PIPER PERABO Lives Out Her Fantasies in “Covert Affairs”

The film industry, like most of then world, was introduced to 33-yearold Piper Perabo when the Dallas, Texas, native was cast as Violet Sanford in the 2000 Jerry Bruckheimer- backed blockbuster, Coyote Ugly. Engaging, likable, and beautiful, Perabo was a natural fit for the career path she followed over the next 10 years, moving from lighthearted family fare like Beverly Hills Chihuahua, to Cheaper By the Dozen 1 and 2 with Steve Martin, to indie romantic comedies like the charming Imagine Me & You with Lena Headey, and Perfect Opposites alongside Martin Henderson.

Mixed in were big box-office movies like Because I Said So with Diane Keaton, Mandy Moore, and Lauren Graham, and the brilliant Christopher Nolan-directed The Prestige with a dream cast that included Hugh Jackman, Christian Bale, Michael Caine, and Scarlett Johansson.

But none of those showed Perabo like TV audiences are getting to see her now — in her first series, the new USA show, “Covert Affairs.” In the Doug Liman executive-produced show, Perabo plays Annie Walker, a CIA agent with a gift for languages, deduction, and kicking ass. Turns out Perabo is an action buff who loves going “guns a blazing” as she tells Venice when we catch up to her in a car ride from New York to Toronto, where “Covert Affairs” is filmed.

Venice:

You’ve done TV guest spots before, but this is your first series. How are you adjusting to the switch from film to TV?

Piper Perabo:

It’s two-fold. One is when you’re making a movie, and there’s an end in sight and you know what that end is. And on television they don’t give you the whole season when we start, so I don’t know where we’re going, which is really different acting. I’m usually maybe one or two episodes ahead, so Chris Gorham and I are really sort of cognizant of trying to, with the long arcs of the show, carve out those kind of hints and clues for things that are coming. But to not know certain characters, like certain characters in the show, I don’t really know if they’re on my side. And in a movie you would know that because you’ve read the whole story.

Does that make it more fun for you though, in a way, because there is still an sense of mystery and you don’t know how it will unfold?

Yeah, it makes it really exciting. When a new episode comes out we’re all trying to read it really fast. Sendhil Ramamurthy has joined our cast and I had a heavy day of work and he had a light day last week. So he was sitting there reading the next episode we had gotten, like, “Oh, no way. Oh my God.” I was like, “What?” He’s like, “Well, you gotta read it.” He wouldn’t tell me what was going on and it was really pissing me off. [laughs] And he’s like, “Ooh, you’re gonna be tired next week.” Each episode we shoot it like a movie and so there are so many things that are revealed and twists that come up, it’s exciting to read every new one.

What attracted you to this project and made you commit to this for the long haul, hopefully?

Really, it was the character of Annie Walker that got me interested. I was doing a play at the time and I was reading film after film and not finding anything that really interested me. And it’s so rare, still, to find heroines, especially written this well, that have a combination of humor and the action. I knew because of Doug the action would be really intense and well done, so it was a great combination. And so the fact that it was a medium change I almost just threw caution to the wind, and not really knowing what I was getting into because I liked the character so much.

You say you’re a big action fan, but people wouldn’t see that from your work.

Coyote Ugly came out and it had such a big effect that people sort of could see me easily in a romantic comedy genre, but when I go to the movies I like period movies and actionm movies. They don’t really go together, but that’s what I like.

What are your five favorite period movies?

A Room with a View is one of my favorite period films. I love Days of Heaven, I think is so beautiful. I really like Pride and Prejudice, up until then I wasn’t totally sold on Keira Knightley and I thought she just killed it. I thought it was so beautiful. Sense and Sensibility I think was also so beautiful; the script adaptation was so gorgeous. I just like those kind of English costume dramas. I think there’s such a class distinction and so it walls characters in a certain way that you have to find ways of expressing yourself that aren’t always verbal. And I think it’s kind of beautiful to watch. Oh my gosh, and I love Bright Star, the Jane Campion film that was out recently.

Did you have any sense when you did Coyote Ugly how much impact it would have in terms of how you were perceived?

I had no idea when I was doing it. It was only my third movie and when I got it I hadn’t even been in the industry a year yet. So when I got Coyote Ugly I hadn’t even had a movie come out yet, so I didn’t really realize the ramifications of having a big producer like Jerry Bruckheimer behind you and the kind of publicity genius that he is. Until you do it you can’t really imagine it. Even if people tell you, you can’t believe to what extent it’s gonna happen.

