Mantegna plays David Rossi, a retired FBI agent who comes out of retirement to work with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.
Peculiarly enough, there is an actual history behind the seemingly straightforward name of Mantegna’s character.
In an interview with The Onion’s AV Club, Mantegna explained:
"I got a chance to name this character after a real person, a policeman named David Rossi who was the first guy to testify in the O.
"So I thought 'Someday I’m gonna name a character after this guy.' He went up in his dress blue uniforms and testified for two days. And I thought “What integrity.”
For two days, this guy just got beat up—and all he did was answer the phones—and it’s obvious the defense is just gonna beat this guy up and try to hang the LAPD over the fact that this idiot murdered his wife."
"To me it was a joke. And so because of it, I named him after this guy, and he found out through surreptitious methods, and we became great friends. ’Cause he was so flattered that I had done that."
Isn’t that fascinating?
I’d love to have a picture of the “real” Rossi, but I’ve yet been unable to find one. Anyone out there have a picture I could use?
