She’s so invested, in fact, that when she adopted a dog while shooting an episode, she named it Unsub.
Fans of “Criminal Minds” will get the reference, and
they’ll also get almost everything else about the new show, which
doesn’t stray far from the original. Unlike the “CSI” spinoffs, which
take place in different cities, “Suspect Behavior” merely assembles a
new Behavioral Analysis Unit team to track more creepy killers.
The two teams — the original, featuring
The new team is a “red-cell unit” working off the grid and reporting solely to the director of the
are certainly similarities to the (original) show, but it’s also very
different. We have a very different team and a very different way that
they will be operating.”
He pointed to the fact that we were sitting on the “dojo” set, a gym away from the
that functions as both a spiritual and a physical getaway for the
agents. Whitaker helped to develop his own character, a deep thinker
who hand-picked his eclectic team; he also participated in designing
the dojo set, which he described as a place where the agents could both
seek discipline through martial arts and boxing, and think about cases
in nontraditional ways.
Although she had a recurring role on “24,” Garofalo
is best known for comedy, both on TV and in movies. Fans have to be
wondering how she got involved in one of the grimmest shows on network
TV.
Actually, she said, “I don’t think I’m that funny. I
feel uncomfortable saying, ‘How does a funny person get involved in
this?’ because comedy is subjective. So how do I get involved with
deadly serious things? I don’t know, but I think there is something
about dark-haired women with deep voices of ambiguous sexuality that
plays into dramatic programming.”
Garofalo is fascinated by her character but doesn’t
know her well yet. Asked whether viewers would see much of her off the
job — and whether she’d have any kind of personal life — she said, “So
far we haven’t, but I think that goes consistently with most of the
characters thus far in the first season.”
And so far, she said, “I am married to my job. Again, the ambiguous sexuality.”
The grimness of the show does get to her, Garofalo said.
“It’s not that I have a hard time leaving it, but
sometimes there will be something that is a downer,” she said. “So if
we are doing a scene all day that is dealing with (something extremely
dark), it does stick with me a little bit.”
Garofalo joked that she pulls herself out of a funk
with “drugs, alcohol, with crystal meth a little bit,” but then
volunteered that she’d adopted a dog.
“We were shooting downtown “¦ and right across the
street is the downtown animal shelter,” she said. “I was just going to
make a donation. Cut to — right now, outside, is Unsub.”
Garofalo first tried to get the dog, a lab-pit bull
mix she describes as “really cute, like a little baby seal,” adopted by
one of her cast mates.
“I tried because I’m living in a hotel right now,” she said.
Where is Unsub living?
“Oh, he has his own room at the hotel, and he takes
his meals,” Garofalo said. “It’s quite expensive, but he’s a wonderful,
wonderful dog.”
Vangsness apparently spoke for the rest of the cast when she interjected: “And you don’t think you are funny.”
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CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR
More info: cbs.com/criminalmindssuspectbehavior
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(c) 2011, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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