Every once in a while the stars align and a wish is granted.  In this case, a very special glimpse behind the curtain of the smash hit summer series COVERT AFFAIRS.  Invited to attend a special press day at the COVERT AFFAIRS film set in Toronto, Canada, the press were not only given an in-depth tour of all the sets, but we also had the chance to interview a few of the people who make the magic happen, including stars Piper Perabo, Chris Gorham, Sendhil Ramamurthy, Kari Matchett, special guest Eion Bailey, and executive producer Doug Liman.  (Alas, M.I.A. that day were co-stars Peter Gallagher and Anne Dudek who were not on set filming that day.)

The sets of the CIA headquarters (including Auggie’s office, Annie’s desk, Joan’s office, and Arthur’s office) were as grand and prestigious in real life as they look on screen.  Just as lush and yet a bit more intimate were the sets of Annie’s bedroom, Danielle’s kitchen and Joan and Arthur’s house — a brand new set which viewers will be seeing very soon.  Thus, it was with much excitement and near giddy glee as we all walked around gawking at the built to scale interiors of the all too familiar settings.  Being fans of the show, it was a privilege to walk amongst the fictional world that we all loved to peek inside each week.

As if wandering through the hallowed halls of the mock-CIA sets were not enough, we were also allowed to watch a few live action scenes from an upcoming episode.  Due to the confidential nature of the filming, suffice it to say, it was a pleasant surprise to see Eion Bailey, who plays Ben Mercer, again.

Life in the COVERT AFFAIRS world is as glamorous and action-packed as one can imagine.  The activity just never stopped.  It was a great pleasure that each of the cast members and executive producer Doug Liman took a few moments out of their busy schedules to share a few candid thoughts about the show.  In fact, Mr. Liman made a special trip via his personal plane in which he flew directly to the set.  It sure makes a grand entrance when a television producer lands his plane right in the parking lot outside the studio.  It was a remarkable and generous gesture that he was willing to literally pop in and talk about the amazing world of COVERT AFFAIRS!

SENDHIL RAMAMURTHY
How would you describe the mystery of Jai Wilcox?
SENDHIL: The mystery of Jai? We don’t know a lot about him yet.  And to be honest, I don’t know a ton more than you guys do.  It’s a very slow burn for Jai, and you get little snippets of his backstory. I think at some point we’ll probably find out a lot more about where he came from and maybe what he was doing in London before he came and joined up at Langley.  But this season, it goes very slowly and kind of starts going to some dark places for Jai.  And I still have no idea what the ultimate end-game is ’cause I can’t figure it out.  I mean, this is the next script right here. [Holds up transcript.]  I haven’t read it yet and they just handed it to me, but you heard it here first.  Its called, Sad Professor and I’m sure it’ll be a good one.  But it starts out very slowly and kind of like a gentle simmer and then I think towards the end of the first part of our season — ’cause I guess we’re going to air 10 episodes straight through and then take a break and then come back and do 6 — by the end of the first 10, it’ll kind of become apparent what Jai’s end-game is for the season.  But, at the beginning, it’s kind of like seeing Jai dealing with not having things going his way — and that’s not something that he’s used to.  I mean, he always gets what he wants.  It’s been like that his whole life.  He’s led a very privileged life and had a privileged upbringing and he’s not really used to this.  But he’s also pretty crafty and willing to do things that maybe others wouldn’t, and maybe that he shouldn’t do, to get what he wants.  And we’re going to kind of start exploring that a little bit — and it’s a little bit dark, and it’s kind of cool to play.

What would be Jai’s secret weapon, as far as one of his qualities that he’s trying to utilize to achieve his goals?
SENDHIL: I think that he’s good at talking — talking his way out of things or into things, as the case may be — I’ve heard that I talk myself into something in this episode.  But, I think that he has a lot of tools in his arsenal to kind of achieve what he wants.  He can go charm offensive, he can be just a flat out prick, or he can try bully his way through.  So he kind of does what’s needed. Kind of assesses the situation and then does what’s needed to get where he needs to be. 

I was a little curious about how in the first episode of this season Jai brought the puzzle books to the hospital for Ben.  What provoked that?
SENDHIL: I think that it was actually a genuine moment for this guy, Ben, who obviously he’s not on the closest terms with, but he’s gone through a lot, and the way I thought about it ’cause I did think: ‘why on earth is Jai bringing Sudoku’s to Ben Mercer?’ Like, a dude that he really is not fond of, and I kind of took it upon myself that Jai feels somewhat responsible, even though he really couldn’t have done anything. His back was turned at the point, but he was standing there when Ben got shot and he was trying to get them onto the helicopter and he got pegged. Ben got shot.  And so that’s what I put in my head as the reason that he brought some Sudoku is basically like: ‘I hate you, but sorry you got shot.’

Like a glimmer of humanity that’s in there?
SENDHIL:  Exactly.
 
Are we going to find out ever why there’s so much bad blood between Jai and Auggie?
SENDHIL: I think it’s probably touched on a little bit in further episodes, definitely.  I think, actually, the one airing on Tuesday, some stuff comes out. I can’t remember ’cause we mixed the order up while we were shooting, so I’m not quite sure what’s aired and what’s not.  But, we will and I think a lot of it just stems from the fact that throughout the CIA for Jai, he’s Henry Wilcox’s son and everybody kind of thinks he must be like him.   I think Jai could have kind of done anything.  He went to Yale and has a good head on his shoulders.  He could have gone into anything and probably made a lot of money, but he’s decided to fall into his father’s line of work, knowing that he didn’t have the greatest reputation and that he was considered the Prince of Darkness and all these things at the CIA.  It’s either balsy or really stupid of Jai to kind of try and go in there. Part of my thinking with the character is he wants to change that perception, not necessarily of his father, because that boat may have sailed at this point, but kind of redeem the family name a little bit and cut his own path. ‘Cause when you grow up around a certain environment, it’s kind of natural to go and follow your parents’ footsteps.

Do you think part of it is wanting to prove something to his dad?
SENDHIL: Prove something to his dad, especially.  I mean, they have a very contentious relationship and, actually, Greg Itzen is up here right now and we’re about to shoot a bunch of scenes tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to ’cause they’re a lot of fun. Actually, there’s like a little bombshell that comes out at the end of one of their conversations and I’m looking forward to playing those moments.

In the first season, I really liked the, the relationship between you and Annie, and I don’t mean this in a romantic perspective, but is that relationship going to continue to grow this season, and is it going to stay more as a friendship, or what direction is it going, or is it going to stay strictly professional?
SENDHIL: Again, the answer is:  I don’t know.  But Jai has quite a few fires to put out on his own this season that he’s dealing with.  The relationship with Annie, I suppose is touched on, but I think that it’s more of a friendship type of thing.  That’s just my own personal thing.  I think that last season he was on a mission.  He was doing his job and there’s certainly a kind of familiar air — a familiarity — and I think they get along really well.  Romantic-wise, I doubt it.  I don’t see it.

I was just thinking more along the lines of if it’s going to stay strictly professional and you guys are colleagues, but, because I saw hints of that friendship creeping in and there was definitely a camaraderie going on in the first season?
SENDHIL: Oh, I see what you mean now.  No. The camaraderie is definitely there and you see it in even the episode that we shot, just finished. Jai ends up having to go in and he and Annie come together at the end of a mission and you kind of see a deepening of their friendship, which is cool.  But for the most part so far Jai’s kind of been off on his own, dealing with things that he doesn’t really want to be dealing with, to be honest. But he’s forced to and he’s going down paths that he probably never thought that he would. But he needs to — to get what he wants.

What about Jai do you think appeals to your audience?
SENDHIL: I don’t know.  I mean, I try not to think about appealing to audiences.  I just try to think about playing the character. But I think that if you’re into the kind of the ‘bad boy’ thing you’ll kind of be attracted to Jai.  He just kind of does what he wants and doesn’t really care too much about what anybody else thinks.  So that’s the way I’ve tried to approach the character, ’cause as you’ll see — as you see more episodes — he kind of starts going to places that I actually never really thought that he would go.  But it’s fun to play and it’s dark for our show.  I’m interested to see how it’s played.  Like, there’s something to be said for playing a character who really marches to the beat of his own drum and isn’t really concerned with what others think of him — as long as he gets what he wants.   

How do you relate to your character and where do you draw your inspiration to be that ‘bad boy’ from?
SENDHIL: My youth. No, we won’t even get into that. But I’m finding it surprisingly easy to draw on this stuff.  Because it’s fun.  It’s written fun and he’s kind of a naturally flirtatious character — cocky and arrogant — that can turn some people off. Some people just don’t really respond to that and some people do.  So that’s where worrying about what the audience thinks of your character, I don’t see how it’s helpful.  Just play what’s written and then people will respond to how they want to respond.  But it’s a lot more fun than playing a full-on good guy and I think it’s more realistic, like CIA-wise, just because I don’t think anybody in the CIA is all good or all bad.  It’s impossible.  If you’re going to be successful in the CIA, you have to be willing to do some pretty messed up stuff, and I think Jai is more than willing a lot of the times to do that, which is why, I think, ultimately he’ll probably do very well at the CIA.

Do you prefer playing the good guy or do you like playing a character with more scruples?
SENDHIL: No, I’m pretty anti-scruples. It’s much more fun to not have scruples.  It can be a dangerous road to go down for a character, certainly, but it’s definitely a more fun road. I pretty much played a good guy on HEROES for the whole time, except for this little fly experiment. And, you know, that was fun.  But it’s always nice to do something different, and that’s what attracted me to the part, is that they were like:  ‘No, this guy is not going to be apple pie’ and I said: ‘Great, let’s do it!’

