FBI International: He Who Speaks Dies 2023
FBI International
Season 2 - Episode 14
”He Who Speaks Dies”
Reunion
It was so gratifying to return to FBI International and work again with a team that I had formed such lasting creative bonds with on my first time around directing the show. It was less than 18 months since I had jumped into this rigorous, fast - paced production for the first time, and now it felt like a warm reunion with friends and family. They know me, I know them, we know what we can expect and appreciate about each other, especially when the ax is to the grindstone.
Next Level Stunts
It was thrilling to direct such an action packed episode, I had an amazing time working with the stunt coordinators and performers to create intricate fight scenes and really fun chases. I loved filming a particular stunt, my favorite I think I’ve ever filmed so far, where I had my stunt operator working a pulley. He had it constructed so that the stuntman, on one end, was doing a terrifying, high speed fall out of a window to his demise. At the same time I had a camera operator shooting the fall as he himself shot up into the air, on his end of the pulley. It created a chilling effect, leaving the audience with the impression of seeing his fall from the window, from the character Agent Raines’ point of view. But the audience also has the visceral and complicated experience of feeling and seeing the fall as it happens so unexpectedly, when Raines beats him in this fight-to-the-death match and is finally able to save his own life, by ending another.
Power Performance
I also loved getting to work with a talented group of guest stars and background performers.
In one of the very first scenes, the episode delves into the mayhem that erupts when a passenger discovers a bomb threat on an international flight, mid-air. Every single background performer brought the vulnerability, presence and raw emotion that the scene called for in such an immediate way.
The episode continued to demand a lot of each guest star, as they carried roles on each side of the “good” and the “bad” within the plot of a family man getting kidnapped by a group of drug traffickers. I loved working with actors who were coming from all over: the US, the UK, Budapest, Europe and the Middle East, each bringing sharp and vulnerable interpretations of character and the story. They enriched the episode with powerful, painful truth, and depth of humanity.