CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION: Zach Gilford Reflects on Portraying the New Complexities in Voit and Season 18’s ‘Interesting and Different’ Conclusion

After spending two seasons masterminding mayhem and destruction on CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION, Voit (Zach Gilford) has been in an unconventional place in season 18: Left with minimal memories of his true persona, and at the mercy of doctors (who are largely fascinated by the drastic change after his prison attack) and the often-skeptical members of the BAU.

But now there may be an uneasy partnership brewing. On the Thursday, June 5 episode, “The Brutal Man,” JJ (A.J. Cook)—who has been grieving the unexpected loss of her husband, Will, and occasionally struggling in her return to work—opened up to Voit’s doctor, Julia Ochoa (Aimee Garcia), about her latest case and her concerns about letting her teammates down. After JJ relayed the case details, it was revealed the women weren’t alone…Voit was in the room with them. 

Voit, who had been struggling with suicidal ideation in the aftermath of getting flashes of memories of his pre-attack life, agreed to help the team try to stop the criminal network he had set in motion pre-memory loss.

But can Voit be trusted? Gilford talks with Give Me My Remote about what he knew while filming season 18, portraying this new Voit, and what comes next.

Voit has always been complicated, but this season it’s even more murky. What did they tell you about if he’s telling the truth about his memory loss and what did you want to know? 
I tend to just go with the script, and I’ll be like, “Where’s this going?” I don’t need all the stuff, and especially something like this, whether he’s faking it or not, I think, as an actor—for me—it’s better [to not know]. I think I would overthink it if I knew the answer. I think [the approach is] just play it earnest, and whatever it turns into, it turns into. [Laughs.] Unfortunately, in TV, a lot of times they don’t know what’s going to happen until you’re shooting it and it changes. They’re really good on the show about giving you as much as they can early, but, yeah, I didn’t know. 

They gave me a little going into the season: “Here’s what we’re thinking we’re going to do with Voit. We want to make people feel bad for him, but we don’t know how we’re going to end it.” And it’s the same thing this season [in season 19, which is currently filming]; not the same, but this is what we’re doing with Voit. “[This is] the trajectory we want for Voit. We’re not sure how we’re going to do it yet, but that’s what we’re going for.”

Whether it’s real or not, we have seen a new Voit for much of this season. How has it been playing this character who is so different from the man we’ve seen in the past? 
I just came at it as, like, a new character and just someone who doesn’t know these people. And the fun is, as he’s realizing things, picking and choosing what old parts of him can kind of creep out. Like, he definitely, in season 2 [of CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION], had quite the sense of humor. And so where can that sneak in? Or is it just kind of a character trait that’s gone because he’s not so snide anymore? And things like that. As you go along, you’re in the scene, you kind of find it then. 

So I have my relationships with everyone else in the cast. I love what they kind of do between Voight and JJ; I think it’s kind of a really cool, unexpected relationship. You know, they’re the only two family people. So as evil as she may think he is, she’s always gonna be sympathetic to the fact that he has two kids and that he is human in that sense. She knows he cares about his kids more than anything, which I think is just such a cool, nuanced human thing to fold into these characters. 

And then you have Joe [Mantegna]’s character [Rossi], who just, like, can’t believe it. And then you have Kirsten [Vangsness’ character, Garcia], who’s like, “No, I saw a soul inside of him.” [Laughs.] I just get to go off their energy and be like, “Okay, you like me. You hate me. I don’t know why.” So it’s fun. I just came at it as, like, “Okay. I guess I don’t know any of these people. I don’t know this character, and I’ll just play it super earnest for a while.”

Specifically with the Rossi dynamic, they were such intense foes. Now, we’ve seen Voit come to Rossi looking for a paternal figure…much to Rossi’s horror. How was it working off of that kind of energy—portraying the earnestness, but coming against, frankly, a brick wall in Rossi? 
Yeah, it’s kind of fun. I mean, I noticed it—there’s a couple scenes where I noticed it real quick, and I kind of remember doing it when I’m like [enthusiastically], “Oh, Dad!” [when Voit sees Rossi]. And then [downbeat], “Oh, I mean, we’re not doing that. Sorry, sorry, right. You told me. Moving on.”

And speaking of the JJ of it all, the big reveal in the last episode was that he was there as she was talking about her trauma and the process of working the case. What was it like for you to film the hour? Did you watch dailies before you came in to film, or did you get what you needed from the script? 
[Laughs.] I just read the script. I am someone who I am never at work when I don’t have to be. [Laughs.] But they did f— with me, though. The first AD was like, “Hey, so I’m putting out this schedule, and you’re going to be pretty heavy this one, because [director] Nelson [McCormick] really wants you there for them to play off of you, even though they’re not going to see you.” 

And I was just like, “You’re f—ing with me.” She was like, “No, no, no, Nelson really wants it.” I was like, “I don’t believe you.” She was like, “Damn it! I thought I could get you.” [Laughs.] I was like, “You all know there is no world where you would get me to sit there for three days while they talk.” Not to be a bad scene partner! But I was just like, I know AJ doesn’t need it. I know Aimee doesn’t need it. And, as a filmmaker, I know Nelson doesn’t need it.

You were, however, represented via a C-stand version of Voit while they were filming so they could get the blocking correct. Aimee told me about the photos…
They would send me photos, and they’d be like, “Oh, my God, he’s such a better scene partner.” Or then when, like, I’m actually in the scene [they would say], “Can we get the C-stand stand-in please?” Like, sure, I’ll stand down for my off-camera [moments]!

