This is part 1 of the round-table interview with Sendhil Ramamurthy about his role as Jai Wilcox in the new USA Network series, Covert Affairs on Tuesdays on 10/9 PM. This series is sort of like Alias meets La Femme Nikita but more modern and definitely with some sass. Annie is a newbie agent with CIA and is walking a minefield of intrigue on assignments and in the office. The trick is can she handle this high-wire balancing act in the field and in her personal life as well as in the office as she learns who all the players are and what are the hidden (or not-so-hidden) agendas of the various people she works with.
D. Christiansen Thanks to everyone attending the Covert Affairs Q&A session and I would like to start things off by thanking Sendhil Ramamurthy for being with us today to answer questions. So, thank you, Sendhil.
S. Ramamurthy Thank you. God, that was all very official and everything. I feel very worthy right now and nervous, all of a sudden.
D. Christiansen As you know, Sendhil plays Jai Wilcox on Covert Affairs, which airs on Tuesdays at 10/9 Central on USA Network..
Moderator The first question comes from the line of Jamie Steinberg with Starry Constellation.
J. Steinberg What exactly made you want to be a part of this show?
S. Ramamurthy It was kind of a roundabout thing, actually. While I was still shooting here, they were shooting this pilot and I put a friend of mine on tape for the role of Auggie, for Chris Gorham’s part. While I was doing that, I ended up reading the script and I really liked it, but I was already on a show and that was that. I kind of read it and filed it away.
Then, I guess when the show’s creators and USA decided to make a little change from the pilot and bring in the Jai Wilcox character they kind of approached me about it and I went in and I talked to the creators and I did a chemistry read with Piper Perabo and I got the job the next day. It was a script that I really liked. It was a very different character for me to play from what I had been doing before.
It was also one of those things where I was under contract to NBC and it was a way to do more work without having to try and get out of a contract and all of that and all the legalities involved with that and it was a chance to work with Doug Liman, so it was all kind of win-win.
J. Steinberg Well, I hope Chris doesn’t hold any ill will towards you.
S. Ramamurthy No, he shouldn’t. He’s doing an amazing job. He’s doing a great job. I’m really impressed with him and with everybody, really, on the show. It’s really been an amazing experience so far.
J. Steinberg Will your character get to get out in the field at all?
S. Ramamurthy My character does go out into the field, starting in Tuesday’s episode actually. I think originally as conceived the character wasn’t going to be going out into the field and once they cast me they saw some merit, some advantage to bringing me into the field. And it’s been a lot of fun. Most of the stuff I do has been with Piper and a little bit of stuff with Chris. It’s a lot of fun and it’s also a great way to see Toronto because we shoot everywhere around Toronto, so I’ve gotten to kind to see Toronto just by virtue of shooting all around the place.
Moderator The next question comes from the line of Matt Carter with Examiner.com.
M. Carter How would you describe your character and, most specifically, his relationship with Arthur because there’s some kind of hidden motive going on there? At least there appears to be so.
S. Ramamurthy Well, my character, Jai Wilcox is a second generation CIA man. His father, Henry Wilcox, was the Head of Clandestine Services, so he’s CIA royalty, basically. And, as we’ll find out in Tuesday’s episode, I don’t want to give too much away, there’s some baggage that comes with being Henry Wilcox–my character’s father’s name is Henry Wilcox–there’s some baggage that comes with being his son and it kind of permeates through the CIA. So, you see how Jai kind of has to deal with that.
He kind of has two father figures in his life. He’s got his real father, Henry Wilcox, and then he’s got Arthur Campbell, played by Peter Gallagher, who is somebody who, obviously, he looks up to and respects and he wants to impress the both of them and impress everybody else in his own right. I think it’s very important for Jai to feel that he is there at the CIA doing a good job on his own merit, not just because he’s Henry Wilcox’s son or because Arthur Campbell trusts him with specific clandestine operations that not a lot of people know about. So, the relationship with Arthur is definitely, you know, he’s my boss and I look to impress him at every turn that I can.
M. Carter You’ve been doing a lot of research about the CIA and about some if the inner workings for the show. Was there anything that you found out that kind of surprised you?
S. Ramamurthy There was a lot that we found out through doing all the research, from the fact that the CIA encourages dating within the agency, which I thought would not be the case to kind of the way that things operate there. I didn’t know even the basic things, like you can’t have your cell phone with you inside the CIA. I didn’t know that the CIA didn’t carry weapons on U.S. soil. So it’s interesting, we actually just shot a scene where I’m chasing somebody and they’re shooting at me and I have no gun, but I keep chasing them, like I keep going after them, even though I have no weapon.
