What originally drew you to the role? I know you originally tried out for the role of Spencer.
Everything from just hearing the title. I got the call from my manager and she was like I have this pilot called Pretty Little Liars and I was like “Stop. How cool is that title?” She’s like “I know, but let me tell you more about the storyline.” So really, I didn’t know too much about it when I auditioned for it. I had my character’s background, and that’s kind of where I got the whole idea of what it was. After getting further along in the audition process, I did a Google search and a whole bunch came up at me. I got that it was a book series, and had a very big popular fan base. So that’s kind of where I found out about all that. I only really knew about my character, but the title was amazing.

Yeah well, it’s a really good title! And are you anything like Emily at all?
There are some qualities about Emily — especially when she’s with her four friends — sometimes the things she does, I’m like “Oh, I’d be that same way.” I think she has a lot of respectful qualities about her. One: she’s extremely loyal to her friends. She can keep a secret. I’m sure that if you were to tell your secret to someone, you should tell it to Emily. She’s the smoother-over. She wants everything to be good, so she tries to keep the peace in her group of friends. I like that about her, and I try to do the same in my group of friends, so those qualities.

Emily’s obviously going through a phase of her life that I feel like a lot of teenagers go through. It’s a rather groundbreaking subject for a show like Pretty Little Liars. Why do you think it’s important to tackle?
I think the way that they’ve done it with her character is completely different from other shows and other characters. On other shows, they have a lesbian character, or they have a gay character. But with this show, you can’t really label her. And I think there’s so many teens, they watch these shows and they are like “Oh yeah, that girl is a lesbian, or this guy’s gay,” but with Emily, they’re like “I might be able to identify with this character more because she doesn’t know.” And they might not know at that time what they’re going through. So I love the fact that they are not putting her in one category right now, and she’s just figuring it out, going along with it. She’s experimenting and figuring it out. So I think that’s really cool. And it’s different from other shows that I’ve seen in the way that they’re doing it.

Yeah, absolutely. Have you gotten a lot of feedback on the Emily and Maya storyline?
I have. Some of the most amazing comments I’ve been getting was that the show has really helped them out a lot, they’ve been able to find themselves a little bit more. And from the older fan base, they’re messaging me saying they wish the show as on ten years ago when they were in high school, it really would have helped them out to know that someone else is going through the same thing. And I think it’s awesome. The fact that teens are watching this, sometimes with their family, the subject may be a little bit easier to talk about, or start talking about, because it’s right there, and we’re not hiding from it. I think it’s very cool. So yes, I have been getting very good feedback.

That’s very good to hear. Emily’s the peace keeper as you said, but she also has many layers. Is there a lot about her that we don’t know yet?
I think there is. It’s like peeling the onion. And right now, I think we’ve only got through the first few layers. She is different from the other characters, because she’s not putting it all out there. She’s a very mysterious person, there’s a lot of different layers to her. So going along, I guess she is quiet, and she is a peace keeper, but there may be some other stuff about her that will be coming out in the later episodes that people might not have expected that that’s who she was. There’s many different layers to Emily.

And has playing a character with so many layers been a challenge for you?
No, it’s been very, very exciting. In every episode, I learn a little bit more about Emily. And I learn a little bit more about the way that she would think about things or handle the situation. And I’m very excited to come back and shoot the next twelve, with more knowledge of her. And even on my break, I’m always kind of wondering “Huh, I wonder what she would do.” I put myself in her shoes for a little bit, and it’s very exciting. I think it’s great to play a character with different layers.

You read the books. Did you take any of what you read and bring it into your portrayal of Emily?
Oh totally. I think for an actor to have such an amazing back story, with the books being written about her and any other character, it’s amazing to go in with. That’s who the fans loved when they heard about Pretty Little Liars. They got to love the Emily that was written about, so of course I had to take that on, along with other things to make it a little bit different. Because I am playing it and it’s coming from my imagination on the show. So yes, I did take a huge, huge chunk of what Sara had written about her. And from reading it, I feel like her spirit came into me and that’s what I’ve been playing with. Not all the events are the same that happen in the books, so with that, I have to do my own take on what I feel Emily would do. And that’s kind of been what I’ve been doing.

Right, I know a lot of the Emily and Toby moments weren’t in the book and they’ve been great. So I wanted to know if you have a favorite moment from filming the show?
Favorite moment? I must say, as bad as I felt for Emily, in the homecoming episode, for me, was very exciting. (laughs) Getting to run around in those heels was fun, and I had a blast shooting that episode. I won’t speak for Emily on this, but for me, I really enjoyed shooting the homecoming episode.

Well, it was great to watch. And I know you can’t spoil too much, but can you give us a little teaser of what’s coming up for Emily? I know there is a big episode coming up this week.
Yes, I will say that you will get to know a couple more layers of Emily’s character tomorrow. And (laughs) I wish I was able to say a lot more, but I can’t!

I understand. I’m obviously sold on the show, but if you had to tell viewers why they should tune in, what would you say?
I would say if you like drama, mystery, good relationships, and to be on the edge of your seat for an entire hour, then you should watch Pretty Little Liars because it has all that and more!

Be sure to tune in tonight to ABC Family for an all new episode of Pretty Little Liars!

Check out her answer in this great video:

Pretty Little Liars airs on Tuesday nights at 8 pm on ABC Family.

So season two episode one ended on an interesting note, can you give us some spoilers?
I don’t remember what happened at the end [laughs].  We’re shooting episode six now. they all merge into one.

You opened the safe...the Music Box.
Oh, right yeah, oh yeah.  So it’s, is Diana good or bad right?

Yeah.
Well I can’t say.

Well I’m curious to know, you know, you’re signed up for season two with a bigger role. And how has that been, taking on a bigger role from season one to season two?
Oh it’s been great.  I mean everybody’s so lovely here, and it’s such a great part, it’s a wonderful environment.  And, you know, it sounds so cheesy when we say that, because I’ve lied in the past when I’ve said that on shows [laughs].  But actually, in this instance, it’s really true, like everyone is so lovely and it’s such a pleasure to come here.  And it’s just, it’s been really great. I’m loving working in the city, you know, being here.  New York is such a big pie, it’s like a character of its own on the show and its been really great.

So how do you like being in New York compared to being back [home]?
Well, I live in LA, I’ve lived there for almost ten years, so I feel almost like an American now.  I know I don’t sound like one but it’s been great being here, it’s such a great city, it’s so vibrant, I’ve loved it, really loved it.  It’s always been a dream of mine to work in New York.

When you came in on season one did they tell you that it was possibly going to be a season two recurring role?  Or did they tell you we’ll see what happens?
Yeah it was kind up in the air, we didn’t really know what was going to happen with it, which is often the case in this business as you know.  So it’s great to be back for this second season [with the] boys.

And you play a really strong female character who’s gay, and do you think we might see your relationship in the future?
I think you might, yeah.

[laughter] Oh, she knowingly nods.
She knowingly raises a brow [laughs].

[laughter] With your British accent, do you have to go through training?  Because on the show you don’t really hear it.
Yeah, you know, I’ve been here such a long time and I’ve definitely worked on the accent, you know.  Gosh when I look at some of the things I did earlier on in the career, yeah not so.  You know but I’ve worked on the accent a lot.  I don’t have anybody here on the set, I kind of use my co-stars, “How do you say that?  What is that word?”  And, you know, I mean, I’ve lived here a long time so I’m always listening and fine tuning.  And now it’s kind of gotten to the point where, you know, I’ll be in a scene and if a word comes out I hear it straight away.  If an English sound comes out I hear it and I [call it] because I never want to commit that to film.  And then, you know, we do it again, so I feel in a good place with the accent at this point.

Do you ever let a bollocks escape?
No I never let a bollocks escape.

Do you ever get an opportunity to use your accent?
We’re on episode six, so far no.  But we go under cover a hell of a lot so I would imagine at some point they’re going to have to use it.  Because why wouldn’t they?

[laughter] What about in other work that you’ve done?
Oh yes. Yeah I’ve played Americans, I’ve played English a lot.  I was English on Las Vegas, I was English on Lost. In fact I was a Mancunian on Lost.  I was English on Make it or Break it that I was doing last year.  I’ve been English a lot, yeah.

So you’ve done a lot of TV, how does this role in this production compare to other projects that you’ve worked on?
Well like I said, it’s such a great environment, and one of the things I really love about it is it’s really collaborative.  Jeff Eastin, our show [writer], is really, really open to ideas.  And, you know, because often times you find that they just want the actors to just say, “Please just say the words don’t, you know, leave us to…”  You know but he’s very collaborative and so I really appreciate that and that’s been pretty special on this show.  In fact, I have an email that I’m just about to send and, you know, and I always feel like I can do that like I’m not going to get fired.  So it’s good [laughs].

Do you give him ideas for shows or where your character is going?
No, no just, you know, might discuss a little idea about the character or have a question about a script.  Or, you know, I don’t know, just it’s a work in progress always so sometimes, you know, we might have an idea but never about stories really no, we leave that to them.

What has been the response from the gay community to your role, to your character?  And do you feel a special, what’s the word, is it tough playing this character?
Yeah.  No, God no it’s not tough, it’s actually an honor. After the first episode the gay community was really like, a little distressed when I wasn’t back in the second episode.  And they came out in full force and—hello! That’s amazing [laughs].  I mean you know, that was a really special thing that I feel really supported by them.  And no I don’t feel any pressure because I just, you know, I honor the work, say the words, do my best and, you know, let the chips fall where they may.

But now you have your own activist group to keep you in the show.
Yeah.

What’s the most fun thing you’ve gotten to do on the show so far?
I go undercover playing a high class hooker in Costume National shoes which is never a bad thing.  And I get quite a bit of gun work on the show as well, which is really fun for me because, “Hi I’m English I’ve never held a gun.”  I held a gun on Las Vegas but that was in a shooting range so it was very controlled, it wasn’t like, you know, I get to shoot people.

[laughter] Well you know you never really get over the kick of that because that’s just, you know, when you actually pull…
Right oh, yeah.  I mean it was, yeah I was very nervous the first time because they’ve all done it for a whole season and I’m the girl in high heeled shoes.  I really didn’t want to mess it up, but I think I did a good job.  Apparently it looks great, but I haven’t seen anything yet. You’ve seen more then I’ve seen [laughs].

[laughter] What was your reaction when you read the script for this first episode of the season and saw what was going to happen at the end that realized that your character was going to be the subject of a great deal of discussion?
Yeah, I was thrilled. I was thrilled.  I mean, you know, the story centers around Neal and Peter for the most part, and so you never know what they’re going to do with, you know, the co-star roles.  And so I was very happy to see that I was an integral part to the story and have been, you know, they’re really using me and that’s great.  I mean if you can’t tell, I’m really happy to be here [laughs] I’m having such a good time.  It’s just a great show, it’s a great network to be a part of, you know, they’ve got such great, good shows that, you know, I really enjoy a lot of their stuff.  I’ve been a fan, so I’m having a nice time.

Have they given you any clues about where you’re headed or do you kind of find every week as you’re reading?
Yeah, no we just find every week, and usually we get the script the day before we start shooting [laughs].  So we’re just discovering the story as we go.  But that’s kind of good anyway, because in life you never know what’s going to happen from one moment to the next.

And it can’t be as simple as you being the bad guy.
Can’t it? I can’t say.

You don’t know or you can’t say?
No, I can’t say we’re on episode six. I know at this point [laughs].

[laughter] Lost brought back a lot of former players during the final season as kind of the alternate reality thing.  Was it just a scheduling thing that –?
Yeah, yes it was. I know, I know, I was gutted.  I went to Thailand for a month. Can you believe I dared take a vacation?  And so, and they called to ask me to go back. I was probably going to show [up]—waiting on somebody or something.  I loved the way those characters kept coming back and, you know, I’m a big fan of that show.

[What would you have] Naomi doing in the –?
Who’s to say? I just would have liked her to like show up in an unexpected place, like, you know, serving somebody dinner in a restaurant or, you know, whatever.

Or high class call girl?
Or that even, yeah.

Or even do a British high class call girl.
Well she was British on the show, yeah in fact, a Mancunian.  It was so funny, one of the scenes I did on Lost was me and Dominic Monaghan who’s also from Manchester in the north of England.  We’re on this beach in Hawaii talking about the Night and Day Café which is this really cool bar that play, you know, acoustic guitars on this beach on Lost in [Hawaii] [laughs].  I was like, this is hilarious. It was really cool, really surreal.

Do you think we might see you back on Make it or Break It? Do you have any other things coming up?
I don’t know.  They probably are going to be starting soon.  I don’t know if they’ll still be going. If I’m back in LA done with the show and they ask me back, then I would definitely go back.  It’s really fun and that show is so popular, people really like it, and I get to play kind of a bad-ass.

Yeah you were great on that too.  Do you have any other projects coming up after this is done?
No.  I’m going to go back to England for a little bit actually.  I got married last year. I want to spend some time with my husband.

What is your relationship like with Tim and Matt?
Awful.

[laughter]
You met them right?  Terrible people.

Yeah they both seem like really bad guys.
Oh, what a drag, and they’re so awful to look at, I mean it’s just the worst.  It’s great. And actually, you know, my relationship with Tim in particular, because Diana is his right-hand woman, you know, and when she grows up she wants to be Peter.  I mean he’s so good at his job and he’s so collected and he’s a brilliant man and that’s how Diana feels about him. And I kind of have that relationship with Tim, truth be told, I really, really respect him and I love working with him.  I feel like I can talk to him about anything, whether it be the work or my personal life, whatever.  Yeah, there’s a scene in the finale where he’s on a bench and I show up, it’s the first time you see Diana back.  And, you know, we just have this moment where we kind of look at each other and it’s like, “Oh it’s you.” “Yeah it’s you.”  You know and that’s kind of how it felt going, you know, coming back to the show, and that was our first scene.  So, yeah, I have a great relationship with Tim, and with both of them, but most of my stuff really is with Tim. But Matt’s great too.

[laughter] Tim had mentioned that Peter is very close or he really trusts Diana.
Yes.

There’s probably going to be a big fall-out there when it comes to [the box] or is there?
He does trust Diana.

