‘If you don’t do it, we’ll replace you’: This NCIS star was almost fired after one episode

NCIS would be very different without Michael Weatherly, but there was a moment when someone else might have taken the role from the charming Tony DiNozzo.

NCIS: The Tony & Ziva spinoff, arriving later this year, stars Michael Weatherly And Cote de Pablo launched their own podcast called “Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch.” In this 25-episode series, they discuss their time on the show, sharing anecdotes on and off camera, with upcoming featured guests such as Sean Murray and Sasha Alexander.

But it all starts with how they got their iconic roles Michael WeatherlyIf everything seemed simple at first, things quickly got complicated to the point where his career was in question.

“I worked with Peter Bogdanovich in Australia and we are going to talk to some of our guests again in the future. But I had a magical dinner with Donald P. After dinner with Bellisario and his family, Don offered me the role.“- the actor started talking.

“So I got the role, got on the plane, started right away, I think I had a weekend to turn around and start filming the two episodes of JAG that would make up the pilot.“, he recalled Michael Weatherly before confessing: “And I had no idea who the character was, no idea what I was doing.“

So he was quickly put in his place by the creator of the series…

A real shock

Faced with his unsatisfactory performance, the actor was therefore reprimanded and almost lost his place in the series.

“Don Bellisario quickly grabbed me by the skin, like a puppy, behind the neck, not literally, almost literally, and shook me.– continued the actor. “He said, “I don’t know what you’re doing, but whatever you’re doing, stop it because it’s not good,” and that was my acting. She said, “I want the guy I had dinner with. I want you. I don’t care what you do script-wise, damn the script, I wrote it. If you don’t, we’ll replace you with someone who can. I want to see this guy. I don’t care about the rest.“

Shocked, the actor, who has already proven himself especially in the series Dark Angel with Jessica Alba, then questioned his career: “It shook me to the core because here I was, 13 years into what I thought was going to be a professional career, and this guy told me I couldn’t do it. You spend all this time with writers and beautiful people who do beautiful work, but edit, edit, edit, edit. So you start out really self-conscious and closed off, and more and more rigid, uncertain and uncertain about your own taste and, subsequently, your own mind.“

However, the rest, you know, the actor finally had to convince the creator of the show, because it was he who played the role of Anthony DiNozzo for 13 seasons, a role he got in 2003, and that he is preparing to renew this game. A year in a spin-off NCIS: Tony and Ziva which should see the light of day in the coming months.

Meanwhile, you can find NCIS: Special Investigations on M6, W9 or even 6Ter. The first 18 seasons of the parent series can also be streamed on Prime Video.