NCIS Vets Reveal Gibbs and Kate ‘Almost’ Castings, How Adding Cote de Pablo Was a ‘Home Run’

Matt Webb Mitovich
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The original NCIS team almost looked quite different.

In a very fun THR.com oral history that marks the well-watched JAG offshoot’s 20th anniversary, assorted NCIS vets let loose about who else had been eyeballed back in the day for the roles of Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Caitlin Todd and Ducky.

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Harrison Ford — who at that point in his film career was between What Lies Beneath and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Csyrtal Skull — “was a name that everybody thought about for Gibbs because he was so perfect,” says Charles Floyd Johnson, who was an EP on JAG at the time that NCIS’ double-episode backdoor pilot was being cast. “But I don’t think it ever got further than; it was [just] a name thrown out.”

Scott Glenn, who also was working steadily in film at the time NCIS took shape, “was considered very strongly” for the role of Gibbs, says Johnson, and Andrew McCarthy was “at one point was in the mix” (and met with NCIS co-creator Don Bellisario to discuss the role). But for casting director Susan Bluestein, “Mark [Harmon] had been on my NCIS list from Day 1. I always felt like Mark really had the gravitas for this character.”

One great meeting between Harmon and Bellisario later, NCIS had its Gibbs!

TV Actors Almost Played Other Roles
TV Actors Almost Played Other Roles

TV Roles Almost Played by Someone Else

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Robyn Lively played NCIS Special Agent Vivian Blackadder in the two-part pilot, but The Powers That Be “didn’t think she quite worked,” Johnson tells THR. Before Sasha Alexander waseventually tapped to join the cast as Caitlin Todd, the name of none other than Jennifer Aniston — whose Friends run was winding down –“was floated” for the new role, says Johnson.

Other fun casting facts from THR.com’s NCIS oral history, which really must be read on full at your leisure:

◆ The studio initially balked at The Man From U.N.C.L.E.’s David McCallum, an “old character actor” (in their words), playing Ducky, but “Don [Bellisario] said, ‘If you don’t, we’re not doing the show.'” (Fun fact-within-a-fact: the aforementioned Scott Glenn was also eyed to play Ducky.)

◆ Cote de Pablo “was a home run” when brought in to read for the Season 3 addition of Ziva David. “I remember she walked in the room and we all were like, ‘Oh, my God, who is this woman?’ Which doesn’t happen now that much at network tests,” says former CBS casting chief Peter Golden. But as such, “When Cote left, literally there was a ripple in the universe,” recalls former CBS entertainment chief Nina Tassler.

◆ Regarding Pauley Perrette’s kind-of-abrupt exit from the role of Abby after 15 seasons, Johnson confirms that “an incident” with a dog that Mark Harmon would bring to set, and which allegedly bit someone(s), was the catalyst. After lodging complaints, “By the end of that year, [Pauley] just felt like it wasn’t working for her anymore, and it was time to move on.”

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