For Season 2 gearing up, did you do anything to try to any new tech training, or did you read up on something that maybe from season one you decided, ‘hey, let’s look at this and get a little bit more insight of something’?
SENDHIL: Yeah.  Like physically, actually I did for season one ’cause we kind of established that Jai’s fluent with Parkour and all of these kind of things, and I thought, ‘Well, in case they write something like that, I better limber up.’  So I started doing a lot of yoga and Pilates and and being more active about working out a little bit more.  I’ve always been active and athletic. I play a lot of tennis, but I started with that just to see and  Jai goes into the field this season and we get to see him in action a little bit, which has been a lot of fun and I think that there’s more of that stuff coming up later in the season.

There are a lot of tech toys on the show, anything you want to take home with you?
SENDHIL: Well, Auggie gets most of the tech toys, to be honest.  He’s the one who gets all the cool stuff.  It’s mainly guns for me, which I think were cool. I’d rather have a gun.  But I’ve had guns blazing in a few episodes now, so that’s always fun for me.  It’s the Texan at heart. 

Which one’s your favourite so far?
SENDHIL: It’s been mostly hand guns right now. Different types of hand guns.  I got to do some very cool stuff where I was up in a helicopter and then got to come rushing out of it as they landed it.  We’re in this huge field and got to come out, guns blazing, which is always fun — boys and toys.  But we’ll see if there’s some more of that planned further down the season. I’m not too sure about that.

The show has embraced Twitter, when are we going see you on Twitter?
SENDHIL: Boy, I just don’t see that happening. I’m going to be honest.  I mean, I’m not really a Twitter guy. Gorham’s the Twitter guy. He’s tweeting constantly. But I called it the wrong name the other day.  I was like: ‘Are you tweetering?’ I’m not really proficient with it.  It’s probably best ’cause I’d probably send something out by accident that shouldn’t be sent out. But, no, Twitter’s not really my thing. I know that a lot of people are really into it and are enjoying the Twitter casts on the computer and stuff. So that’s cool.  I think that’s great.  It’s a really great way for the fans to interact and there was a lot of that going on HEROES. I’ve actually made a conscious effort this season.  I’m going to at least know what’s going on, ’cause people would come up to me and ask me about online stuff on HEROES and I had no idea what they were talking about.  Like there was a comic book and I’m like, ‘we didn’t have anything to do with that stuff.’  So we know there were webisodes and all this stuff — we weren’t really involved in that.  So I’m going to at least know what’s going on.  I know that there’s Twitter casts going on about Budapest, and as far as I know that’s it, right?  Okay. I’m on top of it. We’re good to go.

You came from HEROES that had a very large ensemble cast and this cast is smaller.  Is it easier to work with a smaller cast?
SENDHIL: It’s just different.  It’s different working with a smaller cast.  You have to work more.  In HEROES, if you worked two days a week or three days a week, that was your norm.  That was like a heavy week, unless you were heavily featured in an episode.  A couple episodes you’d work every day, but we also had a lot longer to shoot for HEROES.  This show, we do in eight days.  It’s eight-day episodes and some of them, like the one we’re shooting right now, is a seven-day episode.  We also had 12 days to shoot HEROES and we had two units going at all times.  It was like a movie.  So it’s a lot less hectic here.  Much more chilled out, much more contained, and it makes it smaller in scale, so it makes it a little bit easier to do your work.

Speaking of Heroes, do you know anything of these follow-up movies that we keep hearing about, these rumours?
SENDHIL: They’re rumours.  I hear them too.  But I think it’s pretty damn unlikely.  I mean, a lot of us are off doing other things under contracts with different people. I hope that happens, just for the fans’ sake.  But, realistically, I don’t see a chance of that happening. Not with the whole cast together.  It’d be impossible just to kind of get everybody together. 

Since Piper recently went to Paris to film, do you get to go to any cool, exotic locations anytime soon?
SENDHIL: As far as I know, no. I know that Piper went to Paris and Puerto Rico. Chris is going to Istanbul.  Then I’ve heard, but I don’t know if this is actually happening, that they’re planning on a German expedition at some point and maybe one to Norway to Oslo.  So that’s what I’ve heard.  Those aren’t confirmed.  But Istanbul, Puerto Rico and Paris are definite.

But they’re leaving you behind here?
SENDHIL: I get left behind for reasons which will come out.

Sounds like Jai’s been starting some trouble.
SENDHIL: I don’t think intentionally.  But I think ultimately maybe that’s what’s going to happen.  Again, I don’t know ’cause we haven’t gotten far enough in, but I think really kind of from the fifth episode on, you’re going to see the direction that Jai goes down for the season.  There’s a scene with Joan where he kind of makes a decision as to what he’s going to do — which was a lot of fun to play — and you’ll kind of know what he’s up to.  But then I think it twists and it goes in a different direction that you don’t even really expect for the back six.  So we’ll see. I’m looking forward to it. I’m having a blast.

DOUG LIMAN
With the current events going on, like bin Laden getting killed, is that going to factor the way the second season of Covert Affairs is kind of shaping up or you’ve pretty much already got that squared away?
DOUG: We’ll never go that deep into the world of terrorism. Those aren’t really the stories the show does.  But this season was definitely influenced by the events in Pakistan that actually pre-dated bin Laden.  Like the CIA contract officer who gunned down two Pakistanis in Lahore earlier in the year and the sort of web of politics that went into going after bin Laden eventually.  Like they couldn’t go get bin Laden as long as they had a CIA contract officer in a Pakistani prison because they were worried that guy would killed by the Pakistanis.  The way the different sort of aspects of government [can play into it].  It would be cool to just go in and kill bin Laden.  They knew where he was for months, but there’s other aspects and complications.  And our stories work best when we actually set them in worlds where there are complications — the State Department has a competing agenda to the CIA’s agenda and Annie gets put in the middle or Joan or the other characters get put in the middle.  So, in that way, because there was so much press coverage of Pakistan this year, and specifically of how the CIA was operating in Pakistan, it was just more material for us to work with in terms of the sort of bureaucratic challenges that these characters face.

What do you love the most about Covert Affairs, right now?
DOUG: I really am in love with Annie’s character.  I’m deeply in love with Chris Gorham’s character.  I just think that Auggie completely transcended his handicap.  I mean, he’s just this incredible sex symbol and you just want to follow him and you want to be with him all the time. I love sending him out in the field and we’re doing that again. I’m sure other people have probably told you that already.  In fact, Chris Gorham’s going to Istanbul next week.  I’m hoping  to be there with him.  The mission he’s on in Istanbul would be almost impossible for somebody who was sighted — and he has to do it blind.  The episode we’re currently shooting — I guess you guys are going to the airport — where Kari is going on to the field for the first time and I feel like when things work, either movies or TV shows, it’s because the exact right characters are on the right journey.  Like you wouldn’t want to have Jason Bourne like going to Vegas with a friend trying to pick up girls.  You wouldn’t want to have Jon Favreau’s character from Swingers like being chased by assassins ’cause that wouldn’t really bring out what’s interesting.  But Matt [Corman] and Chris [Ord] have really created a world of not just Piper and Chris, but the whole extended cast and even the guest stars.  The story lines bring out what’s most interesting.  Like seeing Joan, who’s Annie’s boss – who you’ve only seen behind a desk — out in the field and, and remembering that she actually once was a field operative, suddenly makes Joan’s character so much more compelling.  And I feel like we keep finding new ways to explore these characters and they get better and better.  Like we have so much road ahead of us.

Has there been like a particular nugget to each character that you’ve been totally surprised by as the series has developed?
DOUG: I think I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how great a sense of humour our entire cast have.  That was always something that was really important for me for the series.  That the characters  bring a sense of humour to it.  Not that we create humorous situations. But the characters, themselves, bring the humour.  ‘Cause I come from the kind of environment where my family always brought humour to situations no matter how dire.  There were probably never more laughter or jokes than at a funeral in my family.  So I really respond to that on a personal level. Piper’s hysterical, Chris is hysterical, even Kari, in the episode that just aired in Paris, when she’s on jury duty is. It was thrilling and I was like, ‘oh, there’s this whole other side that we haven’t even explored for this character!’ Everybody has so much range.

Is the relationship between Annie and Ben something that is going to go long term or is there going to be some sort of resolution?
DOUG:  We haven’t written the entire season.  The thing about TV is you can make up your mind and then you can change your mind.  And it’s one of the things I love about it ’cause it’s sort of an ongoing, organic process. ‘Cause you’re writing, shooting and airing episodes while you’re still writing future episodes.  So my personal feeling about it is that, as Annie matures and grows up a little bit more, she will recognize that Ben is a dead-end street and that while there is an attraction to a guy like Ben — that it is something which seems great at the beginning — at a certain point, you grow up.  He’s at the beginning of an arc, not at the end of the arc.  So that’s my attitude and Matt [Corman] and Chris’ [Ord] attitude going in.  But again, for Annie to get to that place could take 10 years or it could happen this year.  We’re tracking it.

Last year you mentioned that kind of part of the whole thing with Covert Affairs was putting a human face on CIA agents. What type of feedback and response did you receive on that aspect?
DOUG:  From the CIA?

From the CIA and viewers, in general, like taking that different kind of look at a CIA agent rather than it just being completely mission, mission, mission.
DOUG: Obviously, we’re extremely highly rated and so I came away from the first season feeling like that was a good call and let’s do it better in the second season.  So there wasn’t a ‘let’s re-evaluate some of the choices we made’ thing.  It’s like: ‘No, that choice is working’ and and not only working, the viewers are just sitting down and watching it with friends or whatever.  Watching an episode you just sort of get a feeling which ones work and which ones don’t work.  Sean Ryerson, who’s one of our producers, and I were just upstairs and talking about some upcoming episodes of COVERT AFFAIRS and just thinking about this season and which episodes we think are working better than others.  What are we learning about the show, consistently it’s the episodes where the character stories are big, those are our best episodes.  It’s just my opinion that they’re our best episodes from the beginning and we now see the evidence of it.  The Paris episode is a great episode, not because we went to Paris and filmed Piper in Paris, it’s a great episode because there’s a great love story in Paris with a Mossad agent and her wrestling with: do tell the people around you what you do for a living?  The character story is a big story in that.

