Welcome back to Great Day Washington.
■
You don't have to wait much lon.
Brand new episodes of TV's top
broadcast drama, NCIS return on Monday,
and here's a sneak peek.
Ah, you guys are ready. So read.
I don't know about this case he.
Are you sure this is safe?
No, I have not. Which is why yoe
in charge of the fire extinguis.
321 our case now. Maybe we should go.
How'd you do that? Calcium,
carbide and water.
I told you science was cool.
That was awesome.
And joining me now live is
director Leon Vance himself.
Rocky Carroll joining us,
You wore two director
hats this episode, right?
You were that.
You were the man behind
the camera on this one.
Yes. And I was the man responsible for
the exploding watermelon. We just saw
how I know you've directed over0
episodes so far. What is it abot
directing that you enjoy so muc?
It's a lot more work and a lot less sleep.
And that's what I enjoy so much
about doing a doing directing.
I I love being able to work with actors.
I love writers, working with th,
with the developing a story with writers and
and and coming from an actor's perspective,
really trying to get the,
you know, the, the, the most,
the most out of the storyline.
And helping the actors kind of d
their way from point A to point.
And I think what actors appreciate about
when you're a director who's also an actor,
you want to understand that acts
all have a process and every
actor has a different process.
And I try as best as I can
to always respect that.
And, you know, it's, it makes,
it makes for a much more fun day on the set.
Yeah,
I bet too. I mean, you've been
working with the majority of ths
cast for the last 15 seasons or,
so you kind of know what makes m
tick and how well they can work.
You know, for a lot of times,
sometimes good directing is wheu
have the when you have the wherewithal to
to step back and just let things play out.
Sometimes directing is is a lot
less about how much input you
have on on us on any given mome.
And sometimes you just let the moment,
let it happen, let things exist,
let the moment breathe and and e
sometimes the actors love that.
Sometimes less is more even as a director.
Well, and we're excited that
there's some new episodes back.
It's been a couple weeks of
withdrawal from NCIS and as onef
the your biggest fans of the sh,
we're excited that it's back.
But Can you believe you're
coming up on the end of your
20th season of this show?
15 for you,
15 for me. I'm about to start my 16th season.
When I started at the on the
last four episodes of season 5I
literally said to myself, well,
I made it on the tail end of this show.
It'll probably go seven seasons.
And you know, fortunate for me,
I'll be here maybe for the last,
and that was 15 years ago.
Well, and I love too,
that like director, with director Vance,
we've gotten to see so much fro,
you know, his family and the
trauma that he's gone through.
And it's every character we
get to know more and more.
It's not just based on
like 3 or 4 characters.
I think that's why everybody
resonates so well with it.
Yeah I think the the the personl
relationships you know you you
you you meet these people you se
how they work with each other.
You grow to learn their lives.
You grow to learn and love them and then
every day they go out and risk their lives.
And I sometimes I I say to our
executive producers you know wee
sometimes we we need to remind r
audiences that what these what e
incredibly brave people do is ty
risk their lives pretty regularly and.
We have such,
they have such great relationsh.
The interoffice relationships,
the relationship that happened
over time between Gibbs and Van,
where they became they were,
they were adversaries
and then they became very close.
So, yeah, it's it's been a,
it's been a full life for 15 ye.
Well, we're looking forward to 20 more.
Rocky, let's bring it on.
I'll take that in a heartbeat.
Thank you so much for joining
us this morning. Can't wait to
see this new episode on Monday.
Have a great weekend.
Thank you as well.
Thank you and all.
New episode of NCIS directed
by Rocky airs this Monday at
9:00 PM right here on W USA 9.