Tom Ellis Talks Going From ‘Tell Me Lies’ to ‘CIA’ & Working With Nick Gehlfuss (VIDEO)
What To Know
- Tom Ellis stars as a secretive CIA case officer in the new CBS drama CIA.
- Ellis talks to TV Insider about working with Nick Gehlfuss, who plays his FBI partner.
By the nature of his character’s job on CIA, Tom Ellis is going to have to be good at keeping secrets. But he is coming from Tell Me Lies, a show that he tells TV Insider has more of those than the new CBS drama, premiering on Monday, February 23.
“CIA is just one big lie,” he explains on the red carpet for the Hulu series. “Tell Me Lies, it’s a real privilege, I think, as an actor to get this kind of material and live in the world of nuance, and things that aren’t said are just as powerful as the things being said. Certainly in the medium of TV, you don’t always get that time with characters, and I think that was a gift. Whereas CIA, it’s pretty much we’re on the go from the first beat and then we keep going.” That certainly looks to be the case based on the first trailer released showcasing the new series.
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The new drama set in the same world as FBI sees Tom Ellis’ “secretive and roguish” CIA case officer Colin Glass team up with by-the-book FBI Special Agent Bill Goodman, played by Chicago Med‘s Nick Gehlfuss as part of a clandestine joint task force in New York. And just like Gehlfuss previously raved to us about working with Ellis, the Tell Me Lies star is enjoying working with his costar.
“He may be the nicest person I’ve ever met in my life. Genuinely is. I’ve got a real kind of example of a true midwestern person from the United States. He’s such a great guy. He’s a fantastic actor,” Ellis tells us. “We both approach work the same way, and we really enjoy what we do, and we’ve had the best time so far. You can get stuck with some people you don’t always have the best time with, and I’ve had the opposite experience on this. Nick’s the best.”
Watch the video above for more from Tom Ellis, including which Dick Wolf stars he’d love to see pop up on CIA. One is, of course, Mariska Hargitay, who pays Captain Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU — and with both shows taking place in New York and a previous Chicago P.D. and FBI crossover proving that airing on different networks won’t stop that from happening, we’ll be hoping.
CIA, Series Premiere, Monday, February 23, 10/9c, CBS
—Reporting by Avery Thompson
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