The casting calls for the CriMi characters.

[notcrzyjustalex.livejournal.com]

With all the talk of the spinoff's casting calls being kind of "suckish," I figured I'd gather some of the original character descriptions for Criminal Minds.


Hotch here:

Spec. Agent Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner - Mid 30s. All American. He is an FBI special agent, a loyal, God-fearing compassionate, family man who is respectful of authority. He's a nice guy, reluctant to pass judgement, but more than capable of doing what's required of him.
[ It was also mentioned in an interview that the "original Hotch" was supposed to be a tall, blonde Mormon.]
 

Spec. Agent Jason Donovan - 35-45. Experienced and has been around the block, deceptively average-looking, articulate, with a commanding presence, he's a seasoned FBI profiler who traded in field work for seminar instruction after witnessing a dozen cops die in a shrapnel bomb. He maintains a close relationship with his ex-wife, a psychiatrist, who has been helping him deal. When a serial murderer plagues the Seattle area, Donovan is asked to return as a full-time Unit Chief, but kept under close supervision.

Spec. Agent Elle Greenaway - Late 20s. All ethnicities. She is a young, sharp, resourceful and feisty FBI agent with a background in sex offender cases. Her specialty area stems from having been raped at age 19, and the assailant never having been caught. Elle impresses the hell out of the task force members, which is what she wants, as she is bucking for the opening in the BAU (Behavioral Analysis Unit) at Quantico. According to her "file," Elle's biggest character flaw is impatience.

Spec. Agent Derek Morgan - 30-35. All ethnicities. He is a handsome, confident, fast-talking FBI profiler, an expert on obsessional crimes. A witty, direct lady charmer who trains new agents, Morgan joins the special profiler team led by Donovan, to save a woman from becoming the fifth victim of a deranged serial killer.

Spec. Agent Dr. Daniel Reed - 27. A classically misunderstood genius with a seriously low social I.Q., he is an FBI special agent whose expertise covers just about everything. Reed takes his job seriously, and often needs to be reminded by his cohorts to lighten up.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nextboldmove_/]

Just goes to show how things change ;)

I also read somewhere that Garcia was supposed to be a male character too, but thank God they loved Vangsness!

[admiralandrea.livejournal.com]

A lot of those don't seem that different to what we actually saw on screen, except maybe Hotch. Other than that, it seems to be mainly name changes.

I had to sporfle at the idea that Gideon's character was originally named after an Aussie soap actor!

[beatriceeagle.livejournal.com]

I don't know. There are some pretty big differences in Gideon, Elle, and Reid's descriptions, and certainly Reid ended up coming across very differently on screen than that description would suggest.

It's kind of interesting, isn't it?

[reseda-3067.livejournal.com]

LMAO! I didn´t think of Aussie Jason Donovan, until you mentioned it!

Don´t laugh, but I used to have a huge crush on JD when I was younger. lol!

[madlori.livejournal.com]

I know why they changed Donovan's name but I've always wondered why they changed Reid's, especially the seemingly insignificant detail of the spelling of his last name.

[cupcakery.livejournal.com]

Spencer --> (Edmund) Spenser, writer of The Faerie Queene, medieval writer.
Reid --> ?? possibly after interrogation technique (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reid_technique)?

[bluerosefairy.livejournal.com]

Stupid question time:

Her specialty area stems from having been raped at age 19, and the assailant never having been caught.

Did we know this about Elle? It's been a long time since I've seen all of S1. I'm slowly rewatching, but I can't remember if we ever knew that about her. It certainly explains a lot of her character.

[weaselistic.livejournal.com]

Don't remember anything, so I can only guess that Elle left before it could come up on the show, and then they gave a similar backstory to Morgan instead, for the second season. ;)

Not that this information would conflict with Elle's overall characterization, I think.

[innerslytherin]

I don't believe so, and it's too bad, because it would have made the way she got written out make a whole heck of a lot more sense. Heh.

[iamtheliquorr.livejournal.com]

IA with this comment. I've been rewatching S1 recently (just got a friend into the show XD) and I'm going with what others have said; they might have intended to explore this part of her character later, but she left before they had a chance. It wasn't until S2 when we started finding out a lot more about the other characters' backgrounds (Reid, Morgan, etc)

Um... *fanfic plot bunny*

[phantomdaae1981.livejournal.com]

LOL, I had been toying with the idea for a fanfic about Elle having been raped in the past, but I know I'll never get around to actually writing it.

I am delighted to find out that the writers had intended the same sort of backstory for Elle as what I had imagined.

[the-dark-zodiac.livejournal.com]

I thought Elle was a sexual crimes expert?

That's so weird. About the castings.

Makes me wonder what they had in mind for people like David Rossi, Emily and JJ.

tdz.

[x-steffi-x.livejournal.com]

Elle was a specialist in profiling sex offenders you are correct.

[imadoctornotalj.livejournal.com]

Gotta love Jason Donovan and Daniel Reed. Two of my favorite characters right there. ;)

[dysfunkshunell1.livejournal.com]

Yep, I posted some of this in one of the spin-off entries (http://community.livejournal.com/criminalxminds/1029953.html?thread=8384833#t8384833). I remain of the same sentiment: to me this sounds a HELLUVA lot more interesting than what has been released for the spin-off characters. And it really isn't a far leap from where the characters have gone in the 5yrs since creation imo. If that's what to be expected with the spin-off... *cringes*

[notcrzyjustalex.livejournal.com]

I agree completely. Even the "revamped" descriptions for Gina and Prophet are still cringeworthy. I suppose all we can do is wait-and-see at this point.

[iamtheliquorr.livejournal.com]

ITA; although it's hard to be unbiased knowing what we know now, those sides just don't reek of trying too hard the way the spinoff ones do. Sure, there are clichés, but they seem to make sense with the premise of the show, while the spinoff seems to be screaming, "We're ~*edgy!*~ Look how ~*edgy*~ we are!"

[notcrzyjustalex.livejournal.com]

True that.
Then again, the spinoff stuff could be partially a decoy. Giving us a bit of the picture, but completely fabricating the rest, or giving us now outdated info.

[britt-m-89.livejournal.com]

Am I the only one that think that Reid's name should of remained Daniel? I really like it. I could kind of see him as a Daniel.

[songparodygirl.livejournal.com]

I kind of agree.

Spencer's a girl's name.

[britt-m-89.livejournal.com]

Thanks to you I now know why I never really like Spencer for his name. It sounds too girly XD.

[djan31.livejournal.com]

What? I've never known a girl named Spencer.

[djan31.livejournal.com]

I don't like Daniel Reed because my cousin's name is Daniel and my mom's last name is Reed.

=|

[eiko82.livejournal.com]

Interesting to read that. I think it's funny that Gideon was originally named Jason Donovan.

Still, compared to the spin-offs character sheets, I would say that the original CM ones made sense. The spin-off character descriptions just sound like they're trying too hard.

[djan31.livejournal.com]

Daniel Reed.
-shudders-

See, this is what I was saying. When compressed to a paragraph, everyone seems kind of silly.
That being said, I still have zero interest in watching a spinoff.

[djan31.livejournal.com]

Also, Hotch as a tall, blonde Mormon?
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
Not the Mormon part, the tall, blonde part.

[notcrzyjustalex.livejournal.com]

Yup. Apparently when Thomas Gibson auditioned they realized they had to have him!

[dragonladyk.livejournal.com]

Hotch as a tall, blonde Mormon.

All I can picture is Edward Cullen, FBI. :S

DragonLady