Self-confidence is definitely an important quality to have when you’re facing a prime time audience every week. That’s just what “NCIS: Origins” executive producer and series narrator Mark Harmon told the show’s new Leroy Jethro Gibbs-to-be, Austin Stowell. Harmon’s advice from the outset? “During the screen test, Mark came up to me and gave me two words that I’ll remember forever — ‘trust yourself,'” Stowell told USA Today during a Television Critics Association panel.
It looks like Stowell presented himself as the right man for the job from the beginning. Harmon himself admitted that a fellow executive producer had an immediate reaction to Stowell’s presence at the screen test. “I joked about Gina (Lucita Monreal) swooning, but the truth is she did. She may deny it, but she did. And when [Stowell] walked out of the room, she said, ‘Now that guy is a star!'” Co-executive producer David North responded to Harmon’s joke by saying he was the one who swooned over the actor. Stowell himself had a sense of humor about their reaction to his appearance, settling the debate by stating, “Let’s just be clear. Somebody swooned.” Perhaps part of that swooning had to do with Stowell’s very un-Gibbs-like hair, which has officially been cropped into a close military-style haircut for the series.
Flutter ing lashes and racing pulses aside, it remains to be seen if the audience will pick up the same sort of star quality in Stowell that his producers have seen in him. But that question aside, there was one brand-new detail revealed at the TCA panel regarding when, exactly, “NCIS: Origins” takes place.
Austin Stowell confirms the series takes place after Gibbs’ family is murdered
Audiences have always known that Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ family was murdered during his time at Camp Pendleton, but there’s been some speculation as to whether or not the show takes place before or after those deaths. Co-Executive Producer Sean Harmon confirmed to USA Today that the series takes place after those losses have occurred. “On ‘NCIS,’ Gibbs had 30 years to come to terms with the trauma,” he explained. “But on ‘NCIS: Origins,’ this is a guy with none of the answers and all the trauma.”
Austin Stowell went on to add, “It’s not the Gibbs the world knows. This is someone broken, searching for his identity.” Audiences may or may not turn out to watch Gibbs battle his way through the dark “NCIS” prequel series to figure out who he is. After all, anyone familiar with Gibbs’ backstory will tell you involves many marriages and a whole lot of work to establish himself as a top agent in his field. But it looks like the show is devoted to truly digging under the character’s skin to find out who Gibbs is at his core. Fans are welcome to join the hunt when “NCIS: Origins” bows on October 14.