NEW YORK, Oct. 13 (UPI) — Rapper and actor LL Cool J reprises his iconic role of Special Agent Sam Hanna in the new CBS procedural, NCIS: New York, airing Tuesday nights.
The character was introduced in NCIS in 2009, then anchored NCIS: Los Angeles for 14 seasons from 2009 to 2023. After that, he appeared on NCIS: Hawaii from 2023 to 2024.
“The cool thing about it is, it’s not a pick-up-where-you-left-off thing. It’s more of a new world thing. Sam, in the context of New York, is in search of redemption and you’re delving into aspects of his character and personality that we haven’t seen,” LL Cool J, 58, told UPI during a round-table interview with reporters at New York Comic Con Sunday.
“That’s fun as an actor because you would think that he did everything,” he explained. “We don’t know everything about Sam. So, we’ve discovered some new stuff and it’s so character-ful with that as a procedural that I think it’s going to be just exciting and fun for people to watch.”
LL Cool J pointed out that he is one of few actors who has gotten to play the same character for nearly two decades, logging in hundreds of hours of screen time.
“When I think about Rambo and I think about Rocky and I think about all of the various iconic franchise heroes that we’ve had over the years, not many people, honestly, get an opportunity to play a character for this long and do this many exciting things,” he said.
“I could have taken my ball and gone home a long time ago. It’s just fun. I’m having a good time. I get to play a cool character. I get to explore. I get to work with great actors. I get to learn everything from these actors. I get to learn every day. We get to tear scripts apart. Look at beats. Look at moments. Find through lines. Look at false moments, make them real,” he added.
“First and foremost, I’m an artist and I’m interested in expressing myself as an artist and this allows me to do that.”
The latest chapter in the NCIS franchise brings Sam to the East Coast to investigate the murder of a friend, a fellow former Navy SEAL.
With a reputation that proceeds him, Sam is enthusiastically welcomed into the Manhattan NCIS field office and, by the end of the first episode, he has a new partner Nick (Scott Caan) and supervisor Robyn (Jennifer Beals).
“I would say it’s a dance and, when the music comes on, you dance and then we find the rhythm and we find how we interact in that,” LL Cool J said about his chemistry with his co-stars. “We just connect on that level and that’s what we do.”
He said it was important to writer-producer Byron Balasco that they focus on how the trio and the rest of their team work together and bring out the best in each other as they investigate criminal cases with military or maritime connections.
“Byron is really interested in finding out who these human beings are and it really is a family show, in a lot of ways, in establishing their family and all of the function/dysfunction, normal/unorthodox stuff that happens within a family,” LL Cool J said.
“That’s all of the things that we’re going to deal with on a daily basis in this show, while still having that foundation of a procedural. Our goal is to elevate what we do to give you a procedural that’s true to the NCIS universe, but gives you a little bit more to chew on than you’re probably normally used to chewing on in these kinds of shows.”
The actor said he can’t pinpoint exactly what makes this franchise as incredibly successful as it is.
“We all want the secret sauce and we want to pour it on everything and make everything win all the time,” LL Cool J laughed.
“I have zero Idea,” he added. “Only thing I know is that you try to have fun, try to have a good time, take the work serious. You don’t take yourself too serious, but you’re serious about what you’re doing and get out of the way, let it happen.”