"It's Basically Like a Throwback to When People Did Radio Plays": 'Criminal Minds' Paget Brewster Explains Her New Audible Original Podcast 'The Signal' (2025)

Paget Brewster

By Marisa Williams

Published Feb 15, 2025

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Paget Brewster is best known for her role as Emily Prentiss on the crime procedural Criminal Minds. It ran for 15 seasons on CBS and was revived as Criminal Minds: Evolution on Paramount+, and has since been renewed for an 18th season. In December, The Signal, an Audible Original out now via Fresh Produce Media, was released. Brewster lends her voice to the audio podcast, as Dr. Veronica Chapel, a disgraced astrophysicist now teaching high school. When she's approached by an old flame turned journalist about a strange signal uncovered, she must work to find the truth, and if that truth will lead to proving the existence of aliens. After the release of the Audible Original, I sat down with Brewster to talk about her journey to the project, how it differs from previous voice acting work, and what's to come for Criminal Minds: Evolution.

COLLIDER: I'm a huge sci-fi junkie, so this is right up my alley.

PAGET BREWSTER: Oh, thank you! I'm so glad to hear that because I was so excited when I auditioned for it. I just read the first episode, and I was like, “I believe! I'm a believer. I need to do this.” I offered to audition twice because I wasn't sure I nailed it the first time, and I loved it. I'd never done an Audible Original before. I'd never done a scripted podcast. I didn't know what they were like. It's basically like a throwback to when people did radio plays, and you have dialogue and sound effects and music. I loved doing it. I thought the story was fascinating. I don't know what's out there. I have some theories that there is more to life than just the humans and animals that we all see, but what is it? Where is it? Who is it? It’s fascinating to me. So I was just so excited when I read the first episode, and I was really thrilled that they cast me.

I also know that you've done some voice acting in cartoons, correct?

BREWSTER: Yeah, in animated features like DC [Justice League: Gods and Monsters]. I started doing Godzilla [The Series] in 1998. It was an animated show on Fox. I think that was my first animated job. I've done a couple of true crime podcasts, some narration for a Disney series, and a lot of animation voices, but this was the first time I had recorded a character over eight episodes, working with other actors.

We recorded this at the end of July of 2023, and it was during the actors’ and writers’ strike, so everybody was nervous about, “What’s happening to our business, and am I ever going to work again?” When I auditioned for The Signal, it was really exciting once we found out, “Oh, you're allowed to do it.” Because I thought, “Wait a minute there. Now, they want me to do The Signal, but I don't know if I'm allowed to do The Signal because we're on strike.” But it's a totally different thing. Voice acting is completely separate from what the actors’ strike and the writers’ strike were about, so we were fine to do it.

We recorded at this place called Studio Awesome, which is very close to my house, so that was really exciting. Almost all of the other work that I do, my husband and I record at home. We have a home studio, and he's the engineer and records my voice. So, this was the first time I'd gone to a studio throughout the pandemic. It had been a year since I'd been recording in a recording studio, and I love the studio. And Nate Corddry was there, who plays Malcolm in The Signal, but we were in separate recording studios in the facility, so we couldn't see each other. We were looking at each other on Zoom, and all of the other actors were joining us on Zoom. So you're in a recording studio by yourself on Zoom, looking at everybody, which is sort of the same thing as how it works when I record from home, so it was all technology that I was comfortable with and excited about. It's really exciting to be able to voice record with other people. Our microphones were separated so we could see each other on Zoom and hear each other in the headphones, but our audio tracks, our voice tracks, were all being recorded separately so that they could be edited together by Mark [Henry Phillips], who directed us. He was also the editor, and he did the soundtrack, so that's why it took another year and a half to be put together and come out.

Paget Brewster Explains the Ins and Outs of Audio Podcasts

"It's Basically Like a Throwback to When People Did Radio Plays": 'Criminal Minds' Paget Brewster Explains Her New Audible Original Podcast 'The Signal' (3)

That's really, really neat. I've always wondered how different these audio dramas are from animation work. I guess it is kind of a different process, despite it being the same at the base of being in a recording studio with the headphones and the microphone and lending your voice to something.

BREWSTER: It's definitely changed. Voice acting work used to be you would have 10 or 15 actors all in the same room with music stands in the same large recording facility. Everyone had a separate mic and a separate music stand, and you would see the director through a window in the engineering booth. You could hear the director, and everybody would read the script from beginning to end. If the director wanted another take of a line, they would say, “Okay, stop. We're going to do an ABC and billboard the word ‘Godzilla,’” and one at a time, everybody did all of their dialogue together. Definitely since the pandemic, but even before, people started recording separately so that you were very rarely in a room recording voice work with another person.

