Kyle Schmid Details His NCIS: Origins Transformation, Teases Mike Franks’ Plan to Help a ‘Broken’ Young Gibbs

When Kyle Schmid showed up for the NCIS: Origins panel at this summer’s Television Critics Association press tour, he was rocking the most Muse Watson-y mustache that ever mustached.

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That’s because Schmid in the prequel series will portray no less than a younger version of the Mike Franks character Watson played in nearly 20 episodes across a dozen years of CBS’ original NCIS .

TVLine spoke with Schmid, whose previous TV credits include History’s SIX and ABC’s Big Sky , about the method behind his mustache-ness.

“Becoming Mike Franks is interesting, because the fandom of NCIS is kind of unlike anything I’d ever been a part of,” he noted. “But in my opinion, as long as you play within the rules of specifics, it will allow you the freedom [as an actor] to do what you love individually.

“To me, the specifics were holding true to some physicality — and the mustache is one of those things,” Schmid explained. “I think it sets him apart, I also think it’s very period. And the Franks character that was so well rooted in the original series, in my opinion, kind of ‘stayed’ in 1991. So it only felt right to have the mustache at that time.”

Schmid, however, took his channeling of Mike Franks — his holding true of specifics — a step or two further.

“I convinced the producers to let me wear dark brown contacts,” says the blue-eyed actor, “because when you’re filling the shoes of somebody like Muse — not filling the shoes, but evoking — you want all of those things. If I look in the mirror and see Kyle Schmid when I’m about to walk out of my trailer, it’s not the same as looking in the mirror and seeing somebody completely different that you built from the ground up.”

Schmid also has adopted a speaking voice different from his own and more in keeping with how Watson has sounded on NCIS . “Every single day from 7 o’clock in the morning when I arrive, to 6 pm, 8 pm, 10 pm when I leave, this is what I do,” he said, slipping into his Franks voice. “I stay in character from the beginning of work to the end of work.”

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The mustache, the hair, the eyes and the voice, as Schmid noted, will help longtime NCIS fans identify and relate to this younger version of this key figure from Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ life. But it’s the story that unfolds, beginning with Gibbs joining the NIS Camp Pendleton office in 1991, that will slowly but surely lay the foundation for the mens’ long-lasting friendship.

To quickly recap, Gibbs joined NIS not long after completing his tour in Operation Desert Storm and retiring — all while mourning his wife Shannon and their daughter Kelly, both of whom were tragically murdered by drug dealer Pedro Hernandez while Gibbs was still overseas, about to return home.

“As Mark Harmon and [showrunners] Gina [Monreal] and David [North] mentioned [at TCA], there was something ‘broken’ in the Jethro Gibbs character in the beginning, something that I believe Mike Franks sees in part in himself,” said Schmid.

“To potentially lose somebody based on the circumstances and experiences that they’ve had is a shame, and I think Mike Franks sees an opportunity to try and save somebody from themselves,” Schmid continued. “Bringing Gibbs into the world of NIS in 1991 was an opportunity to give an incredibly talented young man a second chance after a broken heart.”

Summing up that early Franks/Gibbs dynamic, co-showrunner North told TVLine, “They’re boss and probie! And there’s nothing I love writing more. Seeing Gibbs in these situations you could never imagine Mark [Harmon] in, it’s been just wonderful .”

NCIS: Origins debuts Monday, Oct. 14 at 9/8c with a double-episode premiere, before claiming its regular 10 pm time slot the following week .

Want scoop on NCIS: Origins , or for any other TV show ? Email InsideLine@tvline.com , and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line!

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