- 10 hours ago
In THR's interview series, "In Studio," the actor talks about the hit TV show and Pauley Perrette’s departure from the series.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Hey everyone! Thank you for tuning into In Studio with The Hollywood Reporter. I'm Brian Perica at The Hollywood Reporter with a very special guest today, Brian Dietze.
00:12Hello, thanks for having me.
00:13It's the Brian and Brian show, I guess.
00:15It's the Brian and Brian show, yes. We're gonna try and speak in unison, maybe do a little, uh...
00:20We're just fixing each other's hair before we got on here.
00:22Yeah, it's gonna get weird. Just get ready, get ready.
00:24But we spell our names the right way, which is good.
00:26Yeah, exactly, exactly. Take that, why, guys.
00:29Yeah, the what? The why, Brian?
00:32Uh, now I have a very serious question for you to start off. How did you celebrate Halloween recently?
00:38Halloween, well, um, I have an eight year old and ten year old, so Halloween's a big deal.
00:43So we had a pumpkin carving party at our house.
00:47Cool.
00:48And that was followed by a, uh, we projected onto our garage door, um, their first viewing of The Goonies.
00:54Oh, that's awesome.
00:55Which, I don't think it really gets much better than that. That's really awesome.
00:58Did you dress up, or...?
00:59Yes, I was a wizard.
01:00It was a, it's a wizard costume that I've had for a long time, and I don't, doesn't really require a lot, aside from throwing it on.
01:07And there you go. Easy. How about you? What'd you do?
01:09Uh, actually, this is actually really bad. I didn't dress up this year. I don't know.
01:13What are you doing?
01:14Wait, that's really bad.
01:15Come on, man.
01:16No, everyone knows I didn't really celebrate this year.
01:18Okay, well, alright.
01:19I treated myself to a steak, though.
01:20Wait till next year. Just get it right.
01:22Yeah.
01:23Usually I do, I don't want to spend an hour talking about Halloween, but usually I do celebrate Halloween.
01:28How so?
01:29Like, usually I'll dress up. I've had some good costumes in the past.
01:32Name, name three.
01:33Uh, Steve Jobs.
01:34Okay, good.
01:35No, he doesn't have it.
01:39Donald Trump.
01:40Okay, that's good.
01:41That's fair enough.
01:42Way back when, before he was running for president.
01:44Yeah, yeah.
01:45And...
01:46One more.
01:47There was some good ones.
01:48You said some, I thought there'd be three.
01:49Superman.
01:50That's pretty good, actually.
01:52No, but I think there was a better one.
01:53Anyways.
01:54At any rate.
01:55Anyways, we're here to talk about NCIS.
01:56Oh, yeah.
01:57And specifically last night's episode, and you were kind of telling me what that episode meant
02:01to you.
02:02Yeah.
02:03Can you kind of share that with the audience?
02:04Well, last night's episode, in case you didn't watch...
02:06Sorry, you're gonna get a few spoilers, but if you did watch, you know that Jimmy Palmer,
02:11played by myself, is raising funds for an all-inclusive playground.
02:14And this means, like, a playground that includes ramps for children who use wheelchairs.
02:18Also, children who are differently abled use crutches and that sort of thing.
02:22So, he is involved in this playground that...
02:26Sorry, this foundation that builds playgrounds for children of all abilities.
02:31And he's going around and he's basically asking for donations from all of his co-workers.
02:35That includes Bishop and McGee and Abby and Torres.
02:39And he gets to Torres and he's like, you still haven't given money.
02:42Can you please? Can you please?
02:43And Torres, played by Wilder Valderrama, says, yeah, I'm on it.
02:47I totally will.
02:48I just haven't done it quite yet.
02:49And he punches in 50 bucks, finally, he's gonna do it.
02:51And then cut to later, Jimmy Palmer is saying, my God, thank you so much.
02:55I can't believe you gave that much.
02:56And Torres thinks it's just because I out gave my co-workers by 10 bucks.
03:00He forgot to add the decimal point, so he gave $5,000 instead of 50.
03:05And has to kind of say, can I get that money back?
03:08So awkwardness ensues with Jimmy Palmer and Torres.
