An actor’s life — from Lucifer to the CIA

For an actor, it’s handy when the guys you play have things in common.
Just ask Tom Ellis (shown here, left). After six years in the title role of “Lucifer,” he stars as Colin in “CIA,” arriving at 10 p.m. Monday (Feb. 23), at the front of CBS’ post-Olympic surge.
“They’re quite similar, actually,” he told the Television Critics Association. Like Lucifer, “Colin is two steps ahead of everybody else, or at least thinks he is.”
Still, they’re opposites in two key ways:
— “Lucifer prides himself of the fact that he never lied,” Bell said. “Colin predominantly only deals in lies.”
— Also, of course, Lucifer is the son of Satan. Colin isn’t.
Still, this is a big, colorful role — one that juggling deception, rage and empathy. And it’s a step away from other Dick Wolf productions.
Wolf makes shows about FBI agents, firemen, cops, doctors and lawyers, most of whom follow the rules (“Chicago P.D. is an exception) and dress the part. Now “CIA” goes the other way.
“A lot of the (CIA) activities are secret, they’re shadowy,” said showrunner Mike Weiss. “This is an opportunity to have that butt against the FBI, which is vert much by-the-book.”
The CIA role is where the fun is. It goes to Ellis, 47, whose background is Welsh (by birth), English (by upbringing), Scottish (for drama school). He had supporting roles in lots of British TV comedies, becoming Lucifer.
He was an early choice to play Colin. (Colin’s accent, the show says, is because he was born American, but raised in England. Then came a long wait to cast Bill — the FBI guy Colin calls “a Boy Scout with a briefcase,”
The choice was Nick Gehlfuss (right), with his mid-American persona. He’s an Ohioan who spent eight years as Dr. Will Halstead in “Chicago Med,” another Wolf show.
“We wrote scenes for Nick on ‘Chicago P.D.’ and ‘Chicago Med’ a decade ago,” Weiss said, “It’s really fantastic to be able to come full circle.”
As an FBI guy reluctantly linked with the CIA, Gehlfuss soon gets in the action. “I was looking for a new playground,” he said, “and I soon had it …. I was so excited to jump out of an FBI surveillance van and sprint toward the gunfire that I pulled my quad.”
He still wears the suitcoat, at least at first, but it doesn’t help. “The cool thing about being in the CIA is that you’re … not dressing to go to work,” said Talee Linz, who plays Gina, a tech whiz. “You’re undercover 24/7, even when you’re walking into the CIA building.”
For all their differences, the two stars have some similarities. “We both have theater backgrounds and we both think deep and hard about character and story,” Ellis said. “Sometimes, I feel like that might annoy people that I work with, but actually I’ve got someone who’s just as keen on it as me.”
It takes some extra thought, when roles require you to save the world and/or have daddy issues with Satan.