Season 3, episode 6 of FBI: International aired on CBS on March 26 and is currently available to stream on Paramount+. The latest installment centers around Vinessa Vidotto’s character, Special Agent Cameron Vo, as she attempts to get justice for an American college student whose sexual assault allegations are dismissed by police. “Fire Starter” highlights the mistreatment victims receive from local law enforcement, and Vidotto states that filming such a heavy episode was a challenge.
With little information about Vo’s time in SART, the actor pulled from her own experiences to connect with the character. Vidotto has appeared in titles such as Lucifer, Hacks, and Piper in the Woods, but Cameron Vo is her first series regular role. Luke Kleintank, Carter Redwood, Eva-Jane Willis, and Christina Wolfe make up the rest of FBI: International season 3’s main cast.
Screen Rant interviewed Vinessa Vidotto about the seriousness of the show’s latest case, working with Ana Yi Puig, and her hope for more female action scenes.
Vidotto Used Her College Training To Relate To Vo
Screen Rant: What were your initial thoughts when you got the script for FBI: International episode 6 and found out what Vo’s storyline was going to be?
Vinessa Vidotto: It was going to be heavy, for sure. I knew I was going to need to lean on my director, Kevin Dowling, for help. He’s such a fantastic director. I would always go back to him and say, “Is this going in the right direction?” He was like, “Oh, don’t you worry. I will let you know.” I’m really glad that I had him as a director. All the guest stars were great. It was a big challenge, but being three seasons into this, I’m familiar with the heaviness of cases and the seriousness of it, and that lives are in your hands, whether somebody’s been a victim, somebody’s going to jail, somebody’s been murdered.
It was challenging, but I’m familiar with it. I guess what I could pull on from experiences is my time in college, personally, because I didn’t get a breakdown or anything specific about Vo’s time in SART. I could create a storyline, but sometimes, if you want to quickly relate to or understand the character, you pull things from your own life. When I was in college, I was a resident assistant, night assistant, summer coordinator, things like that, and so I would be around the youth a lot. We were trained to deal with all sorts of things when the youth are coming of age.
If it’s having to do with alcohol poisoning or suicidal thoughts or things like that, I would have to be there. I would be on call. I would be there in the moment as things are happening. I would have to report it. I would talk to them and guide them. Even though all these difficult situations are very different, I think the baseline is connection and trying to understand them and give them space. You can’t ask them too many questions and try to quickly give them assurance or guidance. There’s such a delicate balance. My training from college came in handy when it came to this episode.
Vo is dedicated to helping Allie and making her feel like someone is on her side. How was working with Ana Yi Puig and building that bond of trust onscreen?
Vinessa Vidotto: It was lovely. Her also being half-Asian, and me being half-Asian, it was a quick bond. It’s really rare, actually, that I get to work with, I guess, halfies, is what we call it, because I worked with a girl before whose name was Emily. And she also had met Ana, so we were all talking to each other. We’re like, “Oh my God, you’re gonna work with another halfie in the next episode.” So it’s just a quick bond when you have people with similar culture, if you know what I mean. You just quickly bond if you have similar language, taste, and whatever. So it wasn’t difficult at all to bond with her. She was such a fantastic actress. We had a great time.
Vidotto Believes That Vo And Forrester Learn From One Another
The team had to abide by the laws of the Czech Republic, despite how immoral this situation was. What actions do you think Vo may have taken if she didn’t have Forrester to balance her out?
Vinessa Vidotto: I think she would have gone rogue. [Laughs] Honestly. Absolutely nobody is on her side. She’s in Europe by herself. She’s an American girl in Europe by herself. Her parents aren’t there. She has no friends there. Nobody is there to save her, to back her up. She doesn’t have a lawyer. She has nobody. Even when we have this female Czech officer who has just flipped the coin on us and doesn’t believe the girl, it’s really infuriating.
Even as a woman, you won’t even give this young girl a chance to speak her side? You won’t even advocate for her? That’s infuriating. Maybe I could strategically say the answer would be Vo would find a strategic way, but if we’re just talking woman to woman, I think, sometimes, emotions get the best of us. Sometimes it’s not logical, and that’s okay. If Forrester hadn’t stopped Vo from charging after the officer, I think Vo would have knocked her out.
Vo does butt heads with Forrester a bit over how to properly handle the situation, but she comes to agree with his methods in the end. I’d love to get your take on their dynamic and how you feel it’s evolved.
