Here’s What NCIS Stars Think Spinoff Cast Needs to Know

Published: August 21, 2024

Here’s What NCIS Stars Think Spinoff Cast Needs to Know

By Movieguide® Contributor

The NCIS: ORIGINS and NCIS cast met up to share career stories and answer fun questions, which turned out to be a pretty entertaining conversation.

Brian Dietzen, who plays Jimmy Palmer on NCIS, recalled a wild driving stunt he had to perform on NCIS.

“My character had to run someone down and try and hit him right,’ Dietzen began, “and they placed the camera right on the front of it, and they said, ‘Can you see?’ and I was like, ‘No I can’t’…and I was like, ‘I might like really hit somebody.’ And they go, ‘We’ll get out of the way. It’s fine.’”

“And…so I just slammed on the gas and went through, and in the take, Jimmy Palmer is going like scared and screaming, and that…was not acting,” Dietzen recalled as everyone laughed. “I was terrified I was going to kill a person.”

Austin Stowell, who plays young Leroy Jethro Gibbs on ORIGINS asked Katrina Law, who plays Jessica Knight on NCIS, “Katrina, if your character from NCIS were to meet their younger self what advice do you think they would give?”

She joked that she would tell her character’s younger self not to date “a guy named Gage.”

“His abs may have been fantastic but was not worth the outcome,” she joked.

But in all seriousness, she said, “I’d say life comes at you fast and sometimes you have to make very quick decisions about where and what you want to be and it’s okay to take a pause it’s okay to take a moment to breathe and to be settled in being being unsettled.”

Movieguide® recently gave a sneak peek of NCIS: ORIGINS:

NCIS: ORIGINS “follows a young Leroy Jethro Gibbs as he starts his career as part of the Naval Investigative Service operating out of Camp Pendleton,” per IMDb.

The series is unique in the NCIS-verse, as it’s the first show in the franchise set in the past, telling the backstory of already-known characters. However, that doesn’t mean there won’t be some surprises in store.

“They don’t know as much as they think they do,” Cross said of NCIS’ fans. “Seeing Gibbs arrive at NIS on Day 1, and seeing how Gibbs became Gibbs…? You will realize there’s so much to explore.”

After Caleb Martin Foote, who plays Benjamin “Randy” Randolf on ORIGINS shared a party trick, Gary Cole, who plays Alden Parker, mentioned being on NCIS is a special experience, unlike on other shows.

“All I can say is that coming into this show I didn’t know what to expect. I certainly knew it was on forever. I didn’t really follow it, but it was immediately I could feel the kind of the pride and the love that existed, you know. It’s just it’s tangible, you know? It has weight,” he told the ORIGINS cast. “It’s a different vibe to walk onto a set that has been there you know through three presidents, four presidents.”

“It’s birthed all of these other shows. So to me, the important things about television that can make it successful is history in a show or characters,” he said. “It’s immediate credibility, you know? It’s an intimate relationship with an audience when something lasts a while, and so you know, hopefully, a piece of this show is already embedded in your show, and that will continue. If I had to put it into advice, I’d just say keep that in the back of your mind. That’s all.”

Leon Carroll, who plays Rocky Vance, also had some advice to share with the new cast.

“…having been fortunate enough to both be in front of and behind the camera on our show, you get to blaze your own trail, you know. And I always tell actors especially when…you come in on something that has so much history behind it and you kind of feel like well, you know, there’s all this and there’s so many people connected to it and there’s so many cooks in the kitchen, but as actors, you know, you were cast in this. You were hired for this because you’re perfect for the role, and you have to remember that, and your instincts are better than anybody else’s when you guys start to find your chemistry as cast members,” Carrol explained.

“That’s the thing that audiences respond to, and that’s what’s going to make the show pop. That’s the advice I would give you,” Carroll said.

“Also a little thing when you’re doing crime scenes and stuff you get the latex gloves, practice those latex gloves getting those on,” Sean Murray, who plays Timothy McGee on NCIS joked.

Diona Reasonover, who plays Kasie Hines on NCIS shared her favorite Gibbs’ rule — Rule 91.

“’There’s no such thing as coincidence’ because I do find that in life the things that are meant for you are meant for you and I’m so glad to be here in a room of people who were meant to be here,” she said.

The “Engaged” episode of NCIS previously won a Movieguide® Teddy Bear Award®.

NCIS: ORIGINS will come out on Oct. 14, 2024. The new series will be different from other shows in the NCISverse in several ways.

“Because we don’t have the DNA [forensic technology], we don’t have the same kind of forensics,” showrunner Gina Lucita Monreal said. “So really it boils down to character, even in our case of the week. Our show also will go home with our investigators and see how their personal lives are affecting their professional lives, which will be sort of a new element that we’re really pushing into the show because it’s going to allow for a deeper investment in our characters and in our world.”

And though Mark Harmon won’t appear on camera, his familiar voice will still be there to narrate the journey of his younger self. He will also executive produce alongside his son, Sean.

“The character of Gibbs has been an important part of my life for 20 years, both in watching my father craft the role and previously having the honor to play young Gibbs myself,” Sean said in a January press release. “I always felt there was a tale worth telling about his earlier years, so I am thrilled to be stepping into a producing role alongside Gina, David and my dad as we tell this story and reveal a new side of this beloved character.”