‘FBI: International’: Christiane Paul Says Scott Is Jaeger’s ‘Backbone’ With Very Personal Case
Q&A
Christiane Paul returns to FBI: International as Katrin Jaeger, but it’s not entirely a happy reunion for the Fly Team with their former Europol liaison. The case ends up being a very personal one for Jaeger.
In “Glimmers and Ghosts,” Jaeger, the Fly Team, and Smitty (Eva-Jane Willis) investigate when, in Berlin, an unidentified American kills an elderly German man who appears to have been a covert asset of the ruthless Stasi in East Germany during the Cold War.
Paul previews her return.
Preview what brings Jaeger and the Fly Team back together.
Christiane Paul: There’s obviously a murder case — otherwise, the FBI wouldn’t come in — in Berlin and the victim seems to be a retired math teacher and he’s actually killed by an American citizen. What’s very strange about this case is that we’ve got an audio recording of the voice of the killer. We are wondering why is that so, and what we reveal then a little bit later is that actually the retired math teacher was a former Stasi spy agent from East Berlin, and that makes this case very special.
This case is very personal for Jaeger. What can you preview?
She was born in East Berlin behind the German wall, and this case brings her back to her past. She really has to go deep back into her past and something comes up which challenges her emotionally in a very hard way.
What’s different about her role with the team for this case? The team now has Smitty.
That wasn’t complicated at all because I think that they have found a really good domain for Smitty. She has a lot of physical strength, she runs a lot, and she’s quite younger than me. And I think we are very different in characters. So it was just easy to fit in actually and to see my old colleagues and to be back on FBI. That was actually great.
This episode was mostly shot in Berlin, so they actually came with the whole crew to Berlin, and that was for me, actually, a little bit like a Christmas gift because I loved the crew a lot and it was also sentimental to see my colleagues back, too. Vinessa [Vidotto] stayed one day longer. She extended her stay in Berlin, so we had a wonderful, lovely day together. Her first Berlin curry was together, which was lovely. So that was actually like a gift for me, this episode to do and that they brought everybody from Hungary to Berlin.
Julia Terjung/CBS
Jaeger and Smitty are the two characters we have yet to see on screen together until this episode. What can you say about their dynamic?
There wasn’t so much interaction. I think it’s filled with a lot of respect and just kind of very professional interactions. Jaeger has more to do right now with Forrester [Luke Kleintank] again, so they’re kind of picking up where we left them in the last season. Forrester really supports Jaeger on her emotional [journey] in this episode.
Speaking of that, I’ve loved that relationship since the beginning of the show. Does she have anything to say about his recent troubles?
Yeah, she said one line for him just in the beginning very quickly, but then there’s no time to discuss it any further. And then Jaeger comes in trouble. So I can’t really help him this time. Maybe there will be another episode where I can solve for him a problem like I did before.
But in this episode, he is really the backbone for her and this is what I really like and I’m very grateful that the writers did that. Derek Haas and [writer] Edgar Castillo, especially in this episode, bring that friendship back to shine. I really like that.
I always like the scenes with you and Luke together. That relationship is so interesting to watch because of the different roles they have in the cases.
Yeah, that’s true. And there’s always kind of a professional distance, but she kind of cleans up sometimes his mess or calms him down or whatever, and he kind of teases her sometimes. But yeah, I always felt that there is a deep relationship between them, a deep understanding, like two souls really understand each other in a very profound way but also know that they have to solve everything professionally. That’s what I liked about it, you know what I mean?
It’s a little bit of an old-fashioned relationship. It’s so funny because right now I’m dubbing it for Germany because it will air in Germany and the director of the ADR decided that —I don’t know how to translate it, but it has even more distance in Germany. It’s not a hierarchy, but it’s kind of a very professional distance and it’s never like “Scott,” it’s more like “Mr. Forrester.” So I like that a lot. But still, there is this warm and deep relationship and you still can see it, even if Jaeger is saying, “Mr. Forrester, can you please behave this time?” You know what I mean? And it’s so funny because yeah, it’s a little bit old fashioned, but in a very good way.
It seems a little harder though to maintain that professional distance in this episode, because of what’s going on with Jaeger.
Yeah. But I think even if you have a professional relationship, you really can be very supportive and that’s what Scott actually does, right? He’s really there to give her this warm support, this kind of breath. She needs a little pause and he’s there to listen to her and to give her the space. And also for him, he discovered something very interesting about her he never knew. And so I think it doesn’t really harm the professionality of the relationship.
There is a lot to watch because it’s a struggle to keep this professional level, but also to be a really good friend. And I think that’s what we have here. And this is maybe what you so much like about it, because you never know which level they have.
FBI: International, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS
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