Give us something.
I can’t, I’m not supposed to. You know, if I give the story away people might not watch.  But—I can’t say.  But he does trust Diana implicitly and she’s very involved.

It seems like you guys have so much fun on the set as, you know, I’ve heard on other interviews too.  Do you guys have to do take after take because you guys are laughing so much, does that ever happen?
You know what?  No, we’re really good at like pulling it together.  Like we’ll be laughing and all of that and then—Sharif actually had a melt-down the other day which was very unusual.  And I didn’t even hear the joke because they were like, they’re here and then I enter the scene.  So I didn’t even know what it was, but Sharif couldn’t stop laughing, he couldn’t stop laughing, it was hilarious.  But for the most part we kind of pull it together.  Matt loves to sing and he just makes up songs about the scene.  And he’s got a really great voice as well, so he’ll be like [humming] and like that’s always really difficult.  And at the end of the day you go home with these stupid songs in your head [laughs] which is pretty funny.

Do you find time to watch TV, are there any shows that you like?
Ha, I watch so much TV I’m out of control [laughs].  Right now I’m watching Friday Night Lights, back to back to back to back to back.  I started on the first season, I’m on season three, episode seven and last night I was on episode one when I first started viewing.  I even fit in an episode this morning, because Hulu’s going to knock-off the first episode of the fourth season on Sunday.  So I have to get to see, you know, because I just want to catch up.  I’m watching Glee in my room as we speak, [laughs] love Glee yeah, I’m a total Gleek.  What else do I watch?  I like The Good Wife a lot, that’s a great show.  What else do I watch?  Gosh I love CSI, OG, original Vegas.

Are there any shows that you watch that you want to be on, guest star?
Glee? Are you kidding?  But everybody says, “Can you sing?” and unfortunately the answer is “No” so I have no chance of being on Glee.  Oh that’s such a great show.

Matt should be on the show too.
Oh, he’d be great on that show, I mean he has such a good voice.

You could be part of Sue’s story than you wouldn’t have to sing.
There you go, yeah. I’m just trying to think what other shows I’d love to be on.  I’d love to be on True Blood, I can’t wait for Sunday.

So are you into other vampire genres?
You know I do, of course, like Twilight I do, I do.

Team Edward or Jacob?
Edward, oh yeah, no, Jacob’s too serious.

What is it like for you when you go back home. Are the paparazzi all over you back in Manchester?
Oh no, no they’re more interested in, I don’t know Lily Allan or whatever.  No I’m not paparazzi followed because I don’t really, you know, “Hi, I stay in and watch Glee.”  It’s really, there’s no spice there at all. [laughs] No, they don’t bother me.  But people, you know, Lost was, I mean I’ve worked—I’ve been acting since I was 14 years old in England.  And then I came over here when I was like 25 or something when I did Black Knight.  But Lost really changed things around, like I can’t, a day doesn’t go by where somebody doesn’t come up to me.  Not necessarily about Lost, but in terms of visibility like people tend to, seem to know who I am now.  Like and it was Lost I think that changed that.

You mean they don’t know you from Black Knight?

So, you know, as of episode five, Diana’s still there. Have they given you any notice that you will be on for awhile or off for awhile?
Oh I’m here, I’m in every episode, I’m here to stay. I ain’t going anywhere [laughs].

[laughter] And fashion as we’ve sort of touched on kind of before, plays such a crucial role in the show and you seem to really enjoy fashion.  Do you have a favorite designer you want to show?
Oh I have this gorgeous, gorgeous Alberta Ferretti Philosophy top that I wear. That’s how she’s, like, I’ve got great suits. I’m wearing a lot of Joseph and a lot of Dolce and Gabbana.  But the tops, she has me really fab, so I’m wearing [indiscernible] I’m wearing Prada, all kinds of clothes FBI agents—they’re not wearing.

Is that why you’re stealing music boxes?
Yeah exactly, just to form the outfit, yeah.  It’s funny actually, we had a scene where you see Diana’s closet and there were all these clothes that had been set that were nothing to do with Diana.  And I was like, “You know what?  We might want to get a bit of Prada in there.”  No honestly, because these clothes just did not look like Diana’s wardrobe at all, because she has a great closet.

Here’s the question, does the music box play Journey when you open it up?
No, no come on.  You know it plays, “I like big butts and I cannot lie.”

Maybe those are all her disguises though.
You never know, never know.

Do you get to keep any of the clothes?
We’ll see we haven’t gotten to the end of the season yet.

Well that’s what this undercover episode is that, are we going to be seeing more of Marsha Thomason then we’ve ever seen in any role before?
[laughs] No.

White Collar airs on Tuesday night at 10 pm on the USA Network.

So I understand you had the chance to go to Langley to help research this role.  What type of prep have they given you in order to really embody this character?
Well we started, for the pilot, I started training four weeks before I even came to the pilot.  And then we did, I think it was four more weeks of training pre the beginning of shooting, and Doug Liman was cutting Fair Game at that point.  So he had, because of that and because of his previous projects, he has contacts, personal contacts at Langley.  And so all I had to do was ask and he was like, “Yeah.”  It was cool, like I went and I met agents who are my age who work in the field, women, and got to talk to them.  Not just about—the funny thing is the things that they can’t talk about aren’t really the things that I, you know, I don’t need to know where your stationed or what you’re doing.  But my questions were more like, “What kind of car do you drive?  Does your boyfriend know what you do? Do your parents?”  You know what I mean?  There was a lot of personal stuff that they actually could talk about, even though I’m sure they didn’t give me their real names, that kind of stuff was really useful.  And because this show is like kind of a humanist approach to the CIA, just sort of seeing that it’s not a fancy car, it’s like a pretty cheap economy car [laughs].  Because you’re on a government salary, you know what I mean?  And one woman that I talked to who’s an officer, her specialty is Anbar Province and I said, “Oh well have you ever…” she was my age, and I said, “Have you ever briefed the President?”  And she said, “Yeah I briefed Bush three times.” And I was like, “Whoa, what did you wear?” [laughs].  Because like well, you know, I don’t know [laughs].  And she said, “Well I bought a new suit every time because I was so nervous I didn’t want there to be anything,” you know like.  And I said, “Oh my God that’s so expensive,” you know, like when you do budget wardrobe the suits are really expensive.  And I was like, “What kind of suit?” and she was like, “Ann Taylor” and I was like, “Right, right.”  Because you’re a normal person, you know what I mean, you’re not wearing like the Gucci suit to brief the President.  So it was really, helped to kind of fill out the real, to make it less James Bond, you know what I mean?  Although we do take sort of a little leeway with the fashion.

I wondered if you could talk a little bit more about the time you spent with Valerie Plame and what insights she gave you that you took to Annie.
Valerie Plame was our consultant on the pilot, which was incredible to have her insight, because since she’s no longer in the CIA and because of the way she left it, she is more willing to share things than someone who’s from the agency can’t really talk about it.  Also, just being on the ground, she can walk through the set of the CIA.  We were shooting a scene that had extras, there’s an induction ceremony situation, and there were extras that came in to the CIA and in their wardrobe they had purses, but that’s impossible because you can’t carry anything in or out of the CIA, so having Valerie around to continually say well, these are the kinds of ID cards.  And another thing was the CIA is a giant office, like any other office, and so there are reams and reams of paper.  They’re can’t be regular trash in the CIA because obviously that paper is carrying all kinds of top secret documents, and it’s not just shredded at the CIA, it’s all burn bagged.  So then all the trash cans were taken out and all the burn bags were brought in so everyone has burn bags under their desk.  It was just again and again her attention to detail that was really, really helpful.

So can you talk about what originally attracted you to the role and how it’s been playing such a powerful lead female character for you?
I’d been doing a play for almost a year, Neil Labute’s new play, Reasons to be Pretty.  And because of the sort of actor de facto strike and then the real writers strike, there had just been kind of a real slow down in film and scripts coming out.  And so when this came up, although I hadn’t really considered doing television before, because it was a feminine heroine, that really attracted me to it, you know what I mean?  Not just playing like the girlfriend of the sidekick or the person who’s always being rescued.  It’s just, there’s nothing to do in those roles and they get pretty boring.  And then when I met the creators, Matt and Chris, we really got along.  I don’t know if you guys have got—they’re in LA so.  They’re really nice guys, and they’re really confident in who they are, like they don’t, they know what is cool but they don’t have to act cool all the time.  And I really appreciate that in a writer, you know what I mean?  So we get along really well and that made me feel good about, you know, starting a whole world together.

One of the lines in the pilot episode that interested me is, Auggie’s character, he says didn’t think that your character was the right type for the CIA.  And when you basically said you’d been burned in a relationship and this and that, is that just—makes you perfect for the role, the fact that you want to protect yourself and not get involved.  Is that the type they presented you with at Langley or where did that come from?
Well, I’m not sure where the inspiration for that, but I know what you’re talking about, that kind of CIA recruiting type.  And I think that, there’s two things that they said at Langley. One is, especially since 9-11 they’ve been recruiting in a much kind of broader profile, because they wanted more diversity of age and background, because what they’re doing just requires, you know, a different kind of blending in.  In fact, one of the women that I saw when I was there was in her 90s and she had the kind of key like an officer has, I mean they call agents officers there.  And I said to the officer that I was with, “That lady’s a spy?” and he said, “Yeah she’s a Russian language expert.  And because of her age she understands all the different, like, nuances of the different dialects in Russian and so what that signifies.”  And I was like, I called my grandma, I was like, “Dude, like you could work here,” [laughs] you know.  But I think also a kind of, that slightly closed but interested in someone else personality, you know what I mean, that you keep your cards close to your vest.  The people that I met when I was there they like, tell a great joke, you know what I mean?  They’re really allowed to laugh, it’s like when they’re laughing at something, are easy to laugh.  It’s like people that you would want to sit next to at a bar, but when you got up from the bar they didn’t really tell you anything about themselves even though you were talking the whole time.  And I found that consistently with the people, they were all sort of pretty—but not like smashingly good-looking.  You were just like, “Oh they seem so…” you know easy to love but also easy to kind of forget, you know.  And so, that was the type that I was seeing when I was there.

How do you, I noticed we saw one episode that you portrayed at least three different personalities, personae.  How do you, how were you able to switch, I’ll say switch roles, because the character Annie is playing different roles?
Well I think a lot of it, especially now that we’re up and running at speed with show, a lot of it has to do with the prep with hair, makeup, my dialect coach, wardrobe.  We’re trying really hard to differentiate the different people, so that especially if you’re tuning into the show late you kind of get why would I have a different name or what’s going on or why am I switching languages.  Like we just did a scene in Portuguese here in the last, on the set, and so it requires kind of a team of people to keep it all straight.  Because since I’ve never done TV before, I also haven’t ever shot this fast. And so when you’re trying to do, you know, ten pages in a day, you never do that on a film [laughs].  And so as I’m trying to keep everybody separate, the language differences actually help.  Because I remember, like, well if I’m speaking Portuguese then I’m definitely this person, you know.  But I think the creative departments are helping me clarify all that.

So for you it’s the process from taking off one personality and then starting to apply the next one, it’s a process for you that gets you there?
Yeah, it’s the creative process of building that person so that by the time we’re on the day, I know it’s like a language, a shoe, you know what I mean?  There’s certain components that help you key in quickly.

In the pilot we saw a lot of different sides to Annie, the vulnerable side, the tough side, and is there a lot about her that we don’t even know yet?
There’s a lot about her that you don’t even know yet.  Annie’s whole family life and also what happened in her relationship is still to unfold.  And actually going back to talking about Valerie for a second, Valerie was also really generous with me about emotionally the toll that it takes keeping all those secrets from your family and your friends.  And I think that her personal story that she told me was also very helpful in kind of folding into Annie’s secret and how that plays out in her relationship with her sister and her family.  So as Annie weaves the lie that she has to tell so many people, the secrets start overlapping and overlapping, and it just gets very complicated.

We talked with Chris earlier and he talked a lot about training to do the blind scenes.  In the scenes where you have to lead him, did you have to take training for that?
Yeah, he’s been working a lot with, I’m sure he told you, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind.  And so one of his teachers has come to set a couple of times. He was training me himself and then one of his teachers also came.  And we did, once we got into that main set of the CIA, the DPD and stuff, we worked on a lot of things.  Just about, in a workplace environment where you’re there all the time, how that differs from a new environment.  Because in the pilot he and I are out on location together and so that requires much more leading, obviously, because he’s not familiar with the surroundings.  It was funny we were walking through with her, we were doing something else but we were going to work on stairs, because there’s a certain way to lead for stairs.  It’s sort of like dance, you know, like how the man leads in certain dances, it’s kind of that way with blind leading.  Is that there’s certain cues that you give, you know, “We’re about to up a set of stairs.”  Or, and one guy told Chris, when he’s with his friends who are sighted, they’ll like, if something’s happening that’s off, they’ll make an X on his back.  So like as though, if you could see you would know, like, “Oh God here it comes,” you know what I mean?  But since they can’t, they even have signals to each other about, like, so we’re looking for a place so I can do it to Chris when our boss is coming and stuff like that.  But we were going through the DPD, there was no brail on the elevator numbers when we crossed through that elevator bank.  And she was like “This isn’t to code” like, you know what I mean? She’s so aware of the handicapped codes that are required.  So it was cool to have her around, so yeah, I’ve been doing training with him.

