Turn Me On: Interview with Christopher Gorham

Just like a scene from Covert Affairs the group of reporters was whisked away to a secret location to meet the rest of the cast of the hit USA Network show. Finally at the airport, that was supposed to be a foreign locale (a locale that no one would confirm), we had to wait for a break in shooting to get to meet the actors who were working that day. Our group was getting a treat, Christopher Gorham who plays Auggie the tech guru of the DPD.

When Christopher first walked in there was that split second of, “Why is he wearing glasses? Isn’t he blind?” Gorham plays the part so well that you almost forget that he is a sighted person. During the interview he talked about how he works to make you believe he is blind and gives hints to the incident that took Auggie’s sight.

PANEL: Hey, Jeff Kirkpatrick, TV Fanatic.
CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Hey.
PANEL: And I just wanted to find out about the, the big Auggie episode coming up…
CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah.

PANEL: …and the, the scene where you end up losing your sight. I mean, was that real emotional for you? How did you react to that?

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: It’s, it’s a difficult scene to describe without giving away how it happens. It is an emotional scene. It, it’s-, how do I describe it? Honestly, we shot 136 set-ups that day, and everything was moving so fast, but that moment was very still and very special somehow, and I think probably the biggest production day we’ve done to date. So yeah.

PANEL: I’m Rosa with accidentalsexiness.com.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: You guys laugh every time she says that?

PANEL: I know. They do.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: This-, you must have done 8 or 10 of these already today.

PANEL: I know. There are a lot of Annie and Auggie shippers out there, how do you feel about a connection, a romantic connection, between the characters?
CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: I think it’s, it’s-, they, they, they definitely have that chemistry, I think that that kind of a relationship is something that is kind of a very long term arc for this show. It’s not something that is going to happen any time soon, I don’t think. But they don’t tell us everything.

PANEL: How do you feel though about that happening eventually? If like there is a possibility, would you like that to happen?

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Oh, I think it could happen. Well, it-, if it-, well, yeah, if it were to happen like many, many years from now, that would mean I’m still on the show, so that’s a very good thing. But yeah, I mean, there’s-, yeah, of course, I-, there’s-, just as a fan and, you know, I’m kind of taking myself out of it, just looking at those two characters, I-, you know, I, I like those two characters a lot, and, and they get along very well, they compliment each other very well. I think they’re growing to need each other, which is nice.

PANEL: Thank you.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: So yeah.

PANEL: Hi, I’m Sammy from TV Grapevine.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Hey.

PANEL: How did you prepare for your role of playing a blind person?

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: I, I started, before the pilot, working with an organization here in Toronto called the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, CNIB. And I’m still working with them even now, this year I’ve gone in and got kind of a tour of-, there’s a guy that works there who’s blind, and who’s really into tech, kind of, kind of like a real life Auggie kind, you know, and, and so he gave me a tour of all of his gadgets and showed me how it all worked, and, and showed me how he texts using his iPhone and his like tiny little Braille keyboard that, you know, connects via Bluetooth to his iPhone, and Braille printers, and you know, all of his gadgets. And I also did some blindfolded training this year, some blindfolded mobility training out on the streets of Toronto, crossing intersections, and walking down sidewalks, and all of that stuff, which is terrifying. But I really wanted to do, because one of the first guys that I met who lost his sight when he was 20 years old in a car accident, in our conversations one of the-, he was telling me that during his recovery when he was learning how to get around as a blind person, he gave up for a full year, because he was so embarrassed to walk up and down his street with his cane to practice. ‘Cause he was 20, I mean, he was just a kid and, and, and so he just gave up and stayed home, and he had good friends and they would take him everywhere, and it took a full year before he finally had, really, the courage to start again and, and, and learn how to be independent. And I wanted to see what it’s like, and, and I tell you, it’s so immediately disorienting. I, I-, you can’t walk in a straight line, I don’t know if you know this, but it’s physically impossible, if you close your eyes, to walk in a straight line. Like every-, you veer and, you know, it’s so easy to end up in the street, it’s so easy, you know, and you have to-, it takes such real bravery to overcome that fear and learn to be really good at it. You know, like somebody like these men and women that I’ve met with somebody-, you know, somebody like Auggie. That’s partly what I think makes his character so likeable and admirable is that, that he-, there’s a strength within him, you know, that he’s really been through something extraordinary.
PANEL: Wow. And I understand you’re working on some kind of project where you-, with the Covert Affairs DVDs, it’s some kind of…

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah.

