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In The Company Of Spies

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By KATHY BLUMENSTOCK, The Washington Post

Published: August 5, 2007

Chris O'Donnell has long been fascinated by the CIA, wondering, 'Who are these guys? How do they work? How does it all happen?'

He absorbed new insight into the agency while portraying Jack McAuliffe, an idealistic recruit who becomes an apprentice to a top spy in 'The Company,' TNT's new six-hour miniseries.

Airing from 8 to 10 p.m. on three consecutive Sundays, beginning tonight, the program spans four decades of Cold War intrigue, from the CIA's beginnings in the 1950s, to its role in the Hungarian Revolution, the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse.

The film, based on Robert Littell's historical novel, is filled with power struggles, secrets, deception and suspected moles, as the story reaches hot spots around the globe: Berlin, Budapest, Cuba, Moscow, Washington.

'You see my character going from being such a green, young, ambitious guy who wants to serve his country to realizing what working for the CIA is really like,' O'Donnell said.

'It's devastating for Jack. You see that he has no kind of a personal life at all. He lives through his buddy's kids.'

Besides O'Donnell, the cast includes Michael Keaton as head of the counterintelligence division, Rory Cochrane as a KGB recruit and Alfred Molina as 'the Sorcerer,' the CIA's master spy.

The film was shot last year in Toronto, Budapest and Puerto Rico, where O'Donnell 'enjoyed driving around in tanks and shooting 50-caliber guns, even if we were just using blanks.'

To emphasize the aging process of the principal characters, Molina said, 'We all opted to shave our heads, using three or four wigs each. And the makeup design was crucial.' Molina also wore several 'fat suits' to increase his girth, 'so by 1991, I'm huge.'

A longtime fan of James Bond and the spy novels of John LeCarre, Molina likes the notion of 'two generations of men who took different approaches to the same job,' he said.

'The Sorcerer was the more cowboyish, shooting-from-the-hip guy, who goes by his gut reaction. Jack is the university-educated, bright, cool, analytical one. And those were the young intellectual guys who took over the business.'

Molina also was drawn to the story's historical side.

'The language, the sensibilities are so different,' he said. 'And that whole generation used alcohol as a way of greasing the wheels. In every situation, you're pouring a drink - to console, to celebrate, to introduce.'

In one scene, the Sorcerer meets his KGB counterpart 'out on the ice, and I'm carrying a bottle and two glasses,' Molina said.

The absence of sophisticated technology also gives the film its period feeling, O'Donnell said.

'Now it seems everything is technologically advanced, but some of the codes they had to decipher then, it was a just case of who can outwit whom,' he said.

ON TELEVISION

The Company

WHAT: Six-hour miniseries spans four decades of Cold War intrigue.

WHEN: 8 to 10 p.m. on three consecutive Sundays beginning tonight

WHERE: TNT

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