Mark Harmon’s Leroy Jethro Gibbs and Muse Watson’s Mike Franks spent a fair amount of time together on NCIS, with Franks even continuing to appear to Gibbs as a ghost after he was killed in Season 8’s “Swan Song” stretching into Season 15. Now, thanks to NCIS: Origins, we get to see how these two formed their unique relationship in the early ‘90s. Kyle Schmid plays the younger Franks in this prequel airing week to week on the 2025 TV schedule, and while speaking with CinemaBlend, he let us know what he enjoys most about working with co-star Austin Stowell, who plays the younger Gibbs.
After Schmid discussed topics like what it was like playing Franks in 1982-set flashbacks, the devastating blow that was dealt to the character’s relationship with Tish, and the big part of Franks’ life he wants Origins to explore, I concluded my recent interview with him by asking what his favorite part is about working with Stowell. He answered:
Austin commits. I love working with Austin because he commits. He and I are very similar in the way that we approach the work. When we're in it, we're in it. So it's not Kyle's working with Austin. It's Mike Franks and Gibbs just talking, and Austin and I very much have that relationship in and out of character. I think there's a love for one another that is just easy and that translates on camera.
It’s good to hear Kyle Schmid and Austin Stowell get along so splendidly both on and off camera. Considering that much of NCIS: Origins (which can be accessed with a Paramount+ subscription) revolves around Mike Franks mentoring Leroy Jethro Gibbs in the ways of an NIS agent, it’s important the actors nailed the right kind of dynamic between their characters. Because they both work the same way, evidently that was easy enough to pull off. Schmid continued:
So when we do get to work together, despite whatever the the context of the scene is, it is just easy, and it feels natural, it feels good. It’s nice when you can let the characters breathe with one another and it just makes the work easier working with somebody who gets it like you do.
While we’re still a long ways off from Gibbs and Franks reaching the same kind of equal footing they had on NCIS, these two have already been through a lot together in less than a year. It all started when Franks was tasked with investigating the death of Gibbs’ wife and daughter, and this led to him letting Gibbs look at all the information he’d collected on their murderer, drug dealer Pedro Hernandez. Franks also personally recruited Gibbs onto his team after he became an NIS agent, and he’s also one of the few people at this point in the NCIS timeline who knows Gibbs killed Hernandez. Just imagine what will happen during their second year together on Origins.
I’ll be crossing my fingers that NCIS: Origins Season 2 happens, If only so Kyle Schmid and Austin Stowell can continue performing with each other. There are five episodes left to on in Season 1’s run, so tune in Mondays at 10 pm ET on CBS.
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