The most successful police procedurals on television boast more than a talented cast and expertly-written investigations solved within an hour -- they depend on first-rate comic relief. And the most humorous moments (as well as some of the more sincere) on the most-watched television drama are brought to you by Michael Weatherly, who plays charismatic Senior Field Agent Anthony DiNozzo on NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service. As the foil to Mark Harmon's humorless Senior Agent, Weatherly's character regularly taps into pop culture for investigative inspiration (the movie Speed once helped him solve a case) while throwing back to the witty scoundrels played by Cary Grant. Thanks in part to Weatherly's popularity, NCIS rang in its 150th episode on CBS last week.
A few days ago, Movieline caught up with Weatherly, who was en route to the house of recent NCIS guest star Robert Wagner, to discuss his affection for the It Takes a Thief star, his first television gig with Bill Cosby, and why he tends to take his pants off when he is nervous.
Congratulations on the 150th episode of NCIS. Seven seasons into the series, are you still nervous about ratings, especially since CBS scheduled you opposite American Idol again?
I know, it's like Sherlock Holmes going up against Moriarty, yet again. Or maybe it's James Bond against Blofeld? I think Simon Cowell might have this impossible Bond villain in his future? I don't think we actually pay very much attention to it, just because we make our show and it doesn't have a lot to do with music or voting.
NCIS is still the number one drama on television and proof that scripted programming can be more successful reality programming in primetime. That being said, it must feel pretty good to be at CBS these days.
I was just talking this morning with someone about the Tiffany network and how nice it is to be on a network that holds to its tradition of broadcasting a little bit more than NBC because in my humble opinion, they are crazy. I mean, you are messing with something that is formatted and locked! It's kind of like they think they've discovered a new coke or something. And [Leno] is the guy that that twenty years ago was sitting there eavesdropping on phone lines so he could box his friend, David Letterman, out of a job. This is The Late Shift: Part Deux -- maybe if Charlie Sheen is available...
Back to NCIS, though: how did CBS celebrate your 150th episode?
We had a cake. It was pretty good, although I think Kerry, our craft service guy, actually made it, so I don't know if that's special. But they let us make 150 episodes in the first place.
Robert Wagner played your father on last week's episode. Is there any chance he'll be back?
He was just scheduled for one episode, although I'm hearing that they are talking about more.
You portrayed Mr. Wagner in The Mystery of Natalie Wood. Were you intimidated to finally meet him?
You know whats fun about Wagner is that he started in the business in 1948. So, I don't know if you have seen his book, Pieces of My Heart, but it chronicles quite a life that he is still very much in the swing of, but this is a guy that drank with Humphrey Bogart and got on-the-job advice and training from guys like Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant. He bridges a generation of Hollywood that I find really fascinating.
Did you have a lot of time in between takes to get to know each other?
We did and we've become good friends socially and I am going to go over to his
apartment today with my wife. We're going to have tea with R.J. and his wife Jill and talk
about stuff.
Is there anything you discovered from talking to him that you wish you had known before portraying him [pictured right]?
Well, as far as I can recall, this is the first and only time I've ever tried to play a real
person, which is a tricky business because you end up stuck with sort of an impression of someone as...well, I mean, how close can you ever really get. We were talking about the Late Shift and those actors playing Leno and Letterman, it's tough. If there is one thing I would concentrate more on with R.J., it's what a great listener and what a great raconteur and convivial gentleman he is. I think I was more playing what I had seen of him onscreen. As it turns out, I was not doing an impression of R.J. Wagner as much as I was doing an impression of the roles he played. It would be as if someone tried to do an impression of me by watching NCIS and that is very far from the truth, right?
You resemble him very much. Do you remember people telling you growing up that you looked like Mr. Wagner?
No one has ever ever really said I looked like him. When I was about 19, my stepmother said -- because this was back in the 80s -- that I had Robert Wagner's pompadour. I said, "What are you talking about? You mean the guy from Hart to Hart?"