How much research went into creating a blind character?
DOUG: A ton.  Hopefully, you are going to talk to Chris.  What he has done for this character in terms of the work he put in is extraordinary.  And he’s basically on a first-name basis with a number of people at the, Toronto Canadian Centre for the Blind that he has spent a lot of time at.  He has these relationships and it’s not just the research that went into creating the character at the beginning, but it’s the just on-going research because he has really become the guardian of that character.  He takes it so seriously that we, we trust him with that.  It’s generally my philosophy to sort of treat the actors as the guardians of their characters, because the rest of us are caught up in so many other facets of details of the show that entrusting the actors to really be the guardians of their character and empowering them to do that not only makes the day actually possible, it makes life possible.  Because otherwise, there’d be too many details to worry about.  But it actually makes for better content. We’ll write an episode where [Auggie’s] at home and Chris will reach out to his contacts in the blind community here in Toronto and go over to their houses and study how does somebody who’s blind pour a cup of coffee.  Right?  ‘Cause how, how can they possibly know when the liquid’s up towards the top?  It’s different than pouring like a cup of water ’cause you can put your finger in there, but you don’t want to put your finger in boiling water.  It’s things that the rest of us just take for granted.  And you can always count on Chris.  Every time he gets the script and he looks at what’s being asked of him, the next thing he’s doing is he’s on the phone or getting in his car and driving over and working with somebody who’s actually blind to understand how a blind person would actually do that particular thing.

What made you decide to go in that direction and actually write a character that was blind?
DOUG: I think we all shared a really deep love for the Robert Redford film, Sneakers.  So it’s like the producers, the writers — like we’re all sort of a certain age and it’s like we just grew up with Sneakers being one film – especially for guys of a certain age, there’s no way it’s just not one of your favourite films ever — and there was a very memorable blind character in that. 

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM
In the big Auggie-episode coming up, the scene where Auggie ends up losing his sight, was that real emotional for you?  How did you react to filming that scene?
CHRIS: It’s a difficult scene to describe without giving away how it happens.  It is an emotional scene.  How do I describe it?  Honestly, we shot 136 set-ups that day and everything was moving so fast.  But that moment was very still and very special somehow.  I think it was probably the biggest production day we’ve done to date.

How did you prepare for your role playing a blind person?
CHRIS: I started, before the pilot, working with an organization here in Toronto called the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, CNIB.  And I’m still working with them even now.  This year I’ve gone in and got kind of a tour.  There’s a guy that works there who’s blind, and who’s really into tech, kind of like a real life Auggie.  So he gave me a tour of all of his gadgets and showed me how it all worked, and showed me how he texts using his iPhone and his tiny little Braille keyboard that connects via Bluetooth to his iPhone and Braille printers and all of his gadgets. I also did some blindfolded training this year — some blindfolded mobility training out on the streets of Toronto, crossing intersections, and walking down sidewalks, and all of that stuff, which is terrifying.  But I really wanted to do it because one of the first guys that I met who lost his sight when he was 20 years old in a car accident, in our conversations he was telling me that during his recovery when he was learning how to get around as a blind person, he gave up for a full year — because he was so embarrassed to walk up and down his street with his cane to practice.  ‘Cause he was 20, I mean, he was just a kid and he just gave up and stayed home.  And he had good friends and they would take him everywhere.  But it took a full year before he finally had really the courage to start again and, learn how to be independent.  I wanted to see what it’s like, and I tell you, it’s so immediately disorienting. You can’t walk in a straight line.  I don’t know if you know this, but it’s physically impossible, if you close your eyes, to walk in a straight line.  Like you veer and it’s so easy to end up in the street.  It’s so easy and it takes such real bravery to overcome that fear and learn to be really good at it.  Like some of like these men and women that I’ve met — somebody like Auggie.  That’s partly what I think makes his character so likeable and admirable is that there’s a strength within him — that he’s really been through something extraordinary. 

I understand you’re working on some kind of project with the Covert Affairs DVDs to make them accessible to the blind. Can you talk about that?
CHRIS: It’s called descriptive video.  Last year, as a ‘thank you’ to the CNIB, I wanted to arrange a screening of one of our episodes at their building,  so when I talked to them about it they said:  ‘It would be great if you could get descriptive video on it so that the blind people could really enjoy the episode.’  What it is, essentially, is they take out the ambient music from the show and insert narration about what’s going on — what people look like, the action, and the dialogue, of course, all stays in.  And they’re really good at it.  So I called up the network and I said:  ‘Listen, I’d really love to do this thing, could we have the episode and would you guys mind footing the bill to have the descriptive video process done?’  And they were great and they said: ‘Yeah, we’ll do it, just tell us, where should we go.’  So we hooked them up with this company in Vancouver and USA [Network] made it all happen and it was a big success.  So then I ended up doing press in New York for the Auggie’s episode last year and we did this event at the USA Network offices and I was talking to the woman who was handling all the DVD stuff and I said: ‘Listen, look at this — descriptive video is amazing. It’s not very expensive and you guys should be doing it on all your shows’ DVDs.  But if you’re going to do it at all, you have to do it for this show.  Please, at least for my episode.  But if you can do it for all the episodes, it would be so great, and I know the blind community would appreciate it.’  Then when the DVDs came out, they did it.  It’s on every episode on our DVD.  It’s a small thing, but it just takes effort.  It just takes that extra effort and people really appreciate it.  I’m so really proud to be on a network that will take somebody like me seriously and then do something that’s really important like that. 

When someone has a physical disability, it’s easy to fake a limp or a stiff arm, but trying to play blind when you have sight, how difficult is that?
CHRIS:  It’s tricky. It’s also a team effort, because it’s been a learning experience.   I think I’ve gotten better at it, just like the show has gotten better at it.  Starting out shooting the pilot, we were finding all kinds of weird technical issues, like we’d shoot the master and I would be kind of off to the right of Piper’s head or whatever, and my eyes would be kind of in that area.  But then we’d come to the close-up and that’s where the camera would be.  Then suddenly things weren’t matching.  So I have to plan ahead and there has to be a good communication as to where are you guys going to be and that I’m not staring into the camera.  Also, a guy like Auggie in real life would actually be very good at eye contact, because people who’ve grown up with sight and then lost it, their body just remembers.  You can hear a voice and turn and your head just knows where to go.  So much so that it can be really disconcerting when you’re having a conversation with someone who’s blind and it really looks like they’re looking at you.  It starts to freak you out.  But if I do that on the show, it just\ becomes very confusing for the audience.  So I have to make Auggie not as good as he would be in life.  And I also tell the directors because we get new directors all the time, and I tell them: ‘Listen I won’t be offended.  If it looks like I’m looking at whomever, tell me. Because then I can just adjust it and we don’t want that.’  Like I will never be looking at them, but sometimes because of the camera angle, it can be a little tricky.  But then, technically, as far as the performance goes, it really just comes from just doing my research, doing a lot of observing, going through these classes, and finding out what the behaviour is.  Like you know how to feel a chair with the back of your legs before you sit down so you don’t have to feel around.  So it’s subtle and natural, you don’t see me trying to find things.  It’s reaching for a cup of coffee and instead of doing it like this, it’s doing it with the backs of your hands so you don’t knock things over, or you don’t get burned.  Like doing things in grids, or if you fall on the ground, you’re searching in circles.  Those are details that you really just find out by going and finding out the answers to those questions.  So it’s tricky.  It’s also fun and it’s part of what makes it so rewarding – but it is not that it’s not easy to do. 

Doug Liman gave the example earlier that you have to learn how to pour yourself a cup of coffee without spilling it ‘cause you got to know when it reaches the top. Can you tell us that secret to how a blind person does that?
CHRIS: Well, there’s a couple things you do.  It was funny actually, ’cause when I knew that we were going to see Auggie’s apartment, I called up my coach over there at the CNIB and I said:  ‘Look, what do you do?  Like how do you teach people to work in their kitchens and around the apartment?’  She said:  ‘Well, come in. We’ll do the class for you in the kitchen and show you like how to do the cooking things.  So we go in and the first thing that comes out of that is a phone call to the props department, because there are certain things that you use that we use in the show.  They have non-slip pads that they’ll put down on the counter and then a tray, and then a non-slip pad on the tray.  The idea being that, if you spill, it doesn’t go all over the counter and on the floor.  It stays in the tray.  Like there’s real logic to how everything is set up and how they teach people to do it.  At first they have a little gadget that they sell, which sits on the lip of a coffee cup and it has two little metal receptors at the end, and when the liquid touches it a little alarm goes off.  So it tells you that your cup is full.  So they’re showing me this thing, and  there is this woman who had lost her sight to diabetes, so I said to her:  ‘Now, do you use that thing at home?’ She was like, ‘No.’ I wouldn’t think so.  I mean, it seems like that’d be a pain to like always have to find this little gadget and make sure it has batteries just to pour yourself a cup of coffee.  I said:  ‘But how do you do it?’ And she said:  ‘Well, you just do it kind of by sound, ’cause you can hear it.  You just kind of hear as the sound of the water changes as the cup fills up.’  You can hear when it’s getting close to the top, and you just get good at it.  So it’s just practice.  She’s like:  ‘Sometimes, I miss it and I spill, or you can put your finger just over the lip.  But you have to be careful with hot things, ’cause you don’t want to get burned.’  But so I just practiced by hearing, ’cause I figured Auggie’s like one of the coolest guys ever — so he’s not using some like dorky gadget.  So that was out the door.  So I just practiced.  You set your cup a certain way so you know where the handle is, and you pour it, and just listen for it to be at the top. I got it every time. I didn’t spill once.  Everybody on the crew was very impressed.
 
