New Orleans To Her New Mission In The Dick Wolf Universe

CIA’s Necar Zadegan is no stranger to the police procedural. Having previously appeared in a major role in NCIS: New Orleans, Zadegan has found the right rhythm and approach to this style of procedural. In fact, this isn’t even her first time in the Dick Wolf universe, as she made an appearance in season 25 of Law & Order. Even with all that preparation, though, there’s nothing quite like finding the unique spirit of a show to make it feel alive.

During an interview with ScreenRant, Necar Zadegan discussed the biggest surprises of joining CIA, teased the dynamic that New York City Deputy Chief Nikki Reynard develops with Tom Ellis’ Colin Glass, and revealed the biggest differences (and surprising similarities) between CIA and sister shows like FBI.

Necar Zadegan Breaks Down How CIA Compares To FBI

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Having previously played Special Agent Hannah Khoury on NCIS: New Orleans, Necar Zadegan knew the style of show she was jumping into with CIA. “I had a great experience working on NCIS,” Zadegan explained. “I was in New Orleans, which was definitely part of the show. I love that city, it’s one of the reasons I wanted to do the show.”

“It’s a fantastic city. I have that same feeling for New York City and FBI. It’s a very different city, but I love it very much. We very much have the city be a character within the story. That alone makes it so different. The slow, molasses feel of New Orleans gave that show a very specific type of tempo. This show is very international, very exciting, very fast-paced. It’s like the lifestyle in New York City.”

While Hannah was also in a leadership role, Nikki has a different scope to her new mission, given the larger scale of CIA. Finding the grounded elements of the character, despite the globe-trotting and scale of the threats, became crucial for Zadegan’s approach to the character. To really nail the character.

The natural backstory that helps her fall into this role is something that I think about. We’ve talked about it, the writers and I, we shared a lot of thoughts regarding it. She has this sort of La Femme Nikita backstory. She was in the field, and she had that kind of role that Colin is living, and they know each other from that world and from that time in their lives. There’s a history they share that makes them relate to one another.

They care for one another and protect one another. There aren’t so many people that they know that they can relate to at all, given their position. That makes these relationships kind of intimate. It’s a shared understanding of loneliness and privacy and secrecy, even between one another. I thought about all these things. I do like to fill my world whenever I’m working on any project. I like to fill my world with stories and things that put me into that world. That’s what I did with this project.

Necar Zadegan Explains The Inter-Series Dynamics

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At the heart of CIA is Tom Ellis’ Colin Glass, a loose cannon agent who finds himself bristling against the people around him. That includes Nikki, who Zadegan describes as someone who is exhausted with the circumstances she has to deal with as a field leader, even if she can’t help but develop bonds with the people around her.

In the opening scene between Tom and me, Nikki brings it up to Colin and sheds a little light on the differences between the FBI and the CIA. She kind of has some disdain for it, but we quickly see that there is a necessary relationship, and it happens to be a relationship of mutual respect. Particularly between Nikki and Jubal Valentine. Jeremy Sisto is such a wonderful actor. He came on to introduce his character on the show, and you see that mutual respect. The FBI and the CIA work very differently. Those differences are highlighted in very fun, very sneaky ways from time to time.

That doesn’t take away from the respect that these characters have for their different ways of working together, needing to lean on one another, sharing intelligence when they can and where they can. We really get to explore that this season… We’ll see how the relationship unfolds. That opening scene and in the subsequent episodes to follow, there’s a lot to uncover.

There’s a lot going on behind the glass, which is even how we shoot in some scenes. It’s all about seeing something differently from what’s really happening. Nikki and Colin have a shared history that we will discover in subsequent episodes from working together in the field, and that creates a close relationship for them. We’ll see how that all unfolds through some really fun spy story stuff.

Looking back at what surprised her the most about CIA, Zadegan revealed with a laugh that it came down to just “how fantastic Nikki’s wardrobe is. I didn’t expect that. I didn’t know it was going to be that fantastic! I love that she gets to have a very cool ‘I bought this in Paris’ vibe, which makes sense. Someone who is traveling all the time and working undercover, she shops in a lot of different places!”

CIA premieres February 23 at at 10pm ET/PT on CBS.