‘NCIS: Origins’: Austin Stowell Explains Why He Doesn’t Look Forward to Filming Gibbs Flashbacks
With the NCIS: Origins prequel, we’re seeing a Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Austin Stowell) for whom the loss of his wife Shannon and daughter Kelley is still fresh. Over the first three episodes, we’ve gotten flashbacks as well as a heartbreaking sequence of Gibbs and Shannon in his truck talking about the rules.
“All of those flashbacks, to me, are really tough days because it is, I guess, the representation that we all probably yearn for,” Stowell admits to TV Insider. “It’s a dream come to life, that so often we will dream about those who are gone. And when I’m performing those scenes, this is a reality at that point, I’m stepping into the dream and it’s really difficult to imagine those circumstances, to know that it will be gone afterward.”
He continues, “It’s not like I jump out of that dream sequence and go back to another relationship or to better days. It’s going from imagining it, this moment of bliss, this really fleeting moment and then having it, and he’s back struggling. He’s back, he’s on the horse but doesn’t have control of the reins, and he’s trying to settle the waters. I’ll just say it’s very emotional every single time we do those flashbacks. And they’re really tough for me. I understand their purpose, and I certainly love doing what I do, but it’s not like I look forward to it.”
The flashbacks we got during the original run of NCIS (with Mark Harmon, who narrates the prequel and appeared in the premiere) were gut-wrenching, and the ones in this series are just as sad.
“It’s really about highlighting that loss and the emotion of it and seeing how fresh it is for Gibbs,” co-showrunner David J. North explains. “In that scene in the car specifically, you see it all over Austin’s face, just how much he’s grieving in that moment.”
That scene in Episode 3 came after Gibbs fought with his father, Jackson (Robert Taylor), as Origins shows a previously unknown chapter of their life. Jackson tried to talk to Gibbs about packing up his house—his son said he’s throwing it all out—and coming back to Stillwater with him. Then, Gibbs left and woke in his car from a dream of talking to Shannon about the rules and not knowing what Number 1 is yet.
What have you thought of the flashbacks so far on NCIS: Origins? Let us know in the comments section below.
NCIS: Origins, Mondays, 10/9c, CBS
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