{"id":543633,"date":"2026-03-25T04:06:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/543633\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T04:06:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T04:06:12","slug":"rocky-carroll-interview-on-stunning-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/543633\/","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Carroll Interview on Stunning Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\u201cNCIS<\/a>\u201d has not been shy about letting some of its tertiary characters die a dramatic death, but when it comes to letting any of the show\u2019s main cast come to a sad end, there\u2019s been more of a historical hesitation there. So the fandom was little prepared when the big surprise of the show\u2019s 500th episode Tuesday night turned out to be Director Leon Vance, portrayed by Rocky Carroll<\/a>, going gentle into that good night. <\/p>\n

\n\tMuch of the episode focuses on Vance flashing back on recent events to a seemingly antagonistic interrogator, who eventually reveals himself to be a young version of Ducky, the coroner whom, of course, the director knows to have gone on to the great beyond. At that point, Vance slowly but surely comes to accept his fate, even cracking a joke as he wonders whether having a blinding white light is a little bit \u201con the nose.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWill the audience accept it as readily as Vance? And more importantly for our immediate purposes, has Rocky Carroll? With pun definitely intended, Carroll has been a rock of the show through his 18 seasons, gradually being built up from a recurrent player to a mainstay few fans imagined they\u2019d have to learn to live without. But the actor says he is fully reconciled, having had a few months to consider it. Plus, he didn\u2019t have to have a tearful farewell when he filmed his final shots; Carroll is a frequent director on the show, and already has returned to the set to film an episode yet to air in this, season 23.<\/p>\n

\n\tCarroll got on with Variety for an in-depth exit interview, showing much of the good humor and grace that endeared him to \u201cNCIS\u201d showrunners for 18 years (and possibly more seasons to come, if, in true \u201cNCIS\u201d fashion, he is likely to return in flashbacks or as someone\u2019s conscience).<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst off, when did you film this farewell episode, and was it hard to keep it a secret in the weeks or months since?<\/p>\n

\n\tAs we get closer to the air date, my biggest concern has been, because of the advent of social media, being able to keep a secret like this, when sometimes leaks come from the most unsuspecting sources. So the fact that this hasn\u2019t been blasted over the internet so far, or that the majority of people outside of CBS and a small circle of people still don\u2019t know about it, is pretty cool. I think it\u2019s gonna be a huge shock for people. I\u2019ve been able to wrap my mind around it and come to terms with it because I\u2019ve known about this since November, when I was first told about what was going to happen. And the last scene, where Director Vance realizes that he\u2019s been talking to basically the grim reaper, the angel of death, and walks toward the light, that was shot on Dec. 11. And we\u2019re in the middle of March, so I\u2019ve had a little time to wrap my mind around it and come to terms with it.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tBrian Dietzen, Rocky Carroll and Gary Cole in episode 500 of NCIS<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd how do you feel now, having had that little bit of time to accept it?<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve been able to kind of come full circle with it. And I really think it\u2019s a great episode. I\u2019m not just saying this to be a team player, but if you\u2019ve gotta send a character off, what a way to go. It really is exactly what our executive producer, Steven D. Binder<\/a>, said. He wanted to write not only a great episode, but a real love letter to the character that really summarized his journey and his impact on the show, and I think we achieved that.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor selfish reasons, I have to remind people: I\u2019ve been a character on this series for 18 years. Most Hollywood careers don\u2019t last 18 years. So to be able to play one character on one of the most popular shows in the world for 18 seasons, that\u2019s the equivalent of living to be 105. You know, if you\u2019ve known somebody who lived to be 105, when you go to that funeral, there\u2019s a part of you that\u2019s like, \u201cOK, yeah, this is sad, but I mean, geez! The guy lived to be 105.\u201d So I feel that way with my character.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith the series, eventually all things do come to an end, and my character\u2019s end came before the end. It would be wonderful to say, \u201cYeah, I was there for the the very last take of \u2018NCIS\u2019 when they finally boarded up the windows and said, \u2018OK, that\u2019s it. No more. Everybody go home.\u2019\u201d But, you know, the show was already on the air for five seasons before I started. And I\u2019ve said this many times before: When I came on the show at the end of season 5, I literally thought to myself, \u201cWell, at least you made it on the tail end of the series. It\u2019ll probably go seven seasons \u2014 if you\u2019re lucky, maybe eight \u2014 and at least you will have gotten a couple good seasons out of it.\u201d That was literally my thought process when I joined the cast. So by that math, the last 16 years have basically been overtime for me.<\/p>\n