Is that ’cause you’re cheating ’cause you could actually see?
CHRIS:  No, ’cause I couldn’t look at it, ’cause it’s way down here. I mean, I’m doing it, I’m doing it all down here while I’m talking to Emmanuelle [Vaugier] — like while we’re doing my lines and I can’t see it.

Good instincts.
CHRIS: Well, it’s practice. That’s all. 

Where do you think Auggie’s strength, at this point in his life, really comes from?  He’s probably one of the most confident characters on the entire show and there’s got to be something that gives him that strength that he draws upon.
CHRIS:  Well, he’s one of those very special people on this planet who has an extraordinary amount of strength in him.  I mean, I don’t know how much you know about the Special Forces, but even the stuff you read — Seal Team 6 has been in the news because of killing Osama bin Laden, and Auggie’s one of those guys.  These are some of the strongest, most ambitious, toughest, really smart guys that this planet has to offer.  In addition to that, he’s lost people in battle, he’s been through the fire, he lost his sight, he’s gone through more in his life already than most people will ever see.  So I think he’s built up through all of those things a lot of strength and a lot of confidence in what he does.  I think it’s part of what makes him so attractive to women is that confidence.  He’s a good looking guy, but he’s confident and he knows what he wants.  I think people are attracted to that.  Also, he got beat up a lot as a kid.  He’s got four older brothers and they were not nice, so that had to help. 

How do you think Auggie inspires the blind community, the people that are aware of his character?
CHRIS: I don’t know if he inspires the blind community, but so far, the reaction that I’ve gotten from the blind community has been very positive.  I think it comes from a couple things.  I think first it comes from the character that’s been written by Matt [Corman] and Chris [Ord] — who is a very capable, smart person with incredible skill who happens to have a disability.  So he’s not a victim, which I think is a big sensitive spot for that community.  He’s also not a Superman, like he’s not infallible.  So I think they appreciate that as well.  I think other side of it is that I’ve worked very hard to get his portrayal as right as I can, and really have done my homework and had conversations and met with a lot of people, and have taken it very seriously.  I think that they appreciate that, as well.

You’ve played a couple of challenging parts — you had the killer on Harper’s Island and now Auggie — are you attracted to challenging parts?
CHRIS:  Well, yes, but I can’t take credit for all of it.  I mean, Harper’s Island, for instance, is a perfect example where I suspected that I was going to be the killer on that show, but I didn’t really know until we were halfway through.  Auggie on the other hand, there were no secrets, and I was really excited about doing it, and doing something really different.  I mean, honestly, the past few years has been really exciting and I’m really proud of the work. Starting with Ugly Betty, which in itself is a very distinct character and not me, and then to go to Harper’s, and then to come to this show.  Kind of taking everything that I’ve learned and and bringing it into this part, the big challenge again with the blindness is that it’s such a specific physicality that you just can’t wing it.  Like you just can’t make it up.

Is one more difficult than the other?
CHRIS:  Well, yeah.  I mean, doing this is more difficult.  I mean, any kind of interesting complex character is always going to be challenging, but having something so specific, like a physicality like this that’s so specific that you have to get right. Like you can’t just kind of do it my way and kind of wing it.  It really has to be right.  I can be creative within that and go in different directions with other things about Auggie, but the physicality of his disability has to be accurate, and that takes extra work.

There are a lot of Annie and Auggie shippers out there, how do you feel about a connection, a romantic connection, between the characters?
CHRIS: I think they definitely have that chemistry,. I think that that kind of a relationship is something that is kind of a very long-term arc for this show.  It’s not something that is going to happen any time soon — I don’t think.  But they don’t tell us everything. 

How do you feel about that happening eventually?  If there is a possibility, would you like that to happen?
CHRIS: Oh, I think it could happen.  If it were to happen like many, many years from now, that would mean I’m still on the show, so that’s a very good thing.  But, just as a fan and — and I’m kind of taking myself out of it — just looking at those two characters, I like those two characters a lot, and they get along very well.  They compliment each other very well.  I think they’re growing to need each other, which is nice.

PIPER PERABO
So we heard for the Paris episode you actually filmed in Paris, and you flew in for 36 hours and came right back?
PIPER: Yeah, we actually we filmed in Puerto Rico for Guam for the premiere and then we flew then onto Paris.  So we did Toronto, Puerto Rico, Paris and then a day in New York, then back to Toronto. 

All within like what 40-48 hours?
PIPER: It was like we were there for two and a half days in Puerto Rico, and 36 hours in Paris.  But there were, layovers, and flying, so I think it was like five or six days altogether. 

What a whirlwind.
PIPER: Yeah, it was really fun though.  It was great.  And to run out into the real world is always kind of like a mind-blower. It’s your actor dream come true that you’re running across the Plaza at the Louvre — and it’s the Plaza at the Louvre!.  You don’t have to do that much work to imagine it. 

This summer, Covert Affairs is going to be making its debut at Comic-Con, are you excited to be able to interact with the fans, and hear some of the reaction to the show in person?
PIPER:  I’ve never been to Comic-Con, but I have friends who have.  My friend Lena Headey did the 300 and so she was there, and Chris Pine told me about it, and we’re going with Sendhil.  So so apparently like going with one of the HEROES is like going with Mr. Spock or whatever.  Comic-Con’s going to be pretty full on.  But [Sendhil’s] been giving me a lot of pointers.  He’s like:  ‘You just got to be cool. We’re going to do a lot of photos.  You got to fluff up your hair a lot.’  I think it’ll be really fun.  It’ll be cool to go with someone like Sendhil, ’cause he kind of knows the lay of the land.  And apparently, it’s huge.  I can’t really imagine it. It’ll be awesome. 

How hard is it to kick-butt in your Louboutins?
PIPER:  It’s always hard.  This season I get to wear sneakers, obviously, and we did one other episode where I’m on the Poland / Belarus border, that was the episode that we shot with Peter Stormare, which is super cool, and I got to wear boots in that episode, too.  So I’m getting a little spoiled this year.  I’ve had two episodes not in Louboutins.  It’s much easier to kick-butt in a flat shoe.  But I’m not going to get too comfortable.  I like kicking butt in them.

What kind of training are you getting for the show?
PIPER: We’re still doing mixed martial arts. So the fighting style is still a mix of like very tight hand-to-hand combat, Krav Maga.  For some reason, this year, it’s a lot more running. I don’t know. I think they like how it looks, the running. It just gets exciting.  I don’t know why the cameras guys are like exhausted when they’re running backwards.  I think they like it when I have to be in heels ’cause it keeps me slow enough so the camera guys can keep up.  In the Argentina episode — I don’t think it’s aired yet — we’re running through the woods and one of the camera guys actually like took a spill.  Like he’s like running backwards and it was like ‘whoa!’ and he was out.  He was fine, but I appreciate that other people are taking risks as well. 

You’ve done both TV and film, do you prefer one to the other or is it just work?
PIPER: They’re both so separate.. I did an indie right before I came up here to start this season, and now doing film seems like so slow.  Like theatre seems slow compared to film, ’cause you get all this time to rehearse, and you can really take your time, and you talk about every little minutia.  And now film seems slow compared to television, because you shoot 10-pages a day on TV, you would never shoot that many in film.  So it’s really different. In a way I’m glad that I did TV third, ’cause I think you have to really trust your instincts. It’s going so fast that you’re just making decisions kind of in the moment, so you have to kind of be open and available to, to do that.  

Are we looking forward to any moments where like the glass kind of shatters in Annie’s world?  We heard earlier from Sendhil that he might be going a little darker this season, in which case, that might just kind of rock or shatter a little bit of her perception of him.
PIPER: Yeah.  Chris also has a moment of shattering my perception, maybe he didn’t tell you about that.  Things start to get mixed around.  Also Annie has more love interests this year, so that starts to get a little difficult to balance.  I’ve got that problem in this episode [that we are currently filming], actually.  More than one pan on the stove. 

Is there anyone in particular you want to play as Annie’s love interest?
PIPER:  Oh,  I’m always fighting to get Ben Wishaw. I really like Ben Wishaw.  And I just saw the Mother Fucker in the Hat, that new play on Broadway, I think it’d be really fun to have Yul Vazquez and Bobby Cannavale come on the show.  I like them. 

So have you gotten a gun yet?
PIPER:  No, and you know, I always have one on the poster, so it was so weird that I don’t have one in the show.  But I did an episode with Noam Jenkins who plays the FBI agent, Agent Rossabi, and he was like: ‘You still don’t have a gun?’ All this stuff we were doing and he was like: ‘I could give you a gun’.  So I started to talking to the writers about it. I was like: ‘Maybe I could get — not necessarily issued — but acquire a secret weapon.’  But thenit makes the fights scenes less dramatic.  I do like that I don’t have a gun, because I think it makes the fight scenes and all the action sequences, by nature, then have to be much more creative on where you get your weapons.  You’re much more vulnerable, obviously, if you don’t have a weapon.  Even if the other person doesn’t have one either, because unless I’m fighting a woman my size, I’m really at a disadvantage.  We did a fight scene — I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say, well, whatever — we did this fight scene underneath a planetarium where I’m fighting a girl my size and only the safety lights are on.  So not only is it dark and night, but there’s no weapons, and we’re evenly matched.  So to me that was really cool.  If you have a gun that kind of stuff would never happen.  So I’m not really for getting the gun yet, it’s more fun without.  It’ll be a big thing for her to get one, I think.

