FBI: INTERNATIONAL: Jesse Lee Soffer on the 'Tricky and Easy' Parts of Playing Supervisory Special Agent Wes Mitchell - Give Me My Remote : Give Me My Remote

Give Me My Remote > FBI: International > FBI: INTERNATIONAL: Jesse Lee Soffer on the ‘Tricky and Easy’ Parts of Playing Supervisory Special Agent Wes Mitchell

FBI: INTERNATIONAL: Jesse Lee Soffer on the ‘Tricky and Easy’ Parts of Playing Supervisory Special Agent Wes Mitchell

October 9, 2024 by  

FBI INTERNATIONAL Jesse Lee Soffer interview

“A Leader, Not a Tourist” – The Fly Team is introduced to Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchell (new series regular Jesse Lee Soffer) when his partner is shot in Los Angeles and the suspects flee to Budapest, sending Mitchell overseas, on the fourth season premiere of FBI: INTERNATIONAL, Tuesday, Oct. 15 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network, and streaming on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs). Pictured: Jesse Lee Soffer as Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchell. Photo: Nelly Kiss/CBS ©2024 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

When FBI: INTERNATIONAL returns on Tuesday, October 15 for its fourth season premiere, the CBS drama will have a new lead: Jesse Lee Soffer.

For Soffer, this marks his on-camera return to television after exiting NBC’s CHICAGO P.D. in 2022. (The actor portrayed Jay Halstead in nearly 240 episodes between his series regular role on CHICAGO P.D. and guest spots on CHICAGO FIRE, CHICAGO MED, and LAW & ORDER: SPECIAL VICTIMS UNIT.) And while the FBI franchise is technically a different world, Wolf Entertainment producing it (along with ONE CHICAGO and the LAW & ORDER shows) makes this a homecoming, of sorts.

“It’s Wolf [Entertainment] again, and it’s [FBI: INTERNATIONAL showrunner] Matt Olmstead, and they don’t make bad TV,” Soffer tells Give Me My Remote of his decision to join the CBS drama. “It’s that simple. I obviously have a close relationship with everybody there, and Matt being the original creator of P.D. and showrunner there for the first five years or so, it was like, ‘Oh, this can be a really fun treat where we get to make a new character with Matt and bring a new energy and a new vibe to this show.’ And so it was [the thought that] this could be really cool.”

In FBI: INTERNATIONAL, Soffer plays Supervisory Special Agent Wesley “Wes” Mitchell, who meets the Fly Team after a close-to-home case takes him from Los Angeles to Budapest. But since Wes is also a former police officer—and Soffer played a Chicago police officer for nearly a decade in the ONE CHICAGO world—the actor acknowledges it’s “tricky and easy at the same time” stepping into another law enforcement role.

“That’s just the truth,” he admits. “It was difficult because Wes is a cop, and Jay was a cop, and so you’re gonna have a lot of cop thoughts. You’re playing a character, and you’re having character thoughts. And when you’re in situations where you’re having cop thoughts [while filming and those] start coming in, and you’re in a scenario, there’s a bit of action going on, [the] thoughts feel the same. And you’re like, ‘Oh, geez, that’s the old guy, hold on. Let me have a new point of view. Hold on. Let me rearrange that.’ So that’s tricky.” 

“The easy part is that by the end of P.D., Halstead had so much baggage and had been through the wringer and just dragged [through so much] that he was such a heavy character, with a weight on his shoulders, and was dark,” he continues. “And Wes being this carefree guy who does things his own way and is unaffected, or more unaffected, that’s easy. Then it’s like, oh, there’s no baggage here. This is a different energy. So it’s difficult and easy at the same time.”


Chicago PD Deadlocked spoilers

CHICAGO P.D. — “Deadlocked” Episode 1016 — Pictured: Jesse Lee Soffer, Director — (Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC)

During Soffer’s hiatus between acting roles, he stepped behind the camera to direct two episodes of CHICAGO P.D. But can fans expect him to direct on FBI: INTERNATIONAL?

“I’m just focusing on acting and playing this character right now,” Soffer says. “If that opportunity happened way down the line, maybe. But I think coming into a new cast and a new show, I want to establish who this character is and get all the relationship dynamics right on screen. My focus needs to be on that. And if I wanted to direct, that would complicate things. That’s a whole other beast and such an undertaking of time and a different kind of responsibility. So I’m excited to be just playing this character and focusing on that.”

FBI: INTERNATIONAL, Season Premiere, Tuesday, October 15, 9/8c, CBS

RELATED:

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page or our Instagram.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.

Related Posts

Filed under FBI: International

Leave a Comment

Comments

Feel free to leave a comment...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!