If you were curious as to why Special Agent Kensi Blye (Daniela Ruah) has been lighter in the recent episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles, one possibility might be that the writers were giving her a little extra time off to prepare for tonight’s episode, “Live Free or Die Standing,” the fourth episode she’s directed, and which was written by her onscreen partner Eric Christian Olsen.
But her time off screen is a plus for new cast members Special Agent Fatima Namazi (Medalion Rahimi) and Special Agent Devin Rountree (Caleb Castille) because it affords them the opportunity to flex their wings a little more.
“It’s such a different experience directing them versus directing somebody like Eric, or Todd [LL Cool J] or Chris [O’Donnell] who are not only more established in the show but are more seasoned actors,” Ruah told Parade.com at PaleyFest. “They’re older and they’ve been around longer. Both Medalion and Caleb, they’re so eager to be like, ‘Yes, teach me all the tricks of the trade.’”
Ruah says it isn’t even just tricks of the trade that need to be learned for NCIS: Los Angeles, but there are tricks to this specific show. For example, the scenes that take place in ops are hard to get right, because there is very little action involved, just a lot of dialogue with information.
“There’s no emotional attachment and that’s hard to do,” Ruah explains. “Literally, very few people can do that convincingly. I’m not one of them. I can just sit there and go, ‘Yes, on it,’ and I’ll walk away saying, ‘Send the addresses to our phones.’ That’s basically where I fit into ops. Caleb, having this football background, he’s so athletic, he’s beautiful to watch on camera running after a bad guy or jumping over a car. It’s just amazing. I’m so proud of them. They deserve to be here.”
Now that her directorial chores for this season are complete, we can expect to see more of Kenzi as she returns to partner with Deeks (Olsen) on tonight’s back-to-back episodes, which will continue the now-married couple’s struggle with fertility as they try to get pregnant and start a family.
“Kensi and Deeks have gone through a fertility journey,” Ruah continues. “I’d like to add that I did my very best to be as authentic as possible throughout that journey. I have dear friends who went through that, and I made a point of calling them and saying, ‘Walk me through every moment, every tear, every laughter, every nauseous moment you had.’ This is the story of a lot of women, a lot of men as well because they accompany their partners on this journey.”
At this point in time, Kenzi and Deeks have come to the conclusion that she isn’t going to get pregnant and they’re exploring the possibility of foster care, but all Ruah will reveal is “There is foster talk coming with particular characters we may have met already.”
In real life, Ruah has been blessed with two children with husband David Paul Olsen, Eric’s brother, which viewers know because she had to be written out each time for her maternity leave. So, while it hasn’t been a personal issue for her, she is aware that it is an important topic to feature on a broadcast TV series.
“I also don’t think it’s something that we have seen on television a whole lot, a least not on something like a procedural,” she says. “I also think it’s like you’re combining a story that should be told and that is emulating many, many women’s experiences, but at the same time we also saw the issue that these characters had, which was if I got pregnant, I’m out of the job for a while so what does that mean for the partnership, what does that mean for work process?”
That has been a major issue for Kensi, who has said in past seasons that this job is her identity: Without this what am I?
“I can relate to that aspect of it because I am a mother through and through. No. 1 I am a mother, I am dedicated, I am at every event that my children have. However, I also know that I don’t believe I would feel like a complete human being if that was 100 percent of me. I have to have an identity outside of my home. So, I do identify with Kensi in that way. Now, I know that it’s possible to balance the two things and be happy with both of those things.”
Of course, that also brings to mind the fact that as an actress, Ruah’s life is not in danger when she goes to work, but as an NCIS special agent, her life is on the line constantly.
“There are a lot of women in law enforcement, there are a lot of women in the military and they don’t stop conceiving because of it,” she points out. “There really is no right answer. I feel like if the show had gone in one particular direction or another, we would have been forced to have an opinion on whether women in law enforcement should have babies or not. That isn’t something that anybody else should be opining on because that’s a personal choice, right? So, I think this was the perfect fix where, well, if they can’t get pregnant then that’s a non-issue, and now we can develop into something which is also important, which is infertility, and something else that’s very important, which is there are so many children that need wonderful homes. So, we were able to touch upon many beautiful social things that needed to be talked about.”