NCIS' Pauley Perrette Says She's Learned One Thing About Hollywood In Retirement

Former NCIS star Pauley Perrette shocked fans last November when she revealed that she'd retired from acting. The move came after her (rather tumultuous) exit from the crime procedural in 2018 after 15 seasons of playing fan favorite Abby Sciuto, and after her freshman CBS sitcom, Broke, was cancelled just weeks before its season finale. Now that the star has had several months to adjust to the change in her career status, though, she's opening up about the one thing she's learned about Hollywood while in retirement.

In early November 2020, Pauley Perrette noted that her decision to retire came after over 40 years in the entertainment industry, and that she was glad to be able to finally live her life without wondering about the potential ramifications of her actions on her career in a field where how you look matters a lot. While she clearly sounded pleased about her decision to leave the profession behind and focus on other interests in the wake of Broke being cancelled that May, Perrette has now revealed what she's learned about Hollywood in retirement, and took to Twitter to share her findings with fans:

Wow. It is telling, isn't it? I'm sure most of us can imagine the various scenarios that Pauley Perrette has come upon recently, where it would have become clear to her that people she thought were worth having in her life, were actually way more interested in being around her because she could, potentially, help out their careers.

Obviously, it's not just that Perrette had a long career herself in the entertainment industry, but that she had a steady gig on a very popular show where she gained a lot of fans, which would lead a lot of people to try and get into her good graces. Fifteen seasons is a long time to be on one television show, and she surely made connections there who could help others get a leg up in the industry.

Perrette has always seemed like a pretty kind, generous person, so she probably has tried to help people out along the way, but that doesn't mean she would be happy about someone only getting to know her (or staying in her life) because of what they thought she could do for them.

Before you get too upset for Pauley Perrette, though, know that now that several of her fake friends have, seemingly, fallen away, she doesn't appear to be too sad about it. If anything, once the initial shock of figuring out why someone truly got to know you was over, it would likely be nice to have that revealed so that you could proceed to spend you time and energy on the people who really matter. And, it turns out that Perrette does have a solid support system left. As she noted later:

See? It sounds like Pauley Perrette is handling the new revelations of her retirement just fine. If you still miss watching her on NCIS, each of her 15 seasons can be streamed on Netflix, but for more to watch, you can see other Netflix TV shows coming in May.