Six seasons into its run, the CBS series FBI has already kicked things off in a big way with the loss of a team member and an investigation that proved to be connected to one of Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine’s (Jeremy Sisto) past cases . In addition to that, he also had to deal with his son’s school suspension and worry that his personal demons might be bleeding into his own family, realizing that how he handled the situation now could affect how things play out in the future. The series also stars Missy Peregrym, Zeeko Zaki, Alana De La Garza, John Boyd and Katherine Renee Kane.
After screening the second of Season 6, Collider got the opportunity to chat with Sisto about still discovering new episodes to his character Jubal, the father-son relationship, revising an old case, shooting the episode’s big action sequence, losing one of their team and his thought that they’ll likely revisit that at some point, working with this ensemble cast, how he enjoys getting to join FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted for crossover episodes, and what’s still to come this season.
‘FBI’s Jeremy Sisto Has Great Trust in How the Creative Team Explores Jubal’s Personal Stories
Collider: I’ve been watching this show since the beginning, and it’s cool that it feels like we’re still learning and still seeing new sides of these characters, especially with yours and everything going on with his family. Are you surprised to be in that position, six years into a procedural? That is definitely not always the case on a show like this, so are you surprised to still be getting new aspects of your character to play?
JEREMY SISTO: It is encouraging, and it makes my job more enjoyable as an actor. I also have great trust in Rick [Eid] and Dick [Wolf], of course, and everyone choosing to tell Jubal’s personal stories. I trust that they know what the audience wants, so it makes me happy that there is still more that they want to uncover. One of the storylines that we are always trying to express or tell is that it is a real challenge to have this job and have a really complicated personal life, or to do something as important as parenting while also having this job. I’m really happy, and I feel really proud that it seems like the audience is still tuning in to see different sides of Jubal. He is a really interesting character. The writers have really had a good time exploring him, his past struggles with addiction, his broken marriage, and so many different aspects of his parenting.
Obviously, the possibility of your child struggling with your biggest struggle in life is a very hard moment to grasp. But it’s also a really hard moment to dissect and understand where your problem ends and their experience begins. In this situation, it’s not what he’s afraid of. It’s a different struggle. It’s his son trying to make friends and trying to learn how to stick to his own set of values while doing so. Not to say he won’t have to deal with some kind of battle with addiction because it can be a genetic thing. But at this point, that’s not actually what has come up. I’m always very excited to see what element of the character the writers decide to illuminate. Oftentimes that has to do with what main storylines they’re telling.
It’s something that we have been getting little bits of, here and there, throughout the run of the series, so it makes sense, in a moment like this, that Jubal would have a bit of self-recognition, which would have been too convenient if it hadn’t been brought up before. This series has done a really good job of laying that groundwork over the seasons, to get to this point.
SISTO: Yeah, I agree. It’s hard with these shows to not have it feel too repetitive. When I first read the script, it was a question of, what is different about this fear and this situation with his son? How is the situation different, with the regrets of past cases, which has also been a situation. This is the first one for Jubal that was just a bad call. He wasn’t drinking on the job at this time and his marriage wasn’t falling apart. He can’t blame any of his personal struggles for this mistake. It’s just one of the situations that happens in this job. You make the wrong choice. And it’s coming right on the tails of Tiffany making the wrong call, and he supporting her and saying, “This is just what happens.” It was nice to have those two storylines put together.