In the attractive new ABC drama sequence The Company You Keep, con man Charlie (Milo Ventimiglia) and undercover CIA officer Emma (Catherine Haena Kim) cross paths at a turning level of their lives. After an opportunity assembly at a bar unknowingly intertwines their professions, their plain attraction retains drawing them collectively in a manner that would result in harmful penalties for every of their households.
During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, Kim talked about what makes The Company You Keep such a enjoyable present, why Emma is a dream character, the love story at its core, how she ready to play a CIA officer, discovering character chemistry with Ventimiglia, how difficult it’s to know who you’ll be able to belief when mendacity is a part of your career, exploring the household dynamics, and the way excited she is to get to share all of the exhausting work of creating the present with viewers.
Collider: This is the kind of present that simply looks like it’s going to be a lot enjoyable to look at, each week.
CATHERINE HAENA KIM: It’s actually been actually enjoyable to shoot, though it’s lengthy hours. Our solid, our crew, and everyone seems to be wonderful. Our solid is so proficient. I can’t wait for everybody to see all these insane cons. There are wigs and accents and enjoyable disguises, for positive.
When the chance to be part of the sequence got here your manner, what was the enchantment of it for you? Had you had goals of being a undercover agent? What was it that reeled you in? Was it the idea? Was it the character, particularly? Was it the connection at its core? Was it the whole lot collectively?
KIM: I actually really feel like, if I sat down with an agent and mentioned, “Over the course of my career, I would love to play all these different types of roles,” (co-creator) Julia Cohen in some way sandwiched all of it into one character. You get a badass CIA officer, it’s a love story, and also you get to learn about her household. It’s the whole lot, and it’s so thrilling. When I see spies and CIA officers, normally, we don’t at all times get to be aware about their private lives, so to get to see somebody who has this insanely high-stakes job simply be human, on the finish of the day, and fall in love, and navigate household and life, is so fascinating to me and one thing that I’m actually excited for the world to see. It’s an actual two-hander, which I don’t really feel like we’ve seen in a extremely very long time. You’ll see how related each households are, though they appear actually totally different. I can say the identical factor about Emma and Charlie. I really feel like that is the kitchen sink of reveals, so I’ve been having a tough time articulating what it’s about. But the opposite day, it clicked for me that it’s a love story. You have Emma and Charlie, they usually make no sense, however you wish to root for every of them anyway. It’s about love of household. It’s about loving your job in all probability an excessive amount of. At least for Emma, how are you going to not care an excessive amount of about your job, when hundreds of thousands of individuals’s lives are at stake? How are you able to not care an excessive amount of about your job, if you happen to’re Charlie and only one con is meant to finish all of them and retire the household for good?
This relies on a Korean sequence, My Fellow Citizens, which you’ve mentioned you watched somewhat little bit of. Are there any direct comparisons between the 2, or is it simply the overall concept that this sequence took from that one?
KIM: Yeah, even from the preliminary pilot episode, they’re wildly totally different, however the common premise, the place you could have two folks on reverse sides of the legislation which have an opportunity assembly and fall in love, is identical. Usually it’s a will-they-or-won’t-they, however they do, in a short time. So then, if the reality comes out, what occurs when all of the playing cards are on the desk?
Normally, viewers need to spend seasons of a present getting pissed off as a result of we don’t know if the characters will ever get collectively. What’s the enjoyable in getting that out of the best way and simply attending to play with that dynamic, from the very starting?
KIM: They each lie for a dwelling, they usually’re each going by way of the very same second of their lives, respectively, once they meet. It’s simply that second whenever you meet anyone and you’ll’t even clarify it. It’s a intestine feeling, the place you simply really feel seen. It’s like, “Oh, okay, you get it and you get me.” You simply initially have that draw to one another that’s plain.
Because they are surely two sides of the identical coin, even when they don’t know that about one another, do you assume that can make Emma any extra forgiving or sympathetic, if she learns the reality?
KIM: I suppose you’ll have to attend to seek out out. I really feel prefer it’s such a pure human factor, as you retain attending to know folks, you notice how sophisticated they’re and that no one is actually what you assume they’re, at face worth.
