What To Know
- Adam Campbell was the guest on the June 9 episode of the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast.
- Campbell shared his conversations with David McCallum about taking on the role of the younger version of the latter’s character.
“I was a little bit scared because I knew how precious the character was,” Adam Campbell said of taking on the role of young Ducky on the NCIS: Partners & Probies podcast episode released on Tuesday, June 9.
Campbell first appeared on NCIS in Season 12. He’s now been in five episodes of the mothership as the younger version of David McCallum‘s character and he brought him over to the prequel, Origins, for two as well.
When Campbell first took on the role, he told podcast hosts Brian Dietzen (Dr. Jimmy Palmer) and Diona Reasonover (Kasie Hines), he hadn’t watched much of NCIS. He did check out “as much” as he could after he got the job in the five days leading up to taking on the character.
“I immediately felt intimidated. I felt, ‘Oh my gosh, this is a really good character. I really don’t want to mess it up,’” Campbell shared. “I was aware that I would be under scrutiny, so, I was a little daunted, to say the least.”
He revealed that McCallum called him and said, “I hear you’re playing the younger version of me. Let’s have lunch.” They did and “talked about the character and I felt brilliant after that,” Campbell said. “First, to have him on board with it. Maybe it’s weird for somebody else to play a younger version of yourself. I didn’t know how he would react to me, and he couldn’t have been nicer. We talked a little bit about the character and maybe how to do it, how not to do it. One thing he said: ‘Don’t try and do an impression of me.’ Which was a really helpful thing to do because I was going to do an impression.”
What Campbell also found to be “very helpful” were Ducky’s “non-negotiables” that McCallum told him.
“David said to me, Ducky does like to find the humor in things. Don’t be afraid to find an odd, quirky take on a situation, which I found quite helpful,” he said on the podcast. “We talked about his kindness as a person. He’s not motivated by selfishness or personal gain. He said he treats everyone pretty equally, whether they’re the politician or the plumber. These are all things that come out as you watch him play it. But it was great to have him assert that to me.”
Campbell then brought his version of Ducky to NCIS: Origins to reunite with the character of Gibbs (Sean Harmon on NCIS, Austin Stowell on the prequel). While he figured young Ducky would show up at some point, he hadn’t assumed that he would be the one to play the character.
“I thought realistically, if you’re gonna recast it, this would be the time to do it,” Campbell said on NCIS: Partners & Probies. “I obviously was really hoping that I would do it, but I fully understood that it might be an opportunity to find a different actor to play and you know maybe bring something different to it. So, I was really relieved when I got a phone call to say, ‘Would you come and do it again?’ It felt like a massive vote of confidence and I was very excited to do it because I love playing that role. I was genuinely relieved to get that call.”
He also shared that he “got a series of lovely text messages” from Mark Harmon, who starred as Gibbs on the mothership for 19 seasons and remains an executive producer on both series. “He’s always been so kind to me.”
NCIS, Season 24, Fall 2026, Tuesdays, 8/7c, CBS