‘FBI: International’: Vinessa Vidotto Talks Vo’s Promotion & Raines Situation and Teases ‘Tricky’ Case
Q&A
The Fly Team agents run into a bit of trouble during an attempt to do their jobs in an upcoming episode of FBI: International.
In the March 26 episode “Fire Starter,” the team is called in to investigate when an American college student is arrested at a hostel in Prague for showing aggression toward local police who were dismissive of her sexual abuse claims. Also, Vo (Vinessa Vidotto) makes use of her sexual assault advocacy experience from her army days as they work to ensure the victim gets justice.
TV Insider spoke with Vidotto about this upcoming episode, the challenges it poses to the Fly Team, Vo’s promotion, and her and Raines’ (Carter Redwood) relationship.
I love that Vo was promoted, and she seems to have settled into the new role nicely, but how do you think she thinks that’s going?
Vinessa Vidotto: Thank you for that, first of all. That’s really encouraging. Yeah, I think from Episode 6 on, she’s settled in, just like you said. I think it was difficult from Episode 2 on, in my personal opinion— I don’t know if I’m being too hard on myself. It’s definitely big shoes to fill because it wasn’t a slow, gradual, natural transition. It was just like all of a sudden, alright, call the shots, be decisive, be assertive, and it was like, “Ahh!” Vo is still learning and looking up to people, and yeah, she’s up for the challenge, but it was a big challenge even for me as an actress. It was stretching my capabilities. But yeah, I think she settled in nicely, and I’m really proud of 306.
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Powell (Greg Hovanessian) left at the end of the last episode, and he and Cameron did have a brief relationship, but how is she feeling about how that all went down? That comes while she’s dealing with the new job, dealing with Jamie (Heida Reed) leaving, the aftermath of the explosion… It feels like there was a lot going on.
There was a lot going on, but I think this is sort of Vo’s fourth situationship, and so I think maybe she’s just realized it’s not working out. [Laughs] So I think maybe it doesn’t hit so heavy. But yeah, they had a mutual understanding, and I think she’s okay. I think she’s more focused on stepping into a bigger position.
This next episode is an important one, not just for Vo, but just also in general. What can you preview about the case and the challenges it presents the Fly Team?
The challenge is going to the Czech Republic and trying to work with the local police there, and they’re not willing to investigate it properly or even give us a warm welcome. It’s infuriating when we’re trying to protect and investigate a victim and an American in a sexual assault situation, and we almost have our hands tied behind our back because it’s not our home country. And you would think, okay, we’re almost in the same world, like FBI and officers, we’re going to work together, and then they don’t. It’s frustrating when the real bad guy is the sexual offender. It’s tricky to balance trying to get clues from the victim without overstepping, trying to work maybe around the officers or just telling them that we’re not. Yeah, it’s a lot of tricky territory to tread.
Especially for Vo because she’s able to use her sexual assault advocacy experience from her army days, and so she’s able to help the victim as a result, but only to a certain point because of everything that she had to deal with the local police. How is that testing her to remain professional? She has to now also think as the number 2.
Right. Yeah, it’s definitely tricky to be an advocate but also makes smart moves, and it is a blend of everything. Vo is still young and still growing and learning. She’s passionate. Sometimes it gets the best of her, but I think it brings a good certain type of energy to the group and I think that’s a reason why we have Forrester [Luke Kleintank]. He reins everybody in. We’re all allowed to say what we think is the best move. But obviously, you need a leader to kind of sift through all the options and say, this is where we’re going to go. And you’ve got to trust him. I mean, Vo is not number one and that’s for a reason. She’s number two is to provide alternative ideas.
I think one of the things that makes the episode so good is the dynamic between Vo and the victim. Talk about playing that.
Yeah, I think it just comes intuitively. I want to be a mother and I just feel I have mothering-like intuitions and instincts. I also just love the youth. It’s just been a huge passion of mine since high school. I’m going off a little off-topic, but I just want to relate to how natural and easily it comes to me. In high school, I would have my own office in the main office and I would tell juniors and seniors how to apply for scholarships and colleges and whatnot. And then this last year, I just created my scholarship for the University of Arizona and I was able to award my first recipient. In college, I was a resident assistant and I was on call and I would be confronted with these situations—alcohol poisoning, suicidal thoughts—and so we were given training on those things, CPR, all that. I just tried to pull from that experience and give Ali [Ana Yi Puig] what she needed, which was guidance and trust and space and understanding.
Vo goes undercover as part of the attempt to catch their suspect. What can you preview about that?
I guess we lay all our cards out. We have to do what we have to do to get this guy, and when things go wrong, we have to get really creative and come up with something else, even if we thought that the hand we were playing was definitely going to get him. Things are never 100 percent guaranteed, so we always have to think on our feet.
There seems to be the possibility of something maybe between Vo and Raines, but how does she feel about him and what’s coming up between those two?
I don’t know. I could not tell you. [Laughs] I guess I could tease and say, “Just wait and see,” but I don’t know. All I know is that they’ve got each other’s backs.
FBI: International, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS
FBI: International where to stream
