6 scandals behind the scenes of Criminal Minds

23/02/2023

It was not always sunshine and rainbows on the set of Criminal Minds during its 15 seasons reign. Numerous scandals shook the production and here are six of them.

Mandy Patinkin’s sudden departure
Mandy Patinkin’s sudden departure

The start of Criminal Minds season 3 was pretty painful for the fans : they saw Gideon disappear after he left the BAU after one of his friends’ death. A very sudden departure explained by Mandy Patinkin’s own wish to distance himself from the show’s violence. In an interview, he confessed : “Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story. This isn’t what you need to be dreaming about. The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place,” he says. “I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. After that, I didn’t think I would get to work in television again.”

AJ Cook’s departure against a backdrop of sexism
AJ Cook’s departure against a backdrop of sexism

AJ Cook left Criminal Minds at the end of season 5, to the fans’ surprise… And her own. While the official statement said she was cut out for financial reasons, the reality of her departure is any other. Dismissed at the same time as her co-star, Paget Brewster revealed in an interview that the studio decided to let both actresses go because “CBS had just called Ed Bernaro and said, ‘I want new women’.” At the time of her dismissal, the actress who played JJ said : “It felt like a breakup with a guy. It happened out of nowhere. And it was an "It's not you, it's me" sort of thing. You think, "What did I do?" It's been a rollercoaster ride.” Eventually, AJ Cook came back at the end of season 6 and stayed until the end. As for Paget Brewster, it’s a whole different story…

Paget Brewster’s dismissal
Paget Brewster’s dismissal

The actress who gave life to Emily Prentiss was dismissed at the same time as AJ Cook, but stayed on a little bit longer than her co-star. Her agents were able to negotiate 17 additional episodes before her character faked her own death in order to save herself. She eventually left at the end of season 7 and didn’t come back before the beginning of season 12 to take Hotch’s place after Thomas Gibson’s dismissal. During an interview with AV Club, she said : “So we were fired, the fans were upset, there was a petition… A.J. shot an episode to sort of explain where J.J. was going, but my agents had negotiated for me to do 17 episodes and then leave. Because we were fired. So I went to the writers and said, ‘Just kill my character, give the team something to do, and I’ll leave.’ I was heartbroken. I was so happy there. I loved everyone there, and it was easily one of the most hurtful things that’s ever happened, to be fired because they wanted ‘new women.’ Our showrunner quit after that, he was so pissed off. He felt that he couldn’t run his show after we were let go.”

Thomas Gibson’s violent behavior on set and dismissal
Thomas Gibson’s violent behavior on set and dismissal

At the beginning of Criminal Minds season 12, fans had the surprise to watch Hotch and his son go into the witness protection program and never come back. Behind the scenes, it is a real scandal that happened and led to Thomas Gibson’s dismissal. In 2016, right before the season 12 premiere that CBS announced that the actor was fired. It’s a violent altercation between him and Virgil Williams, a productor on the show. According to an internal investigation, the actor gave a violent kick to Williams after a virulent conversation between them. He was immediately suspended for two weeks before being definitely dismissed. A month after the incident, he shared : “We were shooting a scene late one night when I went to Virgil and told him there was a line that I thought contradicted an earlier line. He said, ‘Sorry, it’s necessary, and I absolutely have to have it.” Frustrated, Gibson says he returned back to set and was sharing Williams’ response with some of his castmates when Williams entered the room. “He came into that room and started coming towards me. As he brushed past me, my foot came up and tapped him on the leg,” Gibson recalls. “If I hadn’t moved, he would have run into me. We had some choice words, for which I apologized the next day, and that was it. It was over. We shot the scene, I went home – and I never got to go back.” Despite his version of events and his apology, Gibson was fired.

Damon Gupton was asked to step aside
Damon Gupton was asked to step aside

If he isn’t a fan favorite as an actor or a character, Damon Gupton played Stephen Walker for a season and also had to leave because of a controversy. He was chosen to replace Thomas Gibson after his dismissal and was featured in only fifteen épisodes before CBS decided to fire him due to “creative changes” on the show, as reporter by Variety at the time. The actor briefly addressed the issue while responding to the American football player Tyvis Powell on Twitter. The latter wrote : “When obstacles arise, you change your direction to reach your goal, you do not change your decision to get there”, to which Gupton responded : “wanted to let you know I appreciate this as I just lost my job. You throwing out the 1st pitch is pure class and a monumental image.”

The inappropriate behavior of the director of photography
The inappropriate behavior of the director of photography

Lastly, a sixth scandal erupted from behind the scenes of Criminal Minds but htis time it doesn’t involve a dismissal. In April 2018, Tony Matulic, a former digital imaging technician on the show, filed a complaint against ABC Studios and Entertainment Partners, the payroll company of the show, with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, accusing Greg St. Johns, the director of photography of the show, of sexual harassment. According to Matulic, St Johns would repeatedly grab his buttock. Following this accusations, no less than 19 crew members decided to speak up : in October 2018, Variety published an exclusive account, detailing St Johns sexual misconduct or verbal abuse against male employees. In its account, the American media also revealed that the human resources department and several high rank employees may have facilitated several crew members’ dismissal after they talked about St Johns’ behavior on set. They filed a class action lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court. In 2022, ABC Signature settled the case by accepting to pay $3 millions regarding sexual harassment and retaliation allegations on the set of “Criminal Minds.

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