Cipher Brief Expert and former CIA Deputy Director David Cohen ditched the Washington law firm suit and tie last week for a robe and a bowl of soup as he made a cameo appearance on HBO’s hit show Game of Thrones.
The CIA was the first to Tweet about it, as Cohen appeared in the Sunday night episode, not really saying anything, but looking rather grim as he carried his bowl of soup before being drafted into Winterfell’s army.
The Cipher Brief couldn’t resist going straight to the source to find out just how it happened.
Cohen: It came up at Thanksgiving in 2017. My brother-in-law, my wife's brother, is a guy named David Benioff, who's one of the two show runners for Game of Thrones. So, we were out in Belfast, for Thanksgiving, so about a year and a half ago, and they were shooting and I asked them whether I could be an extra on the shoot. It was actually fascinating because the scene I was in, which I don't know, probably only played on screen for about two minutes, but took about six hours to shoot. There was a lot of prep work, working with all of the extras, the main actors, alittle bit of rehearsal, multiple re-shoots, re-shoots from different angles. It was about six hours of largely standing out in the cold, in a field, about an hour north of Belfast, where they had this mock-up of Winterfell. They have essentially, a full-size castle that they built in this field, so we were sitting out there in the mud, with the animals and various other things.
The Cipher Brief: So, when they told you to look miserable, there wasn’t a lot of acting required?
Cohen: It made it a little bit easier to get into the role of the hungry peasant coming in from the field, being conscripted and not really wanting to fight.
The Cipher Brief: Did you get any cool congratulations calls?
Cohen: The fact that the agency tweeted about it was pretty cool. I will say the thing about it that was the most like being at the agency was the fact that to make this work, and to make the show go, including everything that goes into it, from all the costumes and makeup, to the food and the people who are taking care of the props and people who are making sure that everybody's standing in the right place and making sure that people are memorizing their lines. It was like the support operation at the agency. It's like the exact same thing that some of our folks do. I was always hugely impressed with the support folks at the agency, sort of like the support folks on Game of Thrones. No one ever sees them and they don't get any attention. But the show can't go on without them.
The other thing that's like the agency is the way they have information locked down on what's happening with the plot line. I have no idea what's going to happen. I tried to persuade my brother-in-law that I can keep a secret, but he was still unwilling to share.
The Cipher Brief: That's the best line of the day. But who let the secret out of the bag about your appearance in the first place?
Cohen: There was a little write up that went around my law firm (WilmerHale), saying that I was going to be on the show. Then someone leaked that to a reporter, who tweeted it and then the agency saw it and reached out and asked if they could tweet out something about it. So that's how the agency tweet came about.
The Cipher Brief: Would you do it again?
Cohen: 100%. My niece was in the shot with me, my sister-in-law's kid. She also sat out in the cold with me for the day.
The Cipher Brief: What's your one takeaway?
Cohen: That I'm not quitting my day job.
Read more real-life stuff from David Cohen in The Cipher Brief