So, for me, I found it really kind of courageous and heroic that these CIA operatives are going about doing their thing without a weapon. It could also be looked at as, God, how dumb. But I think it’s pretty heroic. It’s kind of like, well, I guess it’s like with anything like this, like firefighters if you want to look at it like that. While everybody is running out of the fire, they’re the ones running towards it and I think it kind of speaks volumes for the CIA and the people kind of protecting our country.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Stevie Wilson with LA-story.com.
S. Wilson The interesting part about your character is that you are the assistant to the director and you have access to him that other people don’t, and how does that work in terms when dealing with Kari Matchett’s character as, you know, she’s his wife, but she’s also got a job on the team, but she can’t always get to him the way you can.
S. Ramamurthy Yeah, and that makes for a pretty interesting dynamic between Jai and Joan, Kari’s character, Joan. It’s pretty antagonistic. She’s not very fond of Jay and their interaction kind of shows that. But what I love that the writers have done with the character is they put in moments where Jai, he does his job well. Jai is really good at what he does. That’s not to say that he makes mistakes. Everybody will make mistakes throughout any kind of mission, but he’s so good at his job that Joan at certain points in certain episodes can’t help but say, “All right, well done. You did it right.”
Actually, one of the instances happens in Tuesday night’s episode, which I wasn’t expecting because you kind of think in TV they’ll set up this one dynamic and just kind of go in that direction full tilt and that will be that. But it’s really nuanced, all the relationships between the characters are really nuanced and I’ve been really impressed with how they balance everything, from my relationship with Joan to Jai’s relationship with Annie to Auggie’s relationship with Annie; it’s a delicate balance and I think the writers are really doing it well.
S. Wilson I agree, because the relationships seem real and it’s interesting because I would think that your character and Auggie’s character might be–and it seems to be that there’s a little bit, I don’t want to say friction, but the dynamics.
S. Ramamurthy Oh, there’s friction, Stevie. There’s friction. We’re having a lot of fun with that actually.
S. Wilson Well, it’s interesting because he has a fondness for Annie, but he can’t go out in the field like you can.
S. Ramamurthy No, no he can’t and that’s probably part of the friction. And then I think, well, without want to give too much away I think that Jai, as the season goes on, kind of becomes a little bit jealous of the friendship between Auggie and Annie. They are best friends. They really are. There’s a trust between them that Annie’s character doesn’t have with any other character.
She can be completely who she is with Auggie. She can’t do that with Danielle, her sister; she can’t do it with me because, well, there are various reasons that will come out, but it’s a relationship not entirely based on truth and so that kind of makes that impossible. Having said that, I think there’s an attraction. There’s definitely an attraction between Jai and Annie and Annie and Jai and I’m having fun seeing how it’s all playing out.
Trailer for 8/17
Moderator The next question is from the line of Curt Wagner with RedEye’s Show Patrol.
C. Wagner Gregory Itzin plays your father?
S. Ramamurthy Yes, he does.
C. Wagner How is that? He’s always so good in everything he does.
S. Ramamurthy He’s kind of just amazing. I knew him from 24, obviously I’d seen is work on 24 and thought he was just amazing in it and when I heard that they were bringing him on to play my father I thought, okay, interesting choice. I didn’t see that coming at all.
But I was into it, I was really kind of impressed with it, that the writer’s and USA and the studio, everybody, kind of really got behind it. And the scenes that we did, especially in Tuesday night’s episode, which is Greg’s first episode with us, there’s kind of one of my favorites scenes that I’ve done all season, is a scene where he kind of drives it where it’s Jai, and Annie and him, just sitting at a table, having a drink and talking.
And it was an amazing experience to kind of just watch Greg work, because he’s so good and he’s so specific. I’ve really enjoyed all my scenes with him. Again, it’s a very complicated relationship, the relationship that Jai has with Henry, with his father. And we’re kind of getting more into it actually right now.
There’s a great scene in the finale, which we just got, which I’m really looking forward to doing. I think we’re going to shoot it next week. Greg will be back up with us, so, yeah, it’s been a real treat working with him.
C. Wagner So, is this sort of the start of us seeing a lot more of you and Jai?
S. Ramamurthy Yes, like I said, I kind of came to the party later. I was cast after they had shot the pilot and the show had been picked up for 13 episodes and I was cast after they had kind of broken the first four stories. They had already written the first four episodes or done very specific broad strokes of the first four episodes. So when I met with them they said, listen, we’re going to slot you in where we can in the first four episodes because we’ve put out the structure already, we already know what we’re going to do in those episodes.
For instance, in last week’s episode I wasn’t even in it because that was actually the first episode that we shot after the pilot, even though it aired fourth we shot it first, so there was just no way for me to be in it. And so, I kind of like am peppered through the first four episodes and then on Tuesday’s episode it’s kind of like the real introduction to my character where you find out what Jai is all about, where he comes from, what makes him tick and, more importantly, what he’s doing there and what his kind of general arc and mission will be throughout the season.
