It was intense, and probably the first time I realised the magnitude of the job I might possibly get. “For the next round, the CIA flew me to their HQ for an interview with the people who were going to be my bosses. By question 400, you have no idea what you’re even answering – you’re just trying to get it done. Asking you if you preferred your mum or your dad, or whether you liked S&M. It was a thousand questions long, and designed to make you second guess yourself. “I was then flown to Washington DC to complete a lie detector test, before taking a mental assessment questionnaire and having my answers torn apart by a CIA psychologist. It felt very top secret – manila envelopes would arrive in the post with no return address, and people would phone me without leaving a full name", Emily tells us. “At first it involved filling out pages and pages of personal information about my upbringing, background and possible foreign connections. Start to finish, the process took 12 months, and was as much a test of stamina as it was about mental ability. And to her surprise, she found herself getting through rounds of applications, questionnaires and interviews, before eventually landing the job. It was less sexy dinners at the casino, and more wearing a disguise to protect herself from a potential asset – but she loved every second of it.Īfter her spy-obsessed mum found a CIA opening online, Emily applied for the job on the promise of living at home rent-free. Trading laughs for lies, she immersed herself in the underground world as an Operations Officer, and for multiple years, kept her true career a secret from everyone she knew. In reality, Emily Brandwin - with a background in improvised comedy and a totally unrelated university degree - is the one doing the spying.Īs a twentysomething theatre graduate, Emily went from doing ad lib comedy at the local dive bar to working at the CIA. When you hear the word 'spy', your imagination likely conjures up images of James Bond in a sharp suit, wielding weapons and seducing everyone in the room over a martini.
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