Well, how much input do you have in creating your character, expanding her background?
PIPER:  I offer lots of suggestions. But we talk about it a lot and we also have advisors at the CIA. CIA officers do not carry guns on American soil because they don’t have a badge. So you can’t really explain the gun if you’re a banker or whatever.  They only really carry them on foreign soil and even then sometimes they don’t.  I’ve spoken to one agent that I now know — ’cause you can carry the weapon of your preference when you’re on foreign soil — so I said: ‘What’s your weapon of preference?’  And she said: ‘I purposefully don’t carry a weapon because I think it would spook my assets’.  So she has security [people] that her assets don’t know are in the room, or standing in the street or something, and they have weapons, but she doesn’t carry because she thinks it’ll make the assets nervous. 

So how much research went into you getting this role initially?
PIPER: All I could do before I got the role was read and I saw a lot of spy films. I really like Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and Legacy of Ashes was a book that was really helpful.  But it wasn’t until I got the role that I got entrée into Langley, because Doug Liman was making Fair Game.  So then I met Valerie Plame, and she became our advisor on the pilot, and then I got actually entrée into Langley and spent time there.  Time with agents and then I really got the access. 

So you’ve got some access to CIA agents, so how do they feel about COVERT AFFAIRS — are they still really happy?
PIPER: It’s funny, because we paint the agency in a fairly positive and like humane light. I think overall they approve.  I don’t think we’d have the access to the information that we get from Langley if they didn’t like the show — if it was a negative portrayal.  But one of the writers who was at Langley this year said he was talking to an analyst — there’s like three wings: there’s the officers, who are like secret agents, and then analysts, who are doing the sort of news and information coming in from all over the world, and then science and technology — and this one was an analyst, and he said: ‘Yeah, we do Covert Affairs’ and she’s like: ‘Yeah, my husband watches it.’  But she was clearly like not a fan, which is so weird — because she gave them the tour.  So I think overall they approve, but they don’t all like it.  I don’t know — to each his own. 

Is there any cover that you would like to see Annie take at some point, if there was anything you could do as a cover?
PIPER PERABO:  There is something that I’ve been working on this with the writers.  Well, I want to do.  It would have to be like a season opener or something, so that you could push the trailer for it, because I think it would be fun that as a cover that Annie had to get married.  So in the trailers you would see maybe she’s marrying like Jai or Auggie, and you see like the dress, and walking down the aisle, and you start to see like the people in the audience, there’s  Joan, and Arthur, and Henry Wilcox, and all these people.  S in the trailers you think she’s going to marry somebody, but then somewhere in the ceremony all hell breaks loose and you just blow the place up with guns and exploding flowers and the priest is CIA.  Don’t you think it’d be awesome ’cause, first of all, a wedding dress is a great thing to hide weapons in.  I think it would be really cool to be getting married as a cover.  I don’t know why you would have to get married, but they’ll figure that part out.  I just want to wear the dress. It’d be an awesome fight scene in a wedding dress! 

KARI MATCHETT
We got to see some of the sets earlier and we noticed they were starting to build more sets for your character and Arthur.  Maybe you could tell us what’s going to be going on in the house?
 KARI:  I don’t really know what’s going to be going on in the house actually.  We’ve had some scenes. I think they just are interested in getting slices of life out of Arthur and Joan and getting them out of the office CIA world.  I think they want us keep revealing their personal life and what happens with them internally, emotionally rather than just strictly at work.  So I think they’re thinking a home setting will help create that.

So we’re going to see Joan in the field this season.  How exciting is it going to be for you to actually get out of the DPD and take part in everything going on?
KARI: Well, we’re shooting it right now. So the beginning of that episode is today, so I felt like I almost forgotten how to act outdoors when we first started shooting, because I’ve been in the DPD for so long.  But it’s really exciting.  I think it is not only was essential for me the actor to get out of the DPD and start sort of flexing my muscles literally and figuratively, but also so that everybody can see why Joan is in the position that she’s in.  She was really good at what she did in the field, and now we get a chance to see it.

In the last episode we saw where Joan was called for jury duty, how fun was that to kind of do something outside of the CIA and where Joan wasn’t in power?
KARI: It was great.  Tthat’s exactly what was so thrilling about it is that Joan’s always in the position of power She’s the one that people ask.  She’s at the top of the hierarchy and suddenly she’s outside of her realm in this world that she’s not at the top. So we get to see a whole other side of Joan.  It was so much fun.

For the field work, are they showing you in an action sequence or is it kind of a, more of a covert where you’re taking on like a persona kind of a mission?
KARI: Both. I take on a persona and I get to kick some ass.

Will you be wearing Louboutin when you do so?
KARI:  No.  Louboutins are reserved for Annie, but I do wear Jimmy Choos.

Do you think you inspire women with the kind of character you play?
KARI: I would love to do that!  I think that seeing women in positions of power in a man’s world is inspiring. I know that I like to see that and it’s an honour to be able to play a woman like that so, so hopefully I do.

And do you think more younger girls now will look at your character and want to go into jobs like that?
KARI:  Well, you know what, I think even if it only happens fictionally, I think strangely it begins to carve a path for people to even imagine that they can do these things.  So I think you can see that in any sort of pop culture that’s for instance, science fiction, is always the precursor to a lot of realities and living in realities and in science.  So on the same level, I think pop culture can be a precursor to a lot of realities in regular culture.  So I think it’s a really important thing to create social change, and it’s a really important media and medium to create such a change with.

Can you talk about your kick-ass wardrobe.  I mean, for one of the characters being a female empowered woman,  you wear a lot of feminine clothing and it’s very powerful still at the same time.  And that’s very curious as a female if you were watching that ‘cause I’m always expecting a three-piece suit or even a pant suit.  Yet, you’re always wearing a fancy dress and I’m like: ‘How are you pulling that off in the work environment, let alone the CIA?’
KARI: I think that’s one of the wonderful things about this character is that she doesn’t feel like she has to become a man in order to be a powerful woman.  So she’s not adhering to the world of Wall Street  or whatever world that deemed it necessary to wear a three-piece suit or a suit at all.  She’s fully stepping into her femininity and her power inside that.

Now that Joan’s gotten out of the office, what do you want to see for Joan in the future?
KARI:  I would love to get out of the office more.  One of the things that I think the writer, Zack, touched on this episode that I’m shooting now is that there is a bit of a conflict in Joan.  It’s not stated where it’s coming from. I have my ideas of where it’s coming from, but there is a bit of a conflict in her.   I think there’s a part of her heart that wants to be in the field still, and yet she’s in the office, for reasons that haven’t been stated. I have my own ideas, so I think that to see her continue to go out into the field from time to time when necessary. I think is an essential part of where the future lies for her.  It’s a great way for us to see different parts of her and it’s really fun to play.

EION BAILEY
What drew you to the character of Ben Mercer?
EION: I was interested in giving voice to the CIA.  That I’d have to give back to them.  The thing worth mentioning about the CIA, I do believe there are a lot of good people really trying to do good things in this organization.  I also believe that, in all of life, there is like Star Wars — there’s the light and there’s the dark.  It’s in all of us and it’s in the world at all times, and sometimes the light is stronger than the dark and sometimes the dark is stronger than the light. I think that exists in the CIA — and I was interested in giving voice to the people within that organization who try and steer it to the light, as much as possible.

What’s the best part about playing Ben?
EION:  I don’t know. I think the adventure of the fun of making the show.  There’s a lot of good people, actors, crew, writers, directors.  It kind oft created an energy around it where the people are a lot of fun to work with.  And we get to go to places like Puerto Rico.  We just filmed all of that and last year I got to go to Sri Lanka.  You know, it’s like an international story and it’s a lot of fun.  It’s also a lot of fun to be up here in Toronto. 

How much research went into your role before you actually started filming?
EION:  I did a lot because from the beginning, Ben Mercer is the man who breaks protocol.  It’s not explored yet in the series of why he would not be a part of it — that someone wanted him to be a part of something and he refused.  Perhaps for ethical reasons, perhaps because it was just something he couldn’t get  in alignment with, and so he takes off.  So I wanted to find out everything that the CIA does that might make somebody within it want to break rank and really  would an operative do that would upset the director of the CIA so much that he still really wants this guy to work with him.  Like what secret do I have on Arthur?  What do I have that he still feels like he’s got to work with me, but I can also leave whenever I want?  I can take off, I can come back. I can do things. I can break protocol — do all kinds of things that another operative wouldn’t be able to do.  What secret would I have? What is the CIA up to in certain respects that I might know about?  So I looked into it in those ways.

When you first filmed the pilot, did you expect your character to become kind of like the glue that holds together the series, even though we don’t see you pop up very often on the show?
EION: Yeah, because the CIA went after Annie — used Annie as a tool to get to Ben Mercer.  So I figured that would be kind of be like something that would have to be used throughout the series.

Could you talk a little about what we haven’t quite yet seen about Ben, like some of the characteristics that compelled him to constantly jet around the world and be this mysterious guy.  He’s not only sweeping Annie off her feet, but he’s probably wooing other women around the world.  What is compelling him and driving him, not just to be a super agent, but to be that guy?
EION:  He’s actually not wooing other women.  He’s a ‘one woman’ guy.  And if he is to have a woman in his life, then she’s the one.  And what compels him to go around the world is really to avoid some uncomfortable interactions with the CIA, who he believes are not as altruistic as they would like themselves to come across to the public.

So he sees himself kind of like the global Batman trying to rescue the world from the CIA?
EION: Well, interesting.   I would say he’s in search of the truth.  And in spy agencies there is so much double dealing, there are so many lies, and he wants to get at what is the truth and what is real in this world.  And if he can find a way to help bring the truth to light, then that’s a mission accomplished.

