroes alum] Sendhil Ramamurthy's character. So can you speak a little bit about him?
MC: Sendhil is going to be playing a really interesting character named Jai Wilcox who's a second generation CIA man. First of all, Sendhil is a magnificent actor and we're really lucky to have him and he's a good guy to boot. But the character is very complex because he's caught between two father figures. He's working for Arthur Campbell, who's played by Peter Gallagher and then his father was legend at the CIA. So he's in a very complicated situation and he's someone who is going to be getting close to Piper's character for various reasons. And we don't want to tip our hand too much, but their relationship is going to be very juicy and it's going to have a lot of layers to it.
Question: Speaking of relationships, one final thing is how would you guys pinpoint the relationship between Annie and Auggie right now and where do you see that going?
CO: I think what we love about the relationship right now, and it's both on screen and off screen, is that Piper and Chris just became fast friends immediately both as Auggie and Annie, but also off screen. And they get along really well and you feel that when you see them interact on screen. So we really see the relationship right now as friendship and it's great for Annie to have such a cool mentor in the agency. But over time and over the series, I think if we have the fortune of having a number of seasons, we would definitely explore romantic possibilities between the two, but that would be way down the road.
Question: Can you talk about designing the series and crafting the arcs and mythology?
MC: We did think about the season and what we wanted to do with that and as we were crafting all 11 episodes that will follow the pilot. And then there ... little, I think, cues here and there that hopefully the audiences will pick up on in terms of playing that mythology out. But it was certainly in our minds as we crafted the season, and then within that, we wanted to write individual episodes that could stand on their own, so that there'd be a case or something or mission that Annie has to complete by the end of the episode. So we're cognizant of doing both.
Read the full interview at jimhalterman.com
[...] Question: Can you tell us how you came up with the idea of the show and how is it going to be different from other shows of this kind like Alias.
CO: When we came up with the show, we originally conceived it as more of a workplace show. That was our way into it. We really wanted to examine the CIA as a workplace and all the politics that go along with that and just what it's like to actually work in such an odd institution.
When you really look at the CIA, you realize that if you work there, A, you don't get a lot of credit for the work you do because you can't tell anyone about it. B, you don't make very much money. And so it's a very interesting person who chooses do this because the upside is just about self-satisfaction and knowing you're helping your country and doing what you can to help your country.
Question: Moving forward in the series, there's a character coming up that we really haven't seen or really anything of yet and that's [Heroes alum] Sendhil Ramamurthy's character. So can you speak a little bit about him?
MC: Sendhil is going to be playing a really interesting character named Jai Wilcox who's a second generation CIA man. First of all, Sendhil is a magnificent actor and we're really lucky to have him and he's a good guy to boot. But the character is very complex because he's caught between two father figures. He's working for Arthur Campbell, who's played by Peter Gallagher and then his father was legend at the CIA. So he's in a very complicated situation and he's someone who is going to be getting close to Piper's character for various reasons. And we don't want to tip our hand too much, but their relationship is going to be very juicy and it's going to have a lot of layers to it.
Question: Speaking of relationships, one final thing is how would you guys pinpoint the relationship between Annie and Auggie right now and where do you see that going?
CO: I think what we love about the relationship right now, and it's both on screen and off screen, is that Piper and Chris just became fast friends immediately both as Auggie and Annie, but also off screen. And they get along really well and you feel that when you see them interact on screen. So we really see the relationship right now as friendship and it's great for Annie to have such a cool mentor in the agency. But over time and over the series, I think if we have the fortune of having a number of seasons, we would definitely explore romantic possibilities between the two, but that would be way down the road.
Question: Can you talk about designing the series and crafting the arcs and mythology?
MC: We did think about the season and what we wanted to do with that and as we were crafting all 11 episodes that will follow the pilot. And then there ... little, I think, cues here and there that hopefully the audiences will pick up on in terms of playing that mythology out. But it was certainly in our minds as we crafted the season, and then within that, we wanted to write individual episodes that could stand on their own, so that there'd be a case or something or mission that Annie has to complete by the end of the episode. So we're cognizant of doing both.
Read the full interview at jimhalterman.com