The combination of starring as LAPD Liaison Marty Deeks on NCIS: Los Angeles and reading On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society by Dave Grossman inspired Eric Christian Olsen—and his writing partner Babar Peerzada—to come up with an idea for an episode of the series, the end result of which can be scene in Sunday’s “Mother” episode.
“One of the things we really wanted to dive into is: What are the emotional repercussions of living a life of violence?,” Olsen tells Parade.com in this exclusive interview.
On Killing looks at the idea, from studies done during World War II, of the ability of a soldier to fire his gun, to take a life, and how humans are not naturally built for that, so the government and the military researched the subject to figure out how to get soldiers to pull the trigger.
“So much of it wasn’t about the individual,” Olsen says. “It was never about one’s own desires. The only way to get that success rate—and I say success rate understanding the irony—the way to get these people to fire the gun, the weapon, was making it about something larger, and so it was about family. It was about protecting democracy.”
With the idea implanted in soldiers’ minds that they were protecting those that they loved, the kill ratio rose into the 90 percentile.
“But what’s the fallout of that, and what happens when we’re brought into this life of violence and all of those things that give it justification and rationalization, which are democracy and family love, when those things are stripped away and we’re left with just the violence?,” Olsen questioned.
Applying that idea to Hetty Lange (Linda Hunt), he came up with the idea of her having “rescued” someone like she had Callen (Chris O’Donnell), but then she lost him, and in losing him, he lost his justification for the violence that he committed.
Carl Beukes (Ahkos Laos)
That someone is Akhos Laos (Carl Beukes), a former black ops agent that Hetty originally recruited and trained, who in Sunday’s 250th episode, returns to seek revenge on Hetty for the life she introduced him to.
“It turns dark, and when he returns, because they owe humanity a debt, his POV is it is a debt that only can be repaid in their blood. He’s horrified of the things that he’s done.”
Olsen sees a parallel between the Frankenstein story and Hetty’s turning Laos into a black ops agent. So much so, that he and Peerzada wrote a line where Laos turns to Hetty and says, “Are you proud of me? Are you proud of what you created?” And you can see in her eyes that she’s horrified by it, and then she’s got to confront Callen, terrified that the life she brought him into isn’t the life for any of them.
The timing of the episode couldn’t be more perfect because last week featured a scene where Nell (Renée Felice Smith), who was afraid for the kidnapped Eric Beale’s (Barrett Foa) life, told Hetty that she isn’t going to be her.
“It follows perfectly,” Olsen agrees. “One of my favorite lines in episode 250 is a reflection of what [showrunner] Scott [Gemmill] said in one of my last meetings with him. He said, ‘I think there needs to be a beat where Nell recognizes what’s happening,’ and we wrote a line for Nell, where she’s staring at the screen where everything has gone sideways — we think at this point that Deeks is in peril and Hetty could be dead, the whole world is falling apart – and she stares at the screen and says, ‘This is what happens when you try to play god in the lives of the people you say you love.’ It’s such an ambitious line, such an impossible line to deliver, and Renée crushed it.”
Linda Hunt (Henrietta “Hetty” Lange)
Hetty is such a favorite. Why do you think that is?
I think it’s what Linda Hunt brings to Hetty. I don’t think you can separate that. I think Linda Hunt is the ground that Hetty stands on. The foundation that gives it that gravitas comes from deep within the bones of Linda Hunt. I think that’s why it’s such a powerful character. I think that she’s the glue that holds the group together, which is really interesting to explore in upcoming episodes. I think because she’s so strong as an actor and as a character, but also so likeable, she’s able to do unlikeable things and we’re still able to be emotionally connected to her and her journey.
When I looked at IMDB, this is your first writing credit. Why now?
I had been writing on other projects before, and I had pitched this idea to Scott and our producers about two years ago. Being on the show as long as I have, I’ve fallen in love with these characters, just like our audience has, and really had some themes and character explorations that I wanted to dive into. They were nice enough to let me keep turning in: Here’s an outline; here’s the themes; Here’s what I want to do. They just kept saying yes. They were unbelievably supportive, and even to the day when we started shooting, I was like, “I can’t believe this is actually happening.” It was all so surreal.
It was your idea, but how did the collaboration work? Did you work with one of the writers on the show to develop it?
No. A writing partner that I had written another project with — we did the origin story of Buddha, Siddhartha together — we had talked about an idea that we wanted to bring to the show. So, Babar and I sat down, came up with the idea, and then I pitched it to Scott Gemmill. He was like, “Oh, that’s interesting,” and he gave me the traditional steps of development for episodic television to write an episode, so we just kept doing the blueprints that they gave us.
And it worked.
It was amazing the whole way, which is crazy, because his notes were always…even the times where he said, “I think this is a little ambitious, but let’s give this a shot,” … the process of working with Scott and Kyle [Harimoto] and Frank [Military] and all these guys was amazing. They were all incredibly supportive.
You bring something different to writing a script because you’re also an actor on the show. Do you think that it’s that you have more familiarity with the characters?
I don’t know. The dialogue aspect of it maybe, because I spend so much time on set with these characters, listening to it every day, while a writer will write two episodes, three episodes a year. I’m with them all day, every day, watching them and seeing what works coming from that character. So, I think, it’s a different position. I wouldn’t argue that it’s better or worse. I think it’s just a different POV into what dialogue looks like for these characters.
How does it feel different when you’re on set now and people are saying your words?
That’s incredibly surreal. To have sat down, came up with this idea to the point where you now have hundreds and hundreds of people working towards making this … just little data bites in a computer, to now they’re shooting, and they’re asking me questions, about, “We’ve got this museum scene, and you wrote that we have a bear and a lion. We have this kind of lion. Look at this,” and you’re just like, “Oh, all of this is incredibly real.” You’re looking through the budgetary constraints, and J.P.K. [John Peter Kousakis], who is one of the best producers in Hollywood, is helping you sort through how you wrote an episode that probably costs $10 million and how you bring it down to something that’s producible. That aspect of it was incredible.
You write these scenes for LL Cool J, and then LL Cool J’s saying the dialogue, and that’s insane. To listen to LL and Chris O’Donnell do scenes that you wrote, of course, as I’m writing them, I’m laughing, and some of those scenes, obviously, had to be cut because we were 12 minutes over, but watching those two guys, who I love and respect, act out a scene dealing with the themes that you wrote was nothing short of magic.
To be a part of the production of this, watching these guys and sitting behind the monitors and watching it come to life, I think that’s true for all writers, especially from somebody that doesn’t get this opportunity. It was incredible.