My question is about the languages, obviously you’re supposed to be a guru at languages, so how hard has it been to learn the different languages?  Or were you already pretty fluent, or not fluent but able to pick up languages?
I’m pretty good with picking up languages because I’m good at accents.  But some languages I have no experience with, like when we, in the pilot we’re in Sri Lanka and so we’re speaking Sinhalese.  And that has a sound that I’m not used to at all, you know, like in foreign films and stuff, you hear a lot of the same kind of language, even like Korean, Chinese, blah-blah.  But like, Sinhalese? That doesn’t come—so those ones require a little more work.  And now we have a dialect coach who works with us, and we, because we’re in Toronto, it’s one of my favorite little facts about Toronto, it’s the most diverse city in North America.  So, so far, we’ve been able to find a native speaker of every language we’ve done here in town.  So we do recordings of native speakers that we can then break down and use.  So that, just so that there’s very, so it doesn’t sound like a language teaching tape, you know it can get too perfect and then it sounds fake.  You want to be kind of, we’ll fuck up, because that’s how we talk.  You know what I mean that you’re not that consistent –

Annie is the epitome of girl power, and you don’t even use a gun. It’s like, you’re like a bad-ass in high heels. So I wanted to know first, like, what kind of physical training you’re doing, and second how hard is it to do in a pair of Louboutins?
Okay it’s so hard to do in a pair of Louboutins, but so worth it.  I did a scene, I think it’s in 105, where I repel down an elevator shaft with this really hot guy, in the Louboutins.  And I was like, “This is like my favorite job ever” [laughs].  There are days too where like I’m going like through like, there’s like a car accident, and I’ll take off the shoes and, like, carry them into the car accident.  And then put my shoes on and be like, “Okay go, hit us!”  You know what I mean, like I’m protecting them.

It’s kind of like your partner in crime.
I know I love them more—I take better care of them, I’ve got bruises all over me but I’m like, “Here’s the shoes [inaudible]” [laughs].  It’s really fun. It does require a lot of training.  We’re doing, because of Doug and the Bourne Identity, you know, Jason Bourne rarely uses a gun too, and I think it makes for a smarter character.  It’s fun to watch someone like get out of, you know, if you just blow everybody away it makes for a shorter show [laughs].  But, and CIA isn’t supposed to carry weapons when they’re on US soil. So it’s true to life in some ways.  We’ve been, the fight style that we’re working with mostly is Krav-Maga, because that’s such a tight hand-to-hand street combat, it’s what the Israeli army uses for their street combat.  And then for me, when I’m doing fighting, there’s also Win Chun with it, which was created for nuns during the samurai period and it’s mostly deflection but to use as a man’s coming at you.  Because the idea is that, like, if a man were to hit a woman, one punch—Win Chun is called the glass body technique, because one punch, you’re kind of history, you know what I mean?  You’re not really—if it’s real you’re not going to make it.  So how do use his oncoming energy to deflect and move him past you and then what hit can you get in as he’s moving past.  So the combination of Win Chun and Krav-Maga are the styles I’ll be working with.  It’s hard. [laughs] I’m tired.

I’m curious to know kind of about the episode to episode balance between whatever mission or case you’re working on and home life or your life otherwise, outside of the agency.
We’re trying to keep it sort of balanced between her real life and her work life.  Just so that you, so she seems like a, you keep being reminded that she’s a real person with concerns at home and her sister’s annoying and, like, it’s too loud in the morning and the coffee and the stuff.  Because real people do bring all that to work, you know.  Most episodes, like I said, the long arcs of the show are good, and so the episodes do tie together.  I think there’s only one episode that we did that they said, the writers were like, “This is the only evergreen episode.” And I was like, “I don’t know what that means.”  But it means like you can work out of sequence, you know what I mean?  So, yeah, we’re trying to keep it balanced between the home life and the work life.

Is Danielle ever going to find out what you actually do?
It’s going to get, like, it’s going to get way more complicated than her just finding out what I do.  Yeah, in fact I know more about what she doesn’t know, and then will know.  Like Annie Dudek is so, like, sweet and pretty and she’s like making cereal and I’m like, “You’re whole world’s about to explode girl.” You know what I mean?  Like, she is so nice, sometimes I feel bad that I know more about what’s going to happen to her, but it’s sort of exciting.  It’s not just going to be, like, “I work for the CIA,” let’s put it that way.

Can you talk a bit about Annie’s relationship with Joan?  Is she a mean boss, is she mental?
Joan is a fucking bitch [laughs].

[laughter]
I mean like, it gets so much worse, Joan, she said this, she did this scene with me the other day when we were like being debriefed.  And it’s just like, Joan, I mean I think now I sort of realize that Joan was a great agent in the field in her own right.  And now that she’s higher up and a bit pinned-in in her office, maybe there’s a little bit of envy there with what Annie does, but Annie certainly doesn’t have that.  If anything like the X on the back symbol that I give to Auggie is always when Joan walks in.  Like Joan is just….and she always gets to wear a dress, it’s so annoying.  Yeah, it’s pretty difficult with Joan. And it, I like having, I mean, I like that it’s not all a bowl of cherries in there, you know what I mean?  I mean, obviously her job would be very high stress and like she’s doesn’t have time to baby me or walk me through.  And I don’t know that she knows that I’m bait, because I don’t think Arthur told her. And so I think she’s still annoyed, like why is this girl even in, like I don’t have the training or, like I don’t have the level of training that I should even be in her office.  So I’m sure I’m kind, it’s kind of annoying to her that I’m even there, like I can understand if I step out of it, but nah, I really don’t like her [laughs].

You’ve been there, you’ve talked to the officers [in the CIA] and whatnot, do you think that it’s, we’re getting sort of an actual true picture of what the organization is about, versus the sort of the more probably fantastic nature of this villain?
Yeah, I mean I think that the villain portrayal is probably fantastical, although I’m sure there’s truth in it.  And the people, you know the people that I was allowed to meet with, I’m sure they’re not going to let me meet with the people who are disgruntled [laughs].  You know, although Valerie Plame Wilson was our advisor on the pilot, and so I did get a really good sort of mirror view from her, you know.  But one thing that somebody said when I was there that was really interesting, it was the woman who briefed Bush.  I said, “Oh, like how did you feel about that, you know, are you pro-Bush or how do you feel about Obama being in?  Like do you want to brief Obama?”  And she said, “You know, for me it’s not about who the President is, like I work at the pleasure of the President.” Like full stop, it’s not to President Bush or President Obama.  And she said, “I’m in this because I really believe in the ideals of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”  And so for her it’s such a wider ideal that she’s fighting for, and to me that was something I could really get behind and understand.  And is much more idealistic then the things that you see in those kind of villain movies.  But that sort of perspective helped me in some ways, get behind the show, because it’s like these are people who believe in sort of ideals that I share.  And so it’s easier to sort of think, like, “Oh yeah, I can see why you would risk your life, you know, for that.”

So how do you see Annie’s relationship with Auggie kind of developing over the rest of the season?
Yeah, I mean, I think as the season starts he becomes a real confidant and now that we’re getting into mid season that may change.  You know, Auggie has a really secret past as well that he alludes to in the pilot, you know, he said he was at special forces.  And then he doesn’t say anything about that for a long time and now that story is starting to break about his unit and what his work there was, and that’s going to kind of un-end our foundation.  So I don’t know how it’s going to go now, it will seem good for awhile. Now I don’t know if it’s good anymore [laughs].

So, Hilarie [Burton, guest starring on the episode we saw taping] just told us that you were one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Now, there’s no way I can live up to that. But I paid her actually, before I came in here, so I guess I’ll have to cough it up now. That’s very sweet of her, and I think she’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World herself.

We had to start out believing that Neal really loved Kate and this whole thing. But as the time went on, and now with her dead, it turns into more of like, is she a symbol, is she a mystery? Because it seems a little bit more of an obsession that a love now?
Well, what I always loved about the character is that his romantic life is where he got sloppy. It’s sort of his tragic flaw, Achilles heel. So, I truly believe, I do think Neal is a little bit obsessive-compulsive in a lot of ways. I think that’s one of the benefits and probably drawbacks of being as intelligent as he is. I think he probably over thinks a lot of things. But yeah, she was definitely an obsession, but I think in his heart he truly believed that she was the one for him. And whether it’s rational or not at a certain point, is sort of irrelevant for him. So, yeah, I think in his heart and his mind it’s love.

And we talked about this with Peter, but one of the overarching themes of last season and this coming season seems to be one of trust.
Yeah.

Neal told Peter that he didn’t want to run anymore. In your mind, do you think if he would have stayed with Peter? Do you think that that trust relationship is going to continue to develop?
Well, it’s always been my hope for the character that he’d never just jump over to the other side of the moral spectrum. I hope he always stays in the gray area and loves it and enjoys it and he’s always testing his boundaries with Peter. But yeah, trust is really one of, if not the central theme of the show. It plays into every scene in all of the different characters, and when I’m approaching the work, whether it is with Kate, you know, at a certain point it’s like how much could I trust her last year? My trust for her came into question. My trust for Peter came into question. My trust for Mozzie came into question. So, it’s something that sort of shows its face a lot on the show in all the different relationships, and I hope it continues to be a central theme. Even with the introduction of Hilary’s character, immediately we have trust issues. So, I love it. It’s fun to play because there’s a surreptitious quality to it that as an actor is fun to play. You’ve got things to hide, and things are never—it’s like a good poker game. It’s never, you can’t ever take it at face value. There are always things going on underneath, and as an actor that’s really fun to play.

You play such a brilliant criminal mind, do you ever when you’re in a bank or something, does Neal kind of pop out and you know, I could take this place?
Well, you know, one of the real bonuses we have this season is that I now have an advisor, a con artist who advises me on set on a lot of things. So, I am getting a little bit more confident with my pick-pocketing skills, and I can actually pick a lock now. So, watch out. But as far as breaking into a bank, I’m not going to try to go there, because the main difference between me and Neal Caffrey is my ass will get caught.

Does any part of you wish that you were a smidgen less attractive?
You all need to come in here and see me before I go through hair and makeup, and then we can revisit this conversation. I don’t, to be honest with you, I mean, that’s sort of an impossible question to answer. That’s [I’m an] asshole on either front or completely fake. I don’t think about it. I mean, I think as human beings we have a tendency to see some of our drawbacks more than we see our benefits. So, I don’t ever, I’ve never really thought of myself as anything special in that regard. So, thank you for that question. It’s brightening my day a little bit, but I don’t really know how to answer it.

This role has kind of made you, I don’t know, has sort of made you a sex symbol. How has that very specific kind of spotlight changed your life and your career? Do you have women coming up to you on the street?
It hasn’t—in terms of me and my life, it hasn’t changed anything really. I mean, I still live my life the same way I always have, but I—what’s important I think as an artist, is you’re always hoping that the characters you’re playing or the stories you’re telling are relating to people in some way. And there has been a certain response that people have had to the character that if they—I love it when people come up on the street and say something or stop me or talk about the character or me and Peter or whatever the dynamic is of me and Julian. So, you know, for me to say, you know, I’m not going to complain about that. Like I think it’s great and, you know, I think you’re always hoping that people are responding to the stories you’re telling. So, there’s definitely been a change that way, and I welcome it with open arms.

We’ve seen Neal do the one painting and sculpting. I was just curious if you have any experience with that or you were interested in art history before playing Neal?
I have a Master’s in art history.

Okay.
No. No. Thank you. Thanks. I appreciate that. [Believing him] Thank you. Thanks. I mean, I think I have sort of a layman’s understanding of art and a general appreciation going to the museums and visiting places around town in New York and stuff like that, but outside of that I wouldn’t say that I have any level of expertise and—my lord, if I had to sculpt the things that it looks like Neal sculpted on there, we’d be in real trouble. It’d be like an episode of Sesame Street. So, I have, you know, I’m always kind of working on the fly. We have people who are very skilled usually, with whatever slight of hand or trickery I’m doing or sculpting or artistic endeavor. We always have somebody there who knows what they’re doing and can sort of show me. And I always try to get to set a little bit early that day and figure our, you know, okay, well, show me what your technique is like when you are sculpting or when you’re brushing, or what part of the painting would you be working on right now? Or if we’re in the finishing stages of this sculpture, what tool would you be using, and how would you be using it? Fortunately, we’ve had people who know a lot more than I do there to help me out.

How important is it for you to actually be able to do this show in New York?
I don’t think it could take place anywhere else.  No, I don’t think it could take place anywhere else. I think New York is really a central character in the show. And what I love about the show is, you see a lot of shows, you see a lot of programs that shoot here, and they look down on the city and at the sort of dirty, grimy corners of SVU or what—I don‘t want to name any specific shows, but anything, you know, they position New York as a very gritty place. And what I love about our show is that it looks up on New York and you see the tops of buildings. You see the big buildings in the background and it’s a very optimistic sort of blue skies version of New York City. And we have an amazing director of photography. It’s kind of a love letter to the city the way he shoots it. So, I don’t think it could take place anywhere else. I think so many things, whether it’s the way Neal dresses, I mean, my god, if we shot that in like, you know, somewhere in Middle America, people would be like, “Well, you look like a clown.” But for some reason, in New York when you’re walking down the street where everybody’s there to make a statement, it works. So, the pace, the rhythms, the kind of esthetics, it’s all really dependent on the city. So, I’m still pinching myself that we get to work here and get to have all the amazing indignant New Yorkers who curse us out when we shoot in front of their building. I love moments like that, actually. I truly do.

There was a line in the Season Finale that kind of stuck with me last season where Peter said to Neal, “I gave you a shot at a better life,” and Neal said, “That’s not the life I want.”Are we sort of going to be led to believe that Neal is sort of playing Peter?
Well, I don’t want to go so far as to say whether or not he’s playing him, but I think, you know, like we talked about, the trust issues on the show, nothing can ever be taken at face value. And I think, like any human being, Neal vacillates from time to time. And I’m not going to say he flip-flops, but with him I think, there’s always, there is always, the end is always in mind when anything is, in any situation the end is always in mind, the end result is always in mind. So, that’s as sort of as specific as I can be about that. But one of the things I love about the characters that drew me in from the pilot is that even though they’re contentious and they’re very different people, there are things about Peter that Neal really respects and wants. Peter has the white picket fence. He’s got the wife and the yellow lab and the house. And in his heart of hearts, I think Neal really wants that, but the question is I don’t think he ever really believes that he can have it. So, I think, you know, there’s a part of him that does want that, but whether or not he’s ever going to be able to change his ways enough to go about getting it, is sort of yet to be seen.

