‘CIA’: Necar Zadegan on the ‘Spy Factor’ and ‘Building Urgency’ for Nikki’s Big Storyline (Exclusive)

Monday’s episode of CIA was a big one for Nikki, and Necar Zadegan broke it down with PopCulture.com.

The latest episode of the FBI spinoff saw Zadegan’s Deputy Chief of Station Nikki Reynard going to Hong Kong to bring home a deeply embedded U.S. intelligence officer that was detained.

Unfortunately, Nikki’s cover is blown, and she has to keep her cover throughout a torturous interrogation. Meanwhile, the team works tirelessly in New York to find a way to bring her home. The episode was intense, emotional, dramatic, and everything in between. Take a look at what Zadegan had to say and what’s coming up as the first season continues. (Interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

PopCulture: In the episode, Nikki goes to Hong Kong to bring back an intelligence officer, but her cover is ultimately blown. What was your favorite part about playing out the storyline since it really dives into really heavy stuff later on?

Necar Zadegan: I just loved all of it. I really think that my favorite part is always the spy factor when it comes to this story. It’s just exciting. It’s exciting as the viewer, and it’s fun to play. And I think it’s where this kind of story lives the best. The characters that live in the shadows, and we’re really getting to film the shadows. So I loved it.

PC: Obviously, back in New York, things are getting pretty intense with everyone. And Colin has this brief, vulnerable moment, telling Bill that he’s lost so many people and that he can’t lose Nikki, too. How hard do you think it was for him to work this case, not knowing if he would ever see her again?

Zadegan: Well, it’s so wonderful that the writers wrote us this kind of opportunity to be able to illuminate the character relationships because the characters, no doubt, have relationships, and some more deeply than others, and Colin and Nikki are two characters who have walked the same walk in terms of being out in the field and have had shared challenges that they can relate to. But because of the characters they are, it’s often unspoken.

And so until something very dramatic happens, sometimes the characters themselves inside this story aren’t even allowing their own emotions to rise to the surface. So, because of the scenes and the story that this episode gives us, we’re allowed to see a sense of Colin’s emotional world open up because of the position that Nikki is in.

PC: Even though her cover is blown, she is still trying to keep up the act, as she should, no matter what. What do you think was going through her mind during everything with the interrogation?

Zadegan: I really loved working with this director, Peter [Stebbings], and the writers have written this very, very high-stakes, threatening scene. And we were trying to think about the best, most high-stakes way to play it. And these characters have a background in this type of criminology and are always prepared to the extent of study for these kinds of things to happen. But we kind of decided that it had never happened and that that was the most high-stakes way to play it. And so there should be, and we played it this way, a very, very palpable sense of fear, and underneath the bluffing for this character. And, that’s where we thought the scene would be the most kind of thrilling.

PC: Between the interrogation and almost being tortured until she’s saved with the prisoner exchange, she’s really, really tough. She never breaks during it. What was the most challenging part about filming the episode?

Zadegan: I mean, I think that the challenges are always playing the scene. We always wanna play the scene. And the challenges come in making sure we’re getting what we want to on the screen. But there’s a certain amount of trust, really. Actors always play in the early acting classes with these trust games. You do these trust falls and hope somebody catches you. And that’s what it’s about when you’re on the set, because we’re there to collaborate. Every single part of the call sheet, none of it can happen without every part of the call sheet.

Every department is so important and deserves respect because they all have their own dignity. And so that’s what I always have grown, especially, to do is I trust what everybody’s doing. Everybody’s there to do the best job of the day. And you wanna do the best job so that everybody else can do the best job.

PC: Going off of that, and as you were saying earlier, this episode is really a spy craft storyline. What have you loved most about doing these spy stories?

Zadegan: The world of mystery is very exciting. And I think that there is so much when you have a story that’s kind of a mystery story. I do think viewers love it. There’s no question that mystery novels are the best-selling novels. People love them, and I always loved them when I was a kid. And I think there’s a natural sense of wanting to find out and building that urgency. And I love that, too. I love that just like everybody else.

PC: Luckily, there is a successful prisoner exchange, albeit a bit differently than what was planned. But Nikki and Colin share a very heartfelt moment. What can we expect from the two of them as the series continues, since they’re obviously close?

Zadegan: We will certainly find out. There is a history between them. There is a recognition of a life path that makes them see eye to eye in a way that they don’t get to share with a lot of other people. So we’ll certainly watch that unfold. It’ll give them a sense of loyalty to one another, which it already has. But we’ll really get to explore that relationship as we go forward.

PC: As you were saying before with the mysteries, obviously, the big storyline this season is someone on the team being a mole. What can you tease about what’s coming up with that?

Zadegan: I don’t know. I don’t know who the mole is. And I think it’s really cool that we get to search for a mole, and it comes up every now and then inside of our scenes where we have a moment, but that’s part of the serialized element of this procedural story. And I like that it is because it allows the viewers who follow the story to kind of follow the characters in a longer way.

New episodes of CIA air on Mondays at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+.