Covert Affair's Sendhil Ramamurthy Talks About Working on New USA Network Series Part 1
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.
Moderator The next question is from the line of Melissa Lowery with NiceGirlsTv.com.
M. Lowery I was wondering if you could tell us if Jai's relationship with Annie is going to be strictly professional or if he has interest aside from what we've been shown so far?
S. Ramamurthy Again, it's very complicated. I think one of the best things about this show is that all the relationships are really complicated. It's kind of the best thing that was written in the pilot is the note that the Ben Mercer character leaves for Annie's character. It says, "The truth is complicated." And that doesn't just apply to Annie and Ben. That certainly applies to Annie and Jai as well.
Like I said, everything is not what it seems when you meet Jai and Annie and the audience knows that Arthur has told him to get close to Annie in any way possible. And you kind of see a few different tacks that Jai takes to kind of accomplish his mission and then he can try and go the romantic way, he can try and go the professional way; there are a few different avenues and Jai is pretty crafty and he kind of tries whatever works in certain situations.
And I think that's all well and good, but in the end Jai and Annie, they're not robots. There are emotions, there are feelings and when you get close to somebody it can complicate something that you want to just be a mission. So, we'll see. I have to be honest, I'm curious to see where it goes because I don't know yet.
M. Lowery You were talking a little bit about Jai's being a second generation CIA agent. Are we going to see kind of a back story for him?
S. Ramamurthy Yes, you do. You get a little bit actually in Tuesday night's episode; you just kind of hear what he's about, what he's been up to, actually, just prior to coming to the CIA. You get a little hint as to where he was and what it was that he was doing and a cool scene that we shot, it was me and Piper and Eriq La Salle, actually, which was a lot of fun. He guest stars in Tuesday's episode and he's terrific in it. And he's such a nice guy.
I mean, I was a little in awe. I was acting with Dr. Benton, like what do you do? But he was really great. And you do, you do find out kind of where he's from and as the season goes on you actually find out a little bit more about where he was and what it was that he was doing where he was, which is kind of important to the overall end game of the season.
8/17 episode scene 1
Moderator The next question comes from the line of Pattye Grippo with pazsaz.com.
P. Grippo What do you find to be the biggest challenge in playing this particular character?
S. Ramamurthy For me, it's been a huge challenge just because it's a very different character than what I've been playing on TV before, which I'm excited about. But it's an incredibly layered character and you're always kind of second guessing because you don't want to give too much away in each scene and so that's something that I've really worked hard at and you don't want to tip your hand too quickly.
Jai is a charmer, or he thinks he's a charmer anyway, and everybody around him reacts that way so I guess he is and you don't what that to just be it, so there has to be something bubbling underneath it and the challenge was to not let kind of the end game, which, obviously, I know where it is, but you don't want the audience to know if the fifth episode of the series what's going to happen, so it was a really tricky balance for me and, again, I hope I got it because we haven't seen a lot of it, we haven't seen a lot of the episodes, so it's going to be interesting. So, for me, that's been the most challenging thing.
The other challenging thing has been it's a very physical role for me. In Tuesday's episode I was doing parkour. Who gets to do parkour on TV? They brought in a guy from Cirque du Soleil to work with me to kind of work the moves out and stuff. And I saw the chase scene actually that's going to air on Tuesday and it's really cool. I was really excited when I saw it. It's a very fun thing and it's what you would expect from Doug Liman, from a show executive produced by Doug Liman. It's certainly worthy of kind of his previous spy stuff.
P. Grippo Talking about you and the character of Jai, what would you say are your biggest similarities and biggest differences between the two of you?
S. Ramamurthy Well, similarities, I think he looks like me; that's pretty similar. But, listen, Jai is a bit of a flirt and you can see it as one way in that he's using it to help accomplish what he's supposed to be doing, but it's kind of in him to be a little bit flirtatious and I've been told that I can be flirtatious at times by people, so maybe that's a similarity with me and Jai.