Did you do any research into actual art forgers to develop the character? If so, were there any forgers that you identified with?
Well, my research was more on con artistry in general, because I knew that, because it was a television series, it was going to draw on a lot of different types of—I knew I was going to be doing art forgery in one episode, pick-pocketing somebody in the next episode, a card game in the next episode, so I couldn’t just focus on art forgery. I read a book by Kevin Milnik called the Art of Deception that was really helpful, especially in sort of modern day sleight of hand and just in terms of social engineering and stuff like that. And then I read Catch Me if You Can by Frank Avondale, which—my intent was to really just sort of get into the mindset of why Neal became one and what the game was really about, in terms of being a con artist. So, once I understood that, I could apply it to any situation, whether it was art forgery or picking someone’s pocket or convincing somebody to do something illegal, or whatever it was. The more important thing for me was to get to the mindset of a con artist so that I could apply it to any given situation.

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 pm to USA Network for the 2nd season premiere of White Collar.

White Collar returns with a bang tomorrow night on USA Network. It quickly became one of my favorite dramas last season with its quick wit, interesting cases and um, have you seen Matt Bomer?! One of the lucky ones who gets to work very closely along side Bomer is the extremely talented (and lovely) Tim DeKay. He plays Peter Burke, the only FBI Agent who was ever successful in catching former con-artist Neal Caffrey (Bomer). While Peter is sort of the yin to Neal’s yang, he clearly enjoys his new found parternship, trust and friendship they have formed. Combine all this with drama and mystery, and it keeps me tuning in and on the edge of my seat week after week. I recently had the chance to visit the set of White Collar, where we toured the FBI and the homes of all of the characters. Tim DeKay chatted with us about Peter’s relationship with Neal, the gorgeous locations they have filmed at around New York City and what he hopes is coming up for his character. 

Your banter with Neal is awesome.  How did you guys establish that relationship in the first place?

I don’t know we just, it goes back to—I feel like some of you have heard this already.  It goes back to when he had been already cast in the role.  And then I, there was a chemistry read it was called, where, and I think there were, you know, they’d seen a lot of people.  And then I was shooting New Adventures of Old Christine at the time.  And they called me in to do a chemistry read with him, and I saw quite a few other people there that were very recognizable, and it concerned me. But I went in and we just started reading and there was an immediate trust between the two of us, that it would be—I liken this to sports.  In that, if he has the ball he throws it to me, I have the ball I throw it back.  And the best time is when the ball is between us and neither one of us really have it so it’s going back and forth like that.

How much of that is improv or is scripted?

I couldn’t give you a percentage, but I’ll attempt it, maybe 80 percent is scripted.  Most of the improv you’ll see is at the end of a scene.  Where the writer has written an ending to it, the scene closes and then he and I will kind of riff after that and they’ll keep it rolling, keep the cameras rolling until ad nauseum.

When did you think that the relationship between Neal and Peter changed between the convict and the person who caught him, to an actual friendship?

For me, it was when he was, it was an episode called Vital Signs.  And there was a time where, in order to get Neal out of that clinic—he was drugged at the time—in order to get him out, Peter had to one, go in there and get him and there was a moment where Peter had to make the decision to steal the surveillance tapes from that clinic.  And that was a moment where Peter, you could say, crossed the line and did something illegally, and it was simply for him, it was for Neal and no other reason other that.

And I think, you know, you talked about it a little bit but trust has been sort of an overarching theme through season one.  And it seems like it’s going to continue through season two, so how does that continue to play out as the season continues?

It’s great because you have, you saw the first episode so I guess we can talk about that. Jeff has set up this great duality, where I’m looking into something concerning the accident, Neal is looking into something concerning the accident, and neither one of us can tell each other what we’re doing.  And yet we’re closer because of what we said to each other prior to the accident.  So, it’s similar to other relationships that we have, that the closer you get in some ways, because you get closer if you don’t disclose something in that close relationship, then the trust lessens in a way, and it becomes compartmentalized.  I still think all that’s great, but I think perhaps the greater value of Neal and Peter is just the two of them—bickering is not quite the right word.  But, I don’t know what they do, when they’re in a stakeout.  I think that’s what’s, I enjoy that the most.

All the mystery surrounding the accident, is that something that’s going to play all season long or for a chunk of the season?

For parts of the season, in and out.  It won’t take, it won’t drive the season certainly, but it will, yeah, it will be part of the season.  Because again he’s, Jeff set up this thing where—now I can’t trust you with that.  Before it was I can’t trust because I know you want to get to Kate.  Now I can’t quite trust you because I know you’re going to dig into who had the plane blow up.

What about Peter’s relationship with the new female FBI agent, we kind of saw something at [that end]?

Diana.

Does he trust her?

Completely. Completely, yeah.  And I think you have to have that, story wise.  It’s the same thing with Peter, no matter what—it’s FBI, no matter what, in the end—and he said it a number of times to Neal, “I will get you, in the end I’ll win.”  You have to have that otherwise the world is just simply chaotic and there’s no foundation there.  But, yeah, he loves her.  Peter loves Diana and trusts her completely.  And it’s great that there’s no sexual tension whatsoever.  So you’ll see in other episodes where she can, she dresses up to go undercover for these things and Peter’s just, “Wow, hey you look great.  Alright now what we’re going to need you to do is going to go up the stairs and around—“  That’s fun.

How far into the season are you, do you know where all of this is going?

We’re shooting episode five right now.  So we have a rough idea of where it’s going but we don’t know.

How do you like being portrayed in one of the healthiest couples we’ve ever seen on TV?

It’s wonderful, it’s wonderful.  Because most of the relationships I’ve had on television have not been healthy.  So it’s real—or working on getting to be healthy.  It’s wonderful, it’s just great and it’s not healthy in a Leave it to Beaver way either.  It’s healthy in a very mature—what’s the word I want there?  They’re savvy, they’re both, they’ve got it going on, they’re a good couple to emulate.

Are we going to sense Tiffani Amber Thiessen’s absence at all, like is the wife going to go to a spa vacation or something?

There are some catering events in San Francisco that need to be taken care of, yeah.  Yeah you will. It’s fun, I mean everybody knows.  So it’s just fun to see, I think, how we handle it.  So there are a lot of telephone calls, yes.  I don’t think we Skype, we telephone call and we –

Did you want it written into the show at all, the pregnancy?  Is there any chance that that could ever happen?

There was a little bit of talk, I didn’t want it, and I don’t—most of the writers and people didn’t want it and Jeff didn’t want it.  I just don’t think that works in this world right now.  Peter is a workaholic and if he’s out on a case and it’s late, he has a wife who understands that you’re a workaholic.  If they have a kid and he’s out on a case and it’s late and his life is in jeopardy, he becomes a bad dad.  So, and we didn’t want that and it’s not, a child right now is not in the White Collar world.

Maybe season three?

[laughter]

Season 13.

[laughter]

In the episode we watched we saw Mozzie and your new relationship.  Is that going to continue as the season goes on as well?

Yeah, that’s a dance we’re going to have to be aware of.  Because, you know, in the first season Mozzie was in the house a couple times and helped us out.  And I thanked him, and I help him out every so often.  But there is a distance that we keep, and always will keep.  He will always call me suit, I’ll always call him Mozzie or [Havisham] and that will, and I will help him out.  And I don’t think he’s a bad guy, it’s just he’s not in Peter’s world and Peter’s not in his.  And I think it’s good to keep that distance so that Neal can always go to Mozzie and say, “Help me on this.”  And I can say in cases, “And don’t go to any friends on this one.”

The scene where Peter and Neal are breaking into the bank to catch the architect.  There was a gleeful look on your character’s face like he was really kind of interested in this alternative lifestyle of crime. I was wondering if that might be kind of an interesting little character where he becomes more like Neal and Neal becomes more like him, kind of like a swapping.
There’s been talk of, like, kind of swapping characters for an episode, you know, just to say, “Peter you’ve got to go undercover for this one.”  Look, Peter loves the chase, he loves it.  So to break in—that’s a perfect world for Peter when they broke into the bank.  Because he got to go to that side of the law, in the right way, he got to do it.  And so it was perfect, it was fun, it was cops and robbers. But he was kind of playing the robber—yeah he loved it, he loved it.

Do you feel that the show’s formula has been tweaked at all for season two?  Were there any lessons learned from season one, is there a focus on, are we doing a little bit more of one thing a little bit less of anything?

That’s a very good question, I don’t think so.  I’m sure Jeff Eastin could answer that better than I can.  No, you know –

Feels like the exact same show to you?

For the most part it does, it does.  I think, you know, that’s a dance for executives.  I keep saying dance.  But that’s something for executives to think about.  Because you want it, you know, I can’t dance, but you want, you have to dance with who took you to the prom.

Are you working on a musical episode now is that why?

No, [I don’t know], something [laughs].  But you’ve got to be aware of that, you’ve got to make sure it’s—don’t change anything. If it’s not broke don’t fix it.  And yet, grow to a degree.

How involved are you in the writing process?

Not at all, not at all.  I can pitch certain scenes and episode that I think would be fun.  And, but that’s all it is, “Oh you know what’d be cool?  Is if Peter and Neal got locked in an elevator for half the episode or a whole episode.”  You know, or—that’s it.

Do you have any ambitions to do eventually write episodes or is it too early in the series?

I can’t, I can’t. I have tried.  I have tried on many occasion to write an episode, to write movies and I just—once the script is there then I can say, “Ah,” I can be a dramaturge and say, “No this would be better here because the event would allow that [indiscernible] happened later,” and all this.  That I can do, I can analyze a script, but I can’t begin one.

I think it’d be great if—I heard you guys do a rendition of Carry on My Wayward Son.  You were beautiful, it was a beautiful rendition.

Really?

[Has that[ inspired you guys at all to maybe sing on an episode?

Yes, Neal, yes Neal and Peter are going to break a huge international karaoke ring.

[laughter]

[laughs] No, that would be fun though, something where–[you used the word] Neal says, “Peter we’ve got to go up, we’ve got to sing now or else…” you know.

People still talk about you and Matt singing from the web-chat that we did [in California].
Right maybe that’s where it was.

That’s where I got it from.

Yeah, he can sing. I just do the melody and he does all the harmony.

[laughter] You guys always look like you’re having a lot of fun.

We are, yeah. Yeah we are, we do have fun.

Are you going to yuk it up especially for us?

We will, we will, we have canes and top hats.

And dancing?

And dancing, there you go.  No we do have fun. I think that’s part of the one of the differences in this show than in another show, is there is a levity to it all.  And I think that we have to, you’ll see we’ll be very serious about it.  I had this great director once tell me that, he says, “If, in theatre, if the atmosphere is very serious while doing a comedy it will be a funny play.  And if the atmosphere is very funny while doing a serious play it will be a good play.”  And I think there’s something about the seriousness of comedy where, “All right, is it funnier if I first grab it and then tell you the line or leave it there?”  Because it’s so—comedy can almost be mathematical at times.  But this is a different kind of comedy, it’s not a sitcom comedy, it’s much—I think it’s a smarter comedy. It’s quicker.  And we don’t want anybody to guffaw, we just want someone to get a kick out of it, you know what I mean?  So because of that we can keep it, keep the levity of the environment on the set.

It’s actually kind of odd, because every time I interview drama people they’re always surprisingly funny, and comedians are always not.

Comedians are messes, they’re just yeah, I mean think about it.  Think about going up on stage and just, you know, dropping your pants.  And that’s the relationship you have with the audience, like, I’m going to do—and we all know the agenda.  The agenda is to be funny. A comedian has nothing else other than that.  And we as an audience know that that’s our responsibility too, we’re responsible.  So there’s this—everybody feels a little responsible when a comedian comes on stage. That’s a horror!  And to want to do that, I think that’s crazy. I think that’s crazy.

What are you hoping is coming ahead for Peter this season?

Just more fun chases, and to—and I love that Peter is involved with Music Box.  He’s got this—last season Peter was affected personally and his conception of the FBI has changed to a degree.  They, you know, they bugged his home, they got into his personal world, and that rocked him. Because he’s not used to, you know, he’s always been a bureau guy, he’s always, you know, what am I saying?  He’s, there’s a phrase when you stick with a team or you carry the flag or something.

It’s a team player?

Yeah, there’s another one.  Well you guys know what I mean.  So. But that’s what he always has been. And once Fowler and company changed that and told him that, “No there are bad people in the bureau, and extremely bad people in the bureau.”  That just angered him greatly, greatly.

Do you think it’s because he sees things in black and white a lot of the time?

I think so, I think he believes that—there’s a pursuit of goodness there for him and that the bureau does that as well.  So that there’s a case now where, the episode we’re working on, where somebody has stolen something and the woman doesn’t have any priors and it’s a circumstantial theft.  And Peter’s whole—toe the line, he toes the line.  And Peter’s whole philosophy behind it is, “I know, I know she didn’t, I know this is not her, what she normally does.” But regardless, she stole it.  And who knows where that money was going to go to, it’s not her money to take.  And so I think that’s—not so much black and white, but there was a reason this law was set up and it’s from a sense of good that I think—you know I had a director once who would always tell me, “Look for the love, go for the love.”  And I think if you go black and white, then it can become very rigid and there’s no love or heart in there.  But if you always look for goodness—and I think that’s what Peter looks for.

You have five time Emmy winner John Larroquette coming up as a guest star.

Already did, did a scene with him, did a scene with him and have another one with him tomorrow.  It’s just awesome just, it’s fantastic.  And he’s funny and he’s smart and just so privileged to have him.  We’ve had some incredible guest stars we’ve had Aiden Quinn on the show, Hilary Burton is wonderful.  We’re very lucky.

Is there someone that you personally would love to see on the show?

Oh, I’ve got a bunch of friends that I’d love to see on the show.

 [laughter]

I do, a bunch of friends that I went to school with that I think would be great.  Tim Matheson was on the show. We used him for the bad guy in this one episode, well it was the first one right?  And I always thought, oh shoot, I thought that was kind of a waste.  Because I would love to have him be, I don’t know, like Peter’s older brother or something like that, where he could have an [arch].

 And I know you talked a lot about how many amazing locations you’ve shot.  One of my favorites from the one that we watched was where you and Peter, Neal shot the golf ball off into the Hudson River.  What was that like? Can you say where you shot and that and what that was like there?

