'NCIS' season 13: can Jon Cryer's new surgeon character save Gibbs' life?
The fate of Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) is in Jon Cryer's hands when "NCIS" returns next season.
The star of "Two and a Half Men" will be donning surgery scrubs this time around, as he is set to portray Dr. Taft, a Navy surgeon tasked to try and save Gibbs' life after he was shot in the season 12 finale.
The role is not really a big departure for Cryer who played a chiropractor for 12 years in the now defunct "Two and a Half Men." But he admits that his role as a surgeon was so much more demanding, especially since he literally has Gibbs life on his hands.
In an interview with EW, the 50-year-old Cryer admits that he did not have a lot of time to prepare for the role.
"I got a call while I was on the train to Comic-Con in San Diego this year, and within a week I was shooting," he explains. "So I didn't have much time to prepare."
The actor added that he spent one day working with a surgeon who was eventually hired to assist him in his scene. As a matter of fact, it seems that everyone in the scene with Cryer was a trained medical professional.
"So it was only me, the guy who was supposed to be the badass doctor, who didn't know what he was doing," Cryer laughingly shared.
But despite the stress, the actor welcomed the role and said he had been waiting for a chance to guest in "NCIS" ever since it premiered in 2003. Admittedly though, he had another role in mind; one that involves him lying on the autopsy table in Ducky's lab. And as seen in his Twitter post, he got his wish (sort of).
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The actor, who is also known for playing Duckie in Pretty in Pink, shared that "NCIS" and "Two and a Half Men" started on the same year and that since then he has been hounding "NCIS'" actors "incessantly for a chance to act on the show." However, he wanted to be one of those "characters who die entertainingly in the first two minutes of the show."
Cryer will reportedly be seen in three episodes next season and hints that his character will be developing an interesting friendship with the embattled Gibbs.
"NCIS" season 13 returns on Sept. 22 on CBS.