Homeland boss: When we talk to intelligence officials, real life feels much scarier than what we’re writing

Entertainment Weekly

“There are intelligence officers we met in D.C. who say what they do every morning is wake up and check their phones to make sure Seoul, South Korea, is still there,” says executive producer Alex Gansa. “When you’re facing that kind of uncertainty it’s difficult to parallel in our Homeland world. It felt much scarier in real life than what we were writing. It’s the situation the country finds itself in and as storytellers what we find ourselves in.” Gansa adds that “we’re telling a bit of a parallel story to what’s happening in the real world. Obviously the Trump administration is a little embattled and a little isolated and facing their own difficulties with the national security establishment and what they call ‘the deep state.’ Our administration, the Keene administration, is facing much the same issues but from the reverse…”