So it’s about the truth beyond the truth that everyone else sees?  That he’s trying to bring out into the light?
EION: Yeah.  The CIA, although there are good people who work within it, like within any bureaucratic institution in any country, also has an agenda that is not, in Ben’s opinion, pure or about freedom or about righteousness or about leading in the free world.  It’s also a duplicitous organization that is about acting as they can –  sometimes acting as a lynch mob for big American business interests in foreign countries.  And he’s very much aware of that and when he knows he’s brought in to support that aspect of the CIA, and it creates a real morality pull within him that he is actually supporting and serving an institution that is destroying people.

In the very first season finale your character of course gets shot, which was a very big climatic scene.  As an actor, what is that like to portray somebody actually getting shot like that?
EION:  Oh, gosh.  Yeah.  Because it’s different.  So portraying like that moment.  I’m sorry to get specific, do you mean like the, the actual moment of impact or the thought of: ‘I could die’?

Well, actually there’s three steps to it: there’s the anticipation — ‘cause you’re the actor knowing you’re going to get a shot as the character — there’s the moment of impact, and then there’s the moment after that where you kind of have to emotionally go through the experience, as well as the physical agony.  So it’s kind of a trio experience.
EION:  You actually just answered the question. (Laughter.) 

I want to hear it from your perspective, not mine.
EION: That’s it. ‘cause that’s the tricky thing.  A very important thing in acting is anticipation to not anticipate.  Because we all have the script and we all know what’s coming, and the whole thing is to truly be in a place where you don’t know what’s coming.  So you’ve got this mini explosive on your back that you know is going to be detonated and you know right where it’s going to happen and then you just kind of wait to feel a pop and then have your reaction.  Then really try and get to that place of – I mean in this instance, it’s: ‘I’m shot somewhere where it could be hitting a vital organ.’  What I mean is that we’ve all thought of our own mortality.  We all have to go through it — so what is that for each of us individually?  And I just think of those things and what that is personally for me.  Like what is it to lose this world before I’ve accomplished whatever it is I set out to accomplish,  I think that’s the thing –  it’s like to leave this world when it’s time and then it’s part of the thing. But what if we have to leave it before we’ve done what we want to do?

I think for a lot of us as fans that was a big moment because we weren’t sure if your character had survived or not.
EION:   Yeah.

So that creates a lot of implications for that role, if he doesn’t survive, does he haunt her as the man that got away so to speak, ‘cause he’s dead, or does he haunt her because he survives and now, he’s somebody she might have be part of her life.  So it was a big climatic moment as far as which reality is going to become the dominant one.  It creates a lot of possibilities.
EION: Yeah.

So as an actor when you look at that do you think — ‘cause you probably don’t even know at the end of that season — ‘Am I coming back next season?’
EION:  I didn’t.

So do you play it like: ‘This is my last gasp I get to make with this character and I’ve got to make this moment count,’ or do you think: ‘I’m going to leave that window open in case there’s a possibility’?
EION:  Well, it was spoken about when we were shooting the scene that it should remain open, but that it should be a wound that is potentially deadly.  I assume they want to leave it open to see how fan reacted. I think that the fans of a television series have quite a large say in how a show ends up.  It’s interesting.  It does seem to be that way and you probably know this better than I do.  But what you do actually steers the course of a television series.  So, at the end, all I knew is this character could be dead or could be alive and it was just going to be matter of time for USA [Network] to do what they need to do.  They’re investigating and look into what fans think about it, and then of course how they feel about and how the creators feel about it.  But I feel fortunate that Ben Mercer lives to to fight again.

And just like Eion, we too are elated that Ben Mercer has lived to fight another day and to woo the woman of his dreams!

In the end, after such an extraordinary day seeing how COVERT AFFAIRs is made and hearing from the actors and producer their candid thoughts on what makes the show tick and what makes it so special — both to them and to fans across the globe — it was apparent that we were privy to a special world where television comes alive.  COVERT AFFAIRS may portray a fictional world with fictional characters, but for the actors and fans, it is very real and compelling.  And there is a reason that COVERT AFFAIRS quickly became a summer sensation, it found the magic ingredient — characters and stories that draw us into their world and make it home.

Who knew that the spy world would prove to be so addictive?  We may have guessed, but watching it become a reality is  remarkable.To see and learn more about this intoxicating world of espionage, COVERT AFFAIRS airs Tuesday nights at 10:00 p.m. on USA Network.

Tiffany Vogt is a contributing writer to The TV Addict. She has a great love for television and firmly believes that entertainment is a world of wondrous adventures that deserves to be shared and explored – she invites you to join her. Please feel free to contact Tiffany at Tiffany_Vogt_2000@yahoo.com or follow her at on Twitter (@TVWatchtower). Tiffany also writes as a columnist for NiceGirlsTV.

Good News: After months of speculation ABC has finally given Matthew Perry’s highly-anticipated single-camera comedy a premiere date and timeslot. Bad News: Both of which belong to COUGAR TOWN, which will be removed from its plum-post MODERN FAMILY timeslot starting February 9th to make room for Perry’s SUNSHINE, only to return on April 13 where it will be followed by Elisha Cuthbert’s new laugher HAPPY ENDINGS.

Made official today by ABC publicity, Jennifer Aniston will reunite with her former FRIEND Courteney Cox on the second season opener of COUGAR TOWN which premieres on Wednesday September 22 at 9:30PM on ABC.

Which brings us to the slightly awkward albeit painfully obvious question: Is an Aniston guest appearance really what it used to be? Oh sure, the artist formerly known as Rachel Green will undoubtedly bring some much-needed media attention to COUGAR TOWN. But, if her track record as TV guest star (30 ROCK, DIRT), big screen movie icon (The Switch, The Bounty Hunter) and tabloid headline (John Mayer, Brad Pitt) are any indication, where Aniston leads, viewers don’t necessarily follow.* We’re just sayin’

* Unless of course she is accompanied by an impossible to resist adorable labrador retriever in the 100 million dollar plus grossing Marley and Me!.

Luckily for you, it’s not too late to catch up on the antics of what is easily the finest looking cul-de-sac in North America courtesy of today’s TV on DVD giveaway. To enter to win COUGAR TOWN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON on DVD, simply take the pledge, by repeating the following in the comments below, “I solemnly swear to tune into COUGAR TOWN’s second season premiere when it airs on ABC this Wednesday September 22 at 9:30PM.” Rest assured, you’ll thank us later.

Particularly if an email pops up in your inbox on August 24th notifying you that you’ve just won a copy of COUGAR TOWN on DVD. So be sure to enter with a valid email address.

Not a winner? COUGAR TOWN: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON is now available on Amazon for only $27.99.

Oops GLEE did it again, and by that I mean, continued to cost me money on iTunes by delivering not one, or two, but rather four show-stopping numbers (See: Maybe This Time, Last Name,  Alone and Somebody to Love) Seriously, last night’s episode was so good that this TV Addict didn’t even blink when our spectacular (or as some have called it, Emmy-worthy performance) as “Audience Member #24″ was left on the cutting room floor to make room for some chick named Kristin Chenosomethingorother!

That noise you just heard? This TV Addict breathing a deep sigh of relief over MODERN FAMILY’s phenomenal second outing. That other noise? Me furiously banging my head on my desk as I try to decide which story-line was my favorite. In fact — between Ty Burrell’s Phil teaching his son Luke a valuable (and hilarious) lesson about responsibility by inadvertently transforming himself into the neighbourhood bike thief, Cameron and Mitchell’s attempt to seamlessly blend into their straight-laced ‘Mommy & Me’ play-group, and Jay’s (Ed O’Neill) half-hearted effort to connect with his stepson Manny that had me both laughing (“The only way Manny’s Dad is anything like Superman is that they both landed in this country illegally.”) and tearing up (“Ninety percent of being a dad is just showing up.”) — the only thing I’m sure of is that creators Steve Levitan and Christopher Lloyd best be making room on their shelf for an Emmy (or two!) this time next year.

Just as I was beginning to question my commitment to moving into COUGAR TOWN, along comes Beyonce’s Single Ladies and an unforgettable slideshow of an increasingly inebriated Courteney Cox. Proof that as long as our favorite ex-FRIEND continues to do anything for a laugh, I’ll be there for her.

And finally, here’s our problem with HANK in a nutshell: It’s one thing to continue to play the same variation of a character your entire career, but another thing entirely to subject audiences to a storyline they’ve already rejected. As eleven highly rated season of FRASIER clearly proved, audiences can’t get enough of Kelsey Grammer’s pompous blowhard of a TV alter-ego. Unfortunately, what they can get enough of — as FRASIER’s disappointing sixth season clearly indicated — is a downtrodden and unemployed pompous blowhard. Which naturally begs the question: Just whose bright idea was it to base an entire series around what was Grammer’s least successful story-arc ever? Well, we’re listening.

Courtesy of @hitfixdaniel — one of the smartest TV tweeters we know — comes a rare sixth addition to Today’s TV Addict Top 5.

6. This Thursday night… Before SUPERNATURAL… The CW will give you… ‘VD’

Good News: The first episode of Mindy Kaling’s (THE OFFICE) new web series HOUSE POOR is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Bad News: There’s something terribly wrong with Network TV when Kaling’s three minute and eleven second video illicits more laughs than almost every comedy currently on TV. [See Video Above]

Good News: Wednesday’s episode of PUSHING DAISIES saw its ratings climb 16 percent to 6.6 million viewers. Bad News: Yet still managed to finish fourth in its timeslot up against Obama, Obama and yes, you guessed it, more Obama. [Source]

Good Great News: SCRUBS creator Bill Lawrence is teaming up with ex-FRIEND Courteney Cox for COUGAR TOWN. A new comedy set to air on ABC revolving around an attractive and newly single 40-year-old mother and her teenage son. Bad News: Ummm… Bill Lawrence and Courteney Cox teaming up for an ABC Comedy… the only bad news there is that it most likely won’t hit the airwaves until Spring 2009! [Source]

Boy, when creator Bill Lawrence announced that he was looking for a ‘big name’ to play Dr. Kelso’s successor on SCRUBS, he really wasn’t joking. Direct from the Lord of the Scoop™ himself, Michael Ausiello: “J.D., Elliot and Co. have a new friend! Sources confirm to me exclusively that Courteney Cox is joining the cast of SCRUBS for a three-episode arc as Sacred Heart’s new Chief of Medicine.”

