Connor Storrie’s stint on Criminal Minds: Evolution has been pretty fun to watch. And by fun, we mean it was kinda disturbing, and at the same time, an awesome showcase for his talent. It’s always great to see an actor play a role so different from his breakout role, and as much as we love Mr. Ilya Rozanov, it’s almost easier to appreciate how great that performance is when we compare it to what Storrie is doing on Criminal Minds, a procedural that’s been around for almost two decades.
What we’ve seen from Storrie in three episodes out of his already announced four-episode guest role, titled ‘The Witching Hour’,’ Friendly Fire’ and ‘Proxy’ has been varied. If you’re a fan of the show, there is, of course, a lot to break down when it comes to the character arcs and what this means for the rest of the season of the show.
In fact, we do that here in our ‘The Witching Hour’ review, our ‘Friendly Fire’ review, and our ‘Proxy’ review. But I want to take this time to just focus on Connor Storrie’s performance, because… well, because I can!
Watching Connor Storrie through Heated Rivalry and later, discovering his filmography, including his shorts, has been an interesting experience for a whole number of reasons that can all be summed up into one idea: it’s all so different. A lot of actors can play to type, and once they discover what they’re good at, they stay there. We’ve only known of Storrie for a few months, but we’re already sure he’s not one of those …in front or behind the camera.
No, seriously, if you haven’t watched his horror short ‘Coax’, I wholeheartedly recommend you do. Sometimes, what a performer does as a director can give you a pretty big clue about what kind of career he’s going to have. But I digress, we’re not here to talk about that side of Storrie. Not now.
Instead, we’re here to talk about his Criminal Minds: Evolution guest stint, and what it says about his craft, and maybe even about his upcoming career.
There’s no doubt that Storrie is a very good actor. We’re starting from that basic fact. We knew that before Criminal Minds: Evolution. We saw him become Ilya, after all. We saw him develop a character that’s brash and loud in public, but that somehow manages to transmit vulnerability and fear even while what’s being outwardly portrayed is anything but that.
And we didn’t just see that, we understood, thanks to his acting choices, that Ilya is more than what he presents to the public, even though the character never says it, and in fact, goes out of his way to pretend he’s just a tough guy with no depth. Ilya seems like an easy character, because so much of what we get from him is external. But there’s an extra layer there, because what we’re seeing is usually a mask. And Storrie’s job is to show us the bravado, but make sure we understand that’s not the real Ilya. Not even close.
In Criminal Minds: Evolution, the challenge is different. Lance Kingston is, on the surface, a much easier character: a dude who gives creepy from the jump (stalking your ex is a big no-no), but that, as much as he presents hostility and bravado, is really a damaged man who might not know how to channel his anger. The problem with a character like this, of course, is that there’s so little time to really develop him and make him not just believable, but relatable.
Storrie, however, nails it. And he does it with acting choices that provide Kingston with a lot of depth in very few scenes. He’s cocky, at first. Then he’s a little wary. He’s terrified later. He’s angry, in this last episode, at the hospital. He’s also sad. There’s so much to reconcile, so much we have to understand. And we do, because he’s not making it black and white. Even in procedurals, people rarely are.
It seems counterproductive to analyze these two roles as if Storrie were in a position to be super selective when he took them. And yet the roles and what he gives us in them leave us with a very clear idea of what kind of performer Storrie is, and what he can bring to any role. As someone who covers entertainment, it’s always a particular thrill to find a performer who can disappear into every role. Storrie is that, without a doubt.
But Storrie also has that “it” that not all actors, even ones who do a consistently great job, have. It’s hard to define exactly what it is, because it’s a combination of charisma and just…a spark that cannot be defined.
So many of the best actors do their most important work in the time between dialogue. Storrie is one of those. And it’s not always about physicality. Yes, some roles require a performer to convince us with their moves or how they look. We certainly took note of the fact that Storrie looked like he could indeed be a hockey player when we watched Heated Rivalry.
But what made audiences fall in love with Ilya wasn’t how he looked. It was what he said, how he said it. It was what he didn’t say. It was the way his eyes went soft whenever Shane was around, and how his voice took on a different timbre when he was talking about Shane, whether he was around or not. That’s intentional. It was so with Ilya, and it’s so with Lance Kingston.
There’s a cocky man in that interrogation room. There’s a cautious boy when his mom is brought up. There’s a terrified victim as he’s reading from a script while tied up in that weird contraption by The Fan. And there’s someone in the middle during that hospital scene, stripped of his bravado but not in the throes of fear anymore. A little defiant, a little broken. And they all make sense. They’re all the same person. It all works.
But it works because we believe Storrie. And believing him as Ilya Rozanov and believing him as Lance Kingston are two different things. Again, it’s not easy. There’s this belief that procedurals are easy work, but sometimes roles like Lance Kingston are the hardest ones to pull off because you have to act against people who have years of embodying a character and not just keep up, but bring something new to the table. Plus, you have to do that in mere minutes, while these people have had years to build a character. Storrie doesn’t just do that; he makes us want more.
We haven’t seen the last of Lance Kingston. We still get to see the end of this story, and how he’ll react to the horrible things that have happened to him. First, we saw him being sassy in an interrogation and then showing us a little vulnerability even as he pushed back. Then we saw him tied up and being used as a pawn. Later, we saw him afraid and alone, in a hospital room. But we haven’t seen what happens next. Will he take matters into his own hands? Is he a danger to himself and to others, or does he have what it takes to be the surprising hero of his own story?
The fact that we don’t know for sure is a good sign. For Storrie and for the show. Nothing worse than a predictable character. And, no matter what the answer is, we’re sure Connor Storrie is going to bring it. He already has. And honestly, watching these episodes, it’s easy to understand why his guest arc got extended from one episode to four. Honestly, we’re pretty sure that if we’d watched this episode before Heated Rivalry, we also would have been looking up where we could see him again.
It just so happens that his big break came first. But this… this just reinforces what we already knew. Now, we’re all along for the ride to see what comes next.
Great article on Connor! He’s got me hooked on the show with his performance.