03:13And then by the end, we have a heartwarming NCIS moment, which is that Torres sees, wow, this is amazing work that these guys are doing.
03:23And maybe I don't ask for all this money back.
03:25And it was very special to me because I was a grand marshal in the parade for Shane's Inspiration, which is a foundation that's very near and dear to my heart.
03:35They build all-inclusive playgrounds here in Los Angeles, but also around the world.
03:40They have, I believe, about 80 all-inclusive playgrounds worldwide, with another about 60 to 70 in development.
03:47And they're not cheap to do, so they need a lot of funding.
03:50And I've been involved with them for quite some time.
03:53One of our executive producers, Scott Williams, is the guy that founded Shane's with his wife, Catherine.
03:59So it's been a...
04:01Is there a way people can go donate?
04:03Yes, yes, I'm glad that you asked that.
04:05Shane'sinspiration.org.
04:06If you go there today and you want to give a couple bucks.
04:09And if you like the episode, maybe you can give a few dollars to Shane's.
04:13Or if not, you just go check it out and see what they're doing for kids across the country.
04:18And it might be something that your town would want to look into as well.
04:22Now we also want to talk about the...
04:24It's the 15th season of NCIS.
04:26Going into this milestone season...
04:28It feels like 14.
04:31Yeah, when...
04:32It does?
04:33Yeah, no, it's like...
04:34It seems like that's all...
04:3515 is a big number, but it feels like 14.
04:37It's just 14?
04:38Yeah.
04:39And you've been on since 2004, correct?
04:41Somewhere thereabouts, yeah.
04:42So it's about 13.
04:43So what does it say in your notes?
04:45Yeah, I don't know.
04:46Yes.
04:47Is it right?
04:48Yeah, no, that is correct.
04:50But going into filming this milestone season, did you guys celebrate it all?
04:55Yeah, you know, it's interesting.
04:57As the show progresses on, the show evolves and changes and morphs a little bit.
05:04This year we welcomed Maria Bello onto the show.
05:07And she's a terrific actor, and she's playing Jack Sloan, who's another agent on our team.
05:13And we welcomed Wilder Valderrama and Dwayne Henry last year.
05:17So instead of like this celebration, if we reach this milestone or this one, it's always
05:23kind of this ever-changing, evolving family dynamic, which is pretty cool.
05:27How would you say, I guess, Palmer has changed for you in your eyes?
05:32In ways you like, or not like, or maybe not changed?
05:35I like what he's been up to.
05:37This last year we found out that Jimmy Palmer is indeed a medical doctor.
05:41He's no longer just a medical assistant.
05:44So it's really enabled him to help out David McCallum, his character, Ducky.
05:50In fact, this year we just found out that Ducky's going to be writing a book
05:53and taking a bit of a teaching sabbatical in New York.
05:56And Palmer's going to take over the reins and autopsy a little bit here and there.
06:00And we're certainly still going to have David, you know, coming back as Ducky.
06:04But Jimmy's taking the lead on a lot of these cases.
06:07So it's been kind of a cool maturation where the first season,
06:11I mean, I was hired as a one-day guest star, like one day.
06:14And the dude has grown a lot since then, you know, as I guess we all do in 14 years.
06:20Well, I mean, that day you were hired as a guest actor.
06:22Did you ever think you'd be on a show for 15 seasons?
06:24Yeah, this was kind of my plan.
06:26Yeah.
06:27You knew right away.
06:28Yeah.
06:29If I've been real honest with you.
06:30You stepped on that and said...
06:31Yeah, I was like, I think this is the one.
06:32I'm going to go have the Brian and Brian show and talk about the 15 seasons.
06:36Here's how you guest star on a show and make it last for 15 years.
06:39Yeah, but to be honest, there's that thing that all actors have like,
06:45what if they bring me back?
06:47What if they, you know, I know my character dies, but what if I recur on this thing?
06:50You know, and like actors will tell themselves these great stories and whatnot.
06:54They just generally don't come true and they did for this one.
06:56So it's cool.
06:58Now, a lot of fans were sad by the news that Polly Perrette...
07:01Right.
07:02This will be her last season.
07:03I'm one of them, yeah.
07:04Yeah.
07:05What was your reaction to the news and did she tell you directly?