PANEL: I can’t remember what it’s called, but…

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: It’s called, it, it’s called descriptive video. Last, last year, as a thank you to the CNIB, I, I wanted to arrange a screening of one of our episodes at their building, and-, but the, the-, you know, so when I talked to them about it they said, well, it would be great if you could get descriptive video on it so that, you know, our-, the blind people could really enjoy the episode. And what it is, essentially, is they, they take out the ambient music from the show and insert narration about what’s going on. What people look like, the action, and then, you know, the dialogue, of course, all stays in. And they’re really good at it. So I called up the network and I said, listen, I’d really love to do this thing, could we have the episode and, and would you guys mind footing the bill to have the descriptive video process done and, and they were great and they said, yeah, we’ll do it, just tell us, you know, where, where should we go. And so we hooked them up with this company in Vancouver and USA made it all happen and, and it was a big success. And so then I took it-, then I did-, I ended up doing press in New York-, well, for the Auggie’s episode last year and we did this event at the USA Network offices and I was talking to the woman who was handling all the DVD stuff and I, I said, listen, you know, look at this, this descriptive video is amazing, it’s not very expensive, and if you-, and you guys should be doing it on all your shows’ DVD, but for-, if you’re going to do it at all, you have to do it for this show. Please at least for my episode, but if you can do it for all the episodes it would be so great, and I know the blind community would appreciate it, and, and then when the DVDs came out, they did it, it’s on every episode on, on our DVD that…

PANEL: Incredible.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah, it’s just-, you know, and it’s, it’s, it’s a small thing, but it just takes effort, you know, and it just takes that extra effort and, and people really appreciate it, and I’m just so-, I mean, really proud to be on a network that, you know, will take somebody like me seriously and then, and then do something that’s really important like that.

PANEL: It’s amazing.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah. Yeah, hey.

PANEL: James Hamilton with Fist Full of Comics and Games.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Hi.

PANEL: Hi. I’m curious, when someone has a, a physical disability, it’s easy to fake a limp, or…

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Right.

PANEL: …a stiff arm, but trying to play blind when you have sight, how difficult is that?

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: It’s tricky. It’s tricky. And, and it’s also a r-, it’s also a team effort, because you know, one of the-, it, it it’s been a learning experience, I think I’ve gotten better at it, and just like as a show we’ve gotten better at it. You know, starting out shooting the pilot, there were-, we were finding all kinds of weird technical issues, like you know, we’d shoot the master and I would be kind of off to, you know, the right of Piper’s head or whatever, and my eyes would be kind of in that area. But then we’d come to the close-up and that’s where the camera would be. And I-, you know, and then suddenly things weren’t matching because-, you know, so there’s a-, like I have to plan ahead and there has to be a good communication as to where are you guys going to be and-, so that I’m not staring into the camera. Also, a guy like Auggie in real life would actually be very good at eye contact, because people who’ve grown up with sight and then lost it, their body just remembers, you know, you can hear a voice and turn-, and your head just knows where to go. So much so that it can be very-, it can be really disconcerting when you’re having a conversation with someone who’s blind and it really looks like they’re looking at you, like you know, it starts to freak you out. So-, but if, if I do that on the show, it, it, it just becomes very confusing for the audience, so I have to make Auggie not as good as he would be in life. And, and also tell the directors-, ’cause we get new directors all the time, tell them, listen I won’t be offended, if it looks like I’m looking at whomever, tell me, because then I can just adjust it and, you know, and let’s-, ’cause we don’t want that, you know. Like I, I will never be looking at them, but sometimes because of the camera angle, wherever, it, it’s-, it can be a little tricky. But then-, and then technically, as far as the performance goes, it really just comes from just doing my research and doing a lot of observing and, and, and going through these classes, and finding out what the behaviour is. Like you know, how, how to feel a chair with the back of your legs before you sit down so you don’t have to like feel around, you know, and like so it’s subtle and natural, and, and you don’t see me trying to find things. And you know, it’s reaching for a cup of coffee and instead of doing it like this, it’s doing it with the backs of-, back of your hands so you don’t knock things over, or you don’t get burned. And you know, like doing things in grids, or if you fall on the ground you, you know, you’re searching in circles, and those details that you really just you find out by going and finding out the answers to those questions. And so yeah, it, it’s tricky, it’s just-, it’s a lot of-, but it’s also fun and, and it’s, it’s part of what makes it so rewarding is that it’s not easy to do, you know.