What were the moments where you realized the impact it had in terms of the career trajectory and that was how people saw you?

Well, right after it came out I would say the next 50 scripts I got were all about girls who sang and danced. [laughs] “Oh wait, I just did that. Didn’t you guys see that?” They’re like, “Yeah, that’s why we want you to do it again.” And so immediately I began looking for things to kind of diversify and some were more successful than others. It’s tricky. I understand why they want to see you do it again, because if you can do it well other people want you to work with them. But as an actor obviously, for me, it’s more interesting to try to do a wide variety of things.

One of the ways you’ve been able to do that is by moving between different genres and between big-budget family things like Beverly Hills Chihuahua and indie romantic comedies like Imagine Me & You.

I think it’s also trying to find myself as an actor and what really speaks to me in a role. So trying lots of different things, I feel like I haven’t always been successful, but it’s trying to kind of expand who I am as an artist and as a person. After I did Beverly Hills Chihuahua I went back to school and did a two-year acting conservatory program just because I thought, “I’m not stretching as far as I want to and I’m not being able to push as hard and as fast as I want.” When I had done The Prestige with Christian Bale, Hugh Jackman, and Michael Caine, Christian and Hugh are both incredible actors and they have this kind of array of tools and styles right at their fingertips. Hugh was doing reshoots for X-Men at the same time we were shooting The Prestige and those two films are so different and he’s able to access all different parts of himself. And I’m sure it takes a lot of work, but when he does it, it looks relatively effortless; he’s so good at it. I know it’s not because I know how hard it is to do, but he makes it look easy. And so working with actors like that made me want to go back and study more and try to figure out how they did that and what does it take.

Have there been directors you have gotten along with particularly well?

[Christopher] Nolan was definitely someone that I learned immensely from. He sets a very high bar and he expects that level of performance every day. And so just that expectation in a way brings everyone up. Also I made this movie called Lost and Delirious with Lea Pool, who’s a French- Canadian director. She was also really inspiring and challenging and communicative in a way that I think really helped raise my work to a higher level.

What about other actors that you’ve worked with?

Yeah, Guy Pearce was one who really was very generous with me, talking about process and working on our scenes a lot. He’s somebody who really wants to get in there and dig and work hard and figure it out. I feel like Giovanni Ribisi is that way too. He has a really interesting process and he’s really open to rehearsal and getting in there and digging around. And Diane Keaton, working with her was so inspiring because she’s so talented, but she also has this incredible life, this huge, full life, and so being around her and seeing that it’s possible to not only be a star, but to have a full life going on completely outside of the movie business, I was totally charmed by her and her whole lifestyle.

I think when you’re younger, with any art, there’s a feeling like you have to devote yourself to it totally. Has it gotten easier as you’ve gotten older to find that balance?

I think having interest in all the arts really complements your work. Diane and Steve Martin are really avid art collectors and both of them talked to me kind of in-depth about their collecting and the galleries and the people they’re watching, and so that was really interesting. You run into people who have these really full, creative lives and if you just take the time to sit down and have a coffee in-between shots, like going to look at the artists that Steve Martin is interested in, will really blow your mind. And I think that you are constantly trying to fold that back into the work. Diane is very political and watching her have her hair done while she’s got CSPAN on in the trailer is just cool. They don’t compartmentalize, they’ve got a full life going on.

What famous or historical people would you be interested in playing?

I’ve always wanted to play Lucrezia Borgia, she was one of the first acknowledged children of a pope and her brother was the one they wrote The Prince about, and I always thought she’d be cool to play. I’d love to play Joan of Arc, but that seems to have been done a lot. I’d love to play Josephine Bonaparte; I think she was a really interesting woman, and I’d like to play Lee Miller. She started out as a model and then she became a muse for [Marcel] Duchamp and some of the dada photographers, and then she became a war journalist! I have a picture of her, actually, in my Annie Walker pictures. She was doing war photography in World War II and there’s a picture of her in Hitler’s bathtub. It was the first time they found a bathtub in God knows how long. Going from camp to camp, trying to catch up with the soldiers and it’s her with, like, her muddy boots outside the tub and she’s sitting in the tub taking a bath. It’s the most incredible picture; she’s such an extreme combination of inspiring beauty and also commitment, politically, and to her art. I think she’s really cool.

You mention your Annie Walker pictures. Were there people you looked to as role models for the character?