It was incredible.  I think it was somewhere on 23rd I believe, I don’t think it was a home, it was–

They have an actual driving range right down in that area.

They do, yeah. With nets, yes.  And if you fell short it wouldn’t hit the west side highway.

[laughter]

No, but there’s some of these places though, they’re not even, they just rent them out for parties or whatever, at crazy prices, crazy.  You know, and again, every time you think there can’t be another wealthy six story townhouse here in Manhattan where somebody lives.  And there is, there is, there just is.

They stay wealthy by renting them out to TV shows.

Well that is part of it.  No, it’s true though, that is I think, “Oh this is why this person has the money they do, is because this is the way they think.”

So do you have a wealthy townhouse in New York City [laughs]?

No [laughs] I have a very humble studio that I’m renting from Jonathon Tucker who played—I can’t, last year he was in, he was the guy who owned all those comic books in an episode.

So what has it been like for you shooting in New York in one of the few shows that’s out here?
It’s great.  I have—my family is back in LA, so I have to fly back on the weekends a lot.  But it’s super, I just love it, I love shooting in New York.  Because I was also, before working in New York, I was doing a lot of theatre and financially it wasn’t easy.  You know my wife and I were just married and were, you know, we’d cater every so often and it was a struggle.  So to be here now shooting this show that’s pretty popular and, you know, we get these great locations it’s a nice feeling.

Do you have a favorite White Collar crime from the first season that was in an episode?

No, not really, there were some for different reasons.  I enjoyed The Portrait, which was like the second episode.  I enjoyed that fun with the French girls in the hotel room.  There was an element of Some Like it Hot to that that I liked. I liked that.  I liked them all, I liked them all.

Do you think you have anything in common with your character?

Yeah, I do.  I think like Peter, I try to do what’s right and I think he’s an ex-jock, as I am.  He’s got a good marriage, so do I.  I’m certainly much more creative than him. But Peter’s got a sense of humor though.  Peter, he, like his sense of humor is back door which I think is like mine a bit too.  He’s happy watching sports like me, and I think he’s an avid reader, I think he reads a ton when he can.

Do you think he’ll ever stop reminding Neal that he’s a convict constantly [laughs]?

Oh no, not at all.  No. No. No. And he won’t, he’ll never stop reminding Neal that he’s caught him twice. No, he loves doing that yeah.

Do you think that’s why Neal respects Peter so much, enough to do all this is partly because this is the only person who’s beaten him?

I think so. I think they both respect each other because they both love the hunt, the pursuit, they both love it.  I also think that, and I’m sure that Matt could speak more to this, that Neal—there’s a big part of Neal that wishes he was like Peter, that wishes he had that.  And he can see it in Peter, and wishes he had that relationship and the picket fence.  And conversely, Peter wishes that he could have that freewheeling attitude sometimes that Neal has.  They both have each other, something that they like and yet at the same time envy.  Jeff Eastin has written, or set-up these two great complex characters, that their complexity works only against—best against each other.  Standing alone the complexity, is it’s more difficult to reveal it.  But once they are together that complexity comes out.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 9 pm to USA Network for the second season premiere of White Collar!

What attracted you to the role?
Well, let me tell you something funny, actually—

It’s so different from anything you’ve ever done.
Yeah, it’s a really different role.  But before we completely abandon Ugly Betty, somebody asked me something about, like why— somebody asked me, like, why do you think people will watch this show?  Or, why do you think it’s going to succeed?  And, really, what popped into my mind— and the more I thought about it, the more true it is— is that when I watched it, it really reminded me of watching the pilot of Ugly Betty. Obviously it’s a completely different show, it’s a completely different style of show.  But the reason that I say that is because I feel like you really fall in love with Annie Walker in a way that you really fell in love with Betty Suarez in the first episode, you know?  Like, you— this is somebody that you can trust, this is someone that you like, this is someone that you want to succeed and you don’t want to see hurt.  And I feel like there’s a real kind of bridge there between those two characters.  I mean, most of the similarities end there, but the feeling that I had, you know, about the main character of the show, was very similar. Now, for me, being attracted— like, you know, going back to auditioning for the part, it was a great challenge.  I mean, you know, the script was really good, there were great people involved with the show, obviously, with Doug and Dave and Gene.  And, you know, Chris and Matt I wasn’t familiar with before, but they wrote a great script. And the character is really interesting, you know?  He’s a blind guy who’s, you know, kind of the tech guy, but he also used to be special forces, you know?  I mean, he’s multi-dimensional and has a great sense of humor and some real physical challenges that have to be overcome and confronted, literally in every scene. You know, I can’t just pick up my cup of coffee and have a drink and then grab my pen and— you know, or get up and walk across the room.  I mean, there’s literally nothing that I can physically do that doesn’t require me thinking it through, you know?  How am I going to do that, you know?  I have to find my cup of coffee before I can [laughs] pick it up and drink it, you know?  I have to— everything has to be found before I can do anything with it, you know?  I have to— well, I mean, that’s a really good example. And it’s a big challenge, but it makes— for me, it has really kind of re-invigorated me to this kind of storytelling, you know?  Like, this kind of ensemble drama where— like, it’s completely new again, you know?  Because I’ve done a lot of shows and, you know, I’ve been the lead and I’ve been, like, the expository guy and I’ve been the best friend and I’ve been the— you know, all these different types of guys.  And now it’s all new.  So it’s really exciting.

Physically, how do you approach it? 
[laughs] Yeah, it is difficult.  It’s really tricky, on a couple different levels.  I mean, one, I stop paying attention to what I’m seeing.  I mean, obviously, I can’t not see, unless I close my eyes.  But it requires a— it’s a different kind of focus.  I just stop paying attention to what’s happening in front of my eyes, and start paying much more attention to what I’m hearing, you know?  Like, I can kind of look near people but I never really make eye contact. And the first couple of days were interesting too, technically, because we would shoot the master, you know, and I’d be talking to somebody like this.  And then we’d go to my close-up and the camera would be right fucking there, [laughs] you know?  And I’d be staring into the camera and it was like, “Damn it!” [laughs] you know? And so it required just some technical maneuvering like, okay, well where can I find my look that I’m not going to end up staring directly into the lens when we come around and— you know, and working with the director, Tim Matheson, on, you know, “Well, how does this look?”  It’s one thing, like, in person, and it’s another thing— on camera it’s not always the same, you know?  So, “How is this looking?  Is it working?  Is it not working?  What’s working well, what’s— ,” you know. In the research that I’ve been doing and the people that I’ve been meeting with, especially with the guys who— and women— who’ve lost their sight as adults, they’re really good at making eye contact.  It can be unnerving, because you think— you’re like, “Wait a minute, you can see me.” [laughs] You know?  And it’s only when you stop talking and move over six inches and they’re still looking where you were, that you realize, “Oh no, they just used to be able to see and they know what it is— they have physical memory of what it is to make eye contact.” But I found that for the purposes of the show, I can’t really be as good at it as I believe Auggie really would be, because on camera it is confusing.  So, you know, there’s kind of little variations like that, that you know, we’ve been getting better at as we go along, you know?  And a lot of this stuff I’m learning as I go. I mean, I started working with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind before we started shooting the pilot.  And when we came back to start on the series, I immediately called them up. And I’ve, you know, spent many days over there and met with four or five different people who have lost their sight and, you know, a couple guys who have been blind from birth, and seeing what those differences are and just learning a lot about it. And so I’m always learning new things that then I bring and, you know, put into the show.  Or, you know, call the writers and say, “Oh my God, you’ve got to use this at some point, because it’s just brilliant.”  Because, you know, people will be curious.  They’ll honestly be curious.  Like, how would someone do XYZ, you know? [laughs] Like, what would you do, you know? We had— Leslie McDonald is a woman at the Institute who I’ve been working with a lot and has been very helpful, you know.  We had her— I set it up so she could come out here and work with me and Piper on sighted lead, you know, so that— To make sure we were doing it right.  And it was— you know, we would do all kinds of stuff, and stuff that we may never use.  Like, how do you do sighted lead in a movie theatre, you know, like for a theatre seating?  Like, what do you do?  Who knows if we’ll ever use that, I don’t know why we would.  But it’s interesting to know, just in case. And it’s— like, there’s fun little details.  There was another guy who’s a blind criminal appeals attorney here in town, who is really excited and has been incredibly helpful and is so great, and sends me— every once in a while sends me an email with, “I thought of another thing,” you know?  And sends, like, a little detail, like public restrooms, you know.  He says you can’t imagine how frustrating it is to be feeling around in some nasty public toilet for the lever to flush the toilet, only to stand up in frustration and the goddam thing flushes itself. [laughs] You know, like, automatic toilets, you know? [laughs] Like, these random things that can be so challenging to someone, who otherwise is so accomplished and completely— I mean, you know, who argues in the Supreme Court.  Argues cases in the Supreme Court but is completely, [laughs] like, defeated by an automatically flushing toilet.  It’s just great, like, those little things are stuff that— we’re always looking to find ways to put those kind of details in the show, you know?  Like, I only recently learned that blind people can use iPods and iPhones because there’s an— on the 3G and above, there’s an accessibility option that you can turn on where you can operate it all with two-fingered and three-fingered taps and wipes.

Wow. And does it speak?
Yeah, and it speaks.

Would you happen to know if there’s, perhaps, someone your character was kind of based on?  Like, is this unprecedented or has there been people that worked in the CIA that didn’t have sight?
Well, two things.  One, the character was at least inspired by a friend of Chris Metz, who— he’s not blind, but he became disabled as an adult.  And, you know, it changed who he was.  So that’s kind of where the idea of that came from.  So, on that level, yeah.  As far as was, you know, Auggie drawn from someone in the military or from the CIA, no.  But I just recently learned about, and I’m going to call and hopefully talk to, Capt. Scotty Smiley who— he has a book coming out pretty recently— who was blinded in the military, in the service in Iraq, and decided to continue his service. And now, you know, he’s got a desk job and he’s working in the military and, you know, it’s a fascinating story, and has some similarities with what Auggie went through.  So I’m really looking forward to talking to him.

One thing I noticed that was really interesting was the stick, but it was—
The laser?

Yeah, the laser.  So how does that work?  And does that exist?
Yeah, it’s— it doesn’t exist.  It’s not far from real, though.  The laser part of it is actually fairly old technology.  They have an actual laser cane. [laughs] It looks, you know, kind of like a traditional cane, not like one of the long ones, and it shoots out three lasers.  They’re not visible lasers but— you know, like on the show— but, yeah, it shoots out three lasers. And the idea was— because the light cane only protects right in front of you, like, you know, where you’re walking.  It doesn’t protect the upper half of your body.  And the idea with the laser cane was it can protect, you know, your whole body.  So that part of it is really legit. The other part of it, though— I was actually talking about this with one of the guys that I met with, trying to figure out, like, what it would actually be.  Because we, at least up to this point, haven’t talked specifically on the show, like, explained how it works.  We didn’t really think it was important— or, important enough to spend time talking about, you know, the technical— [laughs] yeah, it works. But I think what we’ve come up with is, it has the laser grid but also has sonar, because the lasers would go through glass and the sonar could bounce through glass, and it gives me a vibratory feedback.  And then, also, I thought it would be cool if it had a little gyro in it so it could even give me some resistance, depending on how close I am to things.  But, yeah, the advantage is I can kind of whip it around and get the idea of the dimensions of a room and if there are people in here or where the objects are.  I think we used it that way in the pilot, in the morgue. We’ve since decided, you know, that when I’m outside of the CIA, I’m always using just the white cane, mostly because we thought that the laser cane would attract a lot of questions in real life, and questions we wouldn’t necessarily want to answer, being— [laughs] working for the Agency, yeah.

And can you talk a little bit more about how we’re going to see Auggie’s relationship with Annie continue to develop as the season goes on?
Yeah, you know, Auggie and Annie— they hit it off right off the bat, you know, on a very superficial level.  Like with the Mingus thing, you know, like, they both have similar taste in music.  But I think on a deeper level, they are kind of kindred spirits.  Like, they just kind of operate on the same wavelength.  And so their friendship continues to grow and deepen as the show goes on.  And, yeah, they care for each other and they really watch out for each other.  And, you know, I think Auggie kind of has this place wired and really takes her under his wing, you know.

Does Auggie ever meet her sister?
I can’t wait for that to happen, because I love Annie Dudek and we never get to work together. [laughs] Yeah, so—

Maybe someday.
Someday.  I’m sure, someday.  Yeah, it’s one of the things that I want to start a betting pool on.  You know, what episode is that going to happen. [laughs]

Are CIA agents allowed to be friends outside of the office?
To be friends outside of the office?  Yeah.  Well, you know what?  This is a really good question for Piper because she— I’ve talked a lot with her about it, but she actually went to Langley and talked with some agents.  And it’s fascinating, like they—

I don’t really mean just, like, friends, because you guys went to the bar and whatever but, like, being involved in other people— like, really getting involved in their lives.
Yes, well here’s the interesting thing.  The agents are allowed to tell whomever they want that they work for the Agency.  The reason that they don’t is because they might be putting those people in danger.  So—

I didn’t know that they were allowed to tell.
Yeah, they have actually quite a lot of freedom to tell whoever they want to tell.  But they take their jobs really seriously, so, you know, they don’t— as far as romantic relationships, you actually have to get them cleared through the agency.  You can date, but if things start to get serious, you have to put in an application.  Yeah.  And, I mean, it’s funny because apparently, because it’s such a bureaucracy, but many times you put in the application and by the time you hear back that you can or cannot date that person, you’ve already broken up with them, [laughs] you know?  Like, it takes months, you know, and the relationship is over.  And you get, like, “Congratulations, you can get married,” you know? [laughs] But they do—

Makes a nice betting system, though, you know?
Well, yeah, well they do it— well because it’s a serious—

You don’t have to be accused of doing the background check.
It’s a— you know, they do a very intense background check into these people to make sure that they’re not agents of another country, you know?  But it’s really fascinating.  And that actually is something that we do explore during the show.

Are we going to see more of Auggie’s womanizing ways?
Yes. [laughs] Yes.  Yes, we will. [laughs]

Doug Liman said that you were getting ready to do an action—
Yeah, yeah, just yesterday we did our first rehearsal for that fight, yeah.

