NCIS' Michael Weatherly 'imitated' old co-star when starting out as Tony DiNozzo
NCIS' Michael Weatherly admitted to using an old co-star as his inspiration in playing Agent Tony DiNozzo.
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NCIS’ Tony DiNozzo may be seen as a one-of-a-kind character but he was inspired by a number of well-known actors, including an ex co-star.
Actor Michael Weatherly portrayed the cheeky film-loving agent Tony DiNozzo for 13 seasons before making his exit with his and Agent Ziva David’s (played by Cote de Pablo) daughter Tali following her believed death.
With Weatherly and de Pablo set to reunite onscreen to reprise their roles in the spin-off NCIS: Tony and Ziva later this year, the pair got to work together again on the new podcast NCIS: Off Duty.
The podcast series delves into the early days of the CBS police procedural, including how all of the characters came about with Weatherly opening up on his process.
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Weatherly shared how the show’s creator Don Bellisario threatened to “replace” him when he wasn’t happy with his performances.
So when de Pablo asked how he found DiNozzo, he began: “I needed to amuse myself. I needed to tell stories that connected from me.
“What happened next, over the course of those two years of experimentation, I went to the edges.
“DiNozzo became incredibly inappropriate, DiNozzo became this wise-cracky guy, ad-libbing with all these movie references.
“He became somebody very vain and concerned with his hair but not as a good thing but as a character fault and that was me poking fun at my own background in soap operas and being concerned about the way you look which inevitably happens.
“I covered my dressing room mirrors with paper so that I did not see my reflection.
“I didn’t want to go into the hair and make-up trailer, because I didn’t want to think about it.”
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He went on to explain that he would take inspiration from other actors’ performances, including his former Dark Angel co-star Jensen Ackles.
Ackles portrayed Alec, a beta soldier in the SyFy drama who was programmed to use flirting as a weapon.
Weatherly portrayed cyber journalist Logan Cole for the two seasons that Dark Angel ran for.
Weatherly continued: “And then, I put all these pieces together and I found through those first two seasons, glimpses of what it could be.
“Like little apertures, little flashbulb moments of ‘Oh that felt good! What if I do that?’.
“So I started coming in with all of these ideas, watching all these movies with Cary Grant and thinking ‘What did he do? How do I do that?’ and applying so many things to it.”
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“My friend Jensen Ackles from Dark Angel who played this character Alec on that show.
“He was so loose and free and I thought ‘Maybe I’ll imitate him a little bit’ and I’m such a bad mimic it doesn’t matter, because no one will ever recognise that I’m doing Jensen Ackles.
“I would do Tom Hanks, I would do Alec Baldwin from Glengarry Glen Ross, whatever came into my mind, to amuse myself, and pretty much p*** off everyone that I was working with.”
The NCIS franchise is available to watch on CBS and Disney+.
