Shemar Moore recalls when he was pranked with a fake CGI goatee on Criminal Minds. The actor now appears in CBS’ S.W.A.T. as Sgt. Dan ‘Hondo’ Harrelson. Before he spearheaded his own police procedural, however, he was part of the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) team on Criminal Minds as SSA Derek Morgan.
As an original cast member, Moore’s Morgan played an integral role in the specialized FBI cell based on Washington D.C. At one point, he even became acting BAU chief, replacing Aaron Hotchner for a short while. Because of his long history with the team, Morgan has cultivated a lot of great relationships throughout the years, most notably with Doctor Spencer Reid, who treats him like an older brother, and BAU tech analyst Penelope Garcia. After 11 seasons on Criminal Minds, however, Moore decided to exit the show, but the police procedural continues to have a special place in his heart.
Case in point, Moore shares a funny story from his time working on Criminal Minds during his appearance on The Kelly Clarkson Show. He recalls how the cast and crew of the CBS project pranked him into believing they would be able to add his facial hair during post-production after he mistakenly shaved it before they finished filming an episode. Moore had to wear green CGI tape in the shape of Morgan’s goatee, and it wasn’t until Kirsten Vangsness cracked up that he realized that everyone was just messing with him. Read the actor’s full story below:
This is the Hondo beard for SWAT, but on Criminal Minds I had like kind of a perfectly manicured goatee, and so I come to work thinking that the day before was the last day of the episode, so I shaved down my goatee to almost nothing, and it didn’t match. And so I got rehearsal I said ‘hey guys, I just gotta let you know, this doesn’t match what I was rocking yesterday.’ So they ran with it, and they were like ”okay, well you know, we’re gonna deal with it in CGI, but we’re gonna have to put green dots on you because then we can put the goatee back on in post.’ And I’m such a dumbass because I had heard stories…one of the crew members had worked on a Tom Hanks movie and said ‘yeah, Tom Hanks had that beard, but they had to do it for him when he would cut it too much’ which was a complete lie.’ So they had to put green tape on Tom Hanks on the chin so I’m like well ‘Tom Hanks is an Oscar winner, like he’s Tom Hanks. So, if Tom Hanks has to do it, then I gotta do it.’ So they put the dots on and then my character’s in a serious scene, and I’m doing the scene, and then they came back to me after each take and said ‘you know what we’re gonna have to put a little bit more just so it’s easier for us to post.’ So by the end of the gag, I had this whole green tape goatee, I could barely move my lips, but I was dead serious with the green tape goatee and it took about the fifth take to where my leading lady, Baby Girl, Kirsten Vangsness, she just put home.
Moore’s story is a testament to how fun the Criminal Minds set usually was, but it wasn’t always like that. The show also had its fair share of drama, including an on-set altercation involving Thomas Gibson, who played BAU chief Aaron Hotchner. This led to the actor being fired from the gig the very next season after Moore exited the show. There were actually also reports that Gibson and Moore also had some conflict with each other, but neither have opened up about the matter. Outside of that, however, it seems like Moore still thinks of his time on Criminal Minds fondly. The fact that he still refers to Vangsness as Baby Girl certainly evokes nostalgia for a lot of longtime fans of the police procedural.
Considering this, fans may wonder if there’s a chance that Moore returns to the BAU as Morgan in the upcoming Criminal Minds reboot. Paramount+ is bringing back the BAU not long after it wrapped up its stint on CBS, this time on a streaming platform with a 10-episode season order. Given the new format, it makes it easier for Moore to be somehow involved and Morgan to reunite with the BAU as his former colleagues track down a newly-created network of UnSubs.