How was that?
It’s really good.  It’s everything I hoped it would be.  It’s just brutal and ugly, and I win. [laughs]

Is this your first role with fight scenes like that?
No.  No, I did a show called Jake 2.0 years ago.  I did a lot of fight scenes. [laughs] Well we did one episode where it was like a fight club episode.  I had a sore neck the next day because we did seven fight scenes in a day.  And I could not move my head the next day, just from taking— you know, pretending to take punches all day long.  It’s not pretty.

Can you say anything about this particular one?
Obviously his disadvantage is if you’re standing off, you know, a couple of feet away, with a bat, [laughs] you know, or a gun, or whatever, then he’s at an incredible disadvantage.  But if he gets a hold of you, it’s going to be a bad day.  So, yeah, it takes place in a space where— you know, that he can really take advantage of that.  I don’t know how much I’m supposed to give away or not, so I don’t— but I’ll let them do that.Well I’m really excited because, A, it takes place in an environment where it could legitimately happen, and it takes place in an environment where Auggie could legitimately win.  Like, he has the advantage.  You know, like I said, Auggie comes from a Special Forces background.  He can take care of himself, as long as he has a hold of somebody.  You know, we talked about early on that, in a physical confrontation, if Auggie is able to get a hold of you, then he’ll win. But, yeah, but it’s great.  And, you know, and we meet someone from his past and, I mean, there’s— I’m so— really, I’m so happy because not only— like, just playing the physicality of being blind is a real challenge and requires an extra level of focus that has really made this kind of all exciting and new again for me.  But on top of it, for the show it’s exciting because it never just stops there.  It never just stops with “he’s the blind tech guy.”  Like, this guy— we learn all kinds of new things about him where you’re constantly going, “Wait— what??” [laughs] Like, “Wait a minute, what is— holy crap!”  You know, you learn a lot. And sometimes you learn things about him that— you know, before Annie does, which is kind of exciting.  And you don’t always know what it means, you know?  You learn something new about Auggie and you don’t know— you’re not sure how you feel about it.  So it keeps it really interesting, and he’s very involved in the story line.  He’s not in any way just a tool to explain techno-babble to the audience.

Is there a darker side to him that we don’t know about yet?
Well, yeah.

He’s Special Forces?
Yeah.  I mean, you know, he’s— I mean, one of the things that he’s struggling with in this season of the show is a real frustration of not being able to get out in the field, you know?  I mean, he comes from being like one of those 12 guys who goes to Afghanistan alone.  I mean, I read the book “Horse Soldiers” by Doug Stanton.  It’s about those guys that were the first to go into Afghanistan when we went in.  They had no support and essentially, you know, won that war. But he’s one of those guys, you know.  He’s wicked smart.  Like, he learns the language of the place that he’s going into.  He knows the customs.  He knows how to handle weapons but really— like, he’s taught— like, his weapon of first resort is his brain.  You know, he’s a natural leader.  You know, these guys, they don’t have to salute each other all the time, you know?  They can kind of— they get told what their mission is but they don’t get told how they have to do it, you know?  They’re allowed to make it up as they go along.  And that’s where he comes from, like, that’s how he functions. And so I think sometimes being in the bureaucracy of the CIA can be frustrating, you know?  Like he doesn’t mind being told what to do, it’s being told how to do it that can really get on his nerves.  And the fact that he’s— you know, like, he loves the tech stuff and he gets excited by it.  Like, we do an episode where they bring up some really old— you know, like an old code-breaking machine.  And I think he really gets off on it, you know?  He’s like, “This is cool,” and he’s feeling it, you know?   So anyway— yeah, we’ll definitely see that.

Be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 10 pm to USA Network for the series premiere of Covert Affairs!

I think Pam has some of the best scenes in the show, especially when she tried to stop Sookie in the season premiere.
Right?! I am so lucky to have such great words to say.

How do you relate to your character? She’s not human, but there are human elements to Pam.
Definitely, she was human 100 years ago. She was also very eager to leave that world once she saw the option of Eric’s power and immortality and she’s never looked back. That’s one of the things that makes Pam so much fun to play. She is un-remorseful, unapologetic, which are two traits some of us could probably use a touch of. She is, in some ways, who I wish I could be but alas, that directness might leave me very lonely.

What do you think Pam was like in her human life?
I have no idea, and hope to find out! But in my imagination – I see her as having been a true free spirit in a time where it was impossible for a woman to have any freedom of thought of movement. I am obsessed with freewill, it is the basis of all my animal rights work and a hallmark of my beliefs. I believe in freewill, very different than Freedom. Freewill implies choice as opposed to the absence of obstacles. I am pained by the cruelty of taking choice from any living being.

Pam is soft spoken but powerful at the same time. How do you find that balance?
I have often noticed that the most powerful one in the room can be the one who appears to care the least, and is often the most under-spoken. Power is not always loud or trying very hard. I guess power doesn’t have to.

Pam is taking on a bigger role this season, what has the journey been like playing her so far?
FUN! The more I find out about Pam and the more I get to see her do is a joy it is just a bigger and broader journey for me. It’s always been a pleasure from day one and I have also discovered that more of a good thing is awesome.


What has it been like working so closely with Alexander Skarsgard? (Obviously, very…closely)
Yes, very closely, wink, wink, nudge nudge…Alex is a joy to work with. He is my friend and I am so lucky he is also Pam’s maker.

What are Pam’s motivations? (Loyalty to Eric? Power?)
Loyalty is huge for her, and for me in life as well — so I really appreciate that she has been written that way. Power is actually not as alluring to her as integrity. And that motivates me too, it’s fun to find those things where the character and I overlap but I guess that is inevitable as all Pam has is her creators so pieces of all of us and our imaginations will be in her.

Do you have a favorite moment from filming the show?
Too many to name. But having fun with my cast mates is a real perk that makes this such a rare and special experience. We all know what it’s like to have annoying workmates and to have great ones. The latter is better and can make or break one’s experience.

Do you have a character you would like to have more scenes with?
I love it exactly as it is and I don’t want to be too greedy but this entire cast is so fantastic and talented, and so well cast, that I would be happy and lucky to work with any and all.

Have you had any interesting fan reaction to your character? (Perhaps in the gay community?)
I heard after last weeks episode that my friend’s living room of gay men stood up and cheered. I love that! I got a standing O!!! Always happy to hear I did well.

What has it been like working with Alan Ball? He’s quite a prolific producer/creator.
Alan seems to be very aware of the big picture and at the same time the details which is also rare and special. He has assembled an amazing thing here, all out of his vision one day after picking up a book. Many people are being employed and entertained by that vision. I think that is impressive and beautiful. Visions becoming reality is a thrill for me to see and be part of as I think it’s what makes the world go round. Without artistic vision, and the ability to transmute those visions into something others can see…life would be…well, unlivable. He is very impressive and also kind. AND likes dogs!

What do you think sets True Blood apart from other vampire shows out there? Why do you think there was such a positive response to the show?
Well…it’s just better. He He! Sorry, I couldn’t resist. Ive seen Twilight and it was great and these are just very different audiences and tones. True Blood is Alan and HBO’s baby – that combination tells us that we will get to do and see more — get to push the envelope a bit more. Maybe touch on deeper topics, show more reality. Alan and HBO together are just sexier…in my humble completely unbiased opinion of course.

Can you give us a little teaser — I know you can’t spoil too much — of what’s coming up in season 3 for Pam?
Pam is tested this year. Her loyalty, her integrity, her strength…We find out about her and Eric’s relationship, and come to think of it, that is true for so many characters this year. It’s a character defining year for all of us.

You have been appearing more regularly on Secret Life Of The American Teenager. It is difficult to go from one character to another?
No, they are so different. I think its fun for most actors to get to play varied roles.

You have been very active in the efforts to help and raise awareness for the situation in the Gulf Coast (using twitter). Can you talk a little bit about what makes this cause so close to your heart? (It’s truly awful what’s going on down there)
I am so grateful for those who make me aware of things that shouldn’t be that I had no idea of-like in the movie “Blood Diamond” and “Food Inc.” — so I like to share things I hear about with those who feel like I do. I believe that alone we may perish but together we can survive. I suspect that may be our test, how to work together better to save this beautiful home. Abri, my husband, and I work well with IFAW to do just that for Whales and The Elephant Ivory trade in Africa. The Gulf is a horror. And I think it should be a wake up call for us and a time to examine all of our dependence on oil. If you are alive you use and need oil. The soles of my shoes I’m wearing right now, the frames of my glasses, parts of this computer and my couch…but we could be much more conscientious and efficient or we will keep harming others. Plastic bottles are a HUGE unnecessary waste, that if we ever do use, we must recycle. We really don’t need to buy bottled water. You can get a water filter for $150 at Costco or buy this amazing water filter bottle for $40 a year-all the water you can drink! I just saw one on the set. http://www.sovereignearth.com/shop/index.php/27oz-filtration-bottle.html Both will save you thousands of dollars. Use cloth grocery bags! SO easy!!! Those plastic bags are an environmental disease. There is a plastic island in the ocean, twice the size of Texas! If we care…we must care in our actions. Just like in any relationship. The Government won’t save us. We must see this earth as our own backyard and look at our own daily actions — that is my theory and at the least a good place to start. “Be the change you want to see.” Ghandi. And Ghandi seemed pretty hip. I have a blog on my site where I post any finds from a venting about HP to the best sun screen to how to help whales…www.kristinbauer.com

Thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it, and best of luck with the upcoming season!
Thank you for allowing me to share more of my passions!

Be sure to tune in tonight at 9 pm on HBO for an all new episode of True Blood!

 I recently had the pleasure and privilege to visit the set of Covert Affairs, a brand new spy drama on USA Network. It is definitely a show I am eagerly anticipating, as the pilot was really fantastic. The lovely Anne Dudek plays Danielle, the anchor to Piper Perabo’s Annie Walker. She is her kept in the dust sister, who she comes close to confessing the truth to in her absolutely beautiful kitchen. Seriously, when we spoke to her around her fake kitchen table, I found myself wishing it was mine! We joked with her about being the mother on How I Met Your Mother, and her previous bad-ass roles.  We chatted with her about Danielle, a very hilarious scene in the pilot and whether she suspects Annie at all. We even surmised a theory that maybe she is a spy, too. [Spoiler Alert: She's not.]

Are you the mother on How I Met Your Mother, no I’m just [kidding]?
[laughs] You know what was really funny though?  Is I met my husband through Josh Radnor who I met on How I Met Your Mother and I have a little son now.  And if you follow the logic through, if my son ever asks me how my husband and I met, we can pull out a DVD of How I Met Your Mother, the episode I was on, and say, “This is how I met your mother.”

That’s cool.  I like that.  So is his name Ted?

[laughs] That’d be very ironic I’d say.  I think it’d be great if, yeah if at end of the whole thing Natalie, my character on that show, ended up marrying Ted… very ironic.

You’re so nice on the show and it’s a far cry from the cut-throat bitch that we love from House.  What’s that like playing such a nice character?

Yeah, well I mean I don’t know if, she’s nice, she definitely is.  I mean she’s—the word I would describe her as is mainstream, which is a huge departure from things I’ve done recently.  You know I’ve played this crazy evil doctor, manipulative bitchy doctor on House.  And then I have a little role on Big Love where I play a sort of psychotic murderess, polygamist [laughs] wife, and even on Mad Men my character is a little coo-coo.  And this is interesting because I think Danielle’s function in this show is that she is the mainstream choice, she is the sort of dream life.  She has this kitchen and, you know, the husband who has the, you know, stable good money making job and the two cute kids who are adorable.  And she’s really happy in her life, I think, pretty happy in what she’s doing.  And so it is different because it’s not, it doesn’t really require the same kind of reaching into my weirdest imagination [laughs].  You know, it hits a little closer to my own life because I’m married and I just had a baby.  And so it’s fun, because I get to deal with situations and relationships that feel more normal.  And feel more accessible to me and to the people I know, and it’s fun to live in that world.

Does she get any sort of inkling of what Annie really does over the course of what you’ve done so far?

That’s a very good question [laughs] and I can’t tell you.

Does she wonder why somebody who works at the Smithsonian is gone so much or?

Well you know, I mean I spend a lot of time on the set thinking, “You know, what if Danielle just decided one day to go ahead and surprise Annie for lunch at the Smithsonian?”  And I was told that actually, I mean right now Annie is based out of Langley.  But there are situations in which she actually would have like a desk at the Smithsonian and she just [wouldn’t be there].  I mean, I think Danielle has no idea right now.  I think that her relationship is that Annie has always been somebody who is involved in it, you know, in things that Danielle is like “Well whatever.”  She’s not, I don’t think she’s that suspicious about her at all right now.

How are we going to see the relationship continue to develop as the first season continues on?

Well, I mean I think the first few episodes are dealing with the tensions of sort of things that seem like normal sisterly tensions.  Of, you know, asking responsibility from one sister and not, you know, an older sister to a younger sister and not really having that met.  And I hope that you get a deeper sense of why they have chosen, you know, why Annie has chosen to live here in the guest house and their closeness, and that they really need each in some way.  I think that’s interesting because of the idea that, you know, two people who really need each other then have this huge secret [and that] in front of it.  And that’s really dramatically interesting to me that tension of like how, if the reality of this ever got unearthed how would these people go on, because they really need each other.

I noticed from the pilot that we saw that your character added like a bit of humor to the show.  But also I really got kind of the overall sense that Danielle was kind of Annie’s anchor, keeps her grounded to reality.  Does that kind of continue throughout?

I think a little bit. I mean it’s weird because Danielle’s this very motherly figure.  You always see her with her kids doing something, taking care of her kids, and Annie sort of comes into that picture.  And it’s not like she, I mean they’re definitely sisters but it is like she has a motherly kind of thing that does anchor Annie into real life and the real world.  And yeah in that way there is a like, sort of maternally sisterly kind of blur.

Do you know anything about the rest of their family at this point, their parents or anything like that?