Vinessa Vidotto: I love the dynamic because it’s always good to bounce ideas off each other. Nobody has the right answer, and it’s always a learning experience. Even if I’m wrong, and he’s right, he’s still learning something from me. And when I’m wrong, and I understand that there’s a civil way to go about it, or a strategic way, a long-run way to go about it, I learned something. So it keeps it fun, because if I was always agreeing it would be such a boring show. Come on, no personality, no thoughts of your own? I’m behind Vo, all the way.
You got to go undercover in this episode. What do you enjoy most about these opportunities that allow Vo to play a character herself?
Vinessa Vidotto: It’s such a delicate balance how much we can transform and how much we can go into a different character. It’s fun to dabble. It’s fun to dress up in a different costume. I’ve never been this edgy, gothic girl with the choker and all that. So that was really fun to even take on as Vinessa. Growing up, you play dress up, but as an adult, I don’t think you really play dress up anymore.
You dress up to the styles that you like, but you don’t say, “Oh, what if I did my hair like this today, like spiky? And what if I wore all dark with this type of jewelry?” So when we get to do this, it kind of tricks your mind to like, “Oh, yeah, I actually like this style. I would wear this.” I wanted to take the boots home. [Laughs] If I saw them at the store, I wouldn’t want to take them home, but then with the outfit, I was like, “Oh, I want these.”
Vidotto Would Like To See More Female Action
How did you feel filming that scene at the end of the episode when Vo got justice for Allie and the rest of the victims?
Vinessa Vidotto: That was a really fun day because all day we filmed all the interrogation scenes. So when Smitty and Forrester are going in, pretending that they’re going to charge them with drugs, they go out of the door, they come back in, they go out, and I’m waiting on the sidelines just revving up. It was a fun game to play. We had to put all our cards on the table to get this guy. We had a plan in the club, it failed. The drinks smashed on the floor, couldn’t get the prints.
We couldn’t see if he drugged it. And so playing this full out trickery of undercover and pretending that we’re goon officers, and then going in and then hitting him with all the charges because he confessed himself—it was really satisfying. It was intense. I had to walk in that room and tell myself, “This guy is disgusting.” It was a very intense, satisfactory day.
There was a really sweet full-circle moment when Vo takes Allie to see Prague Castle from Charles Bridge. Do you think Vo was able to give her some semblance of peace?
Vinessa Vidotto: Yeah, I think so. I think Vo held her hand the whole way and had her back the whole way. I think she felt that for sure.
What is a storyline, personal or otherwise, you would like to see for Vo that the series hasn’t explored yet?
Vinessa Vidotto: I haven’t thought necessarily, in detail, about personal life, but not so much romantic. I think something more on the personal side. It could be related to the cases. I absolutely loved the episode that just came out, and Powell has his goodbye, and how he was affected by the case. I think it would be nice if we showed the audience how these cases affect us. I love that we’re superheroes, and we’re nearly invincible, and we go from case to case.
Yes, these cases are about the victims, are about the people, and that’s important. But, on the other side, these cases affect so many people. It’s the secondhand effect of that that people also want to see. When you’re watching and you’re feeling the victim story, you are the second hand. So if you’re also watching that from the leads that you love, I think it brings it full-circle. It brings the emotion up a little more. What I miss is female action.
Last season, in 206, also written by Rachel, Smitty, Heida, and I were all geared up, going out to stop this explosion at a military lot or something. I think having more female-centric episodes where we’re fighting or coming together to solve something. I think it’s so cool. Or even just going toe-to-toe with each other. I think that’s good drama and exciting. You always see men fighting, you know? You admire both women, but you want to see them go toe-to-toe. How do they handle it? What is their essence? It’s just fun.
About FBI: International
From Emmy Award winner Dick Wolf, fast-paced drama FBI: INTERNATIONAL is the third iteration of the successful FBI brand that follows the elite operatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s International Fly Team. Headquartered in Budapest, they travel throughout Europe with the mission of tracking and neutralizing threats against American citizens wherever they may be, putting their lives on the line to protect the U.S. and its people.
New episodes of FBI: International air Tuesdays at 9pm ET/PT on CBS and stream on Paramount+ (live and on-demand for Paramount+ with SHOWTIME subscribers, or on-demand for Paramount+ Essential subscribers the day after the episode airs).
