For 25 years, Chase Brandon fought clandestine battles in the streets and back alleys of cities around the globe.
Now, he is doing his fighting in your neighbourhood multiplex.
Don't bother looking for his name above the title of your favourite movie. He is not an actor. He has never directed a movie.
Chase Brandon is a spook. Well, he was a spook. An honest-to-God, cloak-and-dagger spy. And he still is employed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Only, instead of being a field operative, Brandon is part of the agency's Office of Public Affairs.
He's the agency's film liaison with Hollywood. He's the guy who makes sure that Hollywood makes the CIA look good. Too bad he can't make the rest of the world make the CIA look good.
But that's not his problem. His problem is ensuring that film-makers cast the agency in a good light, as he did in The Sum of All Fears, now showing in New Zealand cinemas.
"We are not looking for whitewash jobs or to change history," Brandon explained. "We've had some failures and some traitors in our midst. We have no desire to change that. We just want a fair shake."
Brandon, who gave his age as 68 and then warned, "I lie and steal for the US Government," said he was recruited while still in college. With visions of early James Bond movies dancing in his head, he giddily accepted the invitation to serve his country.
In his time with the CIA, he said the reality never quite matched the fantasy of those Bond movies. "I have never shaken a martini," he joked.
He would not get specific about his field experiences and vowed that he never would. He said he would remain discreet even after he dies. The guy has a sense of humour.
And he probably needs a sense of humour to read some of the scripts sent his way. He said that many film-makers send their scripts in the hope that the agency will co-operate with information, assistance or even a permit to film at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.
That doesn't happen very often, but Brandon said the pilot episode of a new CBS TV series, The Agency, was filmed at Langley. It should be noted, however, that all the extras in that pilot episode were off-duty CIA employees.
For security reasons, the CIA didn't want "real" extras scurrying about the building. Or maybe the employees were looking for an easy way to obtain their actors union cards.
Brandon said the CIA refuses to co-operate with many film-makers. A script has to meet the agency's basic standards.
"When Paramount sent the script for The Sum of All Fears, it met the minimum criteria, which means that we were presented in a fair and balanced light," Brandon said. "So often it is the case that the agency has not been treated fairly."
Wait until they see Matt Damon's new movie, The Bourne Identity, which pretty much paints the CIA as a bunch of cold-hearted assassins.
Brandon refused to name the movies the agency hates. But he did say that the agency really hates it when the villains in movies are classified as "rogue operatives" or "ex-CIA".
"We have been universally typecast that way, and nothing could be further from the truth," he said. "It's just lazy writing. By calling the bad guy ex-CIA, the writer doesn't have to come up with a back story.
"Other than Tom Clancy [upon whose book The Sum of All Fears was based], writers don't want to do their homework."
In the past, it would have been unthinkable to imagine the CIA co-operating with anyone in Hollywood. Even Brandon admits that such requests from film-makers routinely were met by a stiff "No comment."
But times have changed. Even the CIA has become image-conscious.
"This is a nation driven by imagery," he said. "A lot of what we believe comes from what we see on that little screen in our living rooms and from what we see on that big screen at the multiplex.
"So the last several directors, including the current CIA director, wants us following the congressional urgings, if not mandates, that we be as open and accountable as we can be.
"Short of giving away secrets, short of giving up sources and methods of how we do business, we will attempt to answer everyone's questions."
Which begs the question: how has Hollywood been doing in trying to capture the real CIA?
"Most of these films can be realistic, without being actualistic," Brandon said. "When you pay your $10, you suspend disbelief. You want to be entertained. If a movie was totally accurate, then our security people would be running around trying to find the leak."
No word yet on how the CIA feels about Austin Powers.
- NZPA
Spy who goes to Hollywood to protect agency's image
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