Christopher Gorham Prepares To Wow On Covert Affairs

During a recent conference call, Christopher Gorham took a few minutes to talk about what it is like to play the visually-challenged CIA agent Auggie Anderson on USA Network’s sizzling hot summer series Covert Affairs.

In this week’s episode “Houses of the Holy,” Auggie is assigned to be the handler for the Special Ops unit he used to work with. As Chris explained, up until this point, Auggie has been the one helping Annie (Piper Perabo), and this will be her chance to assist him when Auggie gets in some trouble. Thus, Annie will be key in helping him get over his own personal obstacles.

"Communication Breakdown" indeed!

Then, in the August 24th episode “Communication Breakdown,” Auggie’s ex-girlfriend causes all sorts of headaches for him. As Chris explained, “He ends up in a lot of trouble because of her. She’s kind of the wrong girl for all the right reasons, if you know what I mean.” That episode will also explore Auggie in ways that they had not shown before, particularly as his past comes back to haunt him. For Chris, it was a big episode in that Auggie has a fight scene, he is on the run and he is helping his ex-girlfriend who is kind of the love of his life. It was very emotional and exciting.

Chris also hinted that Covert Affairs is currently filming its first season’s final episode, and in that episode there will be some significant character development and relationship development between Auggie and Annie that is both strong and interesting.

As for what to expect on the CIA homefront, Chris said that there will be an expansion of the internal politics involving both Peter Gallagher’s character, Arthur, and Auggie. In addition, the interpersonal relationships and how the politics affect those personal relationships will continue to be explored. That is one of the biggest themes of the show: how the personal lives and the professional lives intersect, collide and intermingle.

Chris also clarified that as far as authenticity, they make effort on the details, such as they never show anyone talking on a cell phone within the CIA because in the real CIA no cell phones are allowed; no one has a purse or a personal bag because those are not allowed in the real CIA; instead of garbage cans, there are burn bags under all the desks; and top secret documents are transferred around the CIA in bright orange, zip-up lockable envelopes. Thus, a lot of what they portray is absolutely true and intended to be as authentic as possible.

Auggie's working out a problem...

As far as Auggie, while Chris may play a visually-challenged agent, he ruefully admitted that he does not really get extra special accommodations on the set. The filming is happening at too rapid of a pace to really allow for extra time, so while he is given a little extra time to rehearse and block out the physicality of the scene, most of the time, they just go for it.

Despite the time crunch during filming each episode, Chris did do his homework and researched Special Forces training so that he would have a better sense on how to emulate it. Mostly that meant he had to get in a lot better physical shape. But he was happy to do it to add to the believability of his character.

Chris also shared that he has been very fortunate to play such a large variety of roles, whether it be Betty’s lost love on Ugly Betty, a geek infused with superpowers on Jake 2.0, or a demented serial killer on Harper’s Island. He said, “I always try and look for something that’s interesting and different. I don’t always get a choice as to the parts that I play, but where I do have a choice I lean towards things that I have not done before.”

Thus, when offered the chance to play Auggie on Covert Affairs, he went for it. He said, “One of the things that really excited me about this role in particular, was playing not just a blind character, which is physically very challenging and very interesting to me, but he’s complicated. He’s the tech guy; he’s also a veteran of Special Forces. He’s like the toughest tech guy you’ve ever met.” Chris said that because Auggie comes from a military background, he is very driven, yet he is also very creative as he has been trained to use his brain before his gun. Being blinded has been a difficult and challenging adjustment for him, but also changed him in unexpected ways.

In order to prepare for his role, Chris also spent time with the Canadian National Institute of the Blind (the CNIB) where he was taught how to use a cane, walking with sighted lead, and other physical details. He also met with someone who was blinded in a car accident when he was 20 years old, which allowed him to not only observe the physical aspects of such a disability, but also learn about the emotional journey that a person goes through when something that traumatic happens to them and how they come out of it.

Auggie and Annie's relationship will have a "strong and interesting" development in the season finale.

Chris explained that for Auggie, he has already gone through that. Auggie is not still suffering or angry about it, or feeling sorry for himself. But one of the arc’s that Auggie is going through is his frustration as not being able to get out in the field in the way that he would like to or in the way that he used to. So when he does get the chance to get out in the field, Auggie wants to prove that he can in certain situations still be very much functional at the high level. Chris said, “He’s a character that’s unlike anything else that I’ve seen on television. Every procedural show has a nerdy tech guy who lays pipe and explains things to the audience. I don’t know another show that has a tech guy who’s not that nerdy, who used to work in Special Forces so knows about 57 different ways to kill you, is quite a successful ladies’ man, and also happens to be disabled. It’s a combination that is, I believe, unprecedented and having the chance to try and bring that to life, and do it in a way that’s as honest as possible was very attractive to me.”

Chris shared that he and Auggie have a similar outlook on life. For both of them, trust is one of the most important attributes that you can have as a person, which is probably why Auggie and Annie get along so well. “They instinctively know that they can trust each other and that their relationship may be the only truly safe relationship that each of them has in that place.” They both can also keep a really good secret.

Chris was also quite pleased with the reaction to his PSA announcement in support of the visually-challenged, “The reaction that I’ve gotten has all been very positive. I was really honored to do it.”

Finally, for him the show is just a lot of fun and he loves his character. He shared, “If Auggie wasn’t so interesting and the writers weren’t doing such a great job of writing really interesting things for him to do, I don’t know that I would enjoy it that much. To be honest. With this character on this show, and particularly working with this actress, being Piper Perabo, I couldn’t be happier.”

Covert Affairs airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on USA.