Covert Affairs Q & A With Sendhil Ramamurthy

I'm going to just assume that you're watching Covert Affairs already, and just jump into the fact that Sendhil Ramamurthy took part in a Q & A recently, and I have it to share with you. You may be familiar with him, but he has a rather unique role in USA's spy-venture series, and some may find him not entirely likable. Go figure.

Enjoy!

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.

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.

COVERT AFFAIRS -- Season:1 -- Pictured: (L-R) Christopher Gorham as Auggie Anderson, Sendhil Ramamurthy as Jai Wilcox, , Piper Perabo as Annie Walker, Peter Gallagher as Authur Campbell, Kari Matchett as Joan Campbell -- Photo by: Robert Ascroft/USA Network

How would you describe your character and, most specifically, his relationship with Arthur because there’s some kind of hidden motive going on there?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

What was one of your favorite on set moments from Covert Affairs so far?

S. Ramamurthy Well, the actual filming stuff, the parkour stuff was the coolest thing for me. That was a lot of fun. I really enjoy the physical aspects of this part for me, in general. I’d love to have a really good fight sequence, which may or may not be happening. I can’t say. But the hand-to-hand combat, that kind of stuff is something that would be really interesting to me and I’d like to see that kind of explored a little bit more.

But the parkour was fun and then kind of the offset moments. I mean like me and Chris Gorham and Piper Perabo have actually become really tight. We genuinely enjoy each other’s company and we hang out quite a bit up here in Toronto and from a non-work point of view, that’s been something that’s been really fun.

I’ve been so lucky to work with a cast on Heroes that I was so close to and we all got along really well and we all hung out together and we’re still all in touch. They all sent me e-mails when I got Covert Affairs and Jack texted me this morning saying congratulations about the numbers from Tuesday and it was a really tight cast and I’ve managed somehow, I don’t know how, to land on another show with a cast that’s just as tight.

And I just really enjoy both Chris and Piper and Kari. Kari and I don’t have a ton to do together yet, but hopefully that’ll come and when Peter is up here and Greg as well, it’s a really nice bunch of people to work with and I’m really enjoying that aspect of it, too, because it’s nice to be at work. When you’re at work for 17 hours with people it’s a good thing when you get along with them.

Is the spying leak story line going to be wrapped up soon, or is that going throughout the entire season?

S. Ramamurthy That is something that I think definitely kind of goes through and it grows in importance throughout the entire season. And I don’t even know whether it will be resolved or not resolved by the end of the season. Again, should we be lucky enough to go more seasons, it could be something that is further explored.

If you could read the 12th episode, which is sitting on my kitchen table right here and I’m looking at it, you would know that there’s an opening there for it to continue should the writers decide to go in that direction.

RU?

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About Marc Eastman

Marc Eastman is the owner and operator of Are You Screening? and has been writing film reviews for over a decade, and several branches of the internet's film review world have seen his name. His reviews have brought him personal praise from the director of a major motion picture, and have been used as required reading in a course at a major University. These priceless rewards, along with just bags of cash, keep him from straying from freelance writing. He is also a member of The Broadcast Film Critics Association and The Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

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