NCIS Spoilers: Rocky Carroll Reveals How He Landed NCIS Gig

NCIS spoilers tease that Rocky Carroll, who plays NCIS Director Leon Vance, talked recently on a local CBS station in Los Angeles about when he was hired for his role and how his friendship with Mark Harmon, who plays NCIS Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs was a big help!

NCIS Spoilers – Rocky Carroll Reminisces About His Hiring

Now that NCIS is in its eighteenth season on CBS, actor Rocky Carroll remembered telling himself that he was happy to be joining a hit show he figured would be near the end of its run when he was hired in the fifth season! He never expected to be playing Vance on the popular program for this long! The most recent episode, “Gut Punch” marked one of many times as a director on NCIS.

CBS Local talked with NCIS Carroll about what it was like to direct again, and how his friendship with Mark Harmon helped him get hired as Vance and what it is about this show that makes it such a hit. Carroll told CBS Local’s DJ Sixsmith that now he has a nickname at work when he is behind the camera – “Director Director!”

That is because he plays the Director of NCIS but when he is behind the camera, he is the director of the show NCIS! Carroll says that this directing gig at the show all came about around five years ago. He had been curious and had been talking to the producers about his shadowing the director of the show. He had been entertaining the idea of learning to be a director. The powers that be gave him his first chance to direct about six weeks later. Carroll guesses he must be doing something right, because now he has directed ten or eleven episodes of NCIS.

NCIS Spoilers – Rocky Carroll’s Friendship With Mark Harmon

Carroll counts himself lucky to have had a pretty long relationship with Mark Harmon and with CBS before NCIS came along. He had worked on several shows that ran on CBS, and said he and Mark actually met on “Chicago Hope” back in the 1990s. He said they were members of its cast for three seasons.

They didn’t get together on another television show, however until near the end of season five of NCIS. Carroll says when it came time for his audition, it had a lot less to do with him auditioning and a whole lot more to do with Mark telling the producers he knew this guy-referring to Carroll-and that he likes him and they should hire him!

Rocky Carroll continued, saying how much he enjoyed a challenge like jumping into a popular show at the end of its fifth season and making Director Vance a three dimensional character who has many layers. Over time Vance became a part of the team, even though technically he is in a position of leadership as the head of the organization.

Carroll says the writers allowed him a lot of leeway in regards to that, meaning making Vance the character he is. He feels his relationship with Harmon prior to that was a huge help to him as well. Carroll says he and Harmon just have fun together, going back and forth, and finds it an amazing thing that he joined the cast at the end of the fifth season and is still there. He thought the show would be on its last legs but it’s still going strong, and he plans to be there through the final season.

Stay tuned to NCIS, and keep checking NCIS spoilers frequently for all the latest news, updates and developments!