Of course such exciting news begs three important questions. 1) How bad is NBC looking right now for dropping what’s shaping up to be one helluva fantastic season of SCRUBS? 2) How confusing will the SCRUBS set be now that there are two Cox’s on the lot [That's Dr. Cox and Courteney folks.. get your head out of the gutter!] 3) TV Guide will report this news when?

Since FX was kind enough to send me the first two episodes of the second season of DIRT, I have to say that I’m pretty excited / interested in what they’re doing this year. Here are four reasons to check out Season 2 of DIRT, premiering tonight at 10PM on FX.

1. Courteney Cox is really great as magazine editor Lucy Spiller. We’re used to seeing her as a loveable “Friend” or as a cutthroat news reporter in the Scream movies. She is something else in the role of the editor who was stabbed at the end of season 1. She’s back with a bit of a vengeance, trying to make her magazine succeed. I’d be afraid to work with her character, for sure.

2. I feel more invested in the relationships this season. The friendship of Lucy and Don Konky (Ian Hart) is really celebrated. He’s on his meds to treat schizophrenia, and she’s really there to help take care of him. Holt McLaren (Josh Stewart) still loves Lucy and you get the feeling in the first two episodes that there might be hope for them. And Lucy and Willa (Alexandra Breckenridge) have reached a détente, and they seem to work better this year.

3. Guest stars are pulled right from the pages of our favorite tabloid magazines. Tom Arnold is really great as a David Hasselhoff / Alec Baldwin clone. Elizabeth Harnois plays a socialite modeled after Paris Hilton. Kiersten Warren (Slater’s girlfriend from Saved by the Bell: The College Years) is featured as an Anna Nicole Smith type. I like her better as a super-beyotch, and not as the whiny girl we knew back in the College Years. Ashley Johnson (Growing Pains) is fabulous as a popstar who has a run in with Lucy. It’s very Britney Spears.

4. The storylines are self contained, so you don’t need to watch every episode if you don’t have the time. The stories are a bit lighter, and they are set more in the Dirt Now offices. We see more of the day to day magazine making business. The writers (and the cast, even) seem aware of what was wrong last season, and they have made a notable decision to change it up, and fix the problems.

Check it out on FX tonight, let us know what you think.

Recently I had the great opportunity to interview one of my personal favorites, Courteney Cox, star of DIRT [and that little show about six friends and a coffee shop]. In anticipation of DIRT’s second season, premiering this Sunday March 2 at 10PM on FX, Monica, umm… I mean Courteney was kind enough to spend a half an hour chatting it up with some of the sleazy and underhanded brilliant and good-looking reporters that DIRT so easily loves to dish about.

I was wondering, this season feels a little bit more ripped from the headlines, and we were just curious to know if that was something of a conscious choice, just following the past year of what’s gone on, or if it was just accidental?
Courtney Cox: No, it’s absolutely a choice. We thought that would be a good way to just start the season, and it is absolutely ripped from the headlines. We usually do a hybrid of celebrities and then add to the story like maybe what happened to cause this to happen to them or sum it up in a different way just for fun. But yes, it’s definitely relatable this year and I think it makes for just a more exciting television show.

Are there any other celebrities, because right now we have some story lines that are a little bit a la Nicole and Paris and David Hasselhoff, are there any other celebrities that we can expect to see something from? Any little tidbits you can give us on that?
Well, there is definitely going to be, in almost every episode you’ll see something that you will recognize, and that’s kind of hopefully the fun of it that you’ll be able to guess who this person we might be talking about, even though it’s not really about them. It could be about, like I said before, just a couple of people or a couple of situations. But yes, every episode there is that relatable kind of relatable story line.

Have any of the celebrities that have been touched upon contacted you guys?
No, I don’t think they’ve seen them yet. We air March 2 and we’ll see. I think there’s a fine line that the producers, even me as a producer, will take. We don’t ever intend to hurt anyone. And as a matter of fact sometimes we make the characters sympathetic just by showing our creative version of what their life must be like or how they got to the place where they did something outrageous. It’s all in fun. It’s much lighter this year and it’s funnier, and I don’t think anyone’s going to get upset. And if they do, that I guess, it wasn’t intentional.

I wanted to ask you, just kind of following up on that last question, how do you kind of keep the show grounded and not go too far and not make the characters too out there? It seems like a show where this must be something you have to think about of making it still relatable. Do you find that difficult as you go into season two?
Well you know you would think that that would be a problem, but really if you just look at any magazine or follow any celebrity that people are fascinated with, they seem to do the outrageous things on their own. We’ll come up with something that we think “okay, now what’s really shocking,” because we want to make good television. So obviously we want to shock people. But then, lo and behold, it ends up happening or something. Life is outrageous enough. I don’t think that we have to worry about making anything seem crazy, because through time if you look at all the tabloids from the last whatever many years it pretty much speaks for itself.

And do you find that true even for your character, that you don’t have to worry about keeping her grounded because just the world she’s in is out there?
Yes, I think that the world of magazines, and I think it’s so competitive that you do have to go to great lengths to get the exclusive story or the perfect picture. It’s just so competitive. So I think that that’s what great about this show and the subject matter, because there are no limits. You could go anywhere and it wouldn’t be—yes, last year we did some things, which I really loved, where Don Konkey, he cut off his finger to get a story, but that’s because he really was loyal to Lucy. He’s also a schizophrenic and wasn’t on medication. I want to be as kind of outrageous but within the realm of reality as possible, and so far it hasn’t proven to be something that’s hard to come up with.

And last year was great when you had Jennifer Aniston on, that was a lot of fun for people. I didn’t know if there are any other guest stars you’re planning on or you can tell us about or hopes you have to?
We have great guest stars this year. We don’t have any cast members of Friends, but we do have, Tom Arnold was on and Rosanna Arquette, my sister-in-law, and Vicki Lewis and Sharon Lawrence and Richard Karn, all just really great actors. And we have recurring role characters and new characters on the show that work in the office. I think it’s been a great season for just really good actors being on the show.

I want to go back on something you just said a few moments ago. You said this year’s going to be lighter and funnier. You seemed to have a great year last year, was there some feedback that made you say we do need to lighten it and funny it a little bit this year?
I think it’s just more making it relatable. Last year I thought was really interesting, and we had kind of the subject was about the Apocalypse and it was heavier. This year we just want it to be a little bit more of a broader appeal. I think the people who loved Dirt last year will hopefully love it this year, but there will be just more of an audience because the people who read US and In Touch and all those tabloid magazines I think will get a kick out of the show.

And can you just talk a little bit about doing the double duty of both starring and being exec producer. Can you wear both hats at the same time or do you have to at one point say okay, I’m now thinking as the star and now I’m thinking as the producer?
No, I would say I wear the hat all the time. But the only difference is because I’m an actor I probably have a lot more, I mean I have probably not more compassion, but I definitely am for the actor always. Just because I’ve been there and I understand, and trying to take care of their needs I think is really important to me. But no, this job was something that I love every hat that I wear and it’s been fantastic.

I love the character Ian Hart plays. I love your secondary characters that you’ve cast in the show. Don Konkey—
Yes, he’s wonderful.

I was wondering how you found him and the whole subject of schizophrenia your writers treat with humanity and humor, and it’s not pandered to. A lot of mental illnesses are treated in these extreme arcs. And I just wanted to know what was the story behind him and how you found him?
Well, how we found Ian was he came in to read, and Ian’s an amazing actor and he’s done tons of stuff, but he came into our office at Coquette, our production company, and read as well as all the rest of the cast that we hired, but he just was so unique and interesting. And what happened was, when we originally pitched the show to FX we had a very outrageous paparazzo, but he didn’t have schizophrenia. And when we hired Matthew Carnahan, who ended up writing and creating the show, he put that character trait to Don Konkey. It wasn’t there originally in the first pitch. And I just think it made it so great because you had sympathy for him, so he kind of got away and can get away with doing even more kind of strange things.

And Ian has such heart and walks such a fine line of making his character not seem—I mean just making him real. Actually, Ian knows a lot. He’s got a few—well, I don’t know if I can say this, but I guess he does—he’s got a couple family members that have schizophrenia or had schizophrenia and so he knows it really well. So he’s never overdoing it, and he’s just playing it as real as possible.

It’s very well done. I’ve noticed that your show that I’ve watched it, it sort of exposes the dividing line in the celebrity world from serious celebrities who are in it as a career versus the people who are in it for the party and the photo events. Do you feel that your show is paparazzi sort of like their say or their side exposing celebrities that kind of manipulate them for these photo opportunities and these outrageous situations or for a quick buck versus the serious actors who just want to work? I want to know your opinion if your show illuminates paparazzi in a kinder light?
Oh illuminates, okay in a kinder light. Well no, I don’t think we’re trying to show them in a more positive light. The only thing that you can say is how many there are and how competitive it is, but no, I don’t think anyone in our show really comes off smelling like a rose. And I think that we’re showing the humanity of everyone, but no one’s looking great, whether it’s Lucy who’s out to, you know she’s having more fun this year at getting the stories and she’s loving her job more. She may be a little lighter on her staff than she was last year, but she almost died and I think she just has a different outlook on life. But she still will go pretty far to get what she needs.