PANEL: Doug Liman gave the example earlier that you have to learn how to pour yourself a cup of coffee without spilling it…

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah.

PANEL: …’cause you got to know when it reaches the top.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah.

PANEL: Can you tell us that secret? He didn’t tell us.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Well, there’s a couple things you do. It was-, well, it was funny actually, ’cause when I did-, when I, I knew that we were going to see Auggie’s apartment, so I called up my coach over there at the CNIB and I said, look, can you-, can we-, do you guys do-, what do you do? Like how do you teach people to work in their kitchens and around the apartment? She said, well, come in, we’ll do the class for you in, in the kitchen and show you like how to do the cooking things. So we go in, and the first thing that comes out of that is a phone call to the props department, because there are certain things that you use that we use in the show. They have non-slip pads that they’ll put down on the counter, and then a tray, and then a non-slip pad on the tray, right, and the, the idea being that if you spill, it doesn’t go all over the counter and on the floor, you know, it stays in the tray. Like there’s a-, it’s-, there’s real logic to how everything is set up and how they teach people to do it. And then at first they have a little gadget that they, that they sell, which sits on the lip of a coffee cup and it has two little metal receptors at the end, and when the liquid touches it a little alarm goes off, right, so it tells you that your cup is full. So they’re showing me this thing, and then-, and they were, they were doing it with this, this woman who had lost her sight to diabetes, and so I said to her, I said, now, do you use that thing at home? She was like, uh. Like, I wouldn’t think so, I mean, it seems like that’d be a pain to like always have to find this little gadget and make sure it has batteries just to pour yourself a cup of coffee. I said, but how do you-, well, how do you do it? You know. And she said, well, you just do it kind of by sound, ’cause you can hear it, you know, you just kind of-, you hear as the, the sound of the water changes as the cup fills up, and you can hear when it’s getting close to the top, and you just get good at it. So it’s just practice, you know, and she’s like, sometimes, you know, I miss it and I spill, or sometimes-, you know, or you can put your finger just over the lip and, you know, you have to be careful with hot things, ’cause you don’t want to get burned. But so I just practiced by hearing, ’cause I figured Auggie’s like one of the coolest guys ever, so he’s not using some like dorky gadget. So that was out the door. Yeah, and so I just practiced and it’s-, you know, you set your cup a certain way so you know where the handle is, and you, you know, and you, you pour it, and just listen for it to be at the top, and I got it every time, I didn’t spill once, everybody on the crew was very impressed.
PANEL: Is that ’cause you’re cheating ’cause you’re-, you could actually see?

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: No, ’cause I couldn’t look at it, ’cause it’s way down here, right, I mean, I’m doing it, I’m doing it all down here and I’m talking to Emmanuelle, you know, like we’re doing my lines and just-, I mean, I can’t see it. Yeah.

