{"id":1070,"date":"2024-12-17T15:50:15","date_gmt":"2024-12-17T15:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=1070"},"modified":"2024-12-17T15:50:15","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T15:50:15","slug":"mark-harmons-iconic-michael-weatherly-slap-happened-during-an-improvised-ncis-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=1070","title":{"rendered":"Mark Harmon\u2019s iconic Michael Weatherly slap happened during an improvised NCIS scene"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

Mark Hamon and Michael Weatherly\u2019s off-script moment\u00a0in season one of NCIS became a staple throughout the show.<\/a><\/p>\n

During episode five in season one, titled The Curse, of\u00a0the CBS police procedural<\/a>, Mark who plays\u00a0Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs<\/a>\u00a0slaps Michael\u2019s character,\u00a0Special Agent Anthony \u201cTony\u201d DiNozzo,\u00a0<\/a>on the back of his head. That moment was improvised and was received so positively by the fans that it became a signature move for Leroy \u2013 especially with his interactions with Tony. The iconic move became dubbed the \u201cGibbs slap.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with French publication Premiere (per Showbiz CheatSheet<\/a>), Mark explained how the improvised moment came to be. The actor said: \u201cWe were doing a scene. And [Michael Weatherly] was on a Navy ship and he was talking to a female petty officer. I think this was in year one, early. And he was doing what he does, which is sometimes stay on script and sometimes not. I just reached over and smacked him. I tried to put him back online. It was an instinct. It wasn\u2019t thought, I didn\u2019t think about it, I just did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTo his credit, he stayed in the scene; he didn\u2019t break. And I didn\u2019t break. And the girl in the scene playing the petty officer, she was shocked, she was surprised. And she stayed there, and we just kept going. And people liked it. And every episode I was smacking him\u2013maybe too much. We still do that occasionally, but sparingly. That\u2019s where it came from,\u201d Mark continued.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Sean<\/figure>\n

The two worked together for 13 seasons from 2003 to 2016 until when Michael left the show. Mark and Michael did not have the greatest start in the beginning, and it\u2019s been rumored the two were feuding. In a chat with\u00a0Futon Critic<\/a>\u00a0in 2007, Michael spoke about how they were not close and did not mesh.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cMark Harmon and I were on different poles. I was Antarctica, he was the North Pole and we were just looking down there going, \u2018What is up with your polarity? What\u2019s going on? The water goes down the drain the other way for me,’\u201d the Dark Angel alum said.<\/p>\n

Michael continued, bringing up an example of their earlier dynamic: \u201cAnd he was confused by my presence right from the get-go. When CNN Showbiz Today or one of those things asked what was the best part about doing the pilot when we were doing the upfronts, I said, \u2018I got a rubber gun and I got a fake badge.\u2019 And Harmon looked at me like, \u2018that is your CNN answer?’\u201d<\/p>\n

In a interview with USA Today (via Looper<\/a>), Michael noted that being the lead of CBS\u2019 Bull for six years from 2016 to 2022 offered him a new perspective and understanding to Mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been very illuminating and given me a great deal of insight and regard for what Mark Harmon was doing all those years. When I was like, \u2018How come he doesn\u2019t have as much fun as the rest of us?\u2019\u201d he elaborated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Hamon and Michael Weatherly\u2019s off-script moment\u00a0in season one of NCIS became a staple throughout the show. During episode five in season one, titled The Curse, of\u00a0the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1070"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1072,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1070\/revisions\/1072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}