To the unsuspecting passerby, the former Canada Post depot on West Georgia Street looks as staid and unassuming as ever – but in recent months, it’s been the venue for high stakes international espionage.
Where Canada Post workers once loaded their trucks, spies of all stripes seduce powerful government officials and Pacific Rim gangsters.
Where letters and parcels were once sorted and bagged, intelligence handlers talk the opium trade, and survey each other with varying degrees of distrust.
Of course, it’s all part and parcel (pun intended) of The Romeo Section, the new CBC series scripted and helmed by veteran showrunner Chris Haddock – and it’s a hazy world for the actors and actresses in its employ, according to series star Andrew Airlie.
“I think anyone who earns a living and lives in that world, be it the espionage world or the world of Triads and drugs, they’re not working in a world that’s overrun with truthfulness,” says Airlie.
It’s late August. Airlie’s seated in his air-conditioned trailer, parked in the heart of the old mail-depot-turned-television-studio.
The Scottish-born actor (who studied international relations in university) stars as a semi-retired intelligence handler in the Vancouver-based espionage thriller, which premieres on CBC Television this month.
Airlie is dressed like a teacher – collared shirt, trousers, and blazer – as befits his character’s cover: professor of Asian history at a local university.
“It’s been a lot of fun playing scenes and moments where I know my character’s line, but I don’t really know if the information I’m receiving from the other character is the truth,” says Airlie.
The only person who knows the full truth (at least, until the episodes begin to air) is Haddock, whose previous CBC efforts include Da Vinci’s Inquest, Da Vinci’s City Hall, and Intelligence.
Haddock was deep in writing mode during Reel People’s visit to The Romeo Section’s set, but during a phone interview in late September, he described his enduring fascination with seductive spy techniques.
“The relationships that ultimately develop between people who are spies and those who are their targets, and the ultimate betrayals, if they’re ever discovered or they’re not, is really rich territory,” says Haddock.
Haddock was originally inspired by stories he read about First World War spy Mata Hari, as well as an East German Stasi official who utilized Romeo and Juliet spies to infiltrate the West German power apparatus during the Cold War.
Though separated by decades, both individuals exercised relationship traps and techniques to gather intelligence for government agencies.
“Intelligence gathering for survival is something that’s innate in all human beings,” says Haddock. “I thought it was a great, wide, and deep vein I could work in story-wise, with so many things that I’m interested in: politics, crime, seduction, and betrayal.”
Although months have passed since Haddock scripted the earliest episodes of The Romeo Section, some of the storylines seem pulled from recent headlines, including one involving a character seeking sanctuary and asylum.
“I like to write about how crime and politics intertwine, and right smack dab in the middle of that is intelligence gathering, whether it’s on a lower criminal level or in a broader political context,” says Haddock. “Inevitably something crops up [in the news] that echoes or parallels what you’re doing.”
The Romeo Section marks Haddock’s fourth Vancouver-centric drama for CBC.
This latest series reunites Haddock with some of the old team (including director David Frazee, who was Director of Photography on the first season of Da Vinci’s Inquest) as well as a slew of new and emerging talent.
“As much as I love the repertory company that did so much of Da Vinci and Intelligence with me, I was eager to go out and discover talent that I didn’t know, and much of it younger because of the roles that I’d started to write were of a younger age,” says Haddock.
But for the central role of freelance intelligence handler Wolfgang McGee, Haddock turned to Airlie, with whom he’d previously worked on Da Vinci’s Inquest and Intelligence.
“When I see people in Chris’ shows, I believe that they are the characters that they are,” says Airlie, describing Haddock’s work as naturalistic and realistic. “He casts – leaving me out of it – very well to make it feel like that world.”
And Haddock – who wrote and co-executive produced HBO’s Boardwalk Empire – savours the opportunity to work on his home turf with a network he knows.
“I really feel like I get much more creative freedom out of my relationship with the CBC than I do elsewhere, and it’s been a good two-way street with them,” says Haddock.
“And being able to work in Vancouver and tell stories that emanate from Vancouver, I enjoy that a lot.”
The Romeo Section also stars Juan Riedinger (Narcos), Jemmy Chen, Eugene Lipinski, Stephanie Bennett, Sophia Lauchlin Hirt, Mattias Retamal, Manny Jacinto, Matt Bellefleur, Kimberly Sustad, and Vincent Cheng.
The Romeo Section premieres Oct. 14 on CBC. More at CBC.ca/theromeosection
MORE FROM REEL PEOPLE’S SET VISIT TO THE ROMEO SECTION
Eugene Lipinski on his The Romeo Section character, Al: “He works for the government. He works for CSIS, but he also has to handle an independent agent. He’s really caught in the middle. I’m not going to tell you what his intentions are. I’m just going to tell you that he has to deal with and handle someone who’s not exactly functioning to all of CSIS’ rules.”
Eugene Lipinski on whether his character is a good guy or a bad guy: I can’t even answer that yet. It’s just the way the scripts come out. The fantastic thing about working with Chris [Haddock] is he really makes you, as an actor, perform in the moment. He doesn’t give you too much. He gives you what you need. If you have a question, you go, ‘Why the hell would he blah blah blah?’ He’ll say, ‘Blah blah blah,’ and he gives you your thing on a need-to-know basis which is a really cool way to work, because then you can’t make up all of this crap. It’s all very true. It’s all very real. It’s all very current. I think it’ll make for good watching.
Manny Jacinto (Wing Lei) describes the show without giving too much away: “Intense. It’s very intense, but not ‘intense’ as in fighting all of the time. It’s ‘intense’ as in there’s this tension that you can feel, at least in the scenes that I’ve read.”
Manny Jacinto on his character, Wing Lei: “My character is young, ambitious, and intelligent, and he’s definitely looking to make his mark in Vancouver. My character is from Hong Kong. I was born in the Philippines, and I was raised here. I do have some Chinese heritage down the line. I got into acting three years ago. I was a hip-hop dancer before. I wanted to pursue it professionally, but then I got the acting bug.”
Manny Jacinto on whether Wing Lei is a good guy or a bad guy: “I can’t say for sure. I don’t even really know [laughs].”
Manny Jacinto on Chris Haddock: “When I heard that Chris Haddock was making a new show, I started looking him up, making sure I was prepared in case anything was to come my way, but as far as who he was – I knew that there was a reputation for good work and if there was a person to be working for in Vancouver, it was Chris Haddock. Working with Chris is like – he gives off this very positive and open energy that allows you to be relaxed and do your best work on set. He trusts his actors to know that we can handle it, and that’s the great thing about him.”
Manny Jacinto on his The Romeo Section experience: “This is the first time I’ve been able to really dig into a character, and really study an arc for a character. It’s been a challenge, and it’s helped me grow because of it. It’s keeping me on my toes, because I need to make sure that I know where I am in terms of where the story’s going. The episodes don’t just re-set every time; they continue along throughout the season. And the casting is incredibly diverse, and I love it, because it represents Canadians.”
