The Company You Keep star Catherine Haena Kim on the show's big question: Can I trust you?
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
What happens when a con artist crosses paths with a CIA agent one night in a bar when both parties are reeling from recent romantic ruination?
Unexpected sparks. Significant trust issues. And two big secrets to keep.
Premiering Feb. 19 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC, The Company You Keep stars Milo Ventimiglia and Catherine Haena Kim as Charlie Nicoletti and Emma Hill, that aforementioned couple who are thoroughly unaware of each other's dangerous occupation. Behind this meet-cute lies an ugly truth that could detonate at any time — and Kim warns viewers to brace accordingly.
"You have two seemingly very different people who happen to be going through the same moment in both their lives, separately," the actress tells EW. "So it's that moment when you see somebody and they just get it, they get you, and you think, 'Oh, it's you. It's going to be you.' And the crazy thing is, even though they happen to meet in this lobby bar by chance, and they're playing this fun lying line game and joking about what they actually do for a living, at some point Emma does say, 'Now tell me something true,' and he does. He says he's a con artist and she tells him she's CIA. But that's the tricky thing about lying, right? It's hard to tell once you start lying what's actually true and what's not."
That moment helps to establish one of the show's pervasive themes. "When I started working on this character, one question kept coming up for me: 'Can I trust you?'," says Kim. "Because we ask that a lot. We ask that when we're falling in love: 'Can I trust you with my heart?' For Emma, who comes from this high-powered political dynasty, known as the Asian American Kennedys, growing up has meant a lot of bullshit and optics. And it's meant: 'Can I trust you? Are you being real with me right now or is this just for show?' And with work, where she's constantly dealing with criminals and assets who may or may not be telling the truth, it's: 'Can I trust you?'"
ABC Catherine Haena Kim and Milo Ventimiglia star as an undercover CIA officer and a con-man on 'The Company You Keep'
Like Charlie, the highly perceptive Emma has her guard up after her love life destructs. Unlike Charlie, whose family owns a bar and swindles rich/immoral people, Emma is firmly entrenched on the right side of the law as an undercover federal agent. And instead of a bar, her family owns lots of influence in D.C., and she has shied away from that shiny arena. "In the pilot, Charlie talks about how he's fully engrossed in the family business," explains Kim. "And Emma talks about how I want nothing to do with our family business of politics. [Laughs] There is a lot of love there with the Hills, and it looks a little bit different than the Nicolettis. It shows you that love comes in all different kinds of ways. And as the season unfolds and there are big reveals about the family — about the past, about certain transgressions — you'll see that it actually brings them closer together."
Whose family will pose a bigger obstacle for this nascent, knotty relationship? "I can probably justify both for different reasons," she says. "The Nicolettis. It's obvious, right? Because they're a family of grifters. So at some point if they find out that Emma is law enforcement and she's CIA, that's going to be a disaster for them because they're always going to wonder if she's going to rat them out. And with this family of politicians where it's all about optics, you have this blue-collar, runs-a-bar Charlie, and is that going to be good enough? Before if they even find out, of course, that he's a criminal." (And it sounds like you won't have to wait for a season finale cliffhanger to see some kind of revelation: "This truth is actually going to come out quickly — and unexpectedly.")
Viewers can expect to see two starkly different pursuits of success by these families. "The writers [led by co-showrunners Julia Cohen and Phil Klemmer] talked about it: When you look at the Nicolettis and the Hills, it's about the American dream — and the American dream not exactly panning out to be what you thought it was going to be," Kim says. "That's really interesting because I'm the first generation born here. My parents moved here for the American dream. My parents had normal office jobs in Korea and they came to New York, they were pedaling whatever they could at flea markets and selling umbrellas in Times Square, and they spoke no English. I imagine as exciting as it was, it was nothing like what they thought it was going to be. And it goes back to how nothing ever really is — for better and worse."
So... is this a family drama of sorts? Or a workplace thriller? Or a romantic dramedy? Yes. "I've been trying to think of a good way to describe the show, because it's kind of a kitchen sink of shows," she says of Company, which was loosely based on the Korean series My Fellow Citizens! and whose executive producers include Crazy Rich Asians director Jon M. Chu. "You have a love story. You have the family drama. Then there's con artist heists and CIA stuff. Ultimately, I do think it's a love story. Charlie and Emma who are seemingly so different, but you want root for them anyway, even though they don't make any sense. And it's about love of family. It's about loving your job — or caring about your job too much. And I like that nothing is quite what you think it's going to be, and nobody is what you assume they're going to be like. Not even my mom, [Grace, played by Freda Foh Shen], who makes a very strong entrance. Even with all these fun cons that the Nicolettis do, they're always putting on a new mask, a new disguise."