Yeah, they refer to—as sort of being army brats and not really having a central kind of place we grow up.  And I think that’s very telling about how, you know, the choices that you make from that kind of a background.  Either you really want the most stable thing you can ever do, which is I think is what Danielle has chosen.  Or you are used to that and that’s what you know and changing who you are and being in the different part of the world and all of that is the other side of that choice.

I’m always curious and we see this all the time with actors and actresses in Hollywood.  You have kind of a break through role I mean, at least I kind of discovered you through House and then you’ve just been on such a roll with Mad Men and everything else.  Like what do you think happens that, like, kind of just the spark where you’re everywhere?  Like can you kind of crystallize or pinpoint a moment?

I wish I knew [laughs].  You know, none of those things, there was no moment.  None of those things meant, were designed to be what they ultimately became at all.  I had focused on writing for like a year, right before all this happened and I was really excited about that.  And then I had an audition for Mad Men and I had no idea what that character was going be. All I knew it was like a one time guest spot.  And it turned into something that was a little bit bigger, that episode, I mean that season.  And, you know, it sort of became, at least for that season of Mad Men, sort of a like a, you know, a presence in that show.  And at the same time, the same thing had happened on Big Love.  I had this tiny, tiny little part that was weird and fun and they just sort of kept bringing it back and bringing it back, and so it, sort of had grown into that show a little bit.  And then I auditioned for House and they said, “Oh, it’s this contest to be a new, you know, regular…” contest, whatever.  My character was never meant to really be chosen as one of the permanent fixtures on House.  But because people really responded to that character, it, you know, and I think that’s the things, that I happened to pick things that in themselves grew into something more.  It wasn’t like all of a sudden I landed all these big roles, I just landed these little things that became more than what they were meant to be which was nice.

I guess it’s a testament to your acting.

[laughs] Or, yeah, or like a good chemistry between that role and, you know. I think there are a lot of times, and we were talking a little bit about this last night.  In TV shows where a new character comes on and people get excited but it doesn’t really pan out the way that you thought it would.  Or, you know, I mean it’s very weird, like what’s really going to happen to your character in the future, nobody can say.  And I just, those were a really good fit between me and the writing that was happening, and if the writers were interested in writing what the audience happened to respond to and that.  It’s a very rare thing that happened I think. So I was very lucky.

Are some of those roles still on-going like Mad Men and Big Love will they keep going?

I can’t comment, I’m not allowed [laughs].

[laughs]

I wish I could.

Is what we saw of you in the pilot sort of typical from your experience so far?
Yeah I’ve heard that it changes.

Okay.

So I don’t know, I don’t have any details on that.  But you can look for some surprises [laughs].

Does Danielle’s story grow to be separate from Annie’s at all?

I don’t think so.

No?

No I don’t have the answer to that.

[laughs]

But I don’t expect that it would, but you never, I mean who knows. Yeah, I mean Danielle definitely has a story line that grows.  But it’s, you know, it’s not like wildly different than, the show’s about Annie Walker and what she’s going through.

Can you tell us how you got involved?

Yeah, I auditioned for this back—I don’t remember when it was, June or July or maybe even August.  No it wouldn’t have been, maybe late June or July [laughs]. This is not the most interesting part.  Yeah, I auditioned for it last summer and got cast, very straight forward.

Was there something in particular you liked about it that made you want to audition for it or was it just –?
Yeah, I mean I thought the script was really fun and I’ve always been interested in, like, spy world stuff.  And it’s a shame because I would love to, like, you know carry a gun –

Maybe someday you’ll open the oven and they’ll be a gun in there that you have to take out and… Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

Yeah, exactly.  Yeah or maybe Danielle is also a spy. She’s not. There are a lot of, you know a lot of things that [could happen].

You’re the ultimate Mrs. Smith, but you don’t know.

The ultimate?

Yes.

Just nobody ever knows.

Nobody ever knows.

So the whole series goes on, right, and there’s like never a hint but that’s the truth.

That’s what I’ll be thinking in the back of my mind when I watch.

And then the last episode it’s like all explained, it’s like actually this whole time Danielle’s been working for the Russian Government [laughs].

You’ve got to go suggest that to the writers [laughs].
Yeah seriously, that’d be crazy.  No, but I thought—I really liked the script. I’m really interested, I think the spy world is something that’s really great.  Because all great stories, I think, are answers, or attempt to answer the question, “Who am I?”  And since nobody really knows that answer, we’re all just trying to pretend about who we are I think.  I mean, this is a very philosophical way of looking at life, but I think all television series and all movies, if you really think about it, boil down to, “Who am I?” right.  And they’re—like Mad Men for instance, is also a very, you know, direct metaphor for, “Who am I?”  It’s like I’m leading a double life, here’s me pretending to be someone that I’m not.  Which is all, we’re all doing that to some extent, because we don’t really know who we are we’re just making it up. And I think that’s something that interests people when they watch television, is a reflection of that kind of struggle going on.  But you can’t really voice it, you don’t talk to your friends about it.  They don’t really even wait up at night, you know, when you worry about things, it’s nothing to worry about, but it’s a, that’s the human condition.  And so to have a story that—that in a really clear fun way talks about that, I always respond to that and I like being involved in that.  So, yeah, that’s why I like this script and this show, is because it’s about, it’s very clearly about a question that’s interesting.  And it has a lighter side to it too, it’s not this, like, super serious like, everything is kind of grey and dark shadows.  And, you know, it’s an entertaining way of entering an interesting world that is emotionally relevant [I think].

Is there any element of all—do you think of Danielle kind of worrying obviously is [she also] feeling sorry for Annie?  And, you know, there’s the life she hasn’t had, you haven’t had a relationship in two years or whatever. 

Yeah, I mean, you know, there is a part of Danielle that, like it’s interesting you know, like, “Oh she’s so nice.”  And she’s not really that—I mean she’s not a saint. She’s not a, you know, she looks at Annie and I thinks she’s like, “Oh God she, you know, she needs to get her life kicked into gear.”  I mean look at her she’s kind of a loser, she’s obsessed with this guy and it’s never going to happen with him, she’s living in my guesthouse.  You know, I mean, yeah I think she does see this lifestyle and her kids and her husband and the life that she’s built as what everybody wants.  And anyone who doesn’t really have that is, “God let’s get them on track to getting it,” you know.

But really Ethan… that guy.  Yeah.

[laughs] I thought it was so funny, and for every, like, I mean, what made it into the pilot is really funny stuff.  They sort of just let him go for a while in this conversation and he improvised.  I mean, I wish that they could, like, take that and put it as like a little tidbit on the website or something, like, “The rest of Ethan at the dinner party.”  Because it was hysterical and we were all, like, the stuff he was coming up with, he was a really, really funny actor and that was a really funny scene.

Was the moustache real [laughter]?

Yeah, it was real and apparently, I forget the actor’s name who plays Ethan, but he came into the audition he had just done another job that he needed to grow this moustache for.  And the first thing he said is, “You guys, I meant to shave this today, I can shave it don’t worry about that, but please try not to, you know, worry about the moustache.”  And Matt and Chris were like, “No it’s great [laughs] you don’t need to shave it, it’s kind of perfect.”  So it was a real moustache, yeah.  There’s something so funny just about a moustache right?

Do you have a sister or a sisterly relationship that’s one like Danielle and Annie?

You know I don’t, I don’t really at all.  And so that’s interesting, that’s kind of like a, it’s a difficult thing as an actress because I don’t, I’ve never really had that.  I have like close female friends, but I’m not one of those people who has, like, my one best friend who’s like my sister.  And I didn’t grow up with sisters. I have an older brother.  So and, you know, that was one of the things during the auditioning process they’re like, “No it’s like that typical sister-sister thing, they kind of give each other a hard time,” and I was like, “Oh yeah, that [laughs] typical sister thing.”  But I know sisters like that, you know, and I’ve always been a little jealous.  One of my best friends growing up, she had three sisters and she was very, very close to one of them.  And so that is a special thing, like, that sisters have.

I’m an only child, so I –

Well yeah, you know, it is interesting I think from an outsider’s perspective because it sort of seems like a friendship.  So you would want to treat it like, “Oh don’t, you know, don’t go there, don’t say that thing because you don’t want to hurt your friend’s feelings.”  But sisters it’s like no, you know, she’s not going to stop being your sister, you have her forever.  So there are lines that I think can be crossed in terms of, you know, what that relationship is, is very close and it can be, you know, intense in ways that friendships can’t be. 

In the first few episodes you filmed have you gotten to leave your house at least, do some shooting outside of the kitchen?

[laughs] There is a scene outside of the kitchen.

Maybe the [guest house] [laughter]

And I won’t tell you where [laughs].

In the Smithsonian, no that’s okay [laughs]. 

Yeah, it’s in the guesthouse, [and at this] kitchen as well.

You said you were working on writing before you were a writer, is that something you [planned]?

No not in any like real way, just – Well, you know, being an actor you, I think you learn about writing because you read so much.  And I think most, a lot of actors I know want to try writing, because it seems like it’s easy and then you’re like, “Wait you know, [laughs] now I understand.”  But I mean the way, yeah it’s [clearly all right] it’s just not like it’s something that any Joe Schmo is going start, you know, as a hobby and be successful.

Can you just talk about how you came to be involved with this show, and if maybe you’re in line to direct an episode at any point?
Well, it should be no secret that, you know, I’m a huge fan of the spy genre, and been trying to, with my partner Dave Bartis and Gene Klein, trying to develop a spy show for quite some time. And I think the real thing that sort of came together for us was that we doing a film called Fair Game that will come out in September, and that really immersed us in the spy world. And I think in connection with my finally finding the right writers with Matt and Chris, it was a – like everything just sort of came together at the right moment. And the fact that wasn’t a huge amount of overlap between Fair Game and Covert Affairs, but there’s some pretty obvious connection with like, Fair Game is about a real life female spy, and you know, Covert Affairs has a female spy at its heart. So you know, it doesn’t take much of a shrink to sort of figure out, you know, there’s probably some connection there. And the other thing was that, you know, in doing the research for Fair Game, we got access to a lot of current and former covert officers with the CIA. And most of the material that we were learning about had no place in the movie, unless I wanted the movie to be 10 hours long. And so we had this huge treasure trove of just sort of cool factoids. And you know, that stuff is, you know, it was just like the perfect timing to be developing a TV show in the same arena at the same time, because we’ve just taken all the research that, you know, wasn’t appropriate for Fair Game and just channelled it right into Covert Affairs. And then obviously, Covert is a heightened reality. But the thing that I learned working, you know, working with people at the CIA is that, you know, what they do on a daily basis is actually pretty extraordinary. And, you know, I am hoping to direct an episode, or episodes, over the years. And in fact, was pretty much set to direct one and then Fair Game got into Cannes – it totally changed our film schedule.

So I want to know what in your mind sets Coverts Affairs apart from other spy shows that are out there?
To be honest, like, I’m not a huge TV watcher. And when I – even when it comes to my movies, like, I’m usually – I’m not trying to figure out how to – what makes it different, I’m just literally sort of starting from scratch. So, you know, at the end of the day, what I think sets it apart is that it has a very unique sensibility that is, you know – if I sound sort of stumble-y it’s because the – it’s sort of been the story of my life that the – my movies tend to sort of exist as sort of a unique sensibility until they come out. You know, there’s a little bit of a sense of well, what is it exactly? And the – once you sort of – the thing’s out, then everybody knows what, like, Bourne Identity tone is. But before Bourne Identity comes out, it’s actually very hard to sort of put into words. But, the Covert sort of exists where in the environment that was – what I thought was by far the most interesting aspect of the spy world that I got exposed to during all the research for Fair Game. Is that what happens when spies go home, and where spies intersect our world. I like to think of it sort of where like the rubber touches the ground, where the wheels touch the ground, you know, like an airplane where it, like, touches down – that moment where those two worlds touch. And Covert very much exists in that world.

Do you find that there’s been any kind of challenges or limitations in bringing the spy genre to television, versus the spy genre on film that you worked in previously?
Well, USA has really given us, you know, huge resources. So, I haven’t really found the limitations. And you should know that, like, usually I find limitations – forcing you to just be more creative. So, the episode that I was talking about possibly directing was going to be our first episode back – you know, our first episode in production. And the thing where I was most excited about doing was figuring out how to use new technology to do the big action sequences that are being written into every episode on a TV budget. You know, a very healthy TV budget, but nonetheless, a TV budget. You know, I feel like the reason “Swingers” has the charm it has is because I was forced to work within a certain budget, and I had to develop a certain style. And, you know, “Bourne Identity” sparked a whole, you know, new way of doing action movies. But at the end of the day, it actually came from the fact that I just didn’t have enough money – a relatively low budget movie. And so all that shaky handheld camera work was just – that was just out of necessity, that wasn’t, you know, necessarily creative choice. But, you know, it becomes style. So, using things like, you know, the Canon 5D mkII [ph], which I used a little bit on “Fair Game”. I don’t know if you guys know about these Canon cameras, I don’t want to sound like a salesman. Basically, a chip in them that could shoot in no light. And I literally mean no light. And so I really got enamoured with, you know, the idea of using these cameras in our action sequences. And here’s the big change is that, you know, other films are using them, and they use them as crash cams [ph] now, but they’re still lighting and shooting the action the same old fashioned way. And I’m saying, well, we don’t have the time or the money to do some of these outrageous sequences, the quote, unquote – if you had to do it properly would just get cut. And that’s sort of the story of my life, is people always saying, “Well, we can’t afford this sequence, we have to cut it.” And whether it was on, “Go”, where there was a big car chase, and it was a $3 million film. And the first thing the producer said to me at my first meeting was, “Well, obviously we’re going to cut the car crash to fit budget.” And I said, “No, let’s come up with a clever way to do it, but let’s keep the car chase.” And that by far, is like, the best piece of action I’ve ever directed was the car chase in “Go”. And it’s – I was sort of forced to be the most inventive and creative. And so, you know, working with the team on “Covert” to say, “Well, we have this new technology – let’s actually come up with a new way to shoot.” Because to sort of just take these cameras and put them in the exact same places and light things in the exact same way, like, well what’s the point of it being this small – this high-speed camera? Like, we – you know, it’s the same attitude I had on “Swingers” that, you know, there was a traditional way to light movies, which was to always hit actors with backlight. And you’ll still see it today at probably almost any movie you go see, any slick Hollywood movie you ever go see in a theatre, the actors are always going to be hit with some kind of backlight. And the reality is that the reason that actors are hit with backlight is because movies used to be shot in black and white, and you had to hit people with a backlight to create a rim of light around their head so that you could differentiate between where their hair ended and where the background back. And that was a necessity of film making when people shot movies in black and white. And when I was getting ready to do “Swingers”, I said, “Well, we’re shooting in colour film and people are still doing all of this extra lighting work that isn’t necessary any more.” So there’s no backlights in “Swingers” – none at all. You know, and people liked the way the movie looks. And it’s a – so, that was a hold over from an older way of making movies. And so I’ve tried to – and I come up to Toronto frequently to try to sort of just instil the new way of doing things, and usually more efficient. Sorry that was a long answer.