07:07Yeah, I mean, she let all of us know ahead of time.
07:11And the reason I say I'm sad is just because, you know, she's been a close friend for years, you know.
07:16But it was the same deal as when Michael left and he had this great opportunity to go do the show Bull that's on right after us.
07:23And I was bummed to see him go as well.
07:26But then again, you look at a show like that and you go, man, you have 15 years as one character.
07:32I mean, you certainly have earned it if you want to go try something else.
07:35And I think, you know, I can definitely say I'm going to be rooting her on in whatever else she's moving on to.
07:41And I'm hoping it's great things.
07:44But the cool part is that, like I said...
07:46Do you know? Is she doing anything?
07:47I don't know. I don't know.
07:48You'd have to ask her.
07:49But I do know that...
07:50I mean, it's kind of like with Michael.
07:52I think we kind of knew he was going to be doing something.
07:54We didn't know what it was necessarily.
07:55So you can't really say anything until, you know, it's there.
07:58But, you know, when Michael left, that allowed us to have Wilmer come in and Dwayne come in.
08:04And so, like I said, there's this ever-evolving family.
08:07And hopefully, you know, we get to keep evolving.
08:10That's awesome.
08:11Now, you said Michael's show, Bold, is on a show you guys.
08:14Do you watch Bold?
08:15And what other TV shows do you watch?
08:17Yeah, I do check out Bold.
08:19The show that I'm watching right now with my wife is Ozark.
08:24Okay.
08:25On Netflix.
08:26I actually just binged it recently.
08:27How good is that?
08:28It's pretty great.
08:29The acting is tremendous.
08:30It's kind of like, gives me that Breaking Bad-y vibe a little bit.
08:34The crime and the, you know, intrigue.
08:36With Jason Bateman.
08:37With Jason Bateman.
08:38He's great.
08:39He's so good.
08:40Laurel and he's so good.
08:41That one we've been watching, I pretty much will watch...
08:45Do you binge watch it or do you just like watch it?
08:47No, my wife and I, like I said, we have an eight-year-old and a ten-year-old.
08:50Yeah.
08:51So pretty much by the time they go down for bed, we're just like a little tired and make
08:54it through one.
08:55I make it through one.
08:56My wife makes it through half of one and then watches the second half the next day
08:59usually.
09:00That's our jam.
09:02But yeah, we've basically been...
09:06I'm a big...
09:08Well, right now I'm really just watching baseball.
09:10Yeah.
09:11That's very true.
09:12Baseball is kind of where it's at.
09:13I'm a big Cubs fan.
09:14You are.
09:15So I had to tip my cap to the Dodgers and be like, it's your year, I'm hoping.
09:20Yeah.
09:21You took my guys out, but we took you last year.
09:23We'll do it again next year.
09:24So it's been fun.
09:26That's fair.
09:27Now what do you think of the recent, I guess, boom of procedurals and kind of like this retelling
09:32of the procedural drama?
09:34Do you watch other shows?
09:36I do.
09:37I do watch other procedurals.
09:39I think that, I think they're all, you know, all these, these procedurals, including ours,
09:43is trying to get that right combination, you know?
09:45Yeah.
09:46They're trying to get that right combination of, of, of drama, of intrigue, of, of crime solving.
09:52And some of them are much more on the crime solve-y part of it, you know?
09:55Yeah.
09:56Where they're, you know, of like, Dick Wolf, law and order type of, type of genre, where
10:02it really is about the case for a lot of it.
10:05Yeah.
10:06And those can be really fun.
10:07I really like a lot of those.
10:08I think one thing that our show stands out with is that where other shows are kind of
10:13like ripped from the headlines, ours are kind of like ripped from the characters.
10:16Yeah.
10:17You know, so you get to see how each crime affects the members of the team, you know,
10:21like, and what those, you know, how our team reacts to these, these really kind of cool
10:28storylines.
10:29So, I, I think that each show is trying to do it their own way, but ours is definitely
10:33focusing on, like, who are our guys, who are our characters, our family members, and
10:38why do we want to tune in each week.
10:39It's definitely not just because, like, we want to see whether or not the petty officer
10:43actually did it.
