Jeremy Sisto says New Yorkers don’t always have the patience for his show “FBI,” which films on the city’s streets
“You have to wait 10 seconds, but 10 seconds is a long time for a New Yorker,” Sisto, 48, told The Post.
“And it’s always the young [production assistants] who have to break the news” to wandering pedestrians.
His nephew worked on the set of the show — part of a three-series CBS franchise which is airing its crossover episodes on April 4 — and once tried to stop a woman who didn’t heed the warning to halt while they were filming.
“So he just sort of grazed her arm and was like, ‘Excuse me, ma’am.’ And she’s like, ‘You touched me!’” the actor recalled.
The California native, who lives “upstate a little bit” with his wife and two children, plays Assistant Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine, second-in-command of the New York field office on the crime drama, now in its fifth season.
He is the only star from all three FBI series — “FBI,” “FBI: International” and “FBI: Most Wanted” — to be featured in all of its crossover episodes on Tuesday.
The actor, who has Italian roots, traveled to Rome to film the “International” episode, and took his family along.
His son, who’s 11, prefers coming to set more than his 13-year-old daughter.
“My son gives me direction … He’s actually got a pretty good eye. He enjoys watching the show a lot,” Sisto explained.
“And my daughter does not, but my daughter’s friends do … She’s like, ‘Everyone in my class really liked your show.’ But she’s surprised and annoyed by it.”
Fans from past generations know him as Elton, the rich high schooler from “Clueless,” who had a crush on Alicia Silverstone’s character.
“I was kind of embarrassed about ‘Clueless’ and I just didn’t want to talk about it much,” he said. “And then once I started having more work, then I started to become proud of being in something that was … just passed from generation to generation.”
He said “it’s been a little while” since he’s been asked to act out his famous “Rollin’ with the Homies” scene opposite Brittany Murphy from the 1995 cult classic — which still inspires GIFs to this day.
“Now I give it willingly and freely,” he said. “Once you start giving things willingly, people don’t want them anymore. So many people have seen me do it now, they’re like, ‘Ah, it’s not even a thing. You do it for anybody.’”
Following the success of “Clueless,” he “convinced” director James Cameron into letting him screen test for the leading role of Jack in “Titanic.”
“He wasn’t feeling me. And I wrote him this letter,” he recalled. “I even made up … a Truffaut quote that was specifically geared for him to consider me for the role.”
He tested for two days on set, in full makeup and wardrobe.
“Kate [Winslet] was there. I also did it with Gabrielle Anwar, I believe, Mia Kirschner,” he recalled.
“And I think he was considering me. I don’t know … Thinking back, he might have just been using me to read with the person.”
The audition is on the movie’s DVD, which Sisto was hesitant to approve at first.
“I was like, ‘No, I do not want people to see my failure,’” he said. “But then I was like, ‘I can’t rob the world of that surreal moment.’”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