What are the qualities in your character that you simply like as a result of they’re much like you, and what are the qualities in her that you simply like as a result of they’re so totally different and also you’re having enjoyable attending to play sides of her which are not like you?
KIM: In a world the place we wish to overshare about the whole lot, and I get it as a result of typically you could have a good looking salad and also you simply want the world to know, you could have people who find themselves CIA officers like Emma, they usually wanna be invisible. They at all times wanna fly beneath the radar, and in the event that they do their job proper, you’ll by no means learn about what they did. There’s no put up of her linking arms with an arms supplier, after some insanely loopy worldwide deal has been squashed. That’s one thing that’s actually fascinating to me. I really like how curious Emma is. Jokingly, I’m interested by essential issues, like what I’m gonna have for lunch tomorrow, and he or she’s interested by issues like, what drives anyone to do that? How did we get right here? How will we forestall this from ever occurring once more? To not solely wanna discover the reply, however to wanna be part of the reply is so fascinating to me.
When you’re somebody like Emma, who lives in a world the place mendacity is a requirement, how difficult is it to not lose a way of who you actually are? Is she in a position to keep realizing who she actually is, beneath all of that?
KIM: Yes. We’ve been fortunate sufficient to have a former CIA officer as a marketing consultant on our present. I particularly needed to learn feminine CIA officer books as a result of I assumed it might be somewhat bit totally different, since ladies joined somewhat bit later. I picked up this guide by Amaryllis Fox, and it seems the director of the pilot is definitely actually good mates along with her, so I’ve gotten to talk along with her. That’s what made me notice, in fact, that these persons are additionally simply people, on the finish of the day. They get caught in site visitors, they usually’re irritated as a result of the babysitter didn’t present up. You don’t take into consideration these issues once they’re on their strategy to some insane job. Amaryllis mentioned one thing that I believe is actually poignant, which is that you need to justify your whole lies. You don’t simply lie for the sake of mendacity. There’s a really particular cause why you inform sure lies, and also you justify it to get to a sure purpose and to guard folks, alongside the best way.
The success of a present like this clearly relies on the chemistry between the 2 leads. When it’s so essential to what you’re doing, do you could have a second of panic the place you’re like, “Oh, no, what if it doesn’t work?,” and do you could have a second the place you’re like, “Okay, this works,” and you’ll breathe a sigh of aid?
KIM: Yeah. Great query. This function is so essential to me, and this manufacturing, that I don’t wanna simply be good, I wanna be nice. I additionally need the manufacturing to be nice, and I wanna do the whole lot I humanly can do, to make that occur. But no one is placing strain on me. If something, I’ve a lot help. It’s extra that I put strain on myself to characterize ladies properly and Asian Americans, as a folks. That’s in regards to the level the place (govt producer) Jon M. Chu will sit down with me and be like, “You’re one person, and this is one character and one story.” That takes a few of the strain off of you.
What was it like to start out discovering that relationship dynamic? Was it one thing that began to come back collectively as rapidly because it does for Emma and Charlie, or did that take you guys a while to seek out? Did you could have time to get to know one another?
KIM: We did, and I’m so grateful for that as a result of we had been attending to know one another as mates and as performing companions, and as producer and actor. We received to take a seat down and discuss in regards to the type of set we needed to create collectively, and that we at all times needed it to be type {and professional}. Milo [Ventimiglia] units a really excessive bar as a result of he introduced in his crew from This is Us, who he doesn’t simply know in passing. He is aware of everyone’s names, and he is aware of all about their households and their lives, and that’s one thing that’s additionally essential to me and one thing that I’ve additionally tried to seize the baton for and proceed. We’re all creating one thing collectively. There are tons of of people that make manufacturing occur that we by no means even learn about. And we additionally had the luxurious of rehearsals, so we received to simply play and belief one another, as seen companions. That’s the place the chemistry began constructing. When you concentrate on life, in fact, there’s bodily attraction and sexual attraction, however the cause you’re drawn to somebody is sort of on a deeper degree than that. It’s one thing that’s emotional and cultural, and that’s one thing you construct, as you construct belief with one another.
