Posted in: Peacock, TV | Tagged: The Copenhagen test

The Copenhagen Test Star Chalfant on Series Themes, Spy Genre & More

The Copenhagen Test star Kathleen Chalfant (Familiar Touch) spoke with us about the show's themes, a James Bond inspiration, and much more.

Kathleen Chalfant has been active for nearly 45 years since her on-screen debut in the 1981 TV movie Jules Feiffer's Hold Me. She has regularly appeared in all genres of TV and film, primarily in dramas, thrillers, and occasional comedies, with her most notable work including Universal's Duplicity (2009), Junior (1994), and Old (2021), as well as Music Box's Familiar Touch (2024). Known for playing no-nonsense types, Chalfant plays the mysterious St. Georges in Peacock's upcoming spy thriller series The Copenhagen Test from creator Thomas Brandon, which follows Alexander Hale (Simu Liu), a first-generation Chinese-American intelligence analyst who realizes his brain has been hacked, giving the perpetrators access to everything he sees and hears. Caught between his shadowy agency and the unknown hackers, he must maintain a performance 24/7 to flush out who's responsible and prove where his allegiance lies. The only ally he trusts is Michelle (Melissa Barrera), a bartender, who understands him far more than he realizes. Chalfant spoke to Bleeding Cool about how the series' themes resonated with her, working with Brandon and co-showrunner Jennifer Yale as creatives, and St. George's motivations.

The Copenhagen Test Star Kathleen Chalfant on Playing the Cerebral St. Georges

What intrigued you about The Copenhagen Test and its premise?

The thing that got me about The Copenhagen Test was its extraordinary quality of writing and the subject that it addressed, which is "How much collateral damage is acceptable to defend what you believe to be the right?"

What's it like working with Thomas and Jennifer as creatives?

Thomas and Jennifer are the best kind of showrunners because they are people who make you feel secure that the thing is running properly, everybody knows what they're doing, and that we're all moving forward. If you have a question, you can go to them and be sure that they know not only what happens on the next page, but what happens to these characters for the next five or 10 years, and what's happened to them for the last 40. You feel supported in all possible ways, and the quality of the writing is something that you don't find every day.

Aside from the script, were there any additional inspirations you drew to get in that mindset of St. George, like maybe from a past role or perhaps a figure you drew from?

Well, the obvious place to go is I was asked to join that extraordinary group of women in movies and television, not so much in real life, who run all the intelligence agencies. The queen of that group is Judi Dench as M (from the James Bond franchise), so it was a huge compliment to be asked to join them, and they were wonderful role models, too.

Does going into the spy genre force you to rewire your brain as far as an actor, and how you approach the role?

I don't know if it rewires your brain so much as how you approach a role, but it does rewire your brain in a way about how you approach life. Since you never know who to trust, you often find yourself manipulating people against their interests to fulfill what you believe to be the right thing. You will often have to sacrifice other people for the greater good, since you must decide whether it's the greater good or your good. These are all questions of circumstances of moral ambiguity, I think we face in life in smaller ways. The world won't come to an end if we do these things in our everyday lives, but we do them. We make these kinds of choices.

All eight episodes of The Copenhagen Test, which also stars Sinclair Daniel, Brian d'Arcy James, and Mark O'Brien, premiere on December 27th on Peacock.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!