‘Criminal Minds: Evolution’: Zach Gilford on If Voit’s Really Changed, That Awkward Hug & Where Season 18 Leaves Him

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Criminal Minds: Evolution Season 18 Episode 5 “The Brutal Man.”]

Has Voit really changed? That’s the question right now on Criminal Minds: Evolution, and who better to ask than the star who plays the serial killer whose brain scan now says he’s no longer a psychopath, Zach Gilford?

At the end of the latest episode, there certainly seems to be a bit of the old Voit coming out when he sits down across from the Brutal Man (Winter Andrews), the UnSub the BAU captured who has a message for Sicarius. Below, Zach Gilford discusses that scene, what’s going on with Voit, and much more.

How has it been playing this version of Voit who at least says he has no memory of the others and the scans are saying he’s no longer a psychopath?

Zach Gilford: It’s fun. The way I approached it was coming at it, I’m just meeting all these people for the first time. Whatever relationship or interactions we had in the first two seasons, they never happened in my head. So it’s been fun to reboot the character in that sense. And everyone — our hair and makeup, the whole crew — is like, “Are you faking it? You’re faking it, aren’t you?” I’m like, “I don’t know. I don’t know. I can’t tell you because I don’t know.”

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

It would be hard to cheat the tests, the brain scans that are saying this is a different Voit. But I’m questioning Julia Ochoa (Aimee Garcia). She could be in on it. What’s Voit’s take on her as his doctor?

She’s the only person who sees him as a human. He’s so isolated into this ward and there’s security guards and he’s handcuffed to tables and these people he doesn’t know, one of which he thinks is his dad, side-eye him all the time and they’re like, “Ugh, you’re a monster.” He’s like, “What did I do?” And she’s the only one who’s like, “No, you’re a good person. It’s cool.” So it’s kind of like this security blanket, the one person that he feels like has his back when he feels completely out in outer space.

What can you say about how much we should trust Voit is being honest about what he remembers and who he is now?

I mean, what do you got to lose? Just trust him. [Laughs]

A lot to lose. They all have a lot to lose if they trust him.

Yeah, I don’t know. I think the cool question, too, is if he’s not faking it, if this is all real, what do we do with him? It’s kind of this existential question. He’s like, “Kill me. Give me the death penalty. I’m messed up.” And they’re like, “Yeah, but you wouldn’t do it again?” So I don’t know.

At the end of this week’s episode, the way that you played Voit introducing himself to Ronald, there’s a bit of it that feels very old Voit almost. What was your approach to that?

Yeah, actually I remember it was a little tricky because it’s like, is he faking it? Is he not? How does he know how to tap into “old him”? And I think there was twofold: It was trying to extrapolate from what he’s gathered, not nefariously, but from what all the BAU is giving him about who he was and just knowing, “Okay, I have to seem like this person or this is all going to be for naught,” and also as much as maybe he’s not going to kill anyone anymore, there is aspect that’s still a part of his personality, which I imagine would still be there. He was kind of a fun-loving jerk before, and now he’s just a fun-loving guy.

Voit chooses monster as his safe word. Part of me is like, could it be a message to Ronald? Or is it just entirely about Voit because people are telling him he’s a monster?

That’s kind of how I felt about it. Everyone keeps asking me, “Was he lying? Is he faking it?” Until I knew the answer to that, I was like, “I’m just playing it real. He doesn’t know.” So in that scene, I kind of felt like, yeah, you can’t escape it. And the irony of your safe word being “monster,” the scary thing that is not safe is kind of — when I read it, I thought it was kind of a very cool choice.

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

The episode ends as we’re waiting for this conversation between Voit and Ronald. What can you say about that? And let’s say Voit’s being honest: How long can Voit maintain the facade he needs to as Sicarius in front of Ronald?

These are all questions I had to figure out while we were shooting it. It was kind of the fun thing about this season was I constantly would be like, “Oh, I can barely walk.” “Oh, now I can put together a computer.” But just figuring it all out was really fun and just kind of going with it. And when you do take a step back, they really thought it out and blueprinted it. And I think he’s just falling more and more in the pocket of knowing what he’s supposed to do, wanting to do some sort of good, struggling with who he knows he is. And I think deep down, he wants to do good, he wants to help so he can keep up the facade as long as he has to. And probably there’s some sort of ulterior — the only ulterior motive is like, “Well, maybe this results in my death. And then, great.”

It has to be weird though for him to be on the other side of the interrogation table.

Yeah. He was great, too. I remember him. He was a really good actor. But yeah, it was definitely weird. It was like, “Okay, I am playing Voit playing a part.” And there were points where the director would be like, “Okay, on this one, I’m not necessarily saying you are the old Voit, but maybe there is a little bit of muscle memory where it just clicks in and it just happens and you’re not that person necessarily anymore, but you’re not playing that person. There is that muscle memory that clicks in.”

There’s this moment in this episode where Voit tells JJ (A.J. Cook) he’s sorry for everything and he hugs her. And this is a time JJ needs everyone to hug her because of what she’s going through.

Everyone except Voit. [Laughs] It was a little awkward, but just because of how the actual hug works where I grab her because you want it to seem like I’m attacking her. And I’ll never forget when I break away and I think I say “thank you” or “I’m sorry,” whatever I say, I remember A.J.’s gaze always, and she’s such an amazing actor that even without lines, she can convey so much. I could just feel what JJ was going through. I think it also fed into Voit’s feeling of self-hatred, and, “This is all I can do, and I know it probably doesn’t do anything for you.”