10:44It's more about, like, I want to see Abby and Jimmy get glued together, or Torres and
10:49Bishop, you know, get, you know, locked in a big box together with Tony and Ziva.
10:53I don't know.
10:54But at any rate, it's, it's, it's about the family, which is pretty cool.
10:57Now, what can you tease about how, I guess, Polly's exit is addressed on the show?
11:02Can you say anything, or?
11:03I have no idea.
11:04I don't know.
11:05No.
11:06Did you already shoot, shoot that episode?
11:07No.
11:08She's going to be here the whole season.
11:09Yeah.
11:10So, we're on, like, I think we're shooting, like, episode nine or ten right now.
11:12So, I have no idea.
11:13I don't think she has any idea.
11:15I don't know.
11:16I'm sure, like, our showrunners know, and our network knows.
11:20I hope so.
11:21Yeah.
11:22I don't know.
11:23But I have a feeling it's going to be pretty cool, you know?
11:25I mean, like, whenever we've said goodbye to some characters before, we've, I feel like
11:28we've done right by a lot of them, you know?
11:30Yeah.
11:31And some of them, you know, some of them have had briefer exits than others, but considering
11:34she's been there since day one, I think there's going to be something cool in the works.
11:38And I have no idea what it is.
11:40But, but I'm looking forward to seeing what it is, even though it's probably going to be
11:44really sad.
11:45I'll just, I'll just, spoiler alert, it's probably going to be sad.
11:48Besides Polly, what can you tease about, I guess, the rest of the season?
11:52I mean, you're not finished filming, but...
11:54Yes, we're not finished filming, but we do have...
11:57What should fans look out for, I guess.
11:59Yes.
12:00The, the, the, um, there's a great storyline coming up that I can, that I can tease a
12:05little bit, a little bit I think I'm allowed to, but, um...
12:08No one's going to stop you.
12:10Right?
12:11I mean, come on.
12:12They're way over there.
12:13She's like five feet away.
12:14She can't get me before I say something.
12:16Um, I'm going to say, Joe Spano is coming back as, um, as Tobias Fornell, who works
12:23for the FBI.
12:24And there's, um, a great storyline that's coming up.
12:26And I think that's pretty much all I can say about it, because we're really shooting
12:29like the middle of the season right now.
12:31He's just such a good actor.
12:33Yeah.
12:34He's fantastic.
12:35And some of the stuff that I've been seeing Maria...
12:37Speaking of good actors, Maria Bello has been tearing it down and doing a fantastic
12:41job.
12:42Um, having good performances is all I can say that's the theme of the season.
12:47Or, or, or, you know, I'm just, I'm, I'm, I count myself as very lucky to be able to,
12:52uh, act alongside these guys.
12:53It's pretty cool.
12:54Now, speaking of acting, are there roles out there that you gravitate towards or like
12:59stories you would want, you want to tell as an actor?
13:01Um, yeah, I grew up, I grew up doing a lot of theater and, um, uh, a lot of, uh, American,
13:06you know, mid-century theater.
13:08So Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neill and, and, and that sort of stuff.
13:11So, um, high drama type stuff I really enjoy, family drama type stuff I really enjoy.
13:16Um, uh, this last year on our show we got to do a, uh, an episode where I was talking
13:22a guy literally off a ledge so he wouldn't kill himself.
13:24And that was really fun to do.
13:25Um, I'm working on a feature film script now that's all about fatherhood.
13:29Oh, it's awesome.
13:30And, um, yeah, it was, it's really cool.
13:32The last feature film that I co-wrote with my friends, Abby Miller, Juan Cartarelli, uh,
13:37Eric Levy, um, that just premiered on Flix premiere this last week, which is really cool.
13:42It's called Congratulations.
13:43You should check it out if you'd like.
13:44Um, and that one's all about a, uh, relationship drama of getting married and what happens when
13:50one person wants to get married and the other person's like, that label's not so important
13:54to me.
13:55Can the institution, not the institution, but the label of being married or not, can that tear
13:59two people apart as opposed to bring them together?
14:01So, um, that sort of, you know, relationship drama, you know, father-son dynamic drama,
14:06all that sort of stuff is the stuff I, I really, really love.
14:09So.
