Canadian National Institute for the Blind lent its expertise in training "Covert Affairs" actor to "play blind"

From The Star in Toronto:

There’s a lot more to portraying a blind person than walking with a white cane.

That’s what actor Christopher Gorham found out when he reached out to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind for tips on playing sightless CIA agent Auggie Anderson on the USA Network show Covert Affairs, which is filmed in Toronto.

“Right before I came up to shoot the pilot (in 2009) I was working on a film in Michigan and I wasn’t going to have a lot of time — about three days — in between; I needed to do some research,” said California-born Gorham of the Google search that yielded the CNIB.

“Unlike a film, the prep time for a TV show is not nearly as long; the producers, they did their own research in writing the part, but the portrayal was up to me.”

The non-profit CNIB, which aims to help people with vision loss maintain independence, enjoy a good quality of life and succeed in the workplace, paired the entertainer with Lesley MacDonald from the agency team that helps clients with mobility and accessible design.

On the Covert Affairs set and at the CNIB’s Bayview and Eglinton Aves. centre, she taught Gorham basics such as how to be guided by a sighted person, how to locate items on a table, how to fold and identify money and, of course, the proper technique for using a cane. She also coached the production crew on accessible set design, appropriate technology and devices, and guided other cast members on how to interact with a blind person.

Gorham said the CNIB instruction was invaluable in “learning how to play the physicality of that disability as honestly as possible.”

“I did some proactive research when I found out we were going to start seeing Auggie’s apartment,” he said. “I set up a lesson to learn how to handle things in the kitchen, for instance, which ended up coming in really handy, because then Auggie was able to pour himself a hot cup of coffee in the morning, in the middle of a scene, without making a big deal about it. If I hadn’t gone through the training, that kind of real-life detail I wouldn’t be able to do.”

This was MacDonald’s third theatrical assignment. Among her typical clients are lawyers, psychologists, computer operators, teachers and receptionists. CNIB services — indoor and outdoor travel training, a specialized library, courses on how to use adaptive devices for computers, etc. — are free to regular folks.

Productions such as Covert Affairs are charged “a nominal fee,” which is directed “towards funding CNIB services for clients,” MacDonald said.

Gorham, known for playing Ugly Betty’s boyfriend, was also allowed to observe CNIB regulars.

“That was one of the interesting things: going through the process and learning how they teach it and then spending time with people who are living with it, and seeing how they have taken that teaching and made it their own.”

So appreciative was Gorham of the CNIB training that he arranged a special screening, with descriptive video, of a Covert Affairs episode at the organization’s Toronto centre August 11. The program has not yet aired in Canada.

“Oftentimes, you’re playing a part that’s really close to yourself and there’s not a lot of extra research to go and do, but with something very specific like this it was a necessity.

“I would never attempt to just wing it. It’s too important and there are too few characters like this on television. I can’t think of another leading man in TV or film right now that has a disability that’s similar to this; so I feel a real responsibility to do my best to get it right.”