But, yeah, Aimee is an old friend of mine, so she loved to give me a hard time. And it’s her one chance, because I mess with her so much because she’s just such an easy target. And then A.J. and I, she was the first person I met on set. And [she] just kind of took me under her wing, so her and I have a really good relationship. So I think it’s fun for them to give me a hard time because I’m usually the one giving other people a hard time. 

Given your friendship with Aimee, what has it been like working together here and building the Voit and Ochoa dynamic together? 
It’s harder than you think! We literally in one episode…I think it’s [episode] 9, Doug [Aarniokoski], who is one of our directors, and has become a really close friend of mine, he was like, “Yeah, guys, I know you’re really good friends in real life, but you’re a patient and a doctor.” [Laughs.] “So maybe don’t play your real-life friendship.” [We were] like, “Oh, right, right, right, right. Good point, good point, Doug. Thank you. That’s why you’re the director.” 

It’s so easy to work with her. She’s such a great scene partner, and we would fly through stuff because her and I both just come to everything, like, ready to go. Which also allows you to get past just saying the lines and just being there and looking at each other and reacting to each other. And we’ve done it before. So there’s this comfort level between the two of us, knowing, “Okay, I’m safe with this person. I can just figure out what this character is going to do, and they have my back.”

What is Voit’s take on her?
I think it’s kind of…a safe space. Because all these other people, you can tell they don’t like him. It’s energies—you can tell she is invested in him. She cares about him more than just as a research subject, but as a human. And [she’s] literally the first person, as he’s coming out of his coma, that treats him and sees him as a human.

One of the other things “The Brutal Man” made clear was that Voit really does not seem to want to live right now. How is that mindset impacting his actions moving forward? 
It allows him to just put himself in harm’s way. And because he’s helping the BAU, he wants to die, but, like, maybe he dies in a way that’s noble. I think it’s interesting with the character—I don’t know how I do it, or if I did it well, or whatever, but just that he doesn’t want to live…but he does kind of have something to live for. 

Like, as a father, I know if I was in a situation, I still would never be able to let go of, “Well, maybe I can see my kids. Maybe in some way, I can have a relationship.” And I think that rings so true with him, and it’s the only thing keeping him going.

Voit doesn’t seem to care about his own safety, but how much is he taking into account that his actions could harm someone else? Is he willing to sacrifice everyone around him to take himself out? Or is he actually conscious of, “Hey, maybe I don’t actually want the members of the BAU to die?”
I think that’s something we see as the season plays out. But I think there is a part of him…he doesn’t want to cause anyone else to get hurt. Knowing what he’s done, and what it makes him feel…he wants to take what he deserves, but he doesn’t want to inflict any more pain on anyone.

He’s run into some awkward situations when he reunites with someone where there’s history, like the reunion with Tyler (Ryan James Hatanaka) last week. How is he evolving—if he is at all—his approach to encountering people when these memories pop up?
I think he kind of just keeps going with it because he’s got nothing to lose. Like, he says to Tyler—I can’t remember exactly [what] the line was—but it’s like, “What are you gonna do? Put me in jail? Or what are you gonna give me?” Like, he wants the death penalty. He’s like, “Put me out of my misery.” So I think there is a bit of, “I got nothing to lose. And let me push these people and maybe, like, they’ll come over to [agree with me]. Maybe it seems like these people don’t understand how bad I am.” Or let me show them. And I can’t bring myself to, like, hurt anyone, but I’ll make it very clear that I’m a bad person. [Laughs.] 

Is there any part of him that is questioning how much of his memories are real? Or is he trusting that everything that pops up is legitimate?
I think he believes them. I mean, that’s the way I was trying to play it. First, they’re vague: He’s like, “Did we drive in a car? Were we camping?” But as the memories come back, it’s like, “Holy s—.” I do think there’s something kind of visceral about it when the memories come through clearly. He said he can remember Ramona’s perfume. I think he even might have said he remembers Dave’s cologne or something. But those kinds of memories are so at your core that it’s like you go [there]. There’s certain smells…where I smell it, I get transported somewhere. And it’s that memory. It’s clear as day.

And I think that’s what he’s going through: These things are finally clicking, and they’re so vivid and so clear, he can’t deny that they actually happened. 

In a hypothetical world where Voit has either managed to fake out the tests or does get his former persona back, right now, he has a lot of information about JJ. How might that impact the way he deals with her and the team? 
In a hypothetical world—I mean, I think based on the person that he’s becoming and realizing who he used to be…I think it pushes him more in that direction of, like, “I just want to die. I don’t want to cause anyone else any more pain. Look at what I’ve done to these people. And they don’t deserve it. All they’re trying to do is good and help people, and I am the person who caused all this pain, so let me just check out, and they can save people.”

We left him in the last episode face-to-face with a family annihilator, with no clear memories, but hoping to help the BAU get some answers. What can you tease about what comes next?
We filmed this a year ago. [Laughs.] It’s cool; I think where it starts going is pretty cool. And it’s got a fun twist, where, when I was reading, I was like, “What the f—? Huh? How does this—? What?” And then when I get the reveal of what’s happening, “Oh, wow, did not see that coming.” So it’s cool. And [we] get Voit out of his cell or his hospital room. 

I like where the season goes. I like where it ends. And I think it’s really kind of interesting and different. It’s not what you would expect. But I think you kind of go with it, and they just come up with the most messed up s— to do. [Laughs.] Like, what is wrong [with the writers]?! And they’re the nicest people! I’m just like, “Why, where, how? Yuck.” 

Voit’s network is still out there. What can you share about how he’ll be helping them, potentially, take it down?
Whoever is still involved with this network used to be involved with me. And, you know, probably they’re only going to want to go through me. [Laughs.] So there I am.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

CRIMINAL MINDS: EVOLUTION, Thursdays, Paramount+

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