Piper Perabo & Christopher Gorham Talk Covert Affairs at ComicCon
By Crystal Taylor
Source: Suite 101

At a press roundtable Piper Perabo & Christopher Gorham talk about Annie’s advancement & Auggie in the field and reveal the working relationship they have.
San Diego Comic Con 2011 is so huge that even for media people there is an abundance of story wealth. With such a plethora of interview choices, it can be difficult to choose what to transcribe and write about first. Because the timing of Comic Con coincided with the timing of one of the most important episodes of USA Network’s Covert Affairs, I had to postpone viewing the episode which explained how Auggie Anderson was blinded and the mission he undertakes for revenge. In our press roundtable. Actor Christopher Gorham, who plays Auggie, told me I was in for a treat when I got home. And in honor of how right he was, I’ve chosen my first article to be on his and Piper Perabo’s interview.

Covert Affairs centers on Annie Walker (Piper Perabo), a young CIA operative who is pulled into covert operations before completing her training at Langley all because of her exceptional linguistic skills and her unique relationship to an operative the DPD (Domestic Protection Department) wants to capture. There she becomes friends with the blind CIA/DPD tech, August “Auggie” Anderson, an ex-CIA military intelligence/special ops officer who was blinded on an Iraq mission, and who now supports Annie in the field with information, background, advice, aid, whatever she needs as well as ‘political’ guidance back in the home office. He has her back in the field and in the office.

That Gorham and Perabo have a great working relationship and are fond of each other was readily apparent in the way they looked at each other when answering our questions, teased each other, shot asides to each other, and laughed together. They were having fun with each other at the roundtable and having fun with us. In fact, it was so much fun to talk with them that we got less questions answered than we might have otherwise.

A good example of how well they get along came when Perabo answered a question about her character’s training and movement up the ranks by saying that they were trying not to advance Annie too quickly, “at least not any quicker than is realistic.” The question stirred a thought in Gorham which he believed presented an interesting idea.

“This season we’ve been dealing with Auggie getting a promotion and having to make a decision with what he wants to do with his career.” Gorham elaborated, “And deciding to go back to DPD and sort of mentoring Annie – what’s he going to do down the road if Annie gets a promotion? And has to leave Auggie.” He ended this with a look to his castmate as if to say, ‘what do you think about that?’

And Perabo smiled at him and said, “Annie would never leave Auggie.”

This answer prompted a reporter to suggest that they should be promoted together, which brought a laugh from Gorham, and this response from Perabo: “Yeah. Or go rogue together.”

Auggie in Action
Asked if the most recent episode meant that Auggie will get out in the field more, Gorham said, “I think it is something we’ll continue to see once or twice a year. That’s kind of my feeling. Auggie’s actually gotten out in the field quite a bit this season.”

He went on to explain that he doesn’t think it would be like the last episode which focused on him and had him doing the action scenes. “There has to be a reason for him to be out in the field like that, because he’s blind. So yeah, I think it is something we’ll continue to do, but it’s certainly not something we can do every week.”

This prompted a reporter to comment that this was a different take as Annie was afraid for Auggie in the field for a change. “It’s so funny,” Perabo responded, “I’d do phone call scenes in this episode with him. I’m Auggie in this episode. I’m at the DPD telling him to stand down.”

Gorham agreed that the reversal was nice to see. “One of my favorite scenes in that episode is where we’re on the phone and she’s trying to tell me to stop doing whatever I’m gonna do. It was such a great moment for Annie and Auggie, but also because Piper just gave the greatest performance. In just watching it, I was: ‘come on, Auggie, listen to her. She’s making a lot of sense.’”

Piper Perabo As Sex Symbol
Asked how she deals with being a sex symbol, Perabo said, “I don’t know if I deal with it. Everybody, at least in my experience, no matter what you look like, you still feel like who you are on the inside. You know what I mean, how people perceive you and who you feel you are can be two totally different things. So how people perceive me, I don’t take it, not very much anyway. I think what’s more important for me to be able to operate in the world is to know how I feel about things and I think it’s more important to operate from that place.”

Since we were at the Covert Affairs press roundtable at San Diego Comic Con 2011 with its 125,000 attendees, the obvious next question to Piper Perabo’s answer about being a sex symbol in part 1 of this interview was whether she was comfortable with fans and intense focus they sometimes bring. “I get a little nervous about it, sometimes, because I think…it sounds so corny but everybody is important. Everybody is like…it’s exciting to meet each other, you know what I mean, so for it to be one-sided sometimes, feels so unbalanced to me. Because I’m just as excited to meet someone myself.”

But she thought it was cool to be at an event like Comic Con “where you have people who are huge fans of your show and of the stories that we tell. That’s something I have in common with that person. I love the stories that we do on our show. I get excited about them.” At this point, Perabo showed her enthusiasm by punching the air like a cheerleader. “Like action …and Chris’s episode …see his abs…he plays football with all the guys…”

Settling down, she ended with, “I don’t know, I think it’s kind of involving, too. So I feel like I really connect with people on that level about getting jazzed about the show. And his abs.”

Christopher Gorham and his Abs
Perabo’s bringing up Auggie’s naked abs prompted the question whether the writers asked Gorham ahead of time whether he was willing to go shirtless or if they just sprang it on him. Before he could answer, Perabo teased that he was like that all the time, which led to this cute exchange:

Reporter: He walks around without his shirt…

Gorham: (laughing) That’s about right.

Reporter: …waiting for a scene to put it on. [Photo evidence of multiple shirt shedding provided here with the gracious permission of USA Network]

In answer to the question, Gorham replied “No, it isn’t something they’ve asked permission about, but it is something I did tell them, that I would like notice, when it’s going to happen, because…” At this point, Perabo asided something to Gorham which sounded suspiciously like: so you don’t have bagels for breakfast? And which he responded to with, “I do enjoy cake.”

Action Scenes vs Character Moments
Because the action level is so high on Covert Affairs as opposed to many other TV shows, our dynamic duo was asked if they looked forward to the action scenes more or if now that the show was in its second season and they were playing more with the character moments and character evolution, if they enjoyed that most. To which Gorham replied that they enjoyed both for different reasons.

“Yeah, both,” Perabo added. “They’re both exciting. When we get the new scripts…like we’ll all get it at the same moment…it comes in a sealed envelope. And it’s exciting…like Sendhil [Ramamurthy playing Jai Wilcox] and I used to joke sitting around: ‘I got the script five minutes ahead of you.’ We’d tear it open because the show is so much about secrets that the way the action breaks open, or the way that a revelation breaks open is so exciting. They both have this …like thrill ride feeling to them. And so they’re both exciting.”

Gorham went on to admit that the writers don’t tell them much ahead of time. Perabo agreed, “You can beg them and they won’t tell you.”

“Yeah,” Gorham said, agreeing with Perabo. “So we’re often finding out new things just like the audience finds things out…as we’re getting through episodes. Like I didn’t know, really, the whole story about how Auggie lost his sight until I read the script. And I was begging for that script for weeks. And they kept saying: ‘It’s not ready. I promise you as soon as it’s ready, we’ll send it to you, I promise.’”

This answer prompted another one of the many asides to Gorham from Perabo: “But I think they just like to torture you.” To which he answered, “They do, they do.”

To see how the writers torture them further, watch Covert Affairs Tuesdays on USA Network, 10-11 p.m. ET.