Zach Gilford on making his directorial debut with Criminal Minds and improvising lines to 'break' his costars

Spoilers ahead for Criminal Minds: Evolution season 2, episode 8, "North Star."

Zach Gilford makes his directorial debut with the newest episode of Criminal Minds: Evolution.

The franchise newcomer, who joined the revival as serial killer Elias Voit in the debut season, steps behind the camera for “North Star,” a rollercoaster ride of an episode that puts Felicity Huffman’s Jill Gideon squarely in the front seat. It’s revealed that her character is responsible for the public release of a paper drafted by her late ex-husband, Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin), and David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) that now serves as the blueprint for the Gold Star killings. Much to the concern of her estranged pal Rossi, Jill’s life is put in danger as Gold Star killers Damien (David Garelik) and Jade (Liana Liberato) close in to make her the latest casualty of their war. 

It was “not intimidating at all” to direct a Mantegna and Huffman-focused episode in his first outing as director, a sarcastic Gilford quips to Entertainment Weekly.

Jokes aside, the experience has lit a fuse under Gilford, who now has his sights set on doing more of it. “My least favorite part of my job is between action and cut,” the Midnight Mass and Friday Night Lights alum says. “I love everything else about it. I love collaborating [and] being around people, but anytime I'm saying lines, I'm like, ‘No one's going to believe this. Everyone's going to figure me out. I'm a fraud.’” Directing for the self-described “control freak,” though, was different. “I'm really proud of the episode that I made.”

Below, Gilford speaks about his directorial debut and what comes next for Voit; the time he starred in a Taylor Swift music video in the late aughts; and his 6 ½-year-old daughter’s love for Billie Eilish.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: “North Star” marks your first time in the director’s chair. How’d the opportunity present itself?

ZACH GILFORD: I actually lucked out because last season, I only had a one-year contract. And part way through, they said, “Look, we don't know what we're going to do at the end of the season, but we’re not going to kill you. We want to bring you back.” I said, “Great!” When they were negotiating my contract, I said, “Can I direct an episode?” So it worked out. It's something I've always wanted to do. I've shadowed on almost every show I've ever worked on, and it's hard to get that slot, especially on something like this where there's only 10 [episodes]. But they're very supportive of the cast directing. Half the episodes were directed by cast this season. It was so much fun. 

What were some of the challenges, if any, of making that transition?

I think the challenge was just not knowing what I was doing. [Laughs] In the sense of I've never done it before and just having that humility, but also knowing I had so many people around me that I could rely on. And this is what I do with most things: I just work my ass off. I prepped so much. I would go in on Saturdays to walk through sets and make sure I knew what I wanted to do. Because without fail, whatever you want to do when you get there, when it's time to do it, you're going to end up doing something else — whether it's because of actors having a different idea of how the scene should go or the light can't work the way you thought it would. And you just got to be able to roll with it.

The episode is Voit-less, and we’ve only got a few more to go before the finale. What does the rest of the season hold for him?

I just keep manipulating the BAU. This season was so fun because last season, I barely interacted with any of the cast at all. I had a few scenes with Joe towards the end, but this season my whole character's M.O. is just to f--- with them. And now I am friends with them and have a rapport, so on set, I would just throw stuff at them and try and get under their skin and see if I could break them.

So lots of improvisation then?

They gave me a pretty long leash to add some stuff in. I love A.J. [Cook], and she's one of my favorite people to mess with. So I would call her Jenny instead of JJ. My favorite one was when I called her FBI Barbie. I don’t know if it made the cut, but we’ll see.

I don’t think people were expecting him to be so funny and likable. Have there been talks of you returning next season? Would you want to?

I'd love to if they want me. I love the character. He's been a lot of fun to play. I think there's a lot more there. Story-wise, I have no idea what they will do, but that's not my job. But more than that, it is the best set I've ever been on. From the craft services to the executive producers to the crew and cast, everyone is just so happy to be there, so respectful of each other, so empowering of everyone else on set. It's just such a great place to go to work and feel good about what you're doing and feel good about yourself. 

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It’s hard to stumble across the show's social posts featuring Voit that don’t include any mention of Friday Night Lights’ Matt Saracen in the comments. Is that the role you’re most recognized for these days?

Definitely. It's always funny, though, when I get recognized for some random other thing. TSA security at the airport always recognizes me for Law & Order: SVU. No one else ever does, but always airport security and airport security only. But it's always nice to get to hear that someone enjoyed something you did. So I try to be very graceful and thankful whenever someone does call me out. 

I only recently discovered that you starred in a Taylor Swift music video. You’ve spoken about referring to her as Ms. Swift because you weren’t sure of her name at the time—

Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t know. [Laughs] I’m really bad with names, so I was second guessing myself. But I know I couldn’t get it wrong. I was like, if her name's Tyler and I call her Taylor, I'm going to be in trouble. Now I know her name is Taylor Swift. If I ever see her, I'll say, “Hi, Taylor.” Actually, I probably would say “Ms. Swift,” but anyway. 

Is your daughter a Swiftie? What kind of music plays in the Gilford household?

My daughter’s 6 ½. She’s very into Billie Eilish. She knows most of the words to most of the songs, but every song is not called what the title is. So “When the Party’s Over” is called “Sad Billie,” “Lunch” is called “Hungry Billie,” “Bad Guy” is called “Duh." She’s so amazing. When she was 4, she started to be like, “What’s this song about?” and some of them, I’m like, uh…

Maybe wait a few more years to explain “Lunch.”

Literally in the car on the way to camp today, she was singing along to the words, and I'm like… this line about “dancing on my tongue,” I was like, oh gosh. 

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

New episodes of Criminal Minds: Evolution drop Thursdays on Paramount+.