TV Talk: Hill District native Carter Redwood stars in CBS’s ‘FBI: International’

For Carter Redwood, his first series regular role starring in CBS’s “FBI: International” checks several boxes of what he hoped for in his acting career.

“As a part of my visualization for what I wanted in my career, and what I wanted for myself, I really told myself that I wanted to be on a critically acclaimed show and I also wanted to be on a franchise,” Redwood said in a Zoom interview from Budapest, where “FBI: International” is produced.

While the jury is still out on those critics’ reviews — the premiere episode of “FBI: International” was not available for review as of this writing — there’s every reason to think “FBI: International” (10 p.m. Tuesday before moving to 9 p.m. on Sept. 28, KDKA-TV) will follow its forerunners, the Dick Wolf-produced “FBI” and “FBI: Most Wanted,” to become a success. After all, it worked for Wolf’s “Chicago” shows Wednesday night on NBC.

“We know this works, that there are certain dynamics that are just true when you stack these shows,” Wolf said in a CBS news conference earlier this month during the Television Critics Association virtual summer 2021 press tour. “If you set the table correctly for an American television audience, they’ll stay. … People are very content to go from 8 to 11 if they’re being entertained. And I think these shows will do a hell of a job of entertaining people.”

Redwood, a Hill District native who graduated from Pittsburgh CAPA in 2010 (he was in “Anna Karenina” and “Blood Brothers” there) and the acting program at Carnegie Mellon University in 2014, previously has appeared in recurring roles in National Geographic Channel’s “The Long Road Home,” UMC’s “The 5th Ward” and NBC’s “Rise.”

But “FBI: International,” centered on the FBI’s Budapest-based international Fly Team that travels the world tracking threats against Americans abroad, is his biggest production yet.

Redwood plays FBI Special Agent Andre Raines, who uses his accounting background to track criminals’ movement of money.

“He’s the guy that’s well-versed in a lot of different areas … and he’s not afraid to spring into action when necessary,” Redwood said. “He’s extremely driven. His journey throughout this series is going to be just how far can he make it up the (FBI) ladder.”

Redwood had never visited Budapest before arriving in the city four days before filming on “FBI: International” began this summer. Now, he’s trying to learn as many Hungarian words as possible to better communicate with the show’s local crew.

“My makeup woman, she’s become my tutor every day in the makeup trailer,” Redwood said. “After a long day of filming, after we get the last shot, I’ll yell out, ‘Csapat munka!’ ­— “teamwork” in Hungarian — and that gets a laugh from the Hungarian crew.”

Redwood credits Mark Southers and Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company with his earliest on-stage training. Before studying at CMU, Redwood was in Pittsburgh CLO’s “Disney’s High School Musical” and City Theatre’s “When January Feels Like Summer.” During college, he worked with friends on a no-budget web series, “Redwood Time,” during his CMU days (“It was my take on ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ meets ‘Martin’ meets Disney Channel”). He said CMU helped prepare him for “FBI: International” in many ways, including the time commitment required.

“CMU has an extremely rigorous and intensive training program,” Redwood said. “The long hours and the days filled with classes — 12-hour-plus days of training when you add in the classes and the rehearsals and the performances — that directly translates to 12-plus hour days on set.”

Redwood will next be seen in HBO’s untitled L.A. Lakers project, about the team’s 1980s heyday, playing a character who’s in love with Cookie Kelly (Tamera Tomakili), the future Mrs. Magic Johnson, just before Magic Johnson (Quincy Isaiah) gets recruited into the NBA.

“I finished filming there a couple months ago, and my stunt double from the Lakers (project) is my stunt double on ‘FBI: International,’ ” Redwood said. “It’s an alignment. All the pieces fell into place in the most perfect way.”

Redwood returned to Pittsburgh for a few months mid-pandemic to spend time with his parents, Carl and Tawnya, who still live in the house he grew up in.

“It felt good to be home,” Redwood said. “(In) 2018 when I returned home to do ‘Pipeline’ at City Theatre, that let me know I needed to make it back as often as I could. It put me in a certain space to be working at home. What a homecoming: to be able to return home as a professional.”