The following contains light spoilers for the NCIS Season 21 finale, which aired back on May 6.
No, the water that Katrina Law lowered herself into during the filming of NCIS‘ Season 21 finale was not as “brrrr!” as that which Special Agent Jessica Knight encountered. But when the actress nonetheless found herself “soaking wet” and freezing cold, one cast member rode to her rescue.
Speaking with TVLine this week, Law took us inside the filming of Jessica’s brave, underwater mission to get proper medical attention for a wounded Alden Parker (played by Gary Cole). For one, Law said she was assigned a “contact technician — I wear contacts, because I’m blind as a bat — in case my contacts decided to float away.”
The swim tank itself, meanwhile, was not large by any means. And it felt even smaller once loaded up with the actress and requisite crew members.
“We were told pretty early on that we wouldn’t have access to a full tank, so NCIS ended up building this ‘mini version’ in our studio,” she said. “And there were so many people jam-packed into this tank!”
Jess was seen having to steel herself for the chilly sea water beneath the decommissioned Navy ship inside of which she and Alden had been trapped. But for Law, the temperature was actually quite tempered.
“Obviously we were acting like the water was really cold, but the best part about it was that they made it [like] bath water for me, 85 degrees,” she shared. “It actually was nicer to stay in the water than it was to get out, because it was a really cold day [on-set]. Whenever we got out, it was absolutely freezing.”
Indeed, Law had two more scenes aboard the ship to film after Jess went for her near-fatal swim. That meant scampering across the set’s cold floor while “soaking wet.”
“They did their best to keep me warm,” she said, “but the person who was the best at it was Brian Dietzen,” who plays Law’s on-screen beau, Dr. Jimmy Palmer.
“Because I just had my wet socks on, Brian let me stand on top of his shoes” between takes, “to keep me off of the cold, concrete floor — and it was such a help!” she declared. “He sacrificed his toes for me.”