The American police drama Criminal Minds first aired in 2005 and ran all the way through 2020, after which it was brought back and revived once again in 2022. The show is intriguing and had a strong cast that made it so popular, but its revival saw heavy changes in the cast. So let us tell you why one of the main characters on the show, Elle Greenaway decided to leave Criminal Minds.
Fans of the show would know that the show is about a team of criminal profiles who work for the FBI and how they study and analyze the behaviors of the perpetrators, creating a profile of them in order to locate them more quickly. We see the team handle cases together, all the while dealing with their personal matters.
Originally the show had seven leads, including Jason Gideon, Aaron Hotchner, Elle Greenaway, Derek Morgan, Doctor Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau, and Penelope Garcia. Though throughout its fifteen-year-long run, the show saw major cast replacements and additions, which did not seem to affect its popularity all that much.
The show, Criminal Minds, took its time finding the right direction for both the story and the characters, which may be why the first few seasons may feel a bit confusing and lost, but by the time the third season rolled out, the show had found its pace along with a slow growing fandom.
The show ran for a total of fifteen years and has been since adapted into spin-offs and video games and has even been remade into a South Korean Show. Even with its legacy, it would be impossible for the main cast to stick around for that long. Actress Lola Glaudini ended up being one of the main cast members who left the show, and we are here to tell you why.
Why Did Elle Leave Criminal Minds?
Lola Glaudini played the character of Elle Greenaway, who is an FBI Supervisory Special Agent, as per the description given by the makers of the show. But the actress did not stay with her long job title for a very long time, and it was all because she hated the view. Let us explain it to you in a better way.
Elle gets assigned to the FBI office in Seattle and to the BAU as an expert in sexual offense crimes. Somewhere in season two, while on a stakeout alone, she ends up killing a suspected rapist by shooting him point-blank.
And while the police thought it to be an act done out of self-defense, SSA Jason Gideon and Unit Chief Aaron Hotchner thought otherwise.
They questioned Elle’s ability to be a part of their team as a criminal profiler, and with the leader not being able to trust her skills, Elle decided it best to turn in her badge and her gun and resign from her position.
And before she leaves, she makes sure both Aaron and Jason know that her resignation was done to keep her dignity and that it was not an admission of guilt and wrong.
This was the last of what fans saw of her in the show, and her position was given to Paget Brewster or her character, Emily Prentiss. Though the characters in the show did take her name over time, the character physically never appeared on the show after her final departure in season two.
From what the producer of the show, Edward Bernero, revealed, it was actress Lola Glaudini’s decision to leave the show. He revealed that it was not because the actress had issues with the show, the story, or even her fellow cast members but because the actress was just not happy with the location where the show was being shot.
Born on the East Coast, the actress was just not happy with her life living in Los Angeles and had wanted a change of scenery so badly that she decided to leave the show on her own accord. Honestly, she was unhappy with the view and made the choice to change it even if it meant leaving the show, and we do not hate her for it.
The actress never really talked in depth about her sudden absence from the show, and that is okay considering her successor, Emily Prentiss, managed to fill in her show pretty well.
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