NCIS: New Orleans' newest Special Agent, Tammy Gregorio, has quickly became a favorite with
fans, some of whom were surely left wondering where they'd seen actress Vanessa Ferlito
before.
"Put your hands up!
Now!"
NCIS: New Orleans definitely isn't Ferlito's debut — here's where we've seen this Brooklynite
before.
24
Ferlito scored an early breakout role on the hit Fox crime drama 24, appearing on 11 episodes
of the show's third season as Claudia Hernandez, Hector Salazar's girlfriend and secret lover
of the show's protagonist, Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland.
Claudia agreed to help Bauer in exchange for passage out of Mexico, but she was killed
in the process.
According to Ferlito, Claudia wasn't originally supposed to die, and she and Jack would have
ended up together.
But her character was killed off after Ferlito was cast in the 2005 Tommy Lee Jones crime
comedy called...
Man of the House
Given the movie's abysmal nine percent Rotten Tomatoes score, Ferlito may have ended up
wishing she'd stayed on 24.
Then again, Ferlito may have taken some small comfort from the fact that her performance
in Man of the House was one of the few things in the critical and commercial dud to earn
positive notice.
While strenuously urging potential viewers to stay away, Variety noted that she stood
out among the ensemble supporting Jones,
"…mainly because she's the only one who gets enough to do to make a strong impression
as a distinctive personality."
Spider-Man 2
Like most hard-working actors, Ferlito has occasionally appeared in projects that only
featured her briefly.
Take, for example, her part in 2004's Spider-Man 2.
In the superhero sequel, Ferlito played Louise, Mary Jane's friend and shopping partner.
It's a small part, but at least Ferlito fans can enjoy this extended scene featuring her
chatting with Mary Jane that was edited out of the theatrical cut.
"What about that perfect kiss you had once?
The guy you believed in?"
"That was a fantasy."
Shadowboxer
In 2005, Ferlito landed a role as Stephen Dorff's pregnant wife in the crime thriller
Shadowboxer — and like her other big-screen feature that year, Man of the House, it was
critically panned.
Slant dismissed it as, quote,
"...a faux-art-house crime thriller, and the closest approximation the movies have offered
audiences this year of feeling trapped inside a rancid toilet bowl."
That's some pretty scathing criticism, but Ferlito was hardly the focus.
Shadowboxer had some far bigger names attached, including Academy Award winners Cuba Gooding
Jr. and Helen Mirren.
CSI: New York
NCIS: New Orleans isn't the first primetime crime drama to prominently feature Vanessa
Ferlito.
That honor goes to CSI: New York.
Ferlito appeared on 26 episodes of the long-running spinoff series before her character, Aiden
Burn, was murdered.
She later claimed that it was her decision to leave, telling TV Guide,
"I had no intention of doing an hour TV show.
I had just wrapped the movie Man of the House with Tommy Lee Jones, so it's not like I had
nothing going on.
But it was CSI: New York!
You don't say no to that."
Death Proof
Ferlito's first few big-screen roles may not have turned out the way she'd hoped, but all
that early experience paid off in 2007 with a part in Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof.
Ferlito played Arlene, aka "Butterfly," one of three friends killed by Stuntman Kurt Russell
and his "death-proof" stunt car.
In an interview with ACED magazine, she claimed Tarantino wrote the role of Butterfly specifically
for her.
Ferlito is responsible for one of Death Proof's most talked about scenes, in which Butterfly
gives Stuntman Mike a lap dance.
She told ACED,
"People still go crazy over that lap dance.
It has a cult following now."
Madea Goes to Jail
After working with Quentin Tarantino, Ferlito stepped in front of the cameras for a different
sort of auteur, playing a heroin-addicted prostitute named Donna in Tyler Perry's Madea
Goes to Jail.
Ferlito later told Trailer Addict she loved working with Perry, specifically because she
appreciates working with directors who are also actors.
Like most of Perry's directorial efforts, Madea Goes to Jail proved profitable at the
box office, so it's safe to assume that more than a few NCIS: New Orleans viewers recognize
Ferlito from this big-screen hit.
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps
Sharing a few minutes of screentime with Michael Douglas and Shia LaBeouf, Ferlito returned
to theaters in 2010 with a brief supporting role in Oliver Stone's Wall Street: Money
Never Sleeps.
In Stone's Wall Street sequel, inspired by the 2008 financial crisis, Ferlito plays a
character named Audrey — a tough, no-nonsense type.
It's a role that the Brooklyn native was uniquely well-suited for.
Stand Up Guys
Those who saw 2012's Stand Up Guys, starring Al Pacino and Christopher Walken, likely remember
Ferlito as Sylvia, the woman the protagonists find in the trunk of their stolen car.
The film's subplot involving Ferlito's character didn't help Stand Up Guys' critical reception.
As the victim of brutal abuse, her role moved the plot, though not everyone felt her character
was treated with sufficient respect.
TIME magazine put it like this:
"It's nice that the stand-up guys rescue and avenge her, but her suffering is trivialized
in a grossly insensitive way."
Graceland
Ferlito returned to her television crime drama roots in 2013, joining the cast of USA Network's
Graceland as FBI agent Catherine "Charlie" DeMarco throughout the series' three-season
run.
To prepare for the intense role, Ferlito told PopSugar that she sat down with a number of
real undercover agents to discuss what the job is actually like.
Though she looked to real-life agents for inspiration, Ferlito said she didn't study
other actors.
"When I jump into a role, I just kinda go fresh.
I just jump right in, because you can't focus on what other people do, or then it's just
not natural."
Graceland benefited greatly from Ferlito's natural affinity for crime dramas, which is
ultimately the genre in which the actress truly shines — as NCIS: New Orleans fans
can certainly attest.
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