FBI: MOST WANTED Post-Mortem: Dylan McDermott and David Hudgins on Remy’s Backstory

April 12, 2022 by Marisa Roffman

“Covenant” – The team’s new leader, charming but formidable Special Agent Remy Scott (Dylan McDermott), takes charge as they investigate a series of homicides tied to a forbidden love between a young teen and her older boyfriend, on the CBS Original series FBI: MOST WANTED, Tuesday, April 12 (10:00-11:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and available to stream live and on demand on Paramount+.
Pictured: Dylan McDermott as Supervisory Special Agent Remy Scott. Photo: Mark Schäfer/CBS ©2022 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Tuesday, April 12 episode, “Covenant.”]

FBI: MOST WANTED’s Remy Scott (Dylan McDermott) may have just joined the Fugitive Task Force, but he wasted no time in telling his new teammates about the tragic circumstances that led him to the FBI.

After successfully working their first case together in “Covenant,” the team went on a bonding field trip to do a little axe-throwing. While there, the squad asked Remy about his backstory, and he explained his younger brother, Mikey, disappeared in Florida while on a spring break trip as a high school senior. The local detectives questioned a man, but didn’t have enough to hold him; Mikey was found dead soon after. Though the cops insisted Mikey had died before they questioned the suspect, Remy never bought it—he thought his brother was alive until the man was released.

“Every bad guy I catch, I do it for him,” Remy told them.

Going forward, that grief and quest for justice will inform Remy’s time with the team. “I thought it was important when we were talking about the character that there was a personal reason that he was doing what he was doing,” McDermott told reporters. “It fuels me as an actor when I have that. And it’s proven to be true so far in doing these three episodes that I just completed. I always think that it’s good to keep yourself rooted over time, because I think on any show, you end up tiring, and I think that’s probably the pitfall of a show. So, for me, I always like to find the few things that I can keep going back to and refreshing it for myself. We found that with Remy when we talked about the backstory.”

“I know that I’ve used it several times already, and, hopefully, going forward, that I continue to use it,” he continued. “So, it’s a great thing to have. What’s different about Remy, I think, than other procedurals is a lot of these shows, they’re just people doing things because that’s their job, and they do a good job. But with Remy, it’s very personal what he’s doing. He’s on a mission. He’s on a quest, and there’s a dynamic inside of him that he’s trying to figure out; his own psychology. So he’s on a journey, and I love playing that, to have that in my toolbox every time I go out and do a case.”

The writers had always intended to give Remy a personal tie to law enforcement, and were thrilled when McDermott was on the same page. The other thing they wanted to do? Avoid the “mysterious stranger” cliche and wait months—or years—to reveal his backstory.

“I love the way at the end of this episode he says, ‘Look. I’ll tell you about it. I don’t mind talking about it. Here’s what happened. Here’s what happened to my brother,'” FBI: MOST WANTED showrunner David Hudgins said. “The fact that he’s an open book about it, I thought, was also fresh.”

And with a scene so vital to his new character, McDermott admitted he put a lot of thought into how to best play the moment.

“I love that scene,” he said. “I loved working on it, and it’s great that I had time to let it marinate over a couple weeks I had worked on it. I do some of my best acting in my bathtub, and so I had done some incredible performances that nobody ever gets to see, but I really was working on it.”

“I think that Remy is such a great character to play because he’s complex,” he continued. “He’s not just one thing, you know? And that’s what’s cool about him. David and I were talking about this the other day: You think he’s one thing, and all of a sudden, he’ll do something completely different or say something, and he has a great sense of humor. In that particular scene, I think what’s wonderful about it is that at the end of it, he says, ‘Okay. That’s enough of the sad stories.’ So…even though he is an open book in many ways, he likes to keep it light and fresh. He will go deep but at the same time, you know, he can only take so much.”

Looking to the future, “the loss of his brother looms large for Remy in every single way,” McDermott previewed, teasing there’s a scene ahead with Remy and his mother. “But at the same time, because he’s on this journey, he can only go so far. And I think that’s gonna be a wonderful thing to play as he deepens over time. You never want to start a character when he knows everything. I want this guy to evolve over time and to find out the secrets inside of himself that maybe he doesn’t even know. So that’s a wonderful thing to play, because if I’m playing this character for years, I want to unveil who he is. I want you to, in real-time, find out who Remy is and discover things.”

FBI: MOST WANTED, Tuesdays, 10/9c, CBS

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