Austin Stowell Hopes 'NCIS: Origins' Starts a Conversation About Mental Health, Eases Other People's 'Pain'

Transcript

00:00How did you prepare to play a character who is suffering so much on an emotional level like

00:04immediately once we're introduced to them? I had to tap into some personal trauma.

00:13I lost my father four years ago to suicide and that's obviously not easy. That's not...

00:24I'm so sorry. Yeah no it's okay.

00:26I get to tap into that all the time and I get to exercise those emotions

00:39and I get to revisit them in some ways you know that four years ago would have been too fresh,

00:47too much, too emotional for me to touch upon and I think because I've had some time and space

00:54to heal I'm now... I was more prepared to play this character than I would have been

01:02four years ago and it absolutely influences my performance and it informs me because I have

01:12gone through it what the stages of grief are like and certainly through the first 10 episodes that

01:19we filmed now this is... the audience is getting the full gamut of emotion, rage, sadness, grief,

01:30regret and glimmers of hope that you... those who learn to live with grief and with loss

01:43are not moving on from it you just learn how to live with it and that is very difficult and some

01:50people are less comfortable living with it afterwards and so if this show can ease others'

02:03pain in any way and help them learn to live with it I would consider that a great success.

02:10And so I did want to ask how did you prioritize your own mental health to not maybe bring that

02:15energy home with you? Sometimes it does and that's... sometimes I can't control you know it's not a faucet

02:26that I can turn on and off it just is and I've learned to accept it

02:32and I think it makes me... I think it makes me a better actor, I think it also makes me a better

02:43man, I think it makes me a better friend, I think it makes me a more understanding member of society

02:50that I'm... sometimes people are just having a rough time or having a bad day and

03:00it's helped me be less judgmental, it's helped me have some some headspace as they say

03:09and I hope that that translates to my work and to the people I work with. You know at the end

03:16of the day sure we make a TV show for the people out there and we absolutely look forward to and

03:24absolutely look forward to and want to share it with them but the crew that I go to work with

03:31every day has a more intimate look at the process and I rely on them to allow me the

03:44comfortability and the space to reveal myself and they have my gratitude because

03:58they are so there for me all the time. You know this wonderful talented crew that we have

04:05on this show, now getting to shoot this show in Southern California after years of what has been

04:15unknowns and certainly prolonged breaks in our business, it feels great to do this with them

04:26and they are as much as responsible as I am for this character because of the

04:36comfort that they allow me to play Gibbs and in terms of mental health that it's something that

04:45very near and dear to my heart. If we can be the conversation starter which I think is our job

04:53as artists and storytellers that it's our job to be the catalyst for uncomfortable

05:01conversations and a lot of times it's much more comfortable to listen to a story

05:09about someone else, someone who doesn't even exist,

05:14that we learn much more from hearing about a race between a rabbit and a turtle than

05:22saying that Suzy in HR and George in the office, you know George is always running around and

05:29if it's too close to home you can tune out and so if we can help anyone out there

05:39live an easier tomorrow that would be the greatest gift to me.