The last time I did that was when I was on a series called Dan Vs., and the last person I recorded with in person was Mark Hamill, who was playing a villain. He and I were sitting in the same room, looking at each other, recording this animated show together, and he was just masterful. I'm sure he's done a bunch of Audible Originals. He must have. His voice is exceptional. He's excited. He's so talented. I think he played the [Joker] in Batman: The Animated Series for something like 16 years or 17 years. He's just remarkable to watch and just has incredible control over his voice. He could scream and then be quiet, and he knows how to work the microphone, going close to it and backing off from it. Watching him work in person was like a master class.

Now everything is separate. Everybody records their sessions alone. Maybe that's just because people are working on different projects and people are all over the world or in different states, and so the only way to voice record is to record people separately now. It was great while it lasted, but at least now we have Zoom, so we can see each other and interact with each other and see each other's facial expressions. There's a way to overlap dialogue, and the engineer is able to isolate the voice tracks, so you never have to worry about keeping your partner in a scene. You don't have to keep their line clean. You can have a reaction or improvise or make yes or no noises. You can overlap each other, which brings a lot of life to it.

Especially with the Audible Original, you're only recording sound, and you listen to it like a radio play. One of the really interesting things that Mark Phillips, the director, had us do was—and I'd never experienced this, having never done an Audible Original podcast before—he said, “You have to keep the scene alive.” So right now, Veronica Chapel, my character, is walking down the street and going to pick up her cell phone and call somebody. But in order to keep the person alive, he said, “While you're walking, just make noises.” So you're kind of talking to yourself or humming or making noises while getting your phone out so that the listener is aware that you're still there and present with them while they're listening to this story. That was really interesting and kind of funny. It feels a little awkward, but I understand why it works. It's its own way of performing, and so it was exciting. It was exciting to learn something totally new, and I hope I pulled it off! You listened to it. Did you feel that we were present with you?

Yeah. I listened to it a lot in the car, and that was almost an ideal listening experience, than listening to it with headphones because it really feels like 360 when it's on speakers.

BREWSTER: Oh, that's really cool. I didn't think of that. Good!

I really enjoyed it. I've never really been big into audio dramas, but this was a really good foray into it because the storyline was so engaging, and y'all's performance was very engaging, and so it kept me like, “Oh, man, what do you mean I have to stop my car? I want to keep listening to it.”

BREWSTER: Oh, that's the most flattering thing you could say. I'm touched and impressed that you listened to it, and I really, really appreciate it. That's just great. I love it. Thank you for saying all that stuff. That's great.

"It's a Character Trait That I Understand": Paget Brewster Explains Her Character's Motivations

I really, really enjoyed it. Another question that I had about the story itself and something that really struck me about Veronica's character is her conviction for what is right and the tension between that and the quote-unquote “need to be right.” There's such a difference there, I think, especially for women, to really trust ourselves and our instincts when people want to paint us as wanting to always be right. There was such a tension and need for that difference to be demonstrated. Was that already in the script, or was that something that you had made sure was in there and a part of the character?

BREWSTER: No, that was in the script and written by Eric Buchman. I was really impressed by that because I think he did have such a clear idea. There were a couple of other writers, Gabriel Urbina and Sarah Shachat; they completely knew who Veronica Chapel was. That's not something I figured out. They had everything in the script, which is why I wanted it so badly. She was such a completely clear person, and I understood the conflict. Even if you're right sometimes, does it serve you to fight for it or do you suffer from fighting for it, or would you suffer if you didn't fight for it? It's a character trait that I understand. Me personally, Paget, in the past, I've been right about something but strident and egotistical and enraged in being right, and it can end up hurting you if that's the thing that you hold more important than anything else. But it's human to defend your belief that you are right if that’s your conviction.

So, how do you make the decision? Even though I was right, was there another way to see it? Is something else going on that, in being right, I've closed my eyes to? It's just a fascinating human… Is it a failing, or is it conviction? That question was really interesting to me, and that was completely in the script, and I was directed to think about that and struggle with it. I personally have struggled with it, so maybe I was the best person to cast. I don't know. I hope so. But it was definitely in the script, and I'm so glad that you noticed that. I hope I answered your question because I found that very, very, very compelling and human, and I'm really glad that you noticed that. Thank you.