It’s so humorous that when these two characters meet, they ask one another to disclose one thing true. In that second, Charlie tells Emma that he’s a legal, and he or she tells him that she’s CIA, however neither of them consider the reality from the opposite. What do you assume it says about them that, though they’ve that second the place they’re trustworthy with one another, they don’t appear to consider one another?
KIM: You know, I’ve by no means actually thought of that manner. They meet by likelihood whereas they’re in a bar they usually’re ingesting and having time, they usually’re taking part in this humorous mendacity sport, the place there the whole lot is ridiculous and foolish and eccentric. Sometimes the reality appears so outlandish that it’s exhausting to consider, so once they say the reality, you’re proper, they don’t truly consider one another, particularly as a result of it’s been coloured by so many lies, main as much as it.
Emma pursuing Charlie looks like it may be somewhat out of character for her. It looks like it’s in all probability extra in-the-moment and spontaneous than what she may sometimes do. What do you assume it says about her, at this second in her life, that she’s ready the place she must be a bit extra spontaneous?
KIM: When you first meet them, they’re each going by way of the very same second of their lives, individually, they usually see somebody they really feel simply will get it and will get them. That’s the preliminary draw to one another. I additionally assume the occasions main as much as her being in that foyer lodge bar have made her decrease her guard just a bit bit. She is often very observant and calculated, in all of her strikes, and he or she likes to manage the whole lot that she probably can, on this insane job that she has. And then, this man simply sneaks in, and now she doesn’t know what to do as a result of this one feels totally different.
How exhausting is it for Emma to inform anybody the reality? How can she know who to belief, and when she ought to inform somebody the reality versus when she must misinform somebody.
KIM: It’s fascinating, as I began prepping this character, that query got here up for me. Can I belief you? Because whenever you’re falling in love with somebody, you need to surprise, can I belief you with my coronary heart? Emma has grown up on this high-powered political household that feels prefer it’s all optics and flash and present. It turns into extra about, are we doing this as a result of it appears to be like good, or as a result of it’s true? Can I belief you? When she’s received National Security on her shoulders, she has to consider who she will belief, and who’s mendacity and who’s not. It’s all about belief.
I really like the moments that we get to see her along with her household. She’s somebody who has this gorgeous badass job, however she nonetheless has to cope with her dad and mom. What have you ever most loved about attending to discover that household dynamic and forming your personal little household with these actors?
KIM: It’s so enjoyable since you’re by no means put extra in your house and brought again to who you had been as a toddler than when you find yourself with your loved ones. That’s the enjoyable. She has this extraordinary job, however then she comes dwelling and he or she’s the youthful sister, and he or she has a mother that could be a lot. Nobody appears to grasp why she works for this logistics firm as a result of it’s not like she’s at all times had a ardour for logistics. They’re all like, “There’s nothing else you wanna do? Are you positive you don’t wanna be in a household enterprise? Nobody is aware of that she’s secretly CIA. But you’ll actually get to see them as a household, all through the season. We’re all the principle character, in our personal lives, so there’s that part. And Emma has to fly beneath the radar and be invisible, with the intention to do her job properly.
What do you assume it’s that made Emma need this job? Is this a job she pursued for herself, or was it surprising for her?
KIM: I wanna say it’s a kind of jobs that just about finds you. I don’t really feel like she was essentially actively pursuing this. It’s one thing that occurred, and I believe it began as a result of she needed to be part of the reply and never simply discover out why. As the season unfolds, she questions whether or not she needs to proceed to have this job or not, simply the best way all of us query issues in life. She wonders whether or not she’s on the appropriate path or not. It’s like, if you happen to love sausage, otherwise you love the concept of sausage, and then you definately see behind the scenes and see how the sausage is made, you’re like, “Do I still want sausage?” I requested Amaryllis what made her wish to keep in her job, and he or she informed me that, as soon as she realized there was truly one thing she might do to be part of the reply, there was no manner she might depart. With this job, because the actor, the place I’m up at 3:30 within the morning on some days, and filming days might be 14 or 15 hours on set, it’s actually thrilling, realizing that one thing that we love doing is one thing that we’re gonna now lastly get to share with everyone else.
The Company You Keep airs on Sunday nights on ABC.