In “CIA,” Ellis plays Colin Glass, a man who’s described as a secretive and roguish CIA case officer. When the series kicks off (tune in Monday, February 23, at 10/9c on CBS), he’s partnered with a do-gooder, by-the-book FBI agent named Bill Goodman, and together, “They will work covert operations in New York, uncovering international plots, terrorist cells, and geopolitical secrets,” according to the official description. “On CIA, Bill will learn the rules of this murky world on the fly as Colin leads him deeper into spy games where only one thing is clear — their work keeps America safe, even if no one will ever know what they did in the shadows.”
The yin to Colin’s yang is played by Nick Ghelfuss, who’s perhaps best known as Dr. Will Halstead on NBC’s medical drama “Chicago Med,” also helmed by Wolf. With Colin’s habit of coloring far outside the lines, Bill is there to not only liaise between the two agencies, but also to keep his new partner in line — a feat that may be far more difficult than Bill could’ve ever imagined.
“Nick’s like a dream,” says Ellis of his new co-star. “He’s worked on a long-running show before. He knows what to expect when you come to work. We approach work very similarly. We’re both big on script, we’re both big on detail, and we both ask a lot of questions. We’re always trying to improve and embellish what’s already there on the page. And he’s just got a great attitude, but [is] also incredibly kind and conscientious and just great with everybody. It’s quite a punishing schedule, but we laugh together which is always the best way.”
While the real-life relationships on set are copacetic, it’s bound to be a bumpy ride for their characters, Colin and Bill. Each man has a very different approach to how he conducts his work and just how far he’ll go to protect the American public.
“Colin predominantly deals in lies, even to the point where the lines are blurred between the truth of his own life and what he presents to the world,” says Ellis. “As a CIA operative, you can’t let hardly anybody into your inner circle and you’re always cultivating what your image is to other people. So Colin’s job is to essentially lie all the time and that’s one of the things that Bill finds difficult being his partner, because he doesn’t know when he’s getting the true version of him. He doesn’t know whether he can trust what he’s saying. [Colin] basically lives on the edge of the truth constantly.”