The too fast filming pace of “NCIS” led Sasha Alexander, exhausted after two seasons, to leave the series prematurely. Back to his departure.
Making a series of around 24 episodes per season is no easy task. And in the case of NCIS it has been going on for 20 years! A real goose that lays the golden eggs for the CBS channel, the series continues despite the fact that all the main actors (except one) have decided to leave it. While some said goodbye to their cult character due to creative differences, others couldn’t handle the workload.
This is the case of Sasha Alexander, one of the original actresses of NCIS who decided, after only two seasons, to leave the successful show in 2005. In 2012, the actress confided in this subject to TVGuide (via SensaCine).
People don’t realize that in a network series, you do 24 episodes a year, which is 10 and a half months a year, 17 hours a day. It’s hard core. Also, people really loved the character and the way they got it. [tuée] was really shocking… It was a bullet in the head, you know?
Asked if she has any regrets, the actress replies: “I really, really believe in my heart that I wouldn’t be where I am today – happy and married, with two kids, doing the creative things I want – if I had stayed. I didn’t want to wake up and be in my 40s and be like, ‘Oh, my God!’ But people don’t understand.”
DEPARTURE AND NEW START
When the show started, sasha alexander quickly earned its place in fiction. Introduced in the first episode, while a member of the President’s Secret Service, she was instrumental in uncovering by Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) a plot to assassinate the leader of the nation. Having appreciated her methods, Gibbs offered her a job alongside him and that’s how Kate joined the NCIS team and became one of the main characters before being killed off in the season 2 finale. by a terrorist, with a bullet to the head. After his assassination, the character received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
CBS
The departure of the actress from the series also remained secret until the broadcast of the episode, two scenes having been shot: one where she survived and one where she died.
During the following years, sasha alexander found his way on the small screen by playing small roles in well-known series such as Prison Break, Dr House or Shameless. In 2010, she signed on to play Isles in Rizzoli & Isles, a series in which she would play for six years.
And she is not the only one to have mentioned the workload on the set. Indeed, Mark Harmon also spoke, on occasion, of the intense days the cast and crew have on set. In an interview for The Talk in 2017, he revealed that the first day of filming lasted 21 hours. Fortunately, their schedule then lightened but the work remains heavy, leaving little time for the artists involved to explore other options in their careers.
Watch NCIS: Special Investigations streaming on Amazon Prime Video and Paramount+.