The original NCIS is currently on its 23rd season, with no signs of slowing down. It’s launched a whole bunch of successful spinoffs, including Sydney. What do you think it is exactly about this franchise that’s proven so enduringly popular?
Well, one of the things that we say is, “You come for the crime and stay for the characters, and stay for the chemistry.” I think that is what it is. We have, across the franchise, all of these compelling cases, but you have a team that is so dynamic and so diverse and have all these amazing relationships — that’s what makes people, I think, keep tuning in. We want to see how their relationships grow and form and change, all while solving a murder. It’s a simple formula, but a very effective one.
And how does the Australian setting tweak that NCIS formula?
Visually, just the diversity of Australia is huge. We have the beautiful glittering harbour, but then we go to the Blue Mountains this season, so there’s a whole different terrain of woodland trees. We go to the Outback, so it’s just dry, red, dirt desert . . .
There’s something about it which I think adds danger to certain cases. It throws our characters into different terrains and we see how they act accordingly to their surroundings. That’s something you can’t fake. Being there in real-time as actors, as crew, and reacting to the different elements in the heat and the creatures, it just adds a level of authenticity that you can’t fake on a set or a studio, you know?
As an English woman who’s been working Down Under for three seasons, are there any Australianisms you’ve picked up and incorporated into your real, daily life?
[Laughs] I say, “Oh, righto” a lot. I say that probably every single day.
And, in the same vein, how has Supervisory Special Agent Michelle Mackey been changed by her new environment? How is she different than when we first met her?
She’s definitely moving towards [being] a slightly more open, warmer woman than we’ve known before. We’ve seen her very steadfast, quite direct, sometimes a little cold, also very fiery, very headstrong. We’ve seen a lot of that. But this season, we do delve into cracks in her armour. We delve into her vulnerability a lot more and we see her warming, and allowing herself to be warmer with the team.
But we also see her being tested in ways that we’ve never seen before, which forces out emotions that we’ve never seen before. So, that’s been really fun to play with — for me to discover what Mackey’s like in those spaces.
The team was a very volatile group to start with, given that they were actually made up of two different teams. That clash was embodied largely by Mackey and Aussie team leader JD [Todd Lasance], and their relationship has continued to be at the heart of the show. How has that dynamic evolved over the years?
We’ve seen them get closer. We’ve seen their trust build. We’ve seen them share things with each other, which helped to show that level of trust and partnership — which I love so much.
We see the furthering of that this season, but we do start season three with a little bit of friction just in the sense that Mackey is kind of dealing with the fallout of Darwin [the mission at the end of season two]. She trusted the wrong person and she maybe can’t necessarily trust her gut at the moment. She’s wrestling with that.
We also see JD’s opinion of her choice in Darwin. And so, there’s an element of, they’re not necessarily on the same page at the top of the season. But we do get the sense that no matter what they’re going through, they will always have each other’s back. They will always hold each other accountable, but we’ll always be there for one another through the thick and thin of it all. I think that’s what’s so wonderful about the two of them, and it shows the strength of their relationship.
All told, what is Agent Mackey’s greatest strength and what’s her Achilles heel?
I think her strength is her ability to run headfirst into danger, and to not usually second-guess herself. The Achilles heel, potentially, is the reverse effect — the thought that she’s got something wrong and now has to question herself. When that starts happening, that’s when we are kind of rocking the boat of who Mackey is, because her bedrock is, “I can trust myself.” And if she can’t trust herself to make a right call, she’s kind of got nothing.
The fact that this squad is composed of Americans and Australians makes it so different than if the team were entirely American or entirely Australian. How exactly does that enhance the drama?
I think it adds just a wonderful culture clash, which will always be fun to delve into. Like you said, the “Australianisms” — we can really play up on those.
Having characters that aren’t Australian, they get to learn things as well. And if we take Mac and JD for example, we have the Aussie larrikin — laid-back, easygoing JD vs. the American — confident and headstrong Mackey. Even in that sense, those cultural differences they bring always are fun to pull out in different episodes and different storylines. I just don’t think that will ever grow old, because there’s always stuff that can be found in those dynamics.
You’re a Brit playing an American here. When you have to put on an accent that’s not your own, does it help you disappear into a character? Or is it maybe annoying, in that you have to constantly wonder if you’re staying consistent moment to moment?
Honestly, it goes day by day. Some days, I don’t worry about it, I don’t think about it. Other days, I’m like, “My mouth hurts!” and it’s at the forefront of your brain. But Sean [Sagar] — who plays DeShawn — he’s British, and what we both do is we stay in accent all day.
As soon as I get into the car in the morning, I’m American until I wrap 12 hours later. It helps make it feel way more natural than if I was dipping in and out. We have a dialect coach who is there to help tweak anything. But it has kind of become second nature doing NCIS. On Legends of Tomorrow, I would literally drop out as soon as they say “Cut!” But on this one, I think it has just helped the naturalism, it’s helped the feel of Mackey for me to maintain that — to eliminate as much of having to worry about it as possible.
You mentioned the show’s character-centric appeal. On that front, beyond cases of the week, what new thematic territory do we delve into with this third season?
This season is very much about the past catching up with you, and that is very true for a lot of our characters. So, we delve into backstory. We delve into decisions made in the past. We delve into things that have happened in the past for our characters and how they are now affecting them in present day — including Mackey. We discover there’s a conspiracy theory that’s an overarching storyline, which links to her in some way.
It’s really intriguing to start uncovering all of these things from the past that now implement the team we know and love — and how that may fracture them, how it may force them to be stronger. It’s gonna be a really electrifying season, with that theme running through the whole season.
NCIS: Sydney, airing Tuesdays on Global & CBS
MEMORABLE ROLES:
A native of England, Olivia Swann had very few screen credits prior to climbing aboard the NCIS juggernaut — but her career was, nonetheless, already Legend-ary. Yes, prior to sailing the seas, she sailed through time and space as a member of another motley crew on DC’s Legends of Tomorrow. Joining the comic book series in 2018 for its fourth season and sticking around through its seventh and final one, Swann played Astra Logue — the queen of hell who started off hell-bent on taking revenge against occult private eye John Constantine and his fellow Legends, before ultimately joining their crew. Further showcasing a penchant for aquatic intrigue, in 2023 Swann starred in acclaimed white-water rapids thriller River Wild, opposite Leighton Meester and Adam Brody.
CURRENT GIG:
Now in the midst of season three, the NCIS franchise’s first-ever international spinoff centres on a joint task force between America’s Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Australian Federal Police. Headquartered in Australia — at the heart of the bustling, treacherous waters of the Indo-Pacific — these mismatched cops “keep naval crimes in check in the most contested patch of ocean on the planet.” Leading the charge is steely-eyed NCIS agent Michelle Mackey (Olivia Swann).
You mentioned the show’s character-centric appeal. On that front, beyond cases of the week, what new thematic territory do we delve into with this third season?