Pretending to be a data analyst at a logistics firm, Emma is spending her days protecting the world. While tracking a global fentanyl ring, she will cross paths with the Nicolettis, who scammed said cartel's leader. "What drew me to a character like Emma, in a world where we love to overshare about everything — I always joke, 'Sometimes you just see that salad and it is beautiful and you feel like the world just needs to know' — you have people like Emma who want to be invisible," Kim says. "And if they do their job right and they do it well, nobody will ever know. And what I think is really cool is: Whenever we've seen CIA officers or spies on screen, we don't always get to see them just being people. Sometimes you see a little bit of a love story, but you see them being super badass and doing these insanely extraordinary things, and you forget that they're just human and sometimes they get stuck in traffic. Emma goes home to a mom that's a lot and she's falling in love, which is exciting and terrifying, and she's just trying to figure it out like everybody else."
To better understand the situations that require Emma to transform into super badass mode, did Kim make any visits to CIA HQ in Langley, Va., that she can't tell us about? "I haven't spent any time at Langley yet, but they have invited us to come," she notes. "I imagine at least you see a gift shop." In the meantime, she has been reading stacks of memoirs, including Valerie Plame's Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House and Tracy Walder's The Unexpected Spy: From the CIA to FBI, My Secret Life Taking Down Some of the World's Most Notorious Terrorists. "I wanted to specifically read books by female CIA officers because I thought it would be a little bit different and more applicable to what I'm doing," says Kim. "I got a list from consultants for the show, and it actually turned out that one of the books I was reading, Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA by Amaryllis Fox — she is a good friend of the director [Ben Younger] from our pilot. She's actually come to be an informal consultant for us because she's now left the CIA."
Eric McCandless/ABC Catherine Haena Kim and Milo Ventimiglia on 'The Company You Keep'
A veteran of TV with guest arcs on Hawaii Five-0, Ballers, FBI, and Good Trouble, the now-headlining Kim has also gleaned on-set leadership knowledge from Ventimiglia. "I appreciate that he's just such a grounded, humble person for what a star he really is," she reports. "Sarah Wayne Callies [who plays Ventimiglia's onscreen sister, Birdie] says it best: 'He's the f---ing mayor when he's on set.' I've seen it firsthand and it's true. He knows every single crew member's name. But not even that. He knows about, like, the second cousin three times removed you mentioned once at a holiday. That's what's crazy."
And yes, in case you're about to ask, she was a big This Is Us fan. "I bawled my eyes out every single week with everybody else," she says with a laugh. "I don't think I'll ever look at a slow cooker the same ever again. There are no slow cookers on our show." As things heat up for her on screen with Ventimiglia — and as they aim to create another resonant TV romance, fresh off his last one — it all feels a bit trippy to Kim. "You have these moments where you're like, 'Wait, we're shooting at Paramount [where This Is Us was filmed]. That's crazy!" gushes the actress. "I took over Mandy Moore's trailer when we were shooting the pilot and I'm like, 'What?' I remember jamming out to her music when I was growing up!' It's such a surreal little-kid dream-moment thing that happened. They are iconic. They're this beautiful TV family couple. But at the same time, I don't think Charlie and Emma are supposed to be them. They're a completely different thing and a different beautiful couple that I hope people connect with and enjoy seeing every week for other reasons."
Mostly, though, Kim just hopes that The Company You Keep will be good company for those in need of diversion at a dark time: Sunday night. "I think about the Sunday scaries, when most people have to go back to work the next day," she says. "If we get to help entertain you for a little bit on that night before, great. The show's not going to beat you over the head with a message, even though it'll make you think about the world. It'll also be a fun escape from the world. It's certainly not some depressing show about a crazy serial killer where you're going to have to watch at least five puppy videos before you go to bed. It's just a fun ride. Enjoy it."
The Company You Keep — whose cast also includes William Fichtner, James Saito, Polly Draper, Tim Chiou, and Felisha Terrell — airs Sundays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
Related content:
