Jeremy Sisto is recognized by the North Fork TV Festival with its Canopy Award for his diverse resume and quality work in everything from Law & Order to FBI. The veteran actor follows last year’s recipient Kelsey Grammer and will accept the honor October 17 during an exclusive drive-in event at the Castello di Borghese Vineyard in Cutchogue, New York.
We sat down with Sisto to talk about receiving the award. The 46-year-old also gives us some intelligence about what’s next for Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge Jubal Valentine as production for Season 3 of FBI gets underway.
What does winning this year’s North Fork TV Film Festival Canopy Award mean to you?
Jeremy Sisto: I think it’s cool. I’m honored to be acknowledged. I think it’s exciting to be part of a festival that is supportive of the idea of independent TV. Television has changed so much. It offers an opportunity for filmmakers to tell out-of-the-box stories in a new way and take chances.
Independent TV is rich and utilized, I feel, a few times in a very successful way. It seems that is where the future is. I’m excited to be part of a festival that appreciates that concept. Many greats have been honored in the past, so I’m in good company.
Now that work has begun again on FBI, what can you tell us about Jubal this season? Are there changes to his leadership? Can we expect any Jubal-centric episodes and exploring more of his family?
We shot the first episode. But the second episode, we got the script and it’s a big Jubal episode. He has to dig into his past through a period when he was drinking heavily and where addiction got a hold of him and his life.
You meet his ex-partner who he might have had a romantic relationship with during the resolving of his life and marriage. It sounded like a difficult time.
It turns out a case comes up that might have put into question what he had figured out when he was on another case because of his drinking and life being off the rails.
There is definite soul-searching to not only solve the case at hand but to continue to come to terms with his life when it went off the rails the way it did.
Now that Maggie Bell [Missy Peregrym] is back from her assignment, will the team dynamics change given she was gone and what she may have gone through?
She comes back with this new relationship in her life that has come from that. She also had some challenges when being undercover on a case. There is some stuff that happened where she has to come to terms with and deals with. It lays a challenge out in their connection. Maggie Bell is a professional at the end of the day. She comes back to our world with as much fervor and intensity as she had before.
With the familiar face comes a new one in Tiffany Wallace (Katherine Renee Turner). What does Jubal think of her?
Jubal is an open guy. He does a lot of background research. He knows a lot of people. There isn’t anyone he doesn’t have some kind of understanding of with where they’ve been and up to. He is happy to have her there, as far as I know, but sometimes writers spring things on you. She is excited to get out here to do more exciting work. She is tough. She is not afraid to step out and say what she feels.
I think Jubal is interested to see how the partnership goes. That’s a big thing with this. He wants to make sure these two go together. They don’t necessarily come from the same world. Stuart Scola [John Boyd] was a hedge fund guy and came through that route. I think Jubal has a feeling this is going to be a really good partnership but with bumps in the road.