Is This Star Perfect to Play Young Gibbs? Mark Harmon Says Yes
By Movieguide® Contributor
As season one of NCIS: ORIGINS draws near, Mark Harmon explained why he and his fellow showrunners believe Austin Stowell is a perfect fit to take on the role of young Gibbs.
“I always thought there was a calm that was important. It’s a lot for an actor to come into a room with that kind of burden on a load to try to say, ‘Can I physically look like that person? Can I be that person?’ I thought Austin just was himself,” Harmon told Parade.
“[Stowell] walked out of the [audition] and [executive producer Gina Lucita Monreal] said, ‘That guy is a star.’ That’s what she said,” Harmon continued. “The truth of is, he lit the room. You’re in a room for a long time with people coming in one after another and you just go with an instinct. That’s what we’ve done.”
“What I was excited about was the fact that he had the core of what I think Gibbs is,” Monreal added, “which is this broken character but also this immense strength. I feel like that’s really a difficult balance to achieve, and I think Austin does that.”
NCIS: ORIGINS is set in 1991 when Gibbs was only a budding agent. The newly formed NCIS Camp Pendleton office is led by Mike Franks who recruited a group of the most promising young agents.
Stowell is excited about the series as he believes it provides audiences with a new look at Gibbs and shows the trials he had to face before becoming the strong, collected leader they know him as from NCIS.
“This is a Gibbs that is dealing with the loss of his wife and child,” Stowell said. “This is not the Gibbs that the world knows right now, the team leader who’s always so put together. This is somebody who’s broken. This is somebody who’s searching for his identity, trying to find himself and ground himself back in the world.”
The series will be narrated by Mark Harmon and, along with Stowell, will star Kyle Schmid, Robert Taylor and Mariel Molino. While the show is currently only greenlit for a shortened pilot season, Harmon hopes it will find a strong audience and will be picked up by CBS full-time.
“It’s early, guys,” Harmon said. “All I can tell you is this is a tough business and most of them don’t make it. We’ve got a shot here and I’m thrilled about this cast and thrilled about with [showrunners] David and Gina. They’re as good as it ever got in 20-some odd years with creative on NCIS.”
NCIS: ORIGINS is set to debut on Monday, Oct. 14, on CBS.
Movieguide® previously reported:
As the first season of NCIS: ORIGINS begins production, Kyle Schmid explained how it has felt to step into the role of Mike Franks, Leroy Gibbs’ mentor, and explore NCIS in the ’90s.
“I think it’s a great opportunity to be a part of something that’s been grandfathered into the industry as a standard for procedural television. [NCIS] has been running for what’s going to be seasons,” Schmid told TV Insider. “Mark Harmon did it and put his stamp on it and kind of led the way for everybody. It has been a really neat experience because he has lent his expertise and advice and help to us through emails and calls. Just time spent piquing his brain has been really important.”
NCIS: ORIGINS follows the budding NCIS unit at Camp Pendleton which is being headed by Franks who was allowed to hand-pick his team of promising young agents.
“[Franks] had been part of NCIS for a while in 2001 [on the original show], when you met him, he [was] a little older, a little more jaded,” Schmid explained. “He has seen a lot that I think he wishes he could have had more control over. So, we’re seeing him at a point in his life where he has paved his own way and earned the respect of the agency.”
