CBS’s new remake of True Lies premiered on Wednesday, March 1. It combines action and comedy in the latest iteration, hoping to reign in audiences.
TV Fanatic chatted with Omar Miller, who plays Gib, who shared his favorite parts about his character, some teasers for True Lies Season 1, and why audiences should stick with the show.
Check out the interview below:
Hello Omar. I have enjoyed your acting since I first saw you on CSI: Miami many years ago. What is your favorite part of playing Gib on CBS’s True Lies?
My favorite part of playing Gib is the interaction and the character’s direction playing the team leader. I love that he’s the longest-serving agent and how whatever has happened in the field has led him to be the tactical logistics and tech person. He quarterbacks the team from a distance, which is cool and high-tech.
For example, in the episode where Keith David so brilliantly played Gib’s father, they have to navigate the team through the pipes and this and that, and it’s beautiful. I love that Gib’s a real team guy, and that team setup doesn’t work without him. That’s probably my favorite part.
I like him and his witty sense of humor.
It’s sincere. He’s candid about breaking down some hard truths, especially to Harry. I know Steve is building Gib’s and Harry’s friendship, and it helped to make that friendship very clear, as well as a professional working relationship, but the friendship is the underpinning of that.
He can be stern when he needs to be; he can bust Harry’s chops when required. Gib can be fun simultaneously, and sometimes he needs help.
So, since Gib knows a lot of Harry’s secrets, will some of Harry’s past blow up in their faces now that Helen has joined the Omega Sector?
Oh, without question. Now, we opened a can of worms here because now there is honesty and therapy needed to happen in the shadow of saving the world. So, there’s a constant scenario where we have to determine what’s more important right now, and Helen is in a tricky position to determine how to respond.
Does she respond to her husband as a wife? Does she react to the team as a professional? I think that juxtaposition causes much tension in the show but much fun attention because Ginger’s fantastic on the show.
She’s so fun to watch, and that awkwardness takes place with Harry having to come clean about some stuff he’s been fibbing about for a long time. All of those awkward moments help the show play out.
I can’t wait to see the audience’s reactions to some of that.
I hope the audience gives us a chance. I remember watching the film in the theater because I’m one of those people who had preconceived notions about True Lies. But if you give this one a chance and let it get going, we can start to cook later in the season.
Because we caught our stride in the latter episodes when we were filming. We got our stuff together, and the episodes got stronger in the second half of the season. I don’t know if you’ve seen them all.
I’ve seen the first three or four when they sent us press screeners.
I haven’t seen them all. I’ve only seen the pilot. However, I was there when we filmed them, and we’ve been doing this for a while, so I got a decent gauge on it.
The second half of the season is stronger than the first half. Hopefully, the audience rides with us to give us a shot while we establish all the characters, their dynamics, and their relationships and then invest in them.
You can see some of these quirky people, how they became this way, and how this affects them in their day-to-day job.
Good to know. So, when will we see Gib leave the escape van and join the fun of a mission?
Very soon. I think Episode Five or Six. There’s this one point when Gib has to get out of the van and mix it up with X agent, one of our super guest stars. It’s Tom Arnold, and we have a Gib-squared moment.
I wondered when we would see you in scenes with Tom Arnold. I know everybody’s looking forward to the Gib squared moment.
It’s coming soon. We had a great time. Tom was great to work with.
Yes, he’s a legend. So I’m sure everybody will be looking forward to that. So, what were some of your favorite moments of the series so far that you can tease?
Not to get too far ahead, but our finale is wild because it’s different from the rest of the series in the best ways. The penultimate and the finale raise the stakes, and I can’t divulge much without spoiling the story, but there’s a change in the dynamic, and I love it because it’s all hands on deck.
As for other moments I enjoyed, there were times when we were out in the forest blowing up cars, and you were getting wood chips, flying all over the place, and in those situations, you ask, “What am I doing with my life?”
But those moments are significant because making this show, there’s an element to it, escapism and fantasy, incredibly as hard as the world is. People can let their minds go, and when we were making the show, there was a lot of that of looking at things and saying, wow, look at this; this is crazy. What are we doing?
So, I hope that people have fun. Our show is an entertaining program that doesn’t take itself too seriously. But it also has some implications about relationship dynamics that matter.
It does. I think it’s an entertaining spy show. We haven’t had a spy show in a long time.
Maybe not a spy comedy, that’s the thing. So we’re trying to thread that specific needle that is action and comedy, and it’s hard. It’s tough because when people’s lives are at stake, you don’t want to joke around about that. However, a big piece of our show is.
We’re hoping to make you laugh, and hopefully, you’ll sit around and make yourself feel good about your day.
And for fun, have you learned any fun personal Intel when you’ve been watching your friends from the van that Gib hangs out in?
There’s an element of watching these guys because everybody took their physical elements very seriously on the show, especially Steve and Ginger. Ginger did gymnastics classes. Steve is lifting people up, grown men, and throwing them around.
So it was cool to watch some of the stuff in the navigated van from the characters’ perspective. Everyone has a specific attribute we use to execute the team’s mission.
Yes, I love the team’s chemistry. You guys are so fun to watch.
Oh good. That’s good to hear. You’ll see that the team becomes even tighter as the season progresses. Remembering from the pilot episode and when you start filming a series would be best. It’s almost a year.
And so you’re not hanging out with the people daily like you do when you’re at work with it. So then, from Episodes 2 to 13, we’re rocking and rolling once we get back together.
That’s interesting to know. Thanks for all the scoop on True Lies, Omar.
True Lies Season 1 airs on Wednesdays at 10/9c on CBS and streams on Paramount +.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Laura Nowak is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. Follow her on Twitter.