\n\tFor people who are O.G. \u201cNCIS\u201d viewers, there may still be a few of them who think of you as one of the new guys, even though you have been around for at least 80% of the series\u2019 life. That\u2019s partly because it wasn\u2019t clear at all when you came in that you were going to be a key cast member.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a slow feeling-out process, because when my character came in, he was very, very much an unknown character. He and Gibbs, Mark Harmon<\/a>\u2018s character, were very adversarial. You didn\u2019t know: Is this a wolf in sheep\u2019s clothing? Is this a bad guy that\u2019s eventually going to wreak havoc? So the fact that this character, who originally kind of in as the boss from hell, like the stepdad nobody wants, suddenly over the years has become a real member of this \u201cNCIS\u201d family, is a real testament to the writing. And when Steve Binder, the executive producer, told me what the storyline is, he said, \u201cOne of the reasons why we selected Vance to meet his demise is because of who you are and what you mean and how significant your character is. As macabre as this sounds, who better to kill off than somebody that everybody would go, \u2018Oh no, not him\u2019? You got the most \u2018Oh no, not him\u2019 votes. And that\u2019s when we knew we had to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou sound like you had understandable moments of doubt about whether you were ready to go.<\/p>\n

\n\tAll this happened pretty quickly. I was told in November that \u201ctwo episodes from now, we\u2019re shooting this episode where your character meets his demise.\u201d And I was like, this is happening in two episodes? So I\u2019ve got basically about four weeks to get ready to do this.\u201d So I had this kind of knee-jerk response, where I remember one of the first things I was saying to our executive producers was: \u201cWe lose characters all the time, but we sent Gibbs off to Alaska. Tony and Ziva, Bishop, all these characters, they were all able to kind of go on their own free will, always with the thought that they\u2019re gone, but not not dead. So if you wanted this character to go, why are we being so final about it, when everybody else just gets sent off to another country?\u201d So, yeah, that was my rebuttal.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd what was the answer to that? Obviously, they had to be telling you that it would not have the same impact just to make you another character we imagine retired and living happily ever after.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, absolutely. And again, it\u2019s the 500th episode \u2014 the studio, the network, everybody involved said, \u201cWe don\u2019t have to put this show on the map \u2014 it\u2019s on the map \u2014 but we have to remind people why it is one of the most watched shows in the world and has been on as long as it has. Let\u2019s do something spectacular for the 500th episode. And this is what we\u2019ve come up with.\u201d Once the creative in me and the director in me read the script and got a real good gist of it, I was like, \u201cIt actually is a great idea.\u201d It\u2019s a terrific storyline. And you know, actors love dying on camera anyway. And I would say the great thing about dying on camera is that weeks later, you get to sit and do an intervie and talk about it.<\/p>\n

\n\tLook, if this had happened in my third season playing this character, I\u2019d be devastated. But if somebody had told me 18 years ago, \u201cHere\u2019s the deal: We\u2019re gonna hire you to play this character. We\u2019re gonna give you 18 consecutive seasons of work on the most watched show in the world. At the end of season 18, something\u2019s gonna happen to your character. Will you accept this offer?\u201d \u2014 there\u2019s not a single actor on the planet who wouldn\u2019t say, \u201cOh, hell yeah. Sign me up. Eighteen years of work. Are you kidding me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom talking to Steve Binder before speaking with you, it sounds like this idea had been brought up a long time ago and they just couldn\u2019t pull the trigger, so to speak.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was a very macabre compliment, but he said, \u201cBecause of who you are, Rocky, and because of what you brought to the character, we\u2019ve been talking about killing off Vance for the last 10 years. This idea didn\u2019t just come about in 2025. We\u2019ve been thinking about killing this character or having this character meet some sort of untimely death for over a decade. But we couldn\u2019t because it was you.\u201d And I think they figured, \u201cLook, 23 seasons in, who knows how much more time we have. If we don\u2019t do it now, there may not be a season that allows us to do something of this magnitude, because we\u2019re in overtime here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThey were clearly trying to figure out a way to make it a happy ending, in its fashion. having set up the death of Vance\u2019s wife so long ago\u2026<\/p>\n

\n\tIf your grandfather precedes your grandmother in death, then once your grandmother goes, the first thing we say is, \u201cOh, they\u2019re together now.\u201d Or it\u2019s \u201cRonnie and Nancy are together again.\u201d It\u2019s the first thing we think whenever \u00a0somebody that we love dies: they\u2019re gonna be with the other people that we\u2019ve lost and cared about in the circle, together on the other side now.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tRocky Carroll and Adam Campbell in the 500th episode of \u2018NCIS\u2019<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat did you think of the idea of having a young Ducky break you the news? The things that it brought to mind were kind of a combination of \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life\u201d with the \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d where Robert Redford turns out to be the very nice angel of death.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, my mind went immediately to \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life.\u201d Were David McCallum still with us, he would\u2019ve been the ultimate. But I love how Steve Binder structured it. We brought back Adam Campbell, who plays young Ducky, because in the spirit world, you get to pick how old you want to be when you come back. It worked on so many different levels, and just having that little bit of a plot twist of saying that in the afterlife you get to come back whatever age you want. It\u2019s like how you can eat what you want and not gain weight \u2014 there\u2019s some upsides to being on the other side.<\/p>\n

