SPOILER ALERT: This story contains details from the Feb. 10 episode of NCIS: Origins titled “Monsoon.”
The CBS drama has already served up a couple of Franks-centric episodes in the procedural’s first season, but Monday’s installment gave viewers more insight into the start of his relationship with wife Tish [Tonantzin Carmelo] and just how messed up he was before he ultimately joined NIS.
Here, Kyle Schmid — who plays Gibbs’ irascible mentor Mike Franks — explains why it was important for fans to get a look-see into his character’s past and why he earned the moniker of “sexy Jesus” after doing the episode.
DEADLINE You rocked the Jesus look at the start of the episode.
KYLE SCHMID Oh my sexy Jesus! Look, you try doing serious work on set. When your crew is teasing you, calling you sexy, Jesus. It was so hard.
DEADLINE They seriously called you sexy Jesus?
SCHMID Ridiculous. My crew is very generous, thank God.
DEADLINE Where was the motorcycle scene shot?
SCHMID That was outside Santa Clarita, Calif. That was an old 1972 Harley. God, it was nice to ride. It’d been 10 years since I’d ridden a bike. The only thing, it was six o’clock in the morning in January, so it was like 58 degrees, and we went from shooting that scene to shooting the freezing cold water all over my head. So it was a chilly one.
DEADLINE Yes, let’s talk about that. Did you happen to notice how they slo-mo’ed that scene when you washed yourself off with the gas station hose?
SCHMID I laughed because I turned to the director at one point and said, ‘this better not turn out like a cheesy music video. I’m already wearing a white T-shirt. This ain’t a white T-shirt contest. This ain’t a shampoo commercial.’ They’re like, ‘no, no, just tilt your head up and do that.’ And then they did it. I didn’t know it was in slow motion though. I was as surprised as you were.
DEADLINE So this episode explores the most the show has about Frank’s past.
SCHMID Episode five was pretty big. It was a case that was very close to Franks, something that he was unable to let go. And then episode 11, we got into some flashbacks with younger versions of myself before Vietnam when I had been drafted. So we got to meet my brother, which we discover in this episode has become estranged in my life. But in this episode, I would say the most happens. We go from the flashbacks to my relationship with Tish and how we met. So it’s a very big episode for Franks.
DEADLINE When did you find out that Franks was a bit of a loser back in the day? Did the showrunners let you know at the start of the season?
SCHMID It was discussed between myself and the writers over the course of the last six months or so. Franks doesn’t have all of the qualities of a leader. I’m a byproduct of experiences in my life that get me from A to B. When I was the veteran, I hold the knowledge to be able to take orders, to be able to delegate, to survive. But nobody came back from Vietnam, and it was all rainbows and butterflies. Mike is broken. You can see by the way he is affected by all the cases in his life. You can see by his relationships, you can see by the way he’s unable to communicate He is a perfectly broken human being in a kind of wonderful way.
I think it’s unfair to call him a loser because, given the circumstances that vets were put in post-Vietnam, the government wasn’t taking care of anybody. The PTSD made it almost impossible to be able to carry a job. They were spat on and abused by US citizens for carrying out orders of a government. So he was a byproduct of a society that rejected him. Franks was lost. He felt disillusioned and unable to find an anchor in his own life. So he floated and perhaps found purpose in minimal tasks like, ‘hey, man, you want to drive some drugs across the states?’
And then he meets Tish. You have the beginning of this love story that is just kind of magical. But his wife is raped and he’s unable to protect her. Everything in his being supports his moral compass and his ability to protect those around him. Yet the person he loves the most in the world suffers at the hand of a stranger. What is his job? His job is to find these people. And she says, don’t. So in his head, he’s already failed.
DEADLINE How does it serve the story going forward, showing this chapter in his life when he was lost?
SCHMID I think that it’s easy to look at Mike at this base layer and think he’s like rough and tough, maybe Republican, screw the little person. The stuff that comes out of Mike’s mouth is very off-color a lot of the time. And not to use this example with that exact phrase, but he has a moment with Mary Jo, played by Tyla Abercrumbie. And they’re talking about trying to interview a little girl who happens to be Black. And he walks up and he goes, ‘Mary Jo, why don’t you go talk to her?’ She goes, ‘why? Because I’m Black?’ And he goes, ‘yeah.’ The simple fact is the little girl who happens to be Black and Mary Jo, who happens to be Black, will share more in common and be more comfortable around one another. But that doesn’t come out of Mike’s mouth very well. He just goes, yeah. Alright, move on. So in this episode we get to see a side of Mike that has been shit on, who has been tossed to the curb, who has been broken, who is a little more innocent and liberal than this kind of eccentric cop type that we stereotype in a show.
DEADLINE Why is Tish so opposed to you going after her attacker?
SCHMID She’s not afraid for my safety. Tish is the angel on Mike’s shoulder. But two wrongs don’t make a right period, no matter how much you want to justify it. Personally, I don’t necessarily disagree with what Mike’s doing. My moral compass might be spinning, too.
DEADLINE Is this split going to last for a bit? What can viewers expect?
SCHMID Tish is not gone. In episode 15 coming up, we’ll get a better look into who and why Tish is okay, and why she feels so strongly about what Mike is doing. Is the true love of your life ever really gone? They’re not. And I think the one important thing is that Tish gave Mike this mustache. At the end of the episode, she shaves him down. Every day that Mike looks in the mirror, he sees Tish. It is a reminder of the angel on your shoulder, the person who saved you from the black hole.
