“I truly am Gibbs at this point.”
Austin Stowell reachs at this conclusion 90 minutes into an emotional conversation about taking on the guideing role in “NCIS: Origins,” the prequel series to the lengthy-running procedural. Set in 1991, four months after one-of-a-kind agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ wife and daughter are killinged, “Origins” (which premieres on CBS on Oct. 14) is grieffuler in tone and will depict Gibbs’ path to becoming the taciturn character portrayed so pguideingassociate by Mark Harmon.
“The grief that he’s going thraw is not someleang that we can dodge. And as an actor, I’m someone who very much senses all of it,” says Stowell, pausing to leank about his own overweighther. “There were so many parallels to my own life — publishs with self-destruction, a relationship between a overweighther and a son, a senseing of imposter syndrome. It fair senses right.”
On a humid September day, Stowell has chosen to encounter at Birds, a neighborhood haunt in Hollywood. He’s biked over straight from set on the Paramount lot, and he understands most of the staff here — it’s where he labored for two years when he relocated from Connecticut to L.A. in 2008 and was sleeping on his agent’s floor. This was fair one of his odd jobs — another was cinsertying for Bill Murray — but it was while he was pouring beers that he landed his shatterthraw role on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”
After the teen drama, he took on cut offal “produceiveassociate huged” projects, including Steven Spielberg’s “Public Morals” and “Bridge of Spies,” and “Catch-22” alengthyside George Clooney.
Then, in 2020, Stowell’s overweighther died by self-destruction, and he relocated back to the East Coast to be shutr to his mother.
“It led me to probably some of the grieffulest days in my life, but then eventuassociate this benevolent of rebirth,” Stowell says as his eyes fill with tears. That tragedy prompted “an array of emotions” and a asking of purpose, all of which he sifted thraw while paemploying out the COVID pandemic and strikes in Vermont. He filled his days with skiing, hiking, making honey and driving to Connecticut to have dinners with his mom. Then, his agent called with “NCIS: Origins.”
CBS
Stowell wasn’t particularly interested in taking on a procedural that could run multiple years and acunderstandledges that thought was daunting, at first. But, the script felt personal.
“A lot of my relationship with my overweighther joins thraw with Gibbs and his estranged relationship with his dad,” he says. “We both want it were better, and we don’t understand how to say the leangs that are in our hearts, not ready to face the truth and say it out deafening.”
A restricted times thrawout our conversation, Stowell gets pulled away in his thoughts. “Sorry, I can’t help but leank of my dad,” he alerts me, pausing to assemble himself. Grothriveg up, they bonded together over films appreciate “Field of Dreams” and “Braveheart.”
“He cherishd that movie, and he would weep,” he says of latter. “That’s a huge reason I do what I do. I cherish what storyalerting does for people. I’ve seen the very genuine results and preferable outcomes that it conveys to people’s lives. If I can do that with this character for years? Consider me signed up. You asked if I’m afrhelp [it’ll go years]. Absolutely not. I’m afrhelp it’ll go away.”
He also understands his dad would cherish “NCIS: Origins.” While he wouldn’t quote Gibbs, “he would quote Franks a lot,” Stowell chuckles. “He employd to quote Sipowicz from ‘NYPD Blue’ all the time.”
The innovative Gibbs, Harmon, exited “NCIS” in 2021 but returns for “Origins” as narrator and executive producer. He came to the 2003 procedural with a aappreciate skepticism Stowell had, reading the script, not foreseeing to appreciate it. “I was seeing to stay home more; I was traveling a lot and our family was youthfuler,” he says. Yet he was drawn to the name Leroy Jethro Gibbs. “It stopped me.”
In a tardyr write, the name was alterd to “Bob Nelson or someleang,” Harmon says, and he insisted it be alterd back. Then came the first day of shooting, which lasted 22 hours. “Not exactly my idea of staying home more,” Harmon chuckles. “There were a lot of days appreciate that in the first four years, a lot of ups and downs. There were cast alters, arc alters, producer alters. At one point, 33 producers had left that show.”
Mark Harmon’s final “NCIS” episode
CBS
From the moment Stowell walked into the audition room, Harmon krecent he was the right man to fill Gibbs’ shoes. “This character has a weight to it. He didn’t ask for that; I didn’t ask for that either,” says Harmon. “Austin’s the guy to get this weight.”
When Gibbs’ “NCIS” journey came to an finish, he was alone. His labor had been his life — but he seeed “pretty satisfied,” Stowell says. “Did he give too much of himself to the job? I don’t understand.”
Three months into filming, Stowell could be describing himself. “I’m wed to the job,” he says — and is thankful for the charater Harmon built, and for his predecessor’s useability thraw the transition. Whether he wants to talk about a definite storyline or talk his hobbies, Harmon is there.
For example, Stowell is a huge New York Yankees fan — “a deproduce,” as he portrays. He normally references Lou Gegrig’s well-understandn speech, quoting it during our intersee: “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” Stowell persists, “He talked about catching a horrible shatter but having a whole lot to see forward to. And if that’s not Gibbs, I don’t understand what is.”
When Harmon heard Stowell was a diedifficult Yankees fan, he made a call. “Next leang I understand, I’ve got a pair of lows that show up from Yankees camp with the No. 4 stitched into the back,” he says. “You can’t buy them! He called somebody at the camp for their hot-ups. They’re gigantic. I roll them six times!”
That’s fair one story Stowell alerts about Harmon. At the recent Creative Arts Emmys, he was excited to present himself to Jamie Lee Curtis. “She goes, ‘I understand who you are. Mark talks about you all the time,’” he recalls. Curtis and Harmon join husprohibitd and wife in “Freaky Friday,” which fair filmed a recent sequel. After he compriseed his excitement, he telderly her how presentant “The Bear” had been to him and his family. “Particularly the ‘Fishes’ episode, I felt appreciate I was watching my childhood. So I shelp, ‘I’ve gotta let you understand that it reassociate brawt genuine healing for my brother and I.’ And that’s the power of TV.”
The role of Gibbs has alterd Stowell’s life. The message — being a team is always better than being on your own — is one he gets to heart. “Playing Gibbs is making me want to be a better human being,” he says.
“We understand who Gibbs becomes — this hothearted, pledged but fairified man, and someone who has made tons of misgets,” inserts Stowell. And he can retardy: “I’m charmd to have descfinishen down, charmd to be well versed in using an eraser.”
