Interview:
"At the time I got the audition, my wife had given birth to a baby like five weeks prior, so everything was very about-the-baby," he said. "This was one of the first auditions I got right after that. It was hilarious. It's frustrating how stereotypical the story is, because people always say, 'Oh, if you don't want the part, you get it.'"
The pre-audition call information contained the words, "Must be willing to relocate to New Orleans." A Massachusetts native, Kerkovich had settled in Los Angeles, and in addition to starting a family, he'd been having success getting cast in guest and larger roles on a lot of cool recent titles, including "Chasing Life," "House of Lies," "New Girl," "Masters of Sex" and "Parks and Recreation."
"I thought, 'This is never going to happen, because of the timing and it is too ludicrous for this to actually become reality,'" he said. "I think that fueled me going into the first audition round, (with the idea) of just having fun with it, because, 'Well, if I don't get it, I get to stay in LA with my wife and new infant son, so it's not necessarily a huge loss if this doesn't work.'
"I wish I'd had that attitude all throughout my career, because it totally carried me through just having fun in the (audition) room," he said.
To Kerkovich's surprise, the process continued with more meetings with studio and network executives. All the while, he tried not to think too much about what joining the "NCIS" franchise might mean for his life and career.
"I told nobody, apart from my wife, as I was moving along," he said. "I told my parents, because they're huge fans of the shows. They lost their minds. Just that I got to audition for 'NCIS' bought me a couple of months more respect from them. I feel like a broken record saying it, but I just had blinders on about the whole thing."
The reality of what the role could mean to his career didn't hit him until he actually learned he'd landed the part.
"I'd be lying if I said that when I finally got the call I didn't have trouble sleeping for two or three nights," he said. "It was because of everything -- the baby, the logistics of coming out here. But it was also, 'Holy (cow), Mark Harmon is calling me and congratulating me.' It was a whirlwind, and within three or four days I was on a plane and I was out here."
The whirlwind has continued ever since, and it's only going to pick up velocity.
"We looked at a lot of people," said Gary Glasberg, the "NCIS" executive producer who with Harmon, star and executive producer of the mothership show, conceived the spinoff.
"That's the role that essentially functions as our Abby (Sciuto, played by Pauley Perrette on "NCIS"). We were looking for someone, honestly, that we felt would complement the style of CCH (Pounder), because they spend a tremendous amount of time together. And Rob has a comic timing, a dryness, and he's incredibly fast.
"I think there's standup and an improvisational element to his training. It's not unlike what I count on with Michael Weatherly (Anthony DiNozzo on "NCIS") Michael's the same way. You give them all this procedural stuff that has to come out story-wise, and then they still manage to find little things, ways to keep it fresh."
Sebastian Lund's "thought process is verbalized a lot," Kerkovich said. "He starts going off on tangents because he knows so much that he'll just start explaining, going into minute detail, about some sort of scientific thing that he probably could've skipped over entirely."
To that dynamic, Pounder brings wise, though sometimes playful, serenity. Just guessing, but "NCIS" fans are going to enjoy how these two get along.
"It's a testament to CC to choose not playing it annoyed," Kerkovich said. "She's not rolling her eyes. It's very like, 'It's my buddy in the lab, and this is what I have to do to keep him in check.' It feels pretty great. It feels really fun."
Quelle:
http://www.nola.com/tv/index.ssf/2014/09/ncis_new_orleans_costar_rob_ke.html