\n\tLet\u2019s talk about the evolution of your character a little bit, which also goes back to the question of the longevity that was not anticipated by any anyone.<\/p>\n

\n\tEven to this day, I\u2019ve never been in all the shows produced [in a season. Because Don Bellisario, who creatied this show, basically commissioned the writer at the time, Jesse Stern, to create this character. There had already been two other NCIS directors, one played by Alan Dale and the other played by Lauren Holly. It\u2019s one of those posts where, in real life, the NCIS director, their tenure is about three years. So in the real NCIS world, the running joke is, \u201cYou are the longest tenured director in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe character was meant to be this character who occasionally would come down from his office and whip people into shape. It was never supposed to be a key component to the show. And part of the thing that I had going for me \u2014 \u00a0I tell people this all the time \u2014 was that I didn\u2019t know much about the show and didn\u2019t know 99% of the people connected to the show. But the one person I did know was Mark Harmon, because we had done \u201cChicago Hope\u201d together, so if you\u2019re only gonna know one person on a hit show, it\u2019s good that it\u2019s the lead actor, and somebody that you had a great relationship with. And I think whatever chemistry we were generating as these characters, once that started to make itself apparent, the writers said, \u201cHey, this is fun to play off of. There are so many unspoken elements about the dynamic \u2014 the male dynamic, the race dynamic, all the different things that we don\u2019t even have to hang a light on, that just are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tShowrunners past and present have described a warmth you have that was too good to ignore in terms of bringing the character forward. And it\u2019s fun for audiences to see someone who you think of as a badass warm up.<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah. Over time is, we were able to craft it so the character didn\u2019t just become this stock \u201chere comes the boss from hell; here comes Mr. Slate from \u2018The Flintstones,\u2019 breathing fire.\u201d I tried to infuse it with an undercurrent of humor, where it\u2019s the boss from hell who kind of does it with a wink and a nod. He kind of relishes it, and he only uses it when he has to, but if you catch him in a candid moment, you know you might actually get something funny out of it. So we played with that. And you know, my first foray here in Hollywood was doing a sitcom, so that was the world I came from, so I wanted to kind of ride the rails with this character.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNCIS celebrates its 500th Episode during taping on December 2, 2025 in Valencia, California. \u2014 Pictured: Rocky Carroll.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS<\/p>\n

\n\tThere has always has been so much comedy in the show with the wisecracking of the core cast. But of course, you were not doing one-liners initially. Do you remember when the point came where you were finally allowed to be a little bit funny too?<\/p>\n

\n\tI think one of the first episodes where we did that was an episode called \u201cKnockout.\u201d It might have been the first or second full season of my character, where you got to see his home life and his family and his wife and kind of see him in domestic bliss. And the wife is the one that when he walks in the door, it\u2019s like, \u201cHand me the toothpick, take it outta your mouth.\u201d We domesticated the character a little bit, and Vance got to see him in the world where he didn\u2019t rule his house with an iron fist the way he does NCIS. That was the beginning of it, and we just started to kind of have more fun with it.<\/p>\n

\n\tI thought as this character went on, it\u2019s gonna get old very quick if he\u2019s just adversarial with everybody. But if there\u2019s a wry sense of humor behind it, where he kind of enjoys putting people in the hot seat and has has fun with it\u2026 just an undercurrent of that where it\u2019s less about really trying to undress somebody verbally and more about, \u201cJust remember who\u2019s the boss. Remember who has the upper hand. When all is said and done, you may win the argument, but I could still reassign you to the NCIS desk in Alaska if I wanted to. So just take that with you.\u201d You always had that kind of quirk about it, and we started to revel in that and allow the character to be much more three-dimensional and humorous and candid.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut I think the biggest thing that gave us the longevity with the character is that once Vance\u2019s wife died, he and Gibbs now had the same tragedy in common. They both lost their wives, and any issues between them were sort of secondary now because of the grief and tragedy of sharing that. Suddenly it humanized that character more than anything else could have.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNCIS \u2013 23-504 \u2013 \u201cAll Good Things\u201d \u2013 Rocky Carroll on NCIS, Tuesday, March 24 (8:00-9:00 PM, ET\/PT) on the CBS Television Network. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have a favorite episode, or is that too tough?<\/p>\n

\n\tBecause I\u2019m well over 300 episodes, it\u2019s hard. It\u2019s like asking Tom Brady, \u201cDo you remember your favorite pass?\u201d Like I said, it\u2019s 18 years of being able to go to work and having a great job doing what you love to do.<\/p>\n

