Why former ‘NCIS’ star Pauley Perrette says she won’t return to acting

Pauley Perrette says she has no intention of returning to television because it would take away “this life of true authenticity” that she’s living “100% of the time.”
The 55-year-old Perrette, who rose to popularity as forensic scientist Abby Sciuto in the hit CBS show “NCIS,” recently told Hello! Magazine that though she will not be returning to acting, she is “not ungrateful for all the benefits” the profession gave her.
“But I’m a different person now, and I want to be here for it – the good and the bad and the painful,” Perrette told the magazine. “I want to be me all the time, and it takes a good amount of courage for me to say that to myself, but it’s authentically how I feel.”
Perrette played Abby on “NCIS” from 2003 to 2018 before dramatically leaving the show over an alleged feud with co-star Mark Harmon.
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Reports suggest an on-set incident involving a dog bite. In a June 2019 post on X, Perrette said she was “terrified of Harmon and him attacking” her. At the time, CBS Television Studios responded to Perrette’s allegations in a statement, saying the studio worked with her to rectify an unspecified “concern” that she raised the previous year, USA TODAY reported earlier. Harmon hasn’t addressed the issue publicly.
In an April 2020 interview with USA TODAY, Perrette declined to comment on her cryptic tweets regarding her departure and about being kept silent, saying that it was a “part of her past.”
“That is a part of my past now, and it’s nothing that I have any need to talk about again, other than one thing: I’m certainly grateful for having the opportunity to play that character and I always will be,” she said.
After her exit from “NCIS,” Perrette played the lead role of Jackie in the CBS sitcom “Broke,” which she said was her favorite show to work on. “Broke” was canceled after one season in May 2020, and Perrette retired from acting two months later.
“I’m HAPPILY RETIRED! Finally! Woot! All I ever wanted!” Perrette wrote in a June 2020 post on X.
In a follow-up post, she clarified that she actually retired after “NCIS” but “Broke” was “important (and) beautiful.”
“I did my last dance & am proud of it!” Perrette said in the post. “Everyone that knows me knew I was retiring right after. I’m proud of my work. I love you guys! I AM FREE!!! (To be the tiny little simple human I am!)”
Following her retirement from acting, Perrette started working on documentaries and was a producer on “Studio One Forever,” which tells the story of a gay disco in Los Angeles, which became a beacon of hope for men in the 1970s and 1980s.
Perrette, who also starred in “Almost Famous” alongside Kate Hudson, suffered a major stroke in 2021 and said she is “still a survivor” despite “this traumatic life I’ve been given so far.”
“At this point in my life, I have this deep need to find authenticity in everything, and being an actor, especially at certain points in my life, was a great escape,” Perrette told Hello! “It’s like a drug because I didn’t have to be me, I could be somebody else. My character didn’t have all of the problems that I was having.”
“It’s why I only watch documentaries, I want the truth,” she continued. “For me, going back to being an actor would be taking away from this life of true authenticity that I’m living 100% of the time.”
Contributing: Bill Keveney, USA TODAY
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.