‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ Role Made Scott Caan ‘Uncomfortable’
The new Fox drama Alert: Missing Persons Unit stars Scott Caan and Dania Ramirez as Philadelphia detectives. Caan previously played a cop on Hawaii Five-0 but he said the nature of Alert: Missing Persons Unit made him uncomfortable. His character is not only looking for missing children, but has lost a son himself.
[Warning: This article contains spoilers for Alert: MIssing Persons Unit.]
Caan and Ramirez were on a Zoom panel for Alert: Missing Persons Unit on Dec. 14. They addressed the sensitive nature of their characters. Alert premieres Jan. 8 after NFL football and airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Why ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ made Scott Caan ‘uncomfortable’
Jason Grant (Caan) and Nikki Batista (Ramirez) were married prior to working in the MPU together. Their son went missing six years ago and still has not been found, and they share a daughter together. Caan discussed the challenges of playing Grant in his investigations and personal life. Jamie Foxx executive produces the series from his own idea.
“It’s an acting problem that I’ve never been faced with,” Caan said. “It’s an acting problem that I’ve never read before. So to me, it’s something that I immediately felt uncomfortable and didn’t know exactly how I was going to approach it, and those are the kind of things that turn me on when it comes to digging into a part. If I get a little nervous and don’t quite know what I’m going to do yet, then that’s a good sign that I should probably move forward and do it.”
Finding his son could get more uncomfortable
Caan hinted at developing stories for Alert: Missing Persons Unit that give him more uncomfortable feelings to portray on screen.
“Dealing with the idea of having your son go missing and then having him come back and you’re not sure if it’s actually your son, playing with those ideas week to week, month to month, episode to episode, like I said, it’s unprecedented,” Caan said. “I don’t think you can find somebody and interview somebody who had that experience. So for me, this is, without question, the most complicated thing I’ve ever done.”
Scott Caan and Dania Ramirez take ‘Alert: Missing Persons Unit’ home with them
Caan and Ramirez are both parents themselves. They acknowledged that it’s hard to leave the work on the set.
“Our job definitely comes home with us,” Caan said. “I don’t realize how affected I am by it. But, yeah, I mean, every day, we’re dealing with really, really horrible stuff.”
Ramirez said it can be therapeutic to work through these emotions on screen, but acknowledged Alert is especially heavy.
Yeah, it’s hard to leave it behind. And honestly, I think it’s human nature to, and especially for actors, if you’re really into it, to just really live out those emotions. That’s not something you can shut off right away. I think that’s why it’s great to be a part of a job in which it’s not just Scott on the job here, but it’s also our crew and the people that we’re working with every single day, the writers, the people that are here and our other cast mates, we become our own like a family. We have that support system to really get through that and be able to say, ‘Okay, that was that. Let’s put it to the side.’ Our lives will continue, and we have to figure out a way to pick ourselves back up. But, yeah, it’s very difficult.
Dania Ramirez, Alert: Missing Persons Unit Zoom panel, 12/14/22