I also have found myself very much guilty of that. As the eldest daughter syndrome, I feel like that happens to me a lot. When you're doing Criminal Minds, you've learned all kinds of terminology for the world of forensic science and criminology, and with The Signal, Dr. Chapel has a lot of scientific words and terms within the world of astronomy and astrophysics. What’s your process with taking on that kind of information?

BREWSTER: I love the show Ancient Aliens, and they cover a lot of SETI and the study of astronomy and the star systems, so I did have a baseline understanding. For an actor, mostly, it's, “Am I pronouncing this word correctly?” So I had a baseline understanding of that and the idea of the search for extraterrestrial life or unidentified anomalous phenomena, or however you want to look at what are the possibilities of other forms of life and other species possibly living on this planet in a different dimension or coming from other planets? Then, what are we? Are we like a way station for other species that there has not been a full disclosure of yet? Are we a pit stop? Are we a rest stop on the way to another galaxy for interstellar travelers? Who knows? So as far as the science aspect of it, the most important thing was for me to be able to ask Eric and and Mark, “How do I pronounce this word,” if I didn't know how to pronounce it.

They were so well-versed. Clearly, they created the series so they knew everything inside and out about the characters and their desires and their fears and their motivations, and where they came from. I certainly don't; I don't have a doctorate in astronomy or science. They answered everything, and it was very supportive and I never felt like I was asking a question that was wasting anyone's time. It was a really collaborative effort, and everybody was extremely supportive and fun and having a really good time. It was a great atmosphere. I'd love to do another one, but I don't know if I would ever have an experience as fulfilling and joyful as what recording The Signal was for Audible Originals.

"There's No Way This Is Over": Paget Brewster Explains How It Feels to Return to 'Criminal Minds'

I feel like I would be absolutely remiss not to ask you something about Criminal Minds. I've had such a deep respect for you for literal years, and all of my friends are like, “Oh my gosh, you're interviewing her! Oh my gosh!” So, you've got this new chapter with Criminal Minds: Evolution. This show is just so beloved. What does that mean to you for it to be this beloved with everyone just absolutely mad over it?

BREWSTER: That's very kind of you to say, Marisa, and please tell all of your friends I said hello. We love it. We love it. When Criminal Minds was canceled at CBS, I still felt like, “There's no way this is over. There's no way this is over. It plays in 73 countries. I've seen it on TV in other countries and get emails from Brazil. People seem to really like this show.” So when we started talking with Paramount+ during the pandemic, “Would you guys be interested in doing the show again?” All of us immediately said yes. We said, “If it's us and it's our showrunner, yes. If it's people we don't know, no. It's got to be us. It has to be this group of people, as many actors as we can get from the CBS series.” And it's still owned by CBS. Paramount+ is where a lot of CBS shows are.

We knew how fortunate we were. We knew how excited we were about getting to do the show again and in a slightly different way. I don't know if you've seen any of the Criminal Minds: Evolution, but they are a little different. We're honoring the original show and who the people are, but we're able to take a little bit more time with storytelling. We're able to do more interesting shots because it's not as rigid a schedule as network television, which is the way it is for a reason. I have nothing against it. It's just a different forum than streaming. If you have to take an act break to run commercials that pay for your show, you have to structure the script in a different way. So now that we're on Paramount+, the writing can be a little different. There are a couple of swear words here and there, but none of us are naked. We're not trying to reinvent the wheel. We're honoring what the show originally was.

It is a long-running show. We completed 10 more episodes in December that haven't aired yet, but we don't know when they're going to air, and we are hoping to get a pick-up for Season 19. We're hoping, fingers crossed, that they'll pick us up again. There are two seasons of Criminal Minds: Evolution on Paramount+. The third season is ready to air. I just did additional dialogue in our studio here with the broken arm. I hobbled on down into the garage to do the ADR, so I know the episodes are done, and they're ready to air, but I don't know when they're going to air them.

To answer your question, we know how lucky we are, and we're so thankful that we get to shoot the show again now and that we get to shoot it in Los Angeles and give people jobs when so many jobs have left town. So, our fingers are crossed that we get Paramount+ Season 4 for Evolution. And I'm so glad you like the show! I'm so glad.

The Signal, an Audible Original Podcast, is available to stream on Audible now. You can catch up on past episodes of Criminal Minds, now on Paramount+.