‘FBI: Most Wanted’: Dylan McDermott Addresses Fans Who Can’t See Past Richard Wheatley: “They’re Going To See Me In A Completely Different Light”
FBI: Most Wanted newest addition Dylan McDermott is ready to make his series debut as Remy Scott on April 12 at 10 p.m. via CBS, taking over as the Fugitive Task Force boss following Julian McMahon’s exit in early March.
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McDermott most recently played the villainous Richard Wheatley in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a series within the same universe as Most Wanted. The actor opened up about transitioning from playing a bad guy to a good guy during a chat with the media on Wednesday.
“I think it’s really interesting. I’ve been reading comments online and people are saying, ‘It’s too soon. He’s Richard Wheatley, a bad guy.’ I relish in that because it’s amazing that people believe that I’m the character I’m playing,” he shared. “Now they’re going to see me in a completely different light, going from Richard Wheatley to Remy Scott, two wildly different people with wildly different agendas in life.”
He continued, “I knew instinctively that I had played some questionable people along the way and now it’s time to play someone good again. Remy Scott is that character.”
Added executive producer David Hudgins, “From a writer’s standpoint and a creating the show standpoint, it was not a concern because we had an idea of this character conceptually early on and it just expanded even further when Dylan came onboard. The idea was this guy is going to have some energy and some lightness and some ability to connect with people. Which I do think is one of his biggest assets. So I wasn’t concerned about the Richard Wheatley of it all.”
McDermott revealed his first day on set was the first time he met his castmates, a move that he made intentionally.
“My first day of work was my introduction to the actors,” McDermott said. “Remy was introduced to them at the same time as Dylan. It was great because I was checking them out and they were checking me out. It was a little awkward but it all worked out beautifully.”
Without giving away too much from McDermott’s debut, a case helps put Remy at the center of it all and gives his team a first-hand look at why he is qualified to take the baton from McMahon’s Jess LaCroix.
“I feel like we really hit the ground running in the first episode,” he said. “I think that because these people are professionals, they are agents, they know we have a job to do. Yes, maybe they have feelings, certainly about who I am and where I came from. But I think that awkwardness really diminishes after the first episode.”
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