I guess I missed making my point. I think that to me just as an observer—no, it’s my fault. It seems like there are celebrities out there in the real world that are in it just for the celebrity … photo op and manipulate the paparazzi, and then there’s real serious actors, the majority of actors, who lead quiet lives and just want to work. I don’t know. It feels like your show, to me, when I watch it illuminates that reality, and I didn’t know if you felt strongly about that.
We are illuminating those people because that’s the stories that you read about. So in making a fun television show you want people to be able to relate and go “Oh my God, is that so and so? Oh wait a minute, but didn’t that happen to that girl?” And then we kind of are combining them and making just really for fun television. But yes, we are highlighting those people because they’re the ones that are in the headlines of these magazines. Did that answer it?

I’m just curious, what has been your favorite story line so far that you’ve filmed?
Okay, let me think about that, my favorite story line. We have this character on the show this year that will definitely resemble someone that’s in the press all the time, but she’s a recurring character. And I won’t say who she’s portraying, because you’ll be able to figure it out relatively early on, but what I like about it is it kind of shows a side to this person’s character like what could have happened or maybe there’s a different side to the story that we don’t know about. And we give another version and I think it’s been really interesting. Her name is Sharlee Cates [played by Ashley Johnson]. An amazing actor.

My question for you is, has your role as Lucy affected your views or your feelings at all towards the paparazzi or towards tabloids?
I would say that playing this character and working on this show has definitely shown me how hard it is and how competitive it is. It’s just really hard to run a successful magazine. I get that. And I’ve gotten just how many paparazzi there are out there and how hard it is to get the exclusive picture. So yes, I guess I’ve learned, it doesn’t mean that I agree with it all, and I definitely don’t agree with the obsession on certain celebrities. I understand the fascination, but when it gets obsessive I think it gets dangerous. So I haven’t changed my view, but definitely I’ve learned all sides of it, for sure.

I wanted to go back to something someone asked earlier about the sort of ripped from the headlines aspect. Do you ever worry that real life is almost stranger than fiction at this point?
Well, I think that there’s a fine line in deciding what is appropriate, what’s just good entertaining television, and what is exploitive and hurtful. But I feel like what’s been really interesting is that we come up with these story lines, and sometimes we think wow, no way this could happen, but man would it make for a good episode, and then you find out after you filmed it, you’ve written it, that something even more outrageous has happened, or they’ve done exactly what you thought they were going to do. When you sit in a writer’s review you go okay, what is the wildest thing that you could imagine this character doing? Sometimes it actually happens, because people are just really unpredictable. So it doesn’t scare me, but I definitely feel sometimes that people will see things on our show and say oh my God, they just took that right from what happened, and we actually may have filmed it before it even happened. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s true.

One of my favorite things about Dirt is the relationship between Lucy and Don, and I was wondering if we are going to get more of that this season and how it’s going to evolve?
Well there definitely is more of it this season, and I think they’re kind of the core of the show, and that relationship is really important. And Don this year has taken, he’s on medication now so his schizophrenia has been toned way back and he’s much more in control, which makes him have to look at what he’s do for a living and how far he goes for Lucy. So they’ve kind of reversed roles a little bit. As opposed to her taking care of him, he’s taking care, did I say that right, yes, he’s taking care of her more. And so it’s an interesting change this year.

I just wanted to know, I’m also a big fan of your character Gail Weathers in the Scream series. And I wanted to know if there was any inspiration, because you were kind of a ruthless editor in that, or ruthless reporter, and now you’re a ruthless editor.
Well it’s an interesting parallel because Monica was a ruthless competitive, competitor or whatever, girl, but I guess I have that streak in my personality. Gail Weathers though, was really campy. I think we’re making a fun show, but I don’t think it’s campy, so that would be the big difference. In Scream 3 I did have the worst hairdo in the world, so other than that. I can’t believe it’s forever on film, brutal.

You touched on this a little bit earlier, but I just wanted to ask if you can talk a little bit more about how and if Lucy has changed this season after being stabbed, after almost dying. Does she come back with a different outlook or is she the same ruthless person we saw in season one?
She is ruthless, but she definitely has a different outlook on life. She doesn’t take it quite so seriously. I think she’s a little more appreciative of what she has and how great—I think she just likes her job more as opposed to needing to tell the truth for some personal reason. It’s more like hey, I’ve got a great job. This is fun. I want to be the best I can be at it. And I think that she’s a little more daring in certain ways, but for a better reason, just for a more fun outlook as opposed to for, like I said before, some personal vendetta against people.

What about playing the editor-in-chief of a tabloid magazine appealed to you?
Well, just playing a character that is strong, that is very ruthless, but with a heart. When I originally pitched this show to FX it didn’t even have a woman character in it. It was really about a Hollywood young actor who was willing to kind of sell his soul to a paparazzo to kind of keep up in the world of Hollywood; FX came up with the idea of making it centered around a female at a tabloid magazine. And it sounded so good the way John Landgraff pitched it back to us that I was like, wow, maybe I should be playing this character, and that’s how it kind of happened. I know this world, so I thought it would be a fun character to play, and it turned out it is.

Now I’m curious, you guys ended season one with that great cliffhanger, and I heard that you guys were only able to complete seven episodes this year because of the strike. And I’m wondering about the through line over the course of the season, does it just sort of drop off at the end or is there going to be another great cliffhanger? What’s going to be happening?
Well, we didn’t know that we were going to not finish, but the strike kind of changed all of that. So luckily, what works in our favor this year, which would have not have worked last year at all, is that each episode is self-contained, even though there may be a character that goes over a few episodes you can watch each one and feel like you’ve wrapped up a story. So luckily, episode seven, which is the one that we finished on, if you didn’t know it wasn’t, no one’s getting stabbed, but it’s still an exciting episode. I mean, do we have bigger plans? Sure, but does it work? Yes.

I wanted to see if you could touch on the new hires in the office and how they’re going to be changing the dynamic in the workplace?
Well, I think the whole show this year takes place, not solely, but much more, well maybe solely, in the offices of Dirt now and what it takes to run this magazine. So we have new cast members that are enriching that world. And I think that it’s great. It just kind of keeps it all within the office, and you’ll see love triangles and personal issues and stuff. We have a new character named Farber, and his name is Ryan Eggold, and he’s just a great actor and a great asset to the show. He’s got a little love thing going on with another character. I think it just makes for a much more enriched world within the walls of Dirt.

My question touches on relationships, and I like that you mentioned the Lucy and Don relationship and how great it is, and I’m a fan of Lucy and Holt as a romantic relationship. Do you think that they ever will have some kind of healthy relationship, and is Lucy able to have a healthy relationship?
That’s definitely something that we were going to explore, and we did. I like Holt and Lucy too. I think it’s really interesting. Two kind of lost souls trying to make it, and the way they come together. I think that’s kind of what we were going to explore and we started to. And we’ve continued to explore it in season three, if we get picked up. So she definitely has her fears and intimacy issues, as many of us do, but I don’t know, I like that you like that and I think we’re going to explore it more.

I was actually wondering if you were personally really affected by the paparazzi in your past life, and if this show’s a really good and fun retaliation like producing all the scripts, getting back at the paparazzi a little bit?
Well, you know it’s funny because I definitely have a lot of experience with the paparazzi, but I don’t feel like it’s really a retaliation. I feel like we’re just kind of—I’ve said this before, but I really mean it, I think that no one’s really a good guy in this. I think it really shows the dark side of magazines, it shows the dark side of paparazzi and it also shows, I think we humanize everyone too. So it kind of is, I think, a little bit of an accurate portrayal of these kinds of characters.

I’m near the tail end here so a lot of the stuff I was kind of thinking of asking has obviously been asked. But one thing I did want to pick your brain about was Kenny, and the kind of running gag of your assistants being kind of insecure, and obviously we know what happened to Kenny last season. I had the opportunity to watch the first episode for this season a little earlier today, and you have a new Kenny.
Yes. He’s great.

And you kind of have fun with him at the expense of his problems, and I‘m just kind of curious if we’re going to see some more humorous moments between you and him as the season progresses?
Absolutely. He is such a great character, and there is a condition like that where people get really nervous and need to self-soothe. But yes, I think he adds for a lot of comic relief and he continues to be throughout the whole season. He’s great, just a really great actor [Kevin Wheatley]

I read that in the season premiere that Holt’s fame is rising and Willa wants to take on a bigger role at the magazine. Can you elaborate on that a little bit?
This is for season two. What happens at the end is that I get stabbed, we open it up with me in the hospital, and at this point Holt is extremely famous. He’s kind of gotten all of his wishes come true except for he has a lot of baggage that came with it. And Willa, who was wanting to take over my job, she kind of has a revelation that maybe it’s harder than she thought. But she’s now not the young, new reporter, she’s much more savvy this year and she’s just become really smart. And Don Konkey is on medication, so there’s been a bunch of changes this year.

I watched the first two episodes, thankfully for the screeners and I think you guys fixed everything about the show that didn’t work for me last year in like the first 20 minutes. You made a lot of great changes. Absolutely. And some of them I won’t say, because I don’t want to ruin it for … The most important one is the kind of relocation, refocusing at the Dirt offices, which you’ve already mentioned. As the executive producer, what else is important for you to change when coming back for the second season?
I would say to make it more relatable so it wasn’t alienating. I think the fans that liked it last year, hopefully they will be like you and hopefully they will enjoy the changes that we’ve made. But I felt like last year it was dark and it was serious, and it was really interesting and I loved it. But I think this year it’ll be more of a fun show to watch, where you’re kind of guessing who are we talking about. And it’s stuff that people know about, and then we can give you a different perspective on it. We have new characters that I think add humor. It’s just an all over more fun, lighter tone, but hopefully still outrageous.