Yeah, Lee Miller was definitely one of them, and also the original La Femme Nikita film that Luc Besson did. That, to me, is perfect. She’s so young, so focused when she’s working, but she’s also so human. She gets pissed off and she gets frustrated when things get fucked up and she’s a real person. I thought that was really informative for Annie because I wanted to make sure that Annie stays human and I feel like Nikita in Besson’s film is very human. [laughs] There’s a scene where she gets away from the bad guys and she dives down a garbage chute and she’s running down the street and she’s holding her high heels and she’s kind of crying and running, like a little kid, almost. And I just think that’s not X-Men or Tomb Raider, that’s like a chick who’s really fucking scared and she’s not gonna run down the street in her stilettos. Her feet hurt, she’s scared, she needs somebody to come get her, although she just blew up a restaurant and shot at least four guys in that scene.

How many episodes have you filmed at this point?

We just finished six and we start seven tomorrow.

It’s still early on for you, so where would you like to see Annie go?

That’s a good question. One of the things that I like about Annie is because she never finished her training and she’s kind of thrown into this, I get to learn on the fly and I think that’s really dramatic, and trying to see someone come up with solutions while you’re in a foreign country, while you’re being chased, and now you have to figure out X,Y, Z. So I hope Annie doesn’t get too good at what she’s doing. I kind of like that she has no idea and has to make it up.

Because she has to make things up as she’s going, does it make easier for you as an actor to keep it fresh and make it more believable?

Yeah, in some ways it’s easier to play, like, “What the hell is going on?” For me, that’s a reaction that’s closer to the truth than, “Let me assemble my sniper rifle in pitch black.” It’s closer to me, personally, because I don’t have any idea how to do that. It’s more complicated to play, but it’s easier to reach emotionally.

Did you get any access to the CIA?

I did start doing research on my own when it first began, but Doug Liman has connections in the CIA. He was cutting the Fair Game movie when I was cast. Valerie Plame Wilson was the technical advisor on the pilot, so that was some entrée that was sort of incredible, and I don’t think I would have gotten if I didn’t have Doug. And then I asked Doug if he could talk to whoever he knows so that I could go to Langley. So he set it up; I went to Langley and got to spend the day there and meet agents who were women who were my age and although they couldn’t talk about the specific missions they were on, obviously, they could tell me a lot about what they tell their boyfriends and what kind of car they drive and where do they live, how do they dress, what do they eat for lunch when you’re in Afghanistan on a stakeout, the human details, which is what I really needed. You can get the history of the CIA in a book, but they don’t talk about what you eat for lunch, and as an actor those kind of details are really important.

What do you eat on a stakeout in Afghanistan?

 [laughs] As I was telling you that I was thinking I need to know because I have a stakeout coming up. Are you supposed to bring your own granola bar, or what? One of the women who was my age was telling me, her specialty is Anbar Province, so she works there. I don’t even understand how that’s possible, but I said, “Have you ever briefed a president?” She said, “Yeah, three times.” I was like, “Oh my God. What do you wear when you brief the president?” She said, “I was so nervous to brief the president I bought a new suit every time.” And I thought, “Oh, that’s interesting, yeah.” And in movies, spies always drive awesome sports cars, but when you go into the parking lot at Langley it’s kind of inexpensive cars, because these are all people who work for the government. So they don’t have black Maseratis. So I told the writers that and in the pilot I have an economy car; you’re on a government salary.

But you drive that economy car like it’s a Maserati. And you’ve done race car driving before, haven’t you?

That’s right.

So you’re kind of a bad-ass driver to begin with.

The bad-ass driving is something I can definitely do. Actually, I steal a Ferrari in I think it’s episode four and I was psyched to drive the Ferrari because it’s one thing to take an economy car and try and push it when you’re chasing down bad guys, but once you get in a Ferrari it’s kind of a game changer. I had to kind of hold back because a camera car can’t always follow the picture car if the camera car is a big truck and you’re in a Ferrari. You gotta slow down sometimes; it’s hard though.

You’re living out so many fantasies on this show. When was the last time you got to steal a Ferrari?

I’m really goody two-shoes in my life. I wouldn’t steal anything. I certainly wouldn’t steal a Ferrari. [cracks up] I’ve never driven a car that fashionable; I’ve never driven anything like that. In New York I guess people do drive hundred-thousand-dollar cars, but you gotta have a place to park it. So my friends in the East Village, it’s a lot of bicycles and skateboards.

Okay, so maybe it wasn’t a fantasy to steal a Ferrari, but it sure sounds like you had a damn good time driving it.

