The ‘NCIS: Sydney’ Cast Reveal ‘Scariest’ Part Of Filming In Australia
The NCIS franchise is quite simply, massive. The first iteration of the series aired in 2003 and is currently on Season 20, with multiple spin-offs emerging over the years. We’ve seen NCIS: Los Angeles, Red, New Orleans, Hawai’i, and now, the franchise is arriving in Sydney Harbour.
NCIS: Sydney is the first spin-off to be set in a country outside of the US, and the show has tough shoes to fill. The NCISverse has an army of dedicated fans who haven’t lost interest over the past 20 years, but the newbies are hoping they’ll be welcomed with open arms.
The premise starts off simple, after an American seaman from a US nuclear vessel drops dead in Sydney Harbour. Bad-ass NCIS agent Mackey declares that it’s her case, even though it’s in AFP agent JD’s territory.
Judging by the trailer, fans are going to eat it up. There’s action sequences, helicopters, the world’s most venomous snake, and… a koala?
The cast of NCIS: Sydney. Image credit: Paramount+ NCIS: Sydney
To get the inside scoop on NCIS: Sydney, I spoke to the main cast: Todd Lasance (Jim ‘JD’ Dempsey), Olivia Swann (Michelle Mackey), Sean Sagar (DeShawn Jackson), Tuuli Narkle (Evie Cooper) and Mavournee Hazel (Bluebird ‘Blue’ Gleeson).
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Punkee: How does it feel to be part of the NCIS franchise?
Todd: It’s honestly one of the biggest honours of my career. To be on a show with Paramount shooting in Australia on such an incredible long-running franchise – that has had 4.2 trillion minutes being watched in the US alone – it has been one of the greatest experiences. Not only in my career, but of my life, and I now consider the cast my family.
Sean: We just hope that we’re welcomed with open arms into this franchise as part of the family. We’re bringing a different twist. We hope the fans like what we’ve created.
What is NCIS doing in Sydney?
Todd: There is actual NCIS based here, so they didn’t manufacture this show. The NCIS agents who are based in Sydney and Perth, they’re all US citizens and they came to set multiple times. They are absolute legends.
Did you get any NCIS training or speak to any experts?
Todd: I got to work with the Australian Federal Police, we had representatives from the Australian Navy come in and detectives – we met firsthand with everyone.
Sean: Working closely with the NCIS agents meant we had more of an understanding of their mental state when they go into these situations, and what happens after, so I feel like that helped us massively.
Mavournee: William McGinnis and I were lucky enough to go to the AFP and meet with a forensic team who look after Australian people, protect our borders and those who are vulnerable. We got to see all of that and see firsthand how they hacked computers from crime scenes – it was wild.
A crime scene on NCIS: Sydney. Image credit: Paramount+ NCIS: Sydney
Did anyone do their own stunts? Did you have to do fight training?
Olivia: I had a fight scene in Episode 6 which I was really adamant that I wanted to train for and be there for all the rehearsals and work with the stunt team. I just threw myself into it. It was so much fun.
Todd: Can I pay homage to Olivia as well? She’s absolutely kickass. Not only is she the lead of the series, but she had to carry the physicality as well. Liv’s dedication to it was next tier. She spent every spare second she had offset – which was almost zero – doing stunt training sessions, fight training and fight choreography. She was like, ‘I want to look like I can kick everyone’s ass,’ and she did. And credit to her because not everyone does that.
Tuuli: I think I threw like one punch and I pulled a stomach muscle.
Sean: Didn’t someone land on your head?
Tuuli: Yes, I got a butt to the face.
There’s a running joke that people don’t want to move to Australia because of all the things that can kill you, Olivia and Sean, what are your thoughts?
Sean: I am from London, which is a city where you don’t have any deadly animals whatsoever. Coming here was very scary. It was a fight for our lives. You always hear about Australia as having the deadliest animals you can think of. I didn’t want to go back to my accommodation in the bush because I was scared of spiders every night. I still check my shoes and my pillowcases. There was a golden cockroach! A golden one!
Olivia: I’m very scared of spiders, so everywhere I go I’m looking around. They’re massive!
Sean: In one of the episodes DeShawn comes face to face with one of the most deadliest snakes in the world, the Inland Taipan. During the shooting process I wasn’t allowed to be within a certain distance of it because of how poisonous it is. There was a snake wrangler looking after it, a glass cage and a black screen around it. We also worked with more snakes, a galah and a wombat.
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How hard was it dealing with gory scenes like autopsies and crime scenes?
Todd: I introduced it into my character that he hates gore, because I would look at some of those cut-up bodies and it looked far too real.
Tuuli: The prosthetics and makeup was absolutely insane. And then it was wild, because you’d see them and it would look so real and so gory – but then at lunch, they’d get up off the table and eat looking like a zombie.
Olivia: Do you remember the one with the mucus on it? It was just lots of green growths.
Episode 1 of NCIS: Sydney is now available to stream on Paramount+, with new episodes dropping weekly on Friday for the next seven weeks.
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Image credits: Paramount+, NCIS: Sydney