‘NCIS: Origins’: Caleb Foote Loves That Randy’s Kindness Is ‘Never Absolutely Broken’

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS: Origins Season 2 Episode 6 “Happy Birthday.”]

“This kid was meant to bring the kind of light that never goes out,” Mark Harmon says in his voiceover about Randy (Caleb Foote), who’s at the center of the Tuesday, November 18, episode of NCIS: Origins.

The episode shows his childhood in flashbacks, with Robyn Lively (who guest starred in the two-part JAG backdoor pilot for NCIS) playing his mom, as he celebrates his birthday. And, in the present day, Randy is so sure there’s a case similar to the one they’re working, one that he typed into the computer as he digitizes files, but when Franks (Kyle Schmid) grows frustrated (he’s also dealing with his brother’s boxes being delayed in the mail), he breaks the computer. Randy was right about the file — Wheeler (Patrick Fischler) accidentally deleted it — and it does prove to be valuable for the case. The episode ends with Franks helping Herm (Daniel Bellomy) to get a new computer for Randy.

Below, Caleb Foote breaks down the Randy-centric episode, teases an upcoming double date with Gibbs (Austin Stowell) and Diane (Kathleen Kenny), and more.

Talk about exploring Randy in this episode, with the flashbacks to his childhood and seeing him at home at the end.

Caleb Foote: You find out a little bit about what made Randy the detective that he is today because we’re in a world of murders and crimes and all of these high stakes, and Randy is a man who approaches life with a certain amount of levity. This episode basically sheds light on why he has that perspective. And for me as an artist, it just really felt like a gift from David [J. North] and Gina [Lucita Monreal]. It felt like they were giving me permission to continue Randy in this way. Because when you first start a character, you’re kind of just guessing and you’re just throwing things against the wall and you’re hoping it sticks and you’re hoping that these things have a certain amount of continuity that then makes this character a living, breathing person.

Erik Voake/CBS

And with this, it really did feel like they were giving me permission to keep Randy kind, basically — even though things get super dicey and his outlook is tested and his kindness is constantly pushed, and it’s never broken. It’s cracked. It’s cracked a little bit, but it’s never absolutely broken. And I think that’s going to be a beautiful nugget as an actor to go forward and to continue to play Randy in this way. I’m basically given permission to be a happy cop, and that is so sweet in a world of murderers, drug dealers, and naval-related crimes, you know what I mean?

But how is he able to maintain that light? Everything that’s being thrown at this team already, and then that computer, these days, if we lose something on a computer, it’s terrible. Back then, it was worse.

Oh my God, yeah, because nothing backed up to the cloud. Well, this is what Caleb thinks about Randy, and our wonderful showrunners and our writers probably have, if not similar thoughts, they could have totally separate thoughts, but I think a lot of who we are as adults, we are who we were as children. I think we’re all just grown-up kids in a lot of ways. Does that make sense?

It makes sense. Just even who we saw Randy as a kid — he was a little bit of an adult with his mom. He’s the one who was like, “No, no, you don’t have to sell this.”

Absolutely. It’s just who he is, and it’s who he’s always been. It’s just so lovely that that’s who he is, and I get to play that character, and yes, there’s going to be times of intense turmoil like last season, Episode 8, where I’m tackling a dude and then crying in the same span. Things obviously are going to be getting crazy, but Randy doesn’t crack, and you need that levity. Even talking to a friend who was in the special forces, we were talking about, would you ever make a joke in a crazy time like this? And they said, absolutely. That’s how you don’t lose your mind is by just finding things to keep you sane. And it can’t all just be the crime of the week. It has to be these interpersonal relationships and joy. I think that’s what makes NCIS work for 23 plus seasons is that, are the relationships around the case of the week.

There was that great scene of Randy standing up to Franks about the computer, about what he did, and about the lack of an apology. Talk about filming that scene with Kyle.

When we read it, as an actor, I was really excited. I was really excited to have a shouting match. I think actors, it’s a bit of a crutch for us, and I feel like we feel powerful and we feel like we’re in control and we feel like we’re really good at acting when we get to scream, it’s like, “I’m emoting to the top of my physical ability. I’m yelling at the top of my lungs to get my point across.” And at first, when I read the scene, that was kind of how I was considering playing that scene. But then, after having consideration and just really doing a bunch of scene work with one of my friends, who’s my acting coach, we kind of decided to switch the tactic. It could have been just building, building, building, avalanche explosion, but instead it was building, building, building, “what you said really broke my heart and it wasn’t nice, and maybe, after all, you don’t know who I am.”

And that line, we could have done that, [as though shouting] “You don’t know who I am,” all caps, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point. But I think there’s a lot of power and I think there’s a lot of hurt in just telling your scene partner in that tactic and telling your scene partner that what you’ve done has really hurt me. We might work together, we might spend every day together, but right now, I feel like you don’t know me. That’s a huge moment between Franks and Randy because Franks and Randy both have so much conviction in this episode. They both feel