News
Pauley Perrette Will ‘Never Again’ Return to Acting: ‘NCIS’ Star Is ‘A Different Person Now’
Pauley Perrette fans should not expect to see her back on their TV screens any time soon. The NCIS alum made rare comments about why she decided to hang up her hat from acting.
In an interview with Hello! Magazine on Tuesday, October 1, Pauley, 55, said that she would “never again” act in another project.
“I’m not ungrateful for the benefits that it gave to me,” she said. “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.”
Pauley portrayed Abby Sciuto on NCIS from 2003 to 2018. Her other acting credits include Murder One, Frasier, Time of Your Life and Dawson’s Creek. She then acted in 13 episodes of the show Broke in 2020.
It’s been four years since her last acting appearance. In 2023, the Louisiana native executive produced Studio One Forever.
“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 told the outlet. “My character didn’t have all of the problems that I was having.”
“It’s why I only watch documentaries, I want the truth,” she added. “For me, going back to being an actor would be taking away from this life of true authenticity that I’m living 100 percent of the time.”
Pauley made similar comments in July 2020, revealing that she was retiring from acting in a post on X.
“Actually I retired after NCIS but BROKE was important, beautiful.I did my last dance & am proud of it! Everyone that knows me knew I was retiring right after,” she wrote. “I’m proud of my work. I love you guys! I AM FREE!!! (To be the tiny little simple human I am!) #Plants #RescuePets #Books.”
Pauley once talked about how she “accidentally” became an actress.
“I was planning on finishing my master’s degree at John Jay School of Criminal Justice, but then I accidentally became an actress,” she told The Bonfire in 2018. “But I wanted to be a crime fighter. I wanted to be a cop or work for the FBI. That’s what I thought I would be doing right now.”
She started two scholarship programs for women interested in careers in math and science who were inspired by her NCIS character.
“Abby is not just a TV character for people,” she told People in May 2018. “These young girls have modeled their entire lives off of her. It’s like Abby has raised a couple of generations of young girls and has inspired this international phenomenon of young women going into math and science and STEM programs because she made it accessible, cool, attainable and fun.”
“It’s a scholarship that is going to make Abby live forever in the real lives of these young people that find out about this,” Pauley added.