PANEL: Good instincts.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Well, it’s, it’s practice, that’s all, yeah.

PANEL: I was going to ask, where do you think Auggie’s strength, at this point in his life, it really comes from? ‘Cause he’s probably one of the most confident characters on the entire show.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah.

PANEL: And there’s got to be something that kind of gives him that strength that he draws upon.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Well, you know, he, he’s one of those very special people on this planet who has an extraordinary amount of strength in him. I mean, you know, he-, I don’t know how much you know about the Special Forces, but even the stuff you read, I mean, you know Seal Team 6 has been in the news because of killing Osama bin Laden, and Auggie’s one of those guys. You know, I mean, these are some of the strongest, most ambitious, toughest, really smart guys that this planet has to offer. And in addition to that, you know, he’s, he’s lost people in battle, he’s been through the fire, he lost his sight, he’s gone through that, I mean, he has been through more in his life already than most people will ever see. And so I think he’s, he’s built up through all of those things a lot of strength, and a lot of confidence in what he does. I think it’s part of what makes him so attractive to women is that confidence, you know, and he’s a good looking guy, but he’s, he’s confident and he’s-, he, he knows what he wants and I think people are attracted to that. And also, he got beat up a lot as a kid, he’s got four older brothers and they were not nice, so that had to help.

PANEL: Now, how do you think Auggie inspires the blind community? People that are aware of his character.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Right. I don’t know-, well, I don’t know if he inspires the blind community, so far the reaction that I’ve gotten from the blind community has been very positive. And I think it comes from a couple things. I think first it comes from the character that’s been written by Matt and Chris, who is a very capable, smart person with incredible skill who happens to have a disability. So he’s not a victim, which I think is a big sensitive spot for that community. He’s also not a Superman, like he’s not infallible and he-, so I, I think they appreciate that as well. I think the, the other side of, of it is that, I think that, you know, that I’ve worked very hard to get his portrayal as right as I can, and, and really have done my homework and, you know, had conversations, and met with a lot of people, and have taken it very seriously, and I think that they appreciate that, as well. So yeah.

PANEL: Murtz Jaffer from Inside Pulse. You’ve played a couple of challenging parts, you know, you had the killer on Harper’s Island, and now Auggie, are you just attracted to challenging yourself? (Laughter.)

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: What was the question?
PANEL: So the, so the question was, are you attracted to challenging parts? You know, Auggie being the killer.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Well, yes, but I can’t take credit for all of it, you know, I mean, Harper’s Island, for instance, is a perfect example where, you know, I, I, I suspected that I was going to be the killer on that show, but I didn’t really know until we were halfway through. Auggie on the other hand, you know, there were no secrets, and, and I was really excited about doing it, and, and doing something really different. I mean, I mean, honestly, it’s been-, like the past few years has been really exciting and I’m really proud of the work. I mean, starting with Ugly Betty, which in itself is a very distinct character and not me, you know, and then to go to Harper’s, and then to come to this show and, and you know, kind of taking everything that I’ve learned and, and bringing it into this part, which, you know the, the big challenge again with, with the blindness is, it’s such a specific physicality that, that you just can’t wing it, you know. Like you just can’t make it up.

PANEL: Is one more difficult than the other?

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, you know, doing-, this is, this is more difficult. I mean, it’s, it’s-, you know, any kind of interesting complex character is always going to be challenging, but having something so specific, like you know, a physicality like this that’s so specific that, that you have to get right. You know, like you can’t-, I can’t just kind of do it my way, you know? And kind of-, and, and, and wing it. It, it really has to be right, and I can, I can be creative, you know, in, in-, within that and, you know, and I can be really creative and go in different directions with other things about Auggie, but the physicality of his disability has to be accurate, and, and that’s, that’s-, that takes extra work. Yeah.

PANEL: Thank you.

CHRISTOPHER GORHAM: Great, no problem.