Just months after Felicity Huffman admitted that her Hollywood career was permanently damaged in the wake of her involvement in the college admissions scandal, the 61-year-old actress landed a TV role that signals the start of her TV comeback. Huffman is headed to Paramount + to join the cast as a guest star on Criminal Minds: Evolution for its second season, according to Variety.
She will create a new character, Dr. Jill Gideon, who is the ex-wife of the late Jason Gideon, formerly played by Mandy Patinkin. Dr. Gideon is “a brilliant biological psychiatrist who agrees to help the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit investigate a murderous conspiracy theory,” per the character description. Of course, there is a “complicated history” that is making her “reluctant to return to the bureau’s elite team.”
This is quite the about-face for Huffman’s career after being interviewed by The Guardian in February when she mourned her old life. “I’m grateful to be here,” she said. “But how am I? I guess I’m still processing.” She had an ABC pilot that “didn’t get picked up,” and perhaps she felt that her legal entanglement had affected her job prospects. “It’s been hard. Sort of like your old life died and you died with it,” Huffman added. “I’m lucky enough to have a family and love and means, so I had a place to land.”
Huffman also understands that there is backlash from her involvement in the case, and besides the criminal charges that she had to face, the public has also given her a mixed reception. “I’m not in any way whitewashing what I did but some people have been kind and compassionate. Others have not,” she explained. Huffman paid college admissions mastermind Rick Singer $15,000 to get her daughter, Sophia Macy, 23, a higher SAT score by having a proctor change her answers on the exam.
She was sentenced to 14 days in prison (she served 11 days), one year of probation, a $30,000 fine, and 250 hours of community service after she pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud. Macy eventually enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University after taking the SATs on her own accord. With Huffman getting a second chance at Hollywood, she’s ready to look ahead to the future and not at the missteps of her past.
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