Former 'NCIS' star Pauley Perrette reveals career change after quitting acting

Former NCIS Star Pauley Perrette has spoken about her retirement from acting in a rare interview and explained why she has no interest in returning to the screen.

In conversation with Hello! In Perrette magazine, she said she would “never” return to acting, although she was “not ungrateful for all the benefits it has brought me.”

“But I'm a different person now and I want to be there for everything – the good, the bad and the painful,” she continued. “I want to be myself all the time, and it takes a lot of courage to tell myself that, but it's authentic to how I feel.”

Perrette is best known for the role of forensic scientist Abby Sciuto NCIS from 2003 to 2018. After her exit from NCISshe landed the lead role of Jackie in the CBS sitcom Broke. However, Broke was canceled after one season in May 2020 and Perrette retired from acting two months later.

Photo: Darren Michaels/CBS ©2015 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved

The former actress is now working on documentaries; She was a producer on Studio One forevera documentary that tells the untold story of the legendary Los Angeles disco that became a beacon of hope for men in the 1970s and 1980s.

“At this point in my life I feel a deep need to find authenticity in everything and being an actor, especially at certain points in my life, has been a great escape; It's like a drug because I didn't have to be myself, I could be someone else. “My character didn’t have all the problems that I had,” Perrette said Hello!

“That’s why I only watch documentaries. I want the truth. For me, returning to acting would be a loss of that life of true authenticity that I live 100%,” she added.

In 2019, after her exit from NCISPerrette took to X (then known as Twitter) and declared, “NO, I’M NOT COMING BACK! ALWAYS! (Please stop asking?) I'm terrified that (Mark) Harmon and him will attack me. I have nightmares about it.”

It was previously reported that Perrette had left NCIS amid a conflict with series star Harmon over an on-set incident involving a dog bite and alleged multiple physical assaults. At the time, CBS released a statement saying the network was “committed to a safe work environment on all of our broadcasts.”