The kind of dissimilarities are I'm really bad at kind of not tipping my hand, basically. It's hard for me to lie about things or not lie, that's the wrong word; not disclose everything upfront. It's very difficult for me to do that, but it's no problem for Jai. I mean he kind of lives in that world. That's what he does.
And he doesn't see a problem with it and other people might, people that he's not disclosing the information to. It maybe comes across as dishonest, but that's what he does. He's a CIA operative. That's what you do. You're required to not fully disclose things to people, like people close to you, your family, your friends and that's kind of the world that these guys live in and it's second nature to them and it's not something they feel morally conflicted about at all, whereas I would.
I would feel conflicted about it and I think that's the major difference.
8/17 episode scene 2
Moderator The next question comes from the Lena Lamoray with LenaLamoray.com.
L. Lamoray What are your thoughts on the tension that Jai has added to the show, especially between Arthur and Joan?
S. Ramamurthy I think it's kind of interesting because he's become an unknowing pawn in the marital strife between Arthur and Joan and I don't think it's something that he particularly wants to be involved in. But I also don't think, because these guys are CIA operatives as well, Joan and Arthur--this is what they do, too. They don't really tip their hand too much, certainly to Jai and not to the rest of the people either as to what's going on between them.
Yeah, obviously, everybody knows they're married and there can be a little bit of frostiness between the two of them, but when they interact in front of the rest of us, in front of Annie, in front of Jai, in front of Auggie, we can't see that. And that's another instance where these guys, they're able to compartmentalize in a way the me, personally, Sendhil, I'm incapable of doing that.
I can't kind of like say, okay, well, I'm doing this, but I'm going to shut this out. I'm not very good at that, but all of these guys are very good at that because it's their job. They wouldn't be doing what they were doing if they were bad at it. So, as far as the tension, yeah, he's there and Arthur has put him into the DPD, a place where he's never been and didn't even clear it. I mean, Jai, as we saw in the first episode I appeared in, Jai is the one who informs Joan that Arthur put him in.
And we actually did a different take of it where I was actually kind of ribbing her a little bit about it, but looking back on it, I'm glad that they didn't use that take because I don't think it was right at that time. That's another thing, they were developing the character kind of after they cast me, so the first few episodes I was kind of like, okay, which direction am I going here? I don't want to make him too arch.
And they were very helpful, Matt and Chris the creators of our show, were very helpful in holding my hand and kind of guiding me in the right directly while they figured it all out and they have, luckily.
L. Lamoray How do you feel Jai will develop as the series continues?
S. Ramamurthy I think for the first time Jai starts to have second thoughts; not second thoughts, but he starts to realize that okay, maybe this deception thing is a lot more tricky and a lot more difficult and affects people in a different, sometimes adverse way than he thought and I don't think he actually really thought about it that much and there are certain things, the relationship with Annie; there is one thing, in particular, that happens in I think it's the eighth or the ninth episode where I kind of made a choice.
There's a conversation between Jai and Annie where they kind of mention past relationships and I think that there's a past relationship in Jai's life that deeply affected him and I don't think it ended up the way that he wanted it to end up and I think that I'd like to see that explored a little bit more as to why he's able to connect with Annie in the way that he does. I don't know if that will be this season or not. I don't know if there will be the time to do that, but I hope in subsequent seasons, should we be lucky to get one, or two or three or four or five, I hope that's something that we can look into.
This is the end of part 2 of the Covert Affairs Roundtable Interview with Sendhil Ramamurthy who plays the character of Jai Wilcox.
Thankyou to Electric Artists, USA Network, Covert Affairs and Sendhil Ramamurthy for the time to speak with him. As a whole, this interview gave you some serious insight into this series and what Doug Liman, David Bartis and Jim Parriott have created and the dramatic intrigue that is the hallmark of the Bourne Triology.
Watch Covert Affairs on Tuesdays at 10/9 (central) on USA Networks.
Stevie Wilson, LA-Story.com
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