‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ Showrunner Reveals the Show’s Plan for Bringing Back Hetty
If you keep up with NCIS: Los Angeles, then you know that Linda Hunt has not been around too much on the show. She plays the fantastic Hetty Lange on there and her character, of course, has a deep connection with G. Callen, played by Chris O’Donnell.
Well, this coming season, we are going to see Callen marry Anna, played by Bar Paly, and he’d like to have Hetty there. But she’s been on assignment in Syria and not around that much. That’s been in the show’s storylines. Yet there was some concern during the COVID-19 pandemic about her health. After all, Hunt is 77 years old.
Showrunner for ‘NCIS: Los Angeles’ Offers Up Details About Linda Hunt
She would not be able to appear on the show’s set and her scenes would be filmed at her Los Angeles area home. That was done to keep her safe and away from others. Well, there happened to have been a little bit of a new COVID concern. The showrunner talked about it as well as what might be in the plans to bring Hunt back into the show.
“The plan,” showrunner R. Scott Gemmill says to TVLine, “is to go and rescue her at some point, find out what she’s gotten herself into. We’re just trying to figure out schedule-wise when we can pull that off. That was the plan last year, too, but it didn’t come to fruition. We had a bit of a [COVID variant] surge, but things seem to be settling down a bit. Hopefully, nothing new comes along and we can make that happen this year.”
Chris O’Donnell Talked About Doing Scenes With Hetty
Gemmill adds that once Season 14 starts up, viewers will be able to see Callen think about his wedding when “he realizes he has unfinished business, and wouldn’t want to get married without Hetty present.” Lange is Callen’s adoptive mother and he definitely wants her to be on hand for the big moment.
Well, what is it like to do scenes with Hunt? O’Donnell happened to talk about it in an interview. “Some of the scenes with Linda Hunt… she’s such an amazing actress you don’t know what to expect,” he said in a Studio 10 interview. “I read the script and I read the scene out loud, but she has such a way with the English language and the way words roll off her tongue that it’s never what I expect.” He would add this as well. “To be there face to face with her is an exhilarating experience,” the star said. One thing is for sure. That show really does get a big boost from having Hunt on there regularly.