\n\tI think it\u2019s baked into our business: When you\u2019re an out-of-work actor, or when you\u2019re auditioning and you\u2019re trying to land a show, or you\u2019re on a show and you don\u2019t know if it\u2019s gonna go more than one season, or it may go six episodes and get canceled, there\u2019s always such uncertainty. And when something like this happens, and finally there\u2019s a bit of stability \u2014 we\u2019re around for five years; we\u2019re around for 10 years; now, we\u2019re in season 15; now we\u2019re in season 20 \u2014 it\u2019s so easy to self-sabotage in our business. Because when you finally get into a scenario where the grass is green, either the actor or somebody who represents the actor suddenly plants the seed that maybe there\u2019s a shade of green that\u2019s even nicer. \u201cI know this is what you think is your dream job, but maybe you\u2019re not as happy as you think you are. Maybe we need to push all our chips in the middle of the table and say, \u2018I can\u2019t work under these conditions! Even though I\u2019ve been begging for this job for my entire life.\u2019\u201d We do this to ourselves. Or all of a sudden, our agent goes, \u201cOK, we know you love your job and you love the cast and the writing, you love everything about it, but you must be miserable. They\u2019re just not servicing you enough. You\u2019re not getting enough lines \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo having for the last 18 years I have been able to say, \u201cYou know what, I\u2019m doing exactly what I love to do, and I love my job. And I\u2019m sorry for the people who work for me or who represent me, but I\u2019m not that guy who wakes up every day and goes, \u2018How can I get a bigger trailer? How can I get more lines? How can I get more? How can I have a greener pasture than the one that I\u2019m I\u2019m sprawled in right now?\u201d I\u2019ve been able to just really be present and enjoy it. And I think for most creative people, it\u2019s just baked into the business: Very seldom do you realize just how good something is until it\u2019s over. And I was determined to really enjoy and relish this and be present while I was doing it, not 10 years after the show when I\u2019m doing some retrospective with the cast and I\u2019m going, \u201cMan, that was a really good time. I wish I had really embraced it.\u201d It\u2019s like, no, no, that wasn\u2019t gonna be me.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNCIS celebrates its 500th Episode during taping on December 2, 2025 in Valencia, California. \u2014 Pictured (L-R): Sean Murray, Rocky Carroll, Wilmer Valderrama, Katrina Law, Gary Cole, Diona Reasonover, Brian Dietzen.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCBS<\/p>\n

\n\tAt \u201cNCIS\u201d they like their ghosts and apparitions. So do you think the door would certainly be open for your return on that level? Because they have brought Mike Franks back for cameos and people like that who suddenly pop up. Do you foresee that happening with you, or would you rather just be done with it?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh, I think we coined the term ghost stars. We have more ghost stars on our show than anybody. So I absolutely foresee it. And I also direct three, sometimes four episodes every season. And I think that will continue. So for me, it\u2019s really goodbye for now. It\u2019s not as final as as it feels. Even when I shot the final scene on Dec. 11, when we finished the episode and shot the final scene, and all of us as a crew were all saying goodbyes and hugs, I just remember saying, \u201cGuys, I\u2019ll be back in a month to start doing prep work and pre-production for the episode that I\u2019m directing.\u201d So, I\u2019m not here for every meal now as a relative, but I come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I\u2019ll be around.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you have already been back to direct?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe answer is yes. Literally a month after we shot this show, I was back in January to direct what I think is maybe the third-to-last episode of this season.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have the impulse to try to jump into another series as a regular, at all?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, my impulse now is to is to do exactly what I did while I was on the show. \u2026 \u00a0I\u2019ll be in New York when the episode airs doing a live Q&A at the SAG screening room in midtown Manhattan. There\u2019re gonna be 150 SAG members who\u2019ve not seen the episode; it\u2019s gonna air in real time at 8 p.m. and then the lights are gonna come up and I\u2019m gonna walk out and go, \u201cWell, that just happened. What do you guys think?\u201d And we\u2019re gonna talk about it and I\u2019m just gonna have fun with it.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd I\u2019m gonna be able to do what most actors never get to do, and have the luxury and the wherewithal to not worry about \u201cGod, I hope the phone rings and somebody calls me. I gotta get another gig.\u201d If the next six months or five years go by and I\u2019m not on a call sheet, working 12-hour days, it\u2019ll be okay. You know, fortunately, 18 years of consistent work on the most watched show in the world gives you a little bit of cushion. I might be doing a production in a 50-seat theater somewhere in Hollywood and having the time of my life. For the last 18 years, I\u2019ve had the best part-time job in Hollywood. So there\u2019s not a whole lot to be upset about.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cNCIS\u201d has not been shy about letting some of its tertiary characters die a dramatic death, but when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,242721,34865,242722,242723,92],"class_list":["post-543633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-mark-harmon","tag-ncis","tag-rocky-carroll","tag-steven-d-binder","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}