NCIS star Emily Wickersham opens up about adjusting to life away from the long-running series.
Per CinemaBlend, Wickersham discussed her experience transitioning from the NCIS lifestyle to a more laid back one during an appearance on Off Duty: An NCIS Podcast with fellow franchise stars Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly. "It took a while," Wickersham said. "I left the show, I found out I was pregnant a month later… So it was a combo of decompressing and trying to really relax and figure out how things were going to be without work. Because as you guys know, it's all consuming."
"Your life is all NCIS when you're on that show," Wickersham continued. "It’s all day, every day, and you're not really left with much time to do many things outside of that. So that was a real adjustment for me." Wickersham went on to discuss her move to New York shortly after leaving the series, recalling that it "was a weird moment in time. It was wonderful and weird. As you both know, it's strange to leave something that has been ingrained in you for so many years." Wickersham added, "I don't know if I was necessarily ready, but it, it happened and it was amazing. I was ready to leave the show. It was time and I was ready to move on to something else, and I guess this was the something else I was meant to move on to. So it was good."
Your life is all NCIS when you're on that show.
Wickersham made her NCIS debut as NSA analyst Eleanor Ray Bishop during the series' eleventh season in the episode "Gut Check." Bishop's introduction made her the series' de facto replacement for Cote de Pablo's fan-favorite character, Special Agent Ziva David. Over the course of eight seasons, Bishop became an essential part of the series' main cast, even developing an implied on-screen romance with Wilmer Valderrama's Special Agent Nicholas Torres. The Season Eighteen episode "Rule 91" marked Wickersham's exit from NCIS, as her character resigns from the organzation after admitting to leaking NSA secrets before embarking on a long-term undercover mission for the CIA alongside retired agent Odette Malone.
The Franchise Will See Tony and Ziva Reuniting for a New Spinoff
While Wickersham's Bishop is no longer a part of the NCIS universe, Cote de Pablo's Special Agent Ziva David and Michael Weatherly's Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo are both set to return in their own self-titled series, NCIS: Tony & Ziva. In August, fans got a glimpse of the stars on location in Budapest courtesy of a snapshot posted to social media. The upcoming series is one of the most hotly anticipated in the franchise's long history, and per the official synopsis is set to pick up "after Ziva’s supposed death when Tony left the NCIS team to go raise their daughter. Years later, Ziva was discovered alive, leading her to complete one final mission with NCIS before she was reunited with Tony and their daughter in Paris."
The series will find the trio on the run across Europe after Tony's security company comes under fire from mysterious assailants. Isla Gie is set to star as Tony and Ziva's 12-year-old daughter, Tali, with Amita Suman's Claudette serving as chief technical officer at Tony's company and the leading trio's main support net.
NCIS is currently available for streaming on Paramount+.
Source: CinemaBlend
