When he first signed onto the series, actor Rob Kerkovich never imagined that he would be one of the field agents running around busting bad guys on NCIS: New Orleans. As forensic scientist Sebastian Lund, the actor was braced to spend most of his days dissecting bodies in a lab. But over the course of the show’s third season, both Kerkovich and Sebastian have broken free from the lab coat, pursuing a new path as a full-fledged NCIS special agent.
Tonight’s new episode, called “Return of the King,” sees Sebastian finally hanging in there with Dwayne Pride (Scott Bakula) and the rest of the NCIS team as a full-time part of the group. For Kerkovich’s part, playing out Sebastian’s career change has been nothing short of a dream come true.
“It was something I dreamt about over the prior two seasons,” the actor told Parade during a recent trip to the NCIS: New Orleans set. “‘It would be kind of cool if I had a gun and was running around.’ That was just the kid in me who grew up watching Lethal Weapon and stuff. When they told me at the beginning of this season that it was actually going to happen, I literally the next day woke up assuming it was a dream I had. Then I realized it actually happened!”
Of course, Sebastian is still a long way from standing shoulder to shoulder with the Riggs and Murtaughs of the action genre world; over the course of the season, the show has taken its time before fully immersing the character in all-out field work.
“It’s been fun to slow play it,” says Kerkovich. “The way they’ve described it to me is that it’s like being an avatar for the audience a little bit. You watch these shows and you wish you could be like these people who are out there running around chasing down bad guys. What would happen if one of us who watched the show was plopped into the situation of those characters? There would be a steep learning curve and it would take a while, but it would also be fun to watch what would happen if you were actually placed into that scenario.”
He puts it another way: “When you watch Back to the Future and you see Marty McFly, he does these pretty awesome things, but it’s not because he’s some tough, badass guy. It’s because he uses his brain and a little bit of luck. That’s what makes you relate to him a little bit more, rather than just being able to automatically take down a bunch of guys. That’s what I’m hoping we explore with Sebastian.”
“I don’t think there’s anyway I could play an Arnold Schwarzenegger type,” Kerkovich concludes, “but there are definitely ways we can play with how his intellect is going to help him out here.”
Watch the video below to see a preview of the all-new episode of NCIS: New Orleans, airing February 7 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS:
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