14:10No, as like a father, I mean, now you have a 10 year old and an eight year old.
14:13Yes, that's right.
14:14So does that kind of change what you look towards?
14:17Yeah.
14:18Yeah, absolutely.
14:19Yeah.
14:20Cause then you get a whole different thing.
14:21You know, when you're, when I was in college and doing father-son relationship drama stuff,
14:25like I remember I did all my sons and Arthur Miller play, which I, one of my favorite plays
14:28of all time.
14:29And, um, I saw it entirely from the, from the son's perspective and that's it.
14:34And now I look at it and I start reading it from Joe's perspective, from the father's
14:37perspective.
14:38And I go, wow, that's, that's a very different play, man.
14:41That's, that's completely different than when I was 21 years old or whatever.
14:44So it's cool.
14:45That's awesome.
14:46Now, what do you want to say to fans before we go?
14:49If you haven't seen this movie.
14:51Yeah.
14:52It's called, it's a wonderful life.
14:53Oh yeah.
14:54Let's talk about this.
14:55It's fantastic.
14:56It's really good.
14:57It's been out.
14:58How long has it been out?
14:59Let's see.
15:00Let me check my notes.
15:01At any rate, it's terrific.
15:04And, um, you should check it out because there's this guy in it, Jimmy Stewart.
15:07He's going to be something.
15:08Um, he's really, he's really, really good.
15:11And I like him.
15:12Well, you also started it in high school, right?
15:14I starred in It's a Wonderful Life.
15:16Um, not the black and white version.
15:18Yeah.
15:19We did it in high school.
15:20Ours was in color.
15:21And it was, it was really, um, there's a lot of reviews that came in, you know, about
15:27my portrayal as, as George Bailey.
15:29And, um, I don't think I can, I can, I can go through all of them, but, um, but it was
15:34really fun.
15:35It was, it was how I, it's, it was, this became my favorite film of all time.
15:39And I think it's because, um, I did it over and over and over and over again and got
15:42to know, um, the part really well.
15:44But it was really fun.
15:45I had a blast.
15:46But if there's one thing I could say to the audience for these guys, to the fans.
15:50You're fans who are watching you right now.
15:51There.
15:52Our show, there you go, has been on the air for 15 years and it's because of you guys
15:57and it's because you guys keep watching.
15:59And, um, if you guys keep watching, then that makes us able to continue to make more
16:04shows.
16:05So, please keep watching because this is a really fun relationship of being able to make
16:09more shows and, and hopefully you guys enjoy them.
16:11So, um, we've been having a great time.
16:13So, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
16:15Are you a tweeter?
16:16Do you live tweet at all?
16:17I do tweet.
16:18I do tweet sometimes.
16:19And then, and then I get people like in Germany or the UK that hate me.
16:24And they're like, stop spoiling everything.
16:26I'm like, this is called a live tweet.
16:28It's like where it's live right now.
16:30Live tweet.
16:31Just unfollow for like the next 42 minutes and then I'll, you know, then you can have
16:35me back in your life again.
16:36But yeah, they get pissed.
16:37They get really mad.
16:39In German.
16:40Yeah.
16:41Yeah.
16:42I don't know German.
16:43I think they're mad.
16:44There's a lot of exclamation points.
16:46Don't tweet.
16:47Don't, don't.
16:48Come on.
16:49Be nice.
16:50Yeah.
16:51There's some weird ones.
16:52Well, where can they, before we go, where can they follow you?
16:53They can follow you.
16:54Okay.
16:55They can follow me at Brian Dietzen.
16:58You have to learn how to spell.
17:00That is the least creative Twitter handle ever.
17:03That's good.
17:04Instagram at Brian K. Dietzen.
17:07Because I think someone else got Brian Dietzen.
17:09Changing it up?
17:10No.
17:11Some guy had it and he's like, I'm not going to give it to you.
17:14And it doesn't.
17:15So if you go there, it's like, no, he's holding the account hostage.
17:18So what can you do?
17:20You should do Brian with a Y.
17:23Eat it, troll.
17:26Thanks for tuning in, guys.
17:28Thank you very much, guys.
17:29See ya.
17:301 to 1.
17:392.
17:411.
17:422.
17:431.
Be the first to comment