Highlights from the FBI: Most Wanted TCA Press Panel

This January FBI: Most Wanted cast members Julian McMahon, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Roxy Sternberg, Kellan Lutz, Nathaniel Arcand, and executive producer Dick Wolf took the stage in front of the Television Critics Association at The Langham in Pasadena, California to discuss our latest series. 

Check out some of the highlights from the panel below.

On an FBI crossover:

Dick Wolf: “There has been a wonderful initial reception. The show, to me, is part of the same [FBI] family. They are inextricably linked, in terms of attitude, but the storytelling is very different but will lend itself to crossovers. And I guess my major announcement today is that we will be doing a crossover in the spring. We’ve had pretty good luck with them in the past, and I would anticipate this would be kind of a barn burner.”

On the diverse cast:

Keisha Castle-Hughes: “I was really excited particularly by this. In the writers’ room, they were really open to Hana being Maori, of Maori descent and, you know, playing into that and talking about that, which is something that I could only have dreamed of growing up, particularly seeing on it U.S. network television. So it feels really thrilling to be a part of that.”

Nathaniel Arcand: “I love the fact that there is a Native character in this team of FBI agents, and, for me, that’s something to be proud of because you don’t always see that in any kind of shows, the Native doctor, Native physician, Native whatever. And so for me to play this kind of character is huge, and I’m very grateful. Yeah. I have to say, I pay respect to the Mohawk people here too. The character is very diverse in that sense where his family comes from a long line of ironworkers, and he chose to be an FBI agent.”

On preparing for the role:

Roxy Sternberg: “We had technical training. So those of us who hadn’t held a gun before, we then had to hold a gun convincingly. We also had an FBI we have an FBI technical advisor on the set with us at all times, who is able to tell us what would happen in real-life scenarios. So that’s very helpful.”

On technology’s role in the show:

Kellan Lutz: “You have to grow with the times, right?  Technology is growing at an exponential rate…I have younger siblings who are even more tech-savvy than I am, and I am pretty tech-savvy.  When there is an issue with computers or phones, I can usually solve them, or there’s YouTube videos to solve them. I think as we progress with the show, there is more and more technology that we can use to help us find the criminals, even though the criminals are trying not to use technology, or they have different ways to go around and use the back door, especially, you know, with different chat rooms and finding different things that you’ll see within our episodes to get the outcome that they want. So we have to be on top of the technology, just as much as they are.”

On FBI Agent Jess LaCroix:

Julian McMahon: “He’s a very complicated individual. He’s kind of a bit of a genius, I’d say, in the FBI world. He has this ability to kind of assess and kind of understand people and situations, circumstances, crime scenes. He’s the kind of guy that can spot things that other people don’t see, and they might be minimal. He puts together all of these things.  We have this thing in the show called ‘Jess’s goody box,’ and that is this black box that he walks around with all the time. And he puts these little trinkets in it that kind of inspire him in regards to putting together a puzzle of how to follow these individuals or whoever they are trying to chase down…I like the fact that his whole system, every breath that he takes is about getting the bad guy, and that’s it.”

On the FBI:

DW: “I feel very strongly about first responders, people who do things that you can’t pay people to do. It’s what I’ve said for years about fire. You can’t pay people to run into burning buildings.  It’s a calling. And if you talk to most FBI agents, they wanted to be an FBI agent since they were nine or ten years old. It’s not something that they are sitting in college saying, ‘I think I’ll become an FBI agent.’ If you want to serve, to me, it’s exactly the same as becoming a Marine. You are volunteering to do something that is incredibly difficult and most of the time you don’t get any recognition for, and I hope that these shows will have sort of a spillover effect in terms of realizing what they do and how much they should be appreciated for doing it.”