TV Guide Canada, which is now only available online as they stopped printing the magazine last fall, to "better serve" their readers (yeah right) has an interview with Michael Weatherly.
Fine Weather-ly
By Greg David
NCIS star Michael Weatherly riffs on the popularity of the CBS drama, his holiday out east, getting old in L.A., and the cut of Thomas Magnum's shorts
Michael Weatherly: I can't believe that we're finally talking!
TV Guide: Yeah, I feel like we're in a long-distance relationship.
MW: And I also feel like our communication skills aren't that great. Actually, my communication skills.
TVG: But, you have a job that requires you to be on-set, what, 12 hours a day or so?
MW: Yesterday was a nice 16-hour day...
TVG: So you have an excuse. You've been busy.
MW: Yeah, but I get to work with [co-star] Cote de Pablo.
TVG: That's true. It must be tough working with her every day.
MW: I have some friends in New York who aren't in the entertainment industry - they've been my friends for 30 years - and any time I start to complain about my lot in life and how I have no schedule, I can't make plans, I can't see my son, one of them will say "Boo-hoo, go cry in a bag of money." And the other says, "Yeah, Weatherly, you've worked with Denise Richards, Christina Applegate, Jessica Alba and Cote de Pablo... what are you doing?" Luckily, I have friendly reminders.
TVG: It's nice to have people who keep you grounded.
MW: Yeah, it's like the guy up in the space module who says "Oh, I haven't been on earth in so long..." and the guy at mission control says "Listen you @#$%, you're one of two dozen people who have been up in space, take in the view!"
TVG: Was yesterday your first day back on the set?
MW: It was, and it's a little tough to get back into the character of Tony after the time off. He feels a little snug sometimes.
TVG: So when you're away from the set, you drop all ties with the character and the show?
MW: When I'm gone, I'm not even in Hollywood. I'm out, but I've never been very good at Hollywood anyway. Some actors create not only the character that they play [in a show, or movie], but another character that they play in Hollywood. I'm pretty sure that the people you see wandering around, in the tabloids every day, going to clubs at night, I think they're creating an image that in some way is fascinating to the general public ... like a Paris Hilton or something. I'm only in favour of creating a character that's on a set.
TVG: So how then do you deal with living and working in Hollywood?
MW: I might as well be living in Montana. I've got some good friends... but let's be honest - I'm old. I'm 38.
TVG: Dude, what? You're old?
MW: Well, by Hollywood standards...
TVG: Oh....
MW: I cannot be sitting up at the Roosevelt Hotel, by the pool, smoking a joint with a musician from a pop band, waiting for my 4 a.m. set call. I know there are people that are capable of doing that, but I'm not. I'd rather read a book and fall asleep.
TVG: You sound like you're ready to star in a CBS holiday TV-movie.
MW: Listen, I am always ready to star in one of those. I'm wrapped in little flashing lights and fuzzy little snow feathers...
TVG: Did you have a good holiday? Did you come back east?
MW: I did. I did some press in France for the show because NCIS is enormously successful overseas, so that was a four or five-day junket. Then I collapsed in a heap in my father's house in Connecticut and spent two days sort of locked in my room upstairs, with my father and stepmother occasionally knocking on the door and asking if everything was OK...[laughs] I was staring at the wall like a cat. But then I recovered, and I bought a motorcycle for Christmas ... a 1973 BMW motorcycle. I rode that around and fulfilled all my Steve McQueen fantasies. Then I went into Manhattan for the New Year's Eve celebration, which was excellent.
And then the day I left to come back here, it rained, like the sky was crying...
TVG: Because you had to leave?
MW: No. Because whenever I have to travel it either rains, snows or hurricanes. If I ever have to get into a plane, it's never blue skies.
TVG: You mentioned going on the junket in France. How bizarre is it to have NCIS loved overseas like that?
MW: It's interesting. We have headslapping on our show. Gibbs likes to headslap DiNozzo, DiNozzo in turn headslaps the probie. I like to think that the French really find that amusing, the physical comedy. They like the Jerry Lewis, and I think that somehow ... there's doesn't seem to be as much of a crime-drama glut over there that there is here.
Here, there's everyone fighting for their little niche. There's Without a Trace, Cold Case, all the CSIs, Criminal Minds... you can go on an on. It's hard to figure out which show is which.
If I'm explaining to someone what I do, when I say that I work on a TV show, they ask which show. I go, "You might know it ... NCIS." And they stare at me. Then I say "It's one of the crime shows," and they say "Oh, like CSI!" and I say "Well, it's the one with Mark Harmon." And then they say "Oh right! The Navy one!" When in fact we're not in the Navy, I don't walk around wearing a Navy outfit, and we haven't been on an aircraft carrier in four years ... I think Law & Order goes on more aircraft carriers than we do at this point.
So, there's the one with David Caruso, the one with William Petersen, the one with Gary Sinise, the one Anthony LaPaglia, the one with Mandy Patinkin, and we're the one with Mark Harmon.
I like to think that we have the best one because... and are you ready for my "because..."?
TVG: Hit me.
MW: This is why NCIS is the best show on television. OK. No. 1: It's from the guy who made Magnum P.I. It's from the loins ...
TVG: Oooo...
MW: ...of Magnum P.I. This is the illegitimate child of Tom Selleck ... of Thomas Magnum.
TVG: OK...
MW: It means we're hairy, we wear tight shorts and Hawaiian shirts and we drive cars we shouldn't be driving. We have a silliness about us. But seriously. On the other shows, you have the main group sitting in a meeting area, discussing the case, and everyone is very earnest. On our show, any earnestness is followed with mockery. On Magnum, Higgins was very earnest, and Thomas mocked him. You know, "Zeus! Apollo!" and you wondered if Magpie was going to make it to the Ferrari, or was he gonna get stuck with the Audi?
And on NCIS, I believe, we like the decoys and the red herrings, but I think unlike most shows we're like a romantic comedy. We get to do everything from romantic banter to full-on slapstick comedy.
Our show is a stoner treat that has yet to be discovered by the stoners...
TVG: What?! OK...
MW: You wouldn't think "NCIS, oh, I'm gonna get stoned and watch that." But guess what? If you're not terminally ill and using medical marijuana... you can have a bottle of wine, or take a horse tranquilizer.
TVG: You've really thought this out.
MW: Well, I have lived in Canada - I know what your readers want to read. So, NCIS is an undiscovered country for most people, because they assume it's another show about investigating crimes and the Navy. I am looking forward to six or seven years from now, when the show is airing at 11 o'clock at night, and people can come home from working at Target, take that roach out of the ashtray, fire it up... and they'll be channel surfing and they'll say "What the F is this? This is good!"
On the flip side, I've watched Dark Angel here on the Sci-Fi network, and it falls flat.
TVG: Really?
MW: Yeah, to me. It's just so s-l-o-w and it seems so s-e-r-i-o-u-s.
TVG: After four seasons on NCIS, do you have wanderlust? Do you want to leave?
MW: I have to say that the character, despite him being a tight fit and me having to ramp myself up to play him, I'm very fortunate. I have this character that's really fun to play, and it would be hard to imagine voluntarily putting a fork in him. But I'll so some other things. I've done some little things, and I will continue to do little things until I'm unemployed and have to do the next big thing.
Published: Monday, January 8, 2007
Thanks to
sakie at NCIS Special Ops for the info.