Well if you're going to have someone's pompadour, I guess Robert Wagner's is the one to have.
You would be amazed at the pompadour that I was rocking in the first job I had on the soap opera called Loving, my first contract job.
You seemed to also be rocking that same pompadour on your episode of The Cosby Show. Do you remember anything about shooting that?
Oh well, of course, I had one line, they cut it. But that was my very first time on a set and they said, you know, you have to stand on a mark. That little piece of tape that you stand on is called a mark. I kept correcting them and telling them that my name was Michael and not Mark. They said, "No, no honey." I was a little green.
Do you remember what your line was?
No, not anymore, I'm sure it was pretty meaningless. But I will say that Malcolm-Jamal Warner and Keith Diamond, the actor playing Theo's roommate, were very generous with their time and nice to me. I was fresh out of drama school and had no idea what I was doing. They hustled me along and Bill Cosby tolerated my rookie behavior. It was great. Once you have The Cosby Show on your resume, you can keep going.
With NCIS, your character toes a very delicate line between providing most of the show's clever banter and also finding himself in the heart of the show's action. Was it hard to find a natural balance between the jokes and the more intense action of the show?
In the beginning it was difficult. I had done an action show before this with Jessica Alba for the pre-Avatar, post-Titanic James Cameron [Dark Angel] and I played a character in a wheelchair who never smiled. I didn't have a pompadour on that show but I had some other Kevin Bacon-like hairstyle and what I learned from that experience was that it's not fun watching a character be so glum. So, Rule One for me when I dove into NCIS was to be loose and to have a twinkle in my eye with everything because it is slightly ridiculous that we're solving these crimes in 43 minutes. That was kind of my approach in the beginning -- just to mix it up and have fun. I've always been drawn to comedy. Steve Martin and David Letterman were my heroes and I really felt strongly like I was more of a comedian when I first started acting. The actors I gravitated towards, like Cary Grant and Tom Hanks, they were played so well between the cracks -- they were scoundrels a little bit. So playing such a serious fellow on Dark Angel was really not so much my thing. I am much more prone to take my pants off at a party and jump in the pool.
Speaking of taking your pants off, I caught your episode of the Bonnie Hunt Show when you slid down the fireman's pole. Whose idea was that?
I talked to Pauley Perrette [Weatherly's NCIS costar] right after it aired and she said, "Michael Weatherly, you got nervous and took your pants off." As the lovely people who work with me know, any time I am feeling uncomfortable or nervous or on the
spot, in order to defuse the tension, I will often remove my pants.
Well, I'm sure that made a lot of Bonnie's audience very happy.
[Chuckles] It's been a year of celebration for me so I am not exactly the most...I'm leaning more towards Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski than Jeff Bridges in American Heart. Right now, I'm moving more towards Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, but spending my time alone in a hotel room with a bottle of Jack Daniels is not probably how I want to end up. Jeff Bridges has that uncanny ability to swing back and forth with his weight. In American Heart he was awesome and cut and physically sort of imposing, to being in Lebowski?
Have the producers hinted that maybe you should move back towards an American Heart Jeff Bridges body type?
No, I have about a twenty-pound swing at this point that I'm working. After seven years of NCIS I think the audience understands that [my character] Tony is a guy that eats pizza and hamburgers and at this point, is not Mario Lopez?
As an actor, can't that 20 pound swing be a good asset line on your resume though?
[Laughs] Speaks French, can ski and also has the ability to put 20 pounds quickly. To that end, the viewers in the Bonnie Hunt studio were able to see what my trainer Bob Harper -- you know Bob Harper from The Biggest Loser?
That's your trainer?
Well he was my trainer about ten years ago and he got a load of me at that point and he said, "Mr. Weatherly, we are going to lose these college girl thighs." I thought he meant that I had to start shaving my legs! What he really meant was that they were large-ish. If you ever run into him, tell him Michael Weatherly says hello because we got along like cows on fire. I need to get into some Bradley Cooper shape, I am working on it.