NCIS star Michael Weatherly revealed that it took several days for him to find out his sister died while he was filming.
Weatherly, 57, who reprised his role as Tony DiNozzo in Paramount+’s spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva, recalled stepping away from acting after experiencing several personal losses.
“I took a few years off because I had burned myself into a bit of a puddle. I was directing and acting, I did 125 episodes of Bull. I started seeing the writing on the wall, and I said, ‘This is exhausting,’” he told Hello! Magazine on Wednesday, September 3. “I wasn’t connecting with the character in a way that felt like I was in flow, so I took time off.”
The actor said he “was so busy making television” when his sister died that he “didn’t find out for three days.” His brother and father died in 2023 and 2024, respectively, while he was in production on Tony & Ziva.
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“It’s very interesting how many people moved on to the next plane over the last few years,” Weatherly said. “And that brought an urgency back into my world.”
Weatherly originally starred on NCIS as Tony DiNozzo from seasons 1 to 13. He later appeared on CBS’ Bull from 2016 to 2022, during which time he was accused of sexual harassment by costar Eliza Dushku. The actress received a $9.5 million settlement from CBS after alleging Weatherly made several inappropriate comments about her.
“Weatherly had a habit of exaggerated eye-balling and leering at me; once, he leaned into my body and inhaled, smelling me in a dramatic swoon,” Dushku wrote in a December 2018 Boston Globe op-ed. “As was caught on tape, after I flubbed a line, he shouted in my face, ‘I will take you over my knee and spank you like a little girl.’”
Weatherly apologized in a statement to The New York Times that same month.
“During the course of taping our show, I made some jokes mocking some lines in the script,” he said at the time. “When Eliza told me that she wasn’t comfortable with my language and attempt at humor, I was mortified to have offended her and immediately apologized. After reflecting on this further, I better understand that what I said was both not funny and not appropriate and I am sorry and regret the pain this caused Eliza.”
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While reflecting on his return to TV, Weatherly admitted it wasn’t an easy decision.
“My wife and I have this conversation all the time. It’s very difficult to take time and look at yourself,” he noted in Wednesday’s interview. “You have to go through the bottom of yourself, and I was able to get there — I did a lot of therapy, a lot of reckoning and examination of different things.”
Weatherly’s time off also allowed him to be more picky about the jobs he takes on.
“When I was at a certain point in my career, I would say, ‘If it feels wrong, then it must be right, because everything feels wrong.’ I took a lot of time and examined those words closely, and now, if it feels wrong, I say, ‘Let’s talk about it,’” he added. “I care a lot less about what people think about me. But in a great way — I want to be understood.”
NCIS: Tony & Ziva airs new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.