Totally. I was supposed to be driving it in the hills above Caracas in this scene and we were taking a break when we were turning around. I was sitting in the car and I was talking to one of my friends from college who just had a baby. So I’m on the phone with her and she’s like, “Oh my gosh, the baby won’t stop crying and I have a headache.” She’s living this whole different life. She’s like, “Where are you right now? It’s so quiet.” And I said, “Oh, I’m on a mountain road in a Ferrari that I stole.” And even fantasies that I never even had are coming true. This show is so extreme, you start doing things and you’re like, “Wow, this is pretty awesome. I don’t know if I could have dreamt this up.”

As the show opens, there’s skydiving in it. Have you done that before?

No, and I’d really like to although it makes movie producers nervous when you say you’re going skydiving.

But you’re playing a CIA spy so it’s just research for the part.

Exactly, could you tell them that? They never buy it when I say it. Maybe when you say it they’ll let me do it.

The awesome thing is that anything you do, you can say, “Oh, it’s research. My character does that.”

Exactly. Annie is a language expert and I think we’re up to confirmed nine different languages now. So when I have my different language teachers come to the set, that to me is another one of the fantasies. When my Senegalese teacher, who’s Sri Lankan, comes to set to run lines with me, it’s cool. I don’t think I even knew what language they spoke in Sri Lanka until I met my teacher and we started working on scenes.

Do you speak other languages?

French is the only other one I can speak. I’m fluent as much as day-to-day. I couldn’t have a philosophical discussion with you in French. Once we start getting into the more difficult verb tenses I start to clam up. But in day-to-day language I can do French.

You were editor for your high school literary magazine. Who are a couple of your favorite authors?

Oh my gosh, that’s such a loaded question. Really, what I love is poetry, so some of my favorite poets are Billy Collins, [Pablo] Neruda, Walt Whitman, [Emily] Dickinson. Billy Collins I’m reading a lot recently. I think he’s kind of a genius.

If you could live in one poem what would it be and why?

Oh my gosh. There’s a poem by Neruda that begins, “Here surrounding the island there is sea.” I could live in that poem. There are a lot of poems by Rumi I could live in as well. [via email] The poem I’d like to live inside of is “Supermarket in California,” by [Allen] Ginsberg.

Do you write as well?

No. [laughs]

There’s no poetry in the closets or anything?

None that I’m gonna tell you about. [laughs]

What author would you like to meet and interview?

Nick Hornby is pretty cool. My mom was reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo when she came to visit me, and I was like, “Oh my god, if this is that huge my mom is reading it, I think I’ll have to read it.”

It was published posthumously, like A Confederacy of Dunces.

Two different actors have handed that book to me, including Sarah Polley. She’s a genius, she’s so smart, she’s so impressive.

Have you worked together?

She and I did a movie a while ago called The I Inside. I think she’s awesome, she’s so inspiring, she’s so smart and confident, and I think she’s cool.

She obviously went on to direct. Is that something you’re interested in?

I’ve thought about it, especially in theater, because that’s what my degree is in and I’ve always been really interested in theater, living in New York. It’s very rare to be as talented as Sarah Polley, to have really viable talent in more than one medium. Some people do it as a vanity project. I think she’s certainly an exception. But I don’t know. I’m really an actor and that’s what I continue to work on and improve in. I’m not satisfied yet, so I don’t think I’ll be switching anytime soon.

A lot of actors I’ve talked to who have moved from film to TV say they are impressed with how much they work and the effect that it has on them. Do you feel that?

Yeah, in a way. TV is filmed so fast and so it was hard for me to catch up and get to working speed; being able to do ten pages in a day, five days a week, is way more than you do on a film. At first it was hard for me to get up to speed, but now it’s like the engine is always hot. So it’s not difficult to make jumps and leaps and transitions, whereas on a movie, even if you’re the star, you’re not in every scene, every day, all week long. But that does happen in television. And so I’ve found that once I got my engine up and running I don’t know if it makes it easy, but it’s making me more facile, I think.

Are there people that you look to as role models in terms of how they’ve handled their careers?

I think Cate Blanchett has an incredible career and she goes between stage and film and her transformative, chameleon power I think is so interesting. I love Tilda Swinton’s work; I think it’s so inspiring and beautiful. I think Sam Rockwell, the diversity of his films is so beautiful. And Isabelle Huppert, I just saw her in a play at BAM and The Piano Teacher is one of my favorite films. I just think she is so strong and such a force to be reckoned with, and then when I saw her on stage and she could really hang on the boards I was like, “You’re a goddess.” I think she is, in particular, a goddess among actresses. ▼

“Covert Affairs” premieres Tuesday, July 13th, at 10PM on the USA Network.