Sophia Soto
NCIS: Origins gives fans a firsthand look at Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ early career as a special agent in the early ‘90s, years before the events of NCIS. The series, narrated by Mark Harmon, will return for its third season as part of CBS’s 2026-2027 Fall schedule on Tuesday nights.
Creation Entertainment has started a convention tour to celebrate the heroes of fan-favorite first responder shows with RescueVerse: A Salute to TV’s First Responders. During their New Jersey stop, Kyle Schmid opened up about what the experience means to him, saying, “It gives me an opportunity to say thank you to the people that are keeping the show on the air. I mean, we do this for the viewers, right? If they fall in love with the show, it allows us to continue living and breathing these characters and bringing them to life. So literally, without them, we don’t have a job. So as much as it’s fun for them, it’s fun for us to be able to meet them and say thank you.”
Meanwhile, RescueVerse served as star Austin Stowell’s first-ever convention. “The fact that we can tell a story that is intriguing enough for folks to show up, it means that they’re getting something out of it. I know what film and television have meant to me over the years, so if I could meet someone from Saved by the Bell, or nowadays, the cast of Succession, to be able to talk about the characters that we feel like, as an audience member and a fan, you start to somehow take ownership as well,” he expressed. “You defend them. You love them to the point where you feel like you know them.”
Taking on an already established and beloved character is no easy task, yet that’s exactly what Stowell had to do with Gibbs.
“This is the first time I’ve played a character that has been portrayed by someone else before, that was created by Mark Harmon,” he shared. “I know the rules, I know the framework, that when you come into a character, typically you can take it in any direction, and I knew where the foul lines were, so I knew where I had to keep the ball. That creates a different challenge there, where how do you now make this your own, given those restrictions? And it’s been a wonderful journey so far to bring to life and to fill in what were just memories before. To play younger Gibbs has been the role of a lifetime.”
As for how the role of Mike Franks has pushed Schmid, he explained, “The character pushes me all over the place. He is a bully. I mean, it’s probably the most complex piece of character work I’ve done in my career. But one thing I’ll say about that, particularly, though, is with the group of writers that we have, and getting a better understanding of the way the network works, the viewership is, and the way a character is written, I feel like I’ve matured as an actor. I think I have a better understanding of what is truly needed when you put together the pieces of the pie.”
“I spent the last 10 years working primarily in cable, gritty, real, like you throw stuff away almost because you just want it to feel real. Network, you magnify, you build it up a little bit bigger. It’s more about the entertainment value,” he continued to comment. “For me, coming from the cable side of it and then understanding more of the network side of it, now I find myself meeting the challenge of walking that tightrope between the two, which keeps the character grounded but also allows [me] to play for the moments of comedy, the little larger than life moments. And so, that’s a challenge that I found with the character that I’m really enjoying and continuing to learn from, and I think that’s what makes Franks just so fun to watch.”
Watch Awards Radar’s full video interviews with the actors below, where we talk about connecting with fans, which conventions their characters would go to, how this project has pushed them creatively, and more.
All episodes of NCIS: Origins are streaming on Paramount+.
Creation Entertainment’s RescueVerse tour continues in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 30-31 and Austin, Texas, on June 6-7.
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