So, Voit thinking Rossi’s (Joe Mantegna) his dad, that moment is one of the funniest of the season. That dynamic has been so tense all this time. Voit’s starting to remember things and what he did to Rossi. As he is, how is that changing how he’s looking at that dynamic of theirs?

I think it’s just more guilt. And I think why he leans into the “dad,” it actually kind of makes sense because he was this weird mentor to him when he was growing up reading his books and stuff, and then his rival where he wanted to show that he’d outgrown his teacher, but there was that respect that he always had for him. The only thing he knows at the beginning of this season is that respect. And it’s like, who do I have that feeling for except my father, my dad. “Are you my f**king dad?” Because this energy feels very paternal. I don’t know what the word for is the reverse way. So I think it’s cool and then starting to feel like, “Oh my God, I knew I respected this person, but now I’m realizing I terrorized them? Not even just a stranger, but someone that I looked up to. What is wrong with me?”

Michael Yarish / Paramount+

You and Joe have played a few different Voit-Rossi dynamics with real Voit, hallucination Voit, and now this Voit. How has it been working with him on that dynamic?

It’s great. Joe’s so — he goes with it, can do whatever. Getting to play a different part and different dynamics is something you don’t really get to do on Season 3 or 4 of a show. I love the character Voit, even though he is a bad guy. I think there’s so much fun stuff within him, and getting to use that and put it in different scenarios or different versions of him has been cool. And I think it makes it more fun for the other actors as well, to be like, “Oh, cool, I’m not just working with the same person again.” I’m the same actor but not the same character. And we all have to figure out, “Okay, how do these two versions of these people interact with each other?” And yeah, Joe’s just such a pro that he’s always just rolling with it and figures it out faster than me.

You’re talking about this self-hatred and Voit. Where is he when it comes to his family now as he’s remembering these things? The more he’s learning about himself, is he questioning, “Would I even be good for them?”

Yeah, 100%. I think it terrifies him, but at the same time as a father, all he wants is his family. I’m nowhere near this guy, but as a father, I can’t imagine being, “You know what? The best thing for my kids is for me not to be around them.” All you want is to see them or make sure they’re safe or do all this stuff. This season is just the ultimate mindf**k for Voit, and just all his feelings are in constant opposition with each other, and [he’s] trying to sort through them. But I think he’s someone — and this has been since the beginning of the reboot — who’s motivated by his family. They’re the most important thing to him. And I think he really believes and I think he would do anything for them. But now you’re stuck with that. Before it was like, “I’ll kill for my family.” And now it’s like, “Would I stay away from my family for my family?” And that’s an even harder question to answer.

Which member of the BAU do you think he trusts the most considering what he’s remembering? JJ?

I think it’d be JJ. I think they just have a certain human connection there, and they’re the only two parents within all this. And I think the compassion that she shows him and the vulnerability that she shows him, if anyone, it’d be her.

I spoke with Aimee Garcia yesterday. She told me there’s some fun stuff coming up with your characters, that Julia is taken out of her element and we see another side of her. Is there anything else you can preview about that? Is Voit looking at her differently in those scenes than he has so far?

My relationship and my view of her develops and it deepens. We get out of the hospital and it’s like she’s not just doctor anymore. She has to do some other stuff, which is fun. It’s cool to see how that character reacts in that situation and how Voit handles what he has to do. But, yeah, I’m sure for her it gets a little boring just talking about brain scans the whole season, so she gets to do some other stuff.

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How much longer can Voit stay in the hospital? They’re going to run out of tests.

Yeah, they’re going to run out of tests. ‘Til the end of Season 3.

What can you preview about where the season leaves Voit?

It just takes him further down kind of reckoning or reconciling with the realizations of who he was and what he’s done and trying to figure out if that’s who he is. And classic Dostoevsky. It’s Crime and Punishment, which is cool because it’s one of my favorite books, and that’s why it resonated with me. Even if you get away with the crime, the punishment is you living it over and over and carrying it with you for the rest of your life. And that’s what he has to do. It doesn’t matter how repentant you are, it doesn’t matter if literally your brain chemistry changed, you still did it, and you still have to live with it, which is tough.

With whom does Voit have the most significant conversation coming up?

I would say that those are TBD. I think some people that we maybe haven’t met yet.

Is the most surprising thing that Voit is going to learn about himself having forgotten all this something that we’ve already seen or something still to come?

Still to come.

What was your favorite scene to film from Season 18?

There’s a scene in Episode 7 that’s very obvious, and it’s with a character we haven’t seen yet in this season. There’s a big truck. It was cool. A.J. directed it, and she just did such a good job and made it so cool that it was fun to shoot. And then besides that, the finale was a lot of fun because I got to work with Aimee. I got to work with another actor who I love who comes in. Getting to the finale is always kind of fun coming together and it’s like, “Oh, this is what we’ve been working towards all year.” And then it’s bittersweet. You’re like, “Oh, we are not coming back tomorrow.” And luckily this time, we got to come back a few months later.

Which of the serial killers from his network do you think would disturb Voit the most?

The one in Episode 7 creeps me out. It’s so funny. I hate all the fake blood and stuff, so anytime I have to do it, I’m like, “Oh, God, come on guys. Don’t make me do it.” But I think, yeah, the one in Episode 7 is the most messed up we’ve done so far.

Criminal Minds: Evolution, Thursdays, Paramount+