Austin Stowell on Tackling Personal Tragedy to Play Young Gibbs

“I truly am Gibbs at this point.”

Austin Stowell arrives at this conclusion 90 minutes into an emotional conversation about taking on the leading role in “NCIS: Origins,” the prequel series to the long-running procedural. Set in 1991, four months after special agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ wife and daughter are murdered, “Origins” (which premieres on CBS on Oct. 14) is darker in tone and will illustrate Gibbs’ path to becoming the taciturn character portrayed so charismatically by Mark Harmon.

“The grief that he’s going through is not something that we can avoid. And as an actor, I’m someone who very much feels all of it,” says Stowell, pausing to think about his own father. “There were so many parallels to my own life — issues with suicide, a relationship between a father and a son, a feeling of imposter syndrome. It just feels right.”

On a humid September day, Stowell has chosen to meet at Birds, a neighborhood haunt in Hollywood. He’s biked over straight from set on the Paramount lot, and he knows most of the staff here — it’s where he worked for two years when he moved from Connecticut to L.A. in 2008 and was sleeping on his agent’s floor. This was just one of his odd jobs — another was caddying for Bill Murray — but it was while he was pouring beers that he landed his breakthrough role on “The Secret Life of the American Teenager.”

After the teen drama, he took on several “artistically accepted” projects, including Steven Spielberg’s “Public Morals” and “Bridge of Spies,” and “Catch-22” alongside George Clooney.

Then, in 2020, Stowell’s father died by suicide, and he moved back to the East Coast to be closer to his mother.

“It led me to probably some of the darkest days in my life, but then eventually this kind of rebirth,” Stowell says as his eyes fill with tears. That tragedy prompted “an array of emotions” and a questioning of purpose, all of which he sifted through while waiting out the COVID pandemic and strikes in Vermont. He filled his days with skiing, hiking, making honey and driving to Connecticut to have dinners with his mom. Then, his agent called with “NCIS: Origins.”

Stowell wasn’t particularly interested in taking on a procedural that could run multiple years and admits that thought was daunting, at first. But, the script felt personal.

“A lot of my relationship with my father plays through with Gibbs and his estranged relationship with his dad,” he says. “We both wish it were better, and we don’t know how to say the things that are in our hearts, not ready to face the truth and say it out loud.”

A few times throughout our conversation, Stowell gets pulled away in his thoughts. “Sorry, I can’t help but think of my dad,” he tells me, pausing to gather himself. Growing up, they bonded together over films like “Field of Dreams” and “Braveheart.”

“He loved that movie, and he would weep,” he says of latter. “That’s a big reason I do what I do. I love what storytelling does for people. I’ve seen the very real results and positive outcomes that it brings to people’s lives. If I can do that with this character for years? Consider me signed up. You asked if I’m afraid [it’ll go years]. Absolutely not. I’m afraid it’ll go away.”

He also knows his dad would love “NCIS: Origins.” While he wouldn’t quote Gibbs, “he would quote Franks a lot,” Stowell laughs. “He used to quote Sipowicz from ‘NYPD Blue’ all the time.”

The original Gibbs, Harmon, exited “NCIS” in 2021 but returns for “Origins” as narrator and executive producer. He came to the 2003 procedural with a similar skepticism Stowell had, reading the script, not expecting to like it. “I was looking to stay home more; I was traveling a lot and our family was young,” he says. Yet he was drawn to the name Leroy Jethro Gibbs. “It stopped me.”

In a later draft, the name was changed to “Bob Nelson or something,” Harmon says, and he demanded it be changed back. Then came the first day of shooting, which lasted 22 hours. “Not exactly my idea of staying home more,” Harmon laughs. “There were a lot of days like that in the first four years, a lot of ups and downs. There were cast changes, arc changes, writer changes. At one point, 33 writers had left that show.”

From the moment Stowell walked into the audition room, Harmon knew he was the right man to fill Gibbs’ shoes. “This character has a weight to it. He didn’t ask for that; I didn’t ask for that either,” says Harmon. “Austin’s the guy to take this weight.”

When Gibbs’ “NCIS” journey came to an end, he was alone. His work had been his life — but he looked “pretty content,” Stowell says. “Did he give too much of himself to the job? I don’t know.”

Three months into filming, Stowell could be describing himself. “I’m married to the job,” he says — and is grateful for the charater Harmon built, and for his predecessor’s availability through the transition. Whether he wants to talk about a specific storyline or discuss his hobbies, Harmon is there.

For example, Stowell is a huge New York Yankees fan — “a degenerate,” as he describes. He often references Lou Gegrig’s famous speech, quoting it during our interview: “Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.” Stowell continues, “He talked about catching a bad break but having a whole lot to look forward to. And if that’s not Gibbs, I don’t know what is.”

When Harmon heard Stowell was a diehard Yankees fan, he made a call. “Next thing I know, I’ve got a pair of shorts that show up from Yankees camp with the No. 4 stitched into the back,” he says. “You can’t buy them! He called somebody at the camp for their warm-ups. They’re gigantic. I roll them six times!”

That’s just one story Stowell tells about Harmon. At the recent Creative Arts Emmys, he was excited to introduce himself to Jamie Lee Curtis. “She goes, ‘I know who you are. Mark talks about you all the time,’” he recalls. Curtis and Harmon play husband and wife in “Freaky Friday,” which just filmed a new sequel. After he contained his excitement, he told her how important “The Bear” had been to him and his family. “Particularly the ‘Fishes’ episode, I felt like I was watching my childhood. So I said, ‘I’ve gotta let you know that it really brought true healing for my brother and I.’ And that’s the power of TV.”

The role of Gibbs has changed Stowell’s life. The message — being a team is always better than being on your own — is one he takes to heart. “Playing Gibbs is making me want to be a better human being,” he says.

“We know who Gibbs becomes — this warmhearted, loyal but justified man, and someone who has made tons of mistakes,” adds Stowell. And he can relate: “I’m happy to have fallen down, happy to be well versed in using an eraser.”