Set Visit: NBC’s New Fall Show ‘The Brave’

The Knockturnal was on hand during the filming of the new NBC drama series The Brave, premiering September 25.

I started my jam-packed day off with a large brunch buffet courtesy of NBC and the Hotel Andaluz in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As we were served churros and more in the hotel’s lobby, I got my first opportunity to sit with some cast members of NBC’s new show The Brave and discuss their exciting new project. The military drama focuses on the Defense Intelligence Agency and their elite Special Ops squad of undercover military heroes. The team on the field works hand-in-hand with a team of DIA analysts headquartered in D.C. with advanced knowledge and surveillance technology in order to help field operators in the most complex situations. The show stars Anne Heche as DIA Deputy Director Patricia Campbell, Mike Vogel as ground Captain Adam Dalton, and Sofia Pernas as Mission Coordinator Hannah Archer. Heche and Pernas were both on hand at the lovely brunch and more than happy to speak about their characters and filming in New Mexico.

Me with cast members (left to right) Anne Heche, Sofia Pernas, and Tate Ellington

Anne Heche’s character Patricia audiences will meet leading a mission  just 10 days after losing her son. She spoke on her character with a certain amount of reverence noting, “it’s an intimidating and exciting role to be asked to perform because it’s such an important job right now in our world […] to play the person that dictates in that world is a great responsibility, so it feels heavy to do this role.” 

Later on during the brunch I spoke to Jane The Virgin alum Sofia Pernas about filming in Albuquerque, and she praised the Southwest, “You feel one with nature, and the sunsets here are bar none!” She’s right about Albuquerque being an area filled with scenic nature, as I got the opportunity to see later in the day on our bus ride to The Brave set. The Brave is meant to take place in various different locations across the world, from the “DIA headquarters” in D.C. to areas in Syria and Nigeria. The cast found themselves filming a bit in Morocco, where they were stationed in for about a month, however the majority of filming takes place in here in Albuquerque, where the vast landscapes I saw could very easily pass for areas in some foreign countries.

Alberqurque views

Our tour of the show’s sets was led by the show’s creator Dean Georgaris, who spoke on filming “across the globe” all from Albuquerque, New Mexico, “Our show is borderline a mission impossible. We’re setting these crazy goals every week, like ‘let’s do something based on the Kenyan attack, lets do a setting in Lagos, Nigeria, lets do a really dangerous cat and mouse game with Putin spy hunters in Ukraine!’ That sounds insane! When I first told it to people, I was like ‘then we’ll do 8 days from Ukraine and we’ll shoot it in Albuquerque’ that’s impossible! But you write it and you send it to the director and suddenly that directors excited. I’m getting directors whose episodes don’t shoot for a month, already asking me questions.” Georgaris expanded on the intimidating prospects of the show’s filming goals, “My point is we all kind of like the hard targets, we all like the hard missions, its fun. We’re all acutely aware that with NBC saying ‘yes we’ll do a show that cleaves to this level of realism’ you don’t have to have a giant twist. I’m not knocking shows that do it, I’m just saying theres not alot of that on network TV, they said yeah go for it Dean.”

Show creator Dean Georgaris on set

As we first arrived on set we toured the soundstage and got a peek behind the television magic. We found ourselves at The Brave’s “DIA Headquarters” with a respectable imitation of a high tech government office that easily fooled me. With a full out control room replica and thorough “DIA” documents scattered all over the desks, viewers will be sure to get a sense or the full experience.

DIA Headquarters on “The Brave”

The DIA offices

Anne Heche took us to the set of her character Patricia’s office where she told us, “The more realistic everything is, the easier it is,” she told us, “The less I have to act, the better my life is! That’s how I deal with everything! Clothes, the makeup, everything else. I stay away from mirrors as much as possible but it is interesting to be able to catch your reflection and know who you are. It’s the same with everything that surrounds you, any detail to help you stay as focused as possible.”

Anne Heche on the set of her character Patricia’s office

After getting a peek at the D.C. based sets we then moved into one of the Syrian base camp sets of the field team, meant to be a place for the group to both rest and strategize on the show. Set designers took major inspiration from a real life military set up which is probably why stepping into the tent felt so much like we we no longer in Albuquerque.

We were finally allowed to watch some of the magic come to life later in the day. As we arrived at the Albuquerque Convention Center, I walked through and saw it transform from a typical convention center into a full on television set. There the cast was filming a scene set in Lagos, Nigeria, and as a Nigerian American who’s seen Lagos herself, The Brave does a noble job of recapturing it.

Crew and background actor waiting area as ‘The Brave” shoot some scenes set in Lagos

A sneak peak at whats to come on The Brave..

The work behind the “DIA” set

As the background actors and crew stayed busy and alert during the long waiting periods, a lot of the main cast cycled through and answered a few questions. Actress Natacha Karam, who plays the incredible sniper Sgt. Jaz Khan spoke on portraying a female military hero, “Being so fortunate to have such a strong, female character when so few of them exist, then taking responsibility of that [is the biggest challenge]. It’s obviously not fully my job; me, the writers, the directors, everyone coming together, and making sure that I’m not a cliche […] just to actually honor the women who do this in real life.”

After a long day on set, we were treated to some delicious craft service and were able to head back to hotel. The hard work and long days put into producing a television show left me exhausted, and I all I did was sit and watch.

Catch The Brave Monday, September 25th at 10/9 c on NBC.