Young guns
NCIS: Origins stars Austin Stowell and Mariel Molino discuss stepping into this prequel series based on the US crime juggernaut, how Stowell sought to follow in original star Mark Harmon’s footsteps and their perfect partnership on set.
For almost 20 years and more than 400 episodes, Mark Harmon portrayed Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs in long-running CBS drama NCIS, a procedural drama exploring criminal cases relating to the US Navy and Marine Corps.
So when Austin Stowell was cast to play the young Gibbs in prequel series NCIS: Origins, the actor knew he had enormous shoes to fill.
“I was scared, for so many reasons,” he admits. “There were just so many ‘first times’ for me. It was the first time doing a network TV show, first time playing a character that had already been portrayed before me, to be number one on a call sheet.
“I say so many times that there is no number one. The team is there, we’re all there, we are the one, but there was the pressure before getting there – and then you start to shoot and I feel like I didn’t even find my footing until we were 10 or 11 episodes in. Then it was all wrapping up and we felt it ramp up towards the finale yet again.”
Luckily for Stowell, “I like pressure. I like to be put in that situation,” he continues. “I want the ball in my hands at the bottom of the ninth. When the game is on the line, I want to be ‘the guy,’ and so I feel like I do thrive in that situation. But I don’t think I’ll ever quite get comfortable, because it’s his. At the end of the day, Gibbs will always be Mark Harmon’s character, and I’m playing the younger version of that character.”
Debuting on CBS in October 2024 and renewed for a second season that will air this autumn, NCIS: Origins picks up with the young Gibbs in 1991, years prior to the events of NCIS, as he starts his career as a newly minted special agent at the fledgling NCIS Camp Pendleton office. There, he forges his place on a gritty, ragtag team led by NCIS legend Mike Franks (Kyle Schmid).
Created by NCIS alums David J North and Gina Lucita Monreal, the show also stars Caleb Foote, Diany Rodriguez, Mariel Molino and Tyla Abercrumbie. Harmon is among the executive producers and narrates the series, which is produced by CBS Studios and distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution.
The original Gibbs also gave his support to Stowell during his prep for the show, offering him a single piece of advice during a camera test. “He said, ‘Never forget that you’re a marine,’” Stowell remembers. “That has really echoed in my ears over and over again.
“I was given a coin, a military challenge coin, and I carry it in my pocket all the time. If I’m having a moment where there’s a lot of chaos going on, or I just need a reminder of why I play the character I do, I just grab it in my hand in my pocket, because it’s a representation of people who have sacrificed a whole lot more than I have as an actor.”
Taking on the role of young Gibbs, Stowell was keen to find a connection between his take on the character and Harmon’s in NCIS. To do so, he watched a “ton” of the original series “because I had to educate myself on who he becomes,” he tells DQ at the Monte-Carlo TV Festival.
“I also wanted to understand certain things about Mark: his cadence of speech, the way he holds himself, his facial expressions. I didn’t want to imitate him, but I wanted to pick and choose the habits I thought would work – some in the moment we’re shooting in 1991 and others that I could grow into as the seasons go on.”
But through filming the show’s first 18 episodes – filming on season two begins this month – he was never told to change his performance to better suit Harmon’s take on Gibbs. “That’s never been what they wanted to achieve, and he certainly hasn’t given notes. He’s just always around, saying, ‘Go with it. You guys have it. Go, go do your thing.’ The guy has put in his time and he’s giving us the opportunity of a lifetime.”
While Stowell’s previous credits include series Catch-22 and features Battle of the Sexes, Bridge of Spies and Whiplash, co-star Molino is a familiar face from TV series such as The Watchful Eye, Promised Land and La Negociadora, having grown up with ambitions to perform on stage and screen.
In NCIS: Origins, she stars as Special Agent Cecilia ‘Lala’ Dominguez, a former Marine who navigates her 1990s male-dominated field with a steely resolve and a dark sense of humour, while sparks might fly with Gibbs.
“I did my first play when I was about five years old, and I loved doing stage. It was the feeling of you don’t know if you’re going to throw up or have diarrhoea, and at the same time you’re able to overcome it in some way, and you find this relationship with the audience. I loved that feeling,” says the actor, who splits her time between LA and her family in Mexico City.
Even now, she still gets nervous when she’s about to perform, especially in scenes where she’s out of her comfort zone – and one such example came in the NCIS: Origins S1 finale.
“I was so nervous the whole time. Every scene was a different challenge, and [it] allowed me to explore things within myself and as an actor that I’ve never gotten to do in any other capacity in any other show,” she says. “But what’s been really incredible about this show is that the writers really explored a different way of looking at this franchise, in a way that feels more intimate, more character-based. We get to go and explore these characters’ lives outside of the office, which is different from NCIS. We’re actually getting to go to our apartments and see more of the interior lives of them, which makes it a little bit darker, grittier and definitely very interesting and challenging too.”
Until they get the scripts for S2, both Stowell and Molino are in the dark as to what fate awaits their characters. But they praise North and Monreal for the “magnificent job” they did on S1 to create a prequel to a series that has already spawned five other spin-offs – NCIS: Los Angeles, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS: Hawai’i, NCIS: Sydney and the upcoming NCIS: Tony & Ziva.
“There were expectations through the roof,” Stowell says. “You have multiple characters of a beloved franchise that you’re trying to give weight to and give audiences their fair share of how those characters became who they are, while also introducing rich, complex new characters in a time when we had to rely on our abilities to speak to each other and communicate.
“There are no computers. There are no cellphones. It’s just so much fun to watch and be a part of this show. I get such a thrill out of [the fact the characters have] no safety net in that way. We can’t ask Google.”
But while Stowell is waiting to discover S2 plotlines “with baited breath,” Molino just hopes Lala is alive. “I hope I have a job,” she laughs. “And if she is, I hope that finally something happens with Lala and Gibbs. Piss or get off the pot, you know what I mean? Come on! Either kiss me or don’t. He fumbled the ball.”
Both actors have found in each other scene partners who can have a lot of fun together, with Stowell already cast in the show when Molino walked into her audition.
“We had plenty of lovely actresses come in. But there was something so different about Mariel from the moment she walked in the door,” he says. “She is just as wonderful a human being as she is an actress. And that’s saying something, because she’s a terrific actor. She’s a perfect scene partner and I cannot wait to get back to work.
“There’s a reason I became an actor. It fills me up, and it only fills me up when I have someone like her opposite me, and it’s just a joy. It’s a lot of fun. We play together and we figure it out together. It seems at times we’re thinking the same thing.”
“I feel the same way that he does when I get to act with him,” Molino says of her co-star. “He’s someone who is incredibly emotionally available as a performer, and is not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve. That’s why ultimately this story is something we haven’t seen. It’s a Gibbs we’ve never seen because it’s someone who’s really broken but is willing to hopefully get better by the end of this.”
Should a version of Lala ever get to feature in later episodes of the flagship NCIS series, Molino also knows the perfect star to play her. “I would love to cast Monica Bellucci,” she says, “and I’m a little Italian too, so we can make it happen.”
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tagged in: Austin Stowell, CBS, CBS Studios, Mariel Molino, NCIS, NCIS: Origins, Paramount Global Content Distribution