Just curious – your resume is filled with CIA type movies. What is it personally that’s attracting you to this genre?
You know, I think I can probably take this back – I mean, I always loved spy books, you know, growing up. I mean, those were my favourite, whether it was Ludlum, or Ken Follett, or I can’t see the room, but you guys are probably all way too young to know these particular authors.But like, I just always loved the spy genre, you know, and that sense of adventure that came with being a spy. And then on a personal front, because my father ended up working in Washington and I got to sort of see the world up close and personal. And I thought, “Wow, oh my gosh, these people are actually real.” And it’s, you know, and they’re not – you know, like, when I was doing research for “Fair Game” and I was meeting with somebody who ran Europe for the Director of Operations – so very high level spies. And he said, “I hope you’re not going to make Valerie Plame into some kind of superhero, because, you know, all she did was X, Y, Z. And you know, we got a million people who do that.” And all I’m thinking is, similarly there’s this – a movie, you know, X, Y and Z is more exciting than anything I was ever anticipating Valerie Plame would have done. And for them, it’s just like a day at the office. And it’s probably there’s something about the fact that you get to be somebody else, and you know, maybe it’s because you get your – it’s okay to lie, like, you’re actually encouraged to lie, may also be tapping into it. But it is a – it’s a rarefied world that I just never cease to be fascinated by.

Can you talk a little bit more about how you ended up meeting Matt and Chris, and was “Covert Affairs” something that already existed and you just brought your spy information to it? Or did that come because you were interested in doing a spy show?
You know, that really just is more of a Gene question that must be – you know, Dave and Gene – I live in New York, so I’m usually in Toronto for the shows because I’m the closest. And Dave and Gene work out of our L.A. office, and that’s where almost all of the TV development happens. So, you know, they brought me Matt and Chris and said, you know, “What about doing a spy show with these guys?” And like that was the – you know, I just have a – I have partners that I really trust. And if they say, you know, “We think we should do a spy show with these guys,” I’m going to usually not going to challenge that. And in this case, you know, once we started talking about the show, and the ideas, like, it just was a great collaboration. You know, you can always – like, if you get in a room together and you talk about the show, and after, you know, an hour or two it’s better than it was the time before you got into the room. And then you do it again, and it gets better again. And then you do it again, and it gets better again. Like, that means the chemistry is right. There’s something right about the DNA of those people and that idea. And the, you know, and they were really – they were doing their own CIA research. And in fact, the whole factoid of the show is that when “Fair Game” got green lit, Dave Bartis called me up and said, you know, “The CIA was not going to be supportive of us making “Fair Game”,” but they’re very supportive of “Covert Affairs”. Even though “Fair Game”, at the end of the day, really does celebrate the CIA. It’s, you know, it’s just a moment in time that people would rather forget. And we – you know, if you wanted to go inside the CIA, you’d need to do it, like, today, before people find out that you’re doing “Fair Game”. Because once they find that out, the CIA’s never going to let you in, and right now they’re working with us on “Covert Affairs”. And they’re opening their doors to us.” So, and Matt and Chris had already spent a bunch of time down there, and it really won over people at the CIA. So I had this sort of rare opportunity to spy on the CIA. And, you know, in every – and I think Matt and Chris and I, and Gene and Dave are – we’re all excited by the same ideas. And we’re really, you know, we’re excited by like, the real things that go on, and then figuring out how to draw our character to that. But it’s – you know, what I love about “Covert Affairs”, and you know, I was asked about sort of what sets it apart is that, you know, there’s sort of – as outrageous as it is, there’s always a sort of grounded honesty to it. So, yes, Annie is being sent on, you know, crazy outrageous missions that in real life, you know, you’re not really going to send somebody in their first couple of weeks on. But they do ultimately send Valerie Plame herself into missions like these. So there’s this slight – you know, it’s this slight exaggeration about how quickly we’re getting her out into the field. But what’s honest about this show is that when she’s in the office, she has to go and get the coffee, because she’s the lowest level employee. And there’s an honesty to being in your twenties and in your first job, you know, that you – just because it’s the CIA, it’s still a business. And it’s still a bureaucracy. And there’s still all of the stuff that the rest of us have – you know, I mean, not me because I’m in a really crazy outrageous job, but anyone who has like a – anyone who has just a regular, 9-5 kind of job where they go into an office, is going to see – the show’s going to feel very relatable. Because that – just because you’re a spy, doesn’t mean you don’t have to pay taxes, it doesn’t mean, you know, you’re not the one having to take the lunch order because you’re the newest employee. And it’s – I love, you know, I keep talking about where the sort of wheels touch the ground. Like, this is – there’s such a – you know, there’s twenty-something experience that’s still like – you know, I’m not in twenties anymore, but it’s something I’m still sort of trying to capture and put on the screen. I don’t – “Swingers” was obviously all about that, and I just keep – so I haven’t sort of evolved fully past that. And it just is an exciting time in your life where it’s like, everything, you know, she doesn’t have a – she’s not married, she doesn’t have a boyfriend, she’s new to a job. Like, those things – she’s new to a city. Those are so universal. And for me, almost as exciting as, you know, the foreign agent she gets to meet in the exotic locations in each episode.

Can you talk a bit about the insights Valerie Plame provided about being a woman in the CIA that have made it into the show?
Good question. I actually probably spent – probably the thing I was most fascinated about discussing with Valerie Plame was, you know, she is a very attractive woman. She’s actually a very attractive woman that you’re going to discuss, like, how was that used in the field, and what was she told about how to use it? And what were the rules regarding, you know, because we all grew up on James Bond. And it’s like, okay, what’s the reality of that? Are you supposed to sleep with the people to get them to do your bidding? And at the end of the mission, you’re like, oh, you know, you’ve disappeared the way James Bond does? Or like, what’s the – because these people do this for a living. It’s, like, what’s the actual protocol? And I don’t think I’m divulging state secrets, but I’ve never talked about this. But what I was told was that women were encouraged not to sleep with assets, and the men were. And not to be sexists, because these aren’t my rules, you know, I’m just a messenger. The feeling in the CIA was that women would get emotionally attached to their assets if they slept with them, and it would compromise – it could possibly compromise the mission. And so what’s made it into the show so far is the sort of logical honesty of this organization dealing with sexuality. And very specifically, the other thing I was very fascinated by was how do you actually date? And Valerie told us that they were encouraged to date within the agency. And so that’s very much part of our show. And, you know, it might seem to the outsider, like, well it’s just sort of convenient because you have all these young, beautiful people in the same office. Obviously they’ll – it’s like a standing set, well, obviously it set some of the love stories there. But it actually happens to be the reality of working at the CIA. And that the divorce rate for people who marry outside the agency is very high.

What excites you about having this sort of a blind character on this show as the sort of character we don’t really necessarily see a lot of on TV. And how do you think you’re going to utilize that moving forward with some of the technology he’s using?
You know, the way Matt and Chris wrote him, just – it almost stopped being a question about should we have a blind character or not. Like, Auggie was just blind. Like, he just – sometimes you write a character and you almost feel like – you just feel like the person’s real. Like, you don’t even feel like they were created or imagined, they just – they’re just such an honest – in particular, what I love about Auggie – because it’s almost like somebody didn’t create him. I just literally talked to Mike like he’s a real character. What I love about Auggie and the way that the show is handling him, is he is blind and we never pander or feel sorry for him. Or it’s as though we’re saying, you know, he’s got brown hair, or he’s short, or he’s tall. Or, you know, it’s just like – it’s just a quality he has. And that’s pretty rare. I think people, you know, a lot of times in real life, and therefore it gets translated on to the screen, when somebody has a, you know, a quote, unquote “handicap”, they, you know, we just suddenly just change our whole demeanour about them. And there’s a matter of factness to like, “Yeah, I’m blind. Okay, let’s move on.” And I just love that, you know, he’s a womanizer. And used – you know, people who are blind develop other senses, you know, to a much heightened level. And that seeing how that, you know, those heightened senses play out romantically is awesome. And we’re prepping an episode now where Auggie actually goes out into the field. And it turns out the things a blind person can do in the field to defeat a sighted person are awesome. Once you actually roll up your sleeves, and you’re like, “Okay, what – ” you know, it’s almost his superpower. You know, because I don’t want to give away the things we’re doing in the episode, but you’re like, when you actually roll up your sleeves, you’re like there are amazing things that a blind person can do that a sighted person cannot do in an action sequence. And I’ve never seen that before. And it’s literally genius. It’s probably my favourite piece of action so far. And it’s great, you know, they’ve been writing amazing, amazing action. And, you know, I’ve been up there frequently to work with the various directors to try to figure out how to actually pull it off. Because what they’re writing would be hard to pull off in a movie with a much longer schedule and bigger budget. And they really – Matt and Chris have, like, just kept this mantra of, like, you know, just keeping it outrageous. They’re never – you know, as much as it’s, you know, the production people are like, “Oh my god. Just when we thought it couldn’t get bigger, you know, it’s getting bigger.” But probably even in that environment, the action in this episode will probably end up being my favourite action of the entire season, because it’s so clever what a blind person can do in a fight with a sighted person.

You got Tim Matheson directing an episode. What led you to hire him?
You know, Dave and Gene do the – pick the directors. And, you know, the thing that people don’t necessarily realize about this business is that if you’re a film director, you never get to meet other directors. You know, I meet actors, I meet producers, but I literally never meet other directors. And because there’s only one director on a movie set. And there’s only one director in a story meeting at a studio. And, you know, so you – it’s kind of lonely in terms of, you know, meeting other directors and learning from them. And then I sort of accept that as a fait accompli, and then come up there and work with them. And I love it. It is – you know, to say – because this show is so, sort of, connected to my own personal body of work, the directors are so collaborative, and not defensive. And so, sort of, eager to roll up the sleeves and work, you know, and embrace ideas that I may bring to the table. So, working on a show like this is such an amazing experience, because I get to come up to Toronto every week and a half and collaborate with another director. And I’m literally, it may sound like, you know, everyone always likes to compliment other people in the business. It may sound like I’m just sort of glad handing, but I’m really serious about this concept. I mean, and I, you know, I’ve proven my seriousness about this because years ago I was offered a job directing second unit on a commercial that Lasse Hallstrom was directing. And I already had done some big movies – you know, I think may had even done – maybe I hadn’t done “Bourne Identity” yet, but I’d done “Swingers” and “Go”. And, you know, they were asking me to direct second unit for another director. And, you know, they were a little embarrassed to ask me. And I said, actually, “No, I would be excited to go work under Lasse Hallstrom. He’s directed, you know, some of my favourite movies. And like, I’d love to see how another director works. Like, since I’ve been a PA I haven’t been on a set and watched another director work. So, I’m not going to – I actually would be excited to go do that.” And the reason they were doing this is because it was a Tiger Woods commercial, and they pay Tiger Woods a ton of money. And they wanted a second camera on Tiger the entire time. And it was worth it to them to spend the money to hire a second director to man that camera. Because Tiger’s time is so valuable, it’s nothing to them to spend the money on another director. So normally it would just be a director – you know, like a camera operator on the second camera. In this case, they had me. And the end result of that experience was not only did I get to watch Lasse all day, but during the lunch break, the crew took their break and the people from [indiscernible] Kennedy came up to me and said, you know, “Tiger doesn’t get a lunch break.” You know, “We pay him this huge amount of money for 8 hours, like it’s 8 hours straight. So it’s driving us nuts that he’s sitting there having lunch. Like, this is on our dime. And we know you edited “Swingers” by yourself, like, you know, why don’t you go shoot something with Tiger during the lunch break just the two of you?” Which I went and did, and that became the commercial where Tiger Woods is bouncing the golf ball at the end of the golf club. The reason why it’s such a simple commercial and there’s only one shot is because it literally was just the two of us. And but that grew out of the same thing I’m talking about here, which is, you know, the chance to sort of go work with other directors in the kind of collaboration that “Covert Affairs” provides is amazing. You know, and I feel like I’m – this gives me a chance to grow myself as a filmmaker, and I have these very strong ideas about embracing new technology. And that, you know, given how outrageous the action – the writing is for this show, like, we have no choice but to embrace it. Like, no one’s going to fault us for trying something new, because there wasn’t any other choice. And I feel like that’s – I always try to design—you know, like, I do my best work when I sort of have the emotion – the environment is set up such that nobody can fault me for taking a chance, because we didn’t have another way to do it. And obviously, I did that on “Swingers” right and left. You know, most of “Swingers” it was – there was only one way to edit those scenes because the budget I had I could only do it one way and you had to commit right then and there. And I think that, you know, that taught me to trust my first instincts, and not cover my ass. So, that was a long answer for – you were asking about a specific director, but.

Going back to “Covert Affairs”, I was curious about the story structure. Is it going to have weekly problems that are solved, you know, by the end of the episode, or is it going to be more of a seasonal arc?
Yeah, I mean, it’s definitely a mission of the week. That you don’t need to have seen the previous episode, and you know, if you miss a few you can – there’s a very specific problem that is set out that needs to be solved that week. There are character arcs that extend across the season, and romantic arcs, you know, that extend across the season. But in terms of the A plot, the A storyline, it’s a story a week.