Why NCIS Star Pauley Perrette Will Never Return To Acting

Television Drama Shows

"NCIS" will return this fall for a staggering 22nd season, but the wildly popular crime procedural won't feature former co-star Pauley Perrette — this season, or ever again. The actress who played quirky goth forensics specialist (and certified scene-stealer) Abby Sciuto for well over a decade has been clear about as much in the past, but she recently spoke about her complete retirement from acting in a new interview with Hello! Magazine, saying she used acting as an escape from reality at some points in her career.

Perrette left "NCIS" in 2018, stating via an X post that she was subject to on-set bullying that turned physical and later setting the record straight by explaining that she would never come back to the show. "NO I AM NOT COMING BACK! EVER! (Please stop asking?)" the actress posted on X in 2019, naming co-star Dan Harmon as the source of her stress. "I am terrified of Harmon and him attacking me. I have nightmares about it," she continued. According to The Wrap, Perrette left "amid conflict with series star Mark Harmon over an on-set incident involving a dog bite." Despite the clearly fraught situation at "NCIS," Perrette acted once more after the series, appearing in 13 episodes of the short-lived CBS show "Broke."

Now, though, the actress says she's done with that career and looking forward to experiencing life as herself. "I'm not ungrateful for the benefits that [acting] gave to me," Perrette told Hello! this week. "But I'm a different person now and I want to be here for it – the good and the bad and the painful. 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 took an unusual path to stardom initially, working in bars, cooking on a tourist boat, and "[wearing] a sandwich board on roller skates passing out fliers for Taco Bell in the Diamond District" while studying criminal science in college (per The Associated Press). One day at the bar, someone mentioned a director contact who would like Perrette for a project, and suddenly, she was working in show business.

Perrette says in some ways, acting was an escape from reality

Many years and some apparent bad experiences later, Perrette has a unique perspective on the time she spent acting. "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; it's like a drug because I didn't have to be me, I could be somebody else," she explains. "My character didn't have all of the problems that I was having." Perrette says she thinks any return to acting would "be taking away from this life of true authenticity that [she's] living 100% of the time." Fair enough!

Even though she's not putting in network TV hours on set these days, Perrette is still involved in projects that are meaningful to her. As People points out, the longtime activist recently executive produced the documentary "Studio One Forever," which spotlights the famed West Hollywood gay nightclub Studio One and its longstanding place in LGBTQ+ history. Perrette has been open about her happiness post-"NCIS," and even though fans of Abby no doubt miss her, she's standing firm in her choice to leave the career she ended up in by accident all those years ago. On X in 2020, Perrette called "Broke" her planned "last dance" before retiring from acting. "I'm proud of my work. I love you guys! I AM FREE!!! (To be the tiny little simple human I am!)," she concluded, clearly celebrating. Perrette doesn't tell Hello! what's next for her, but the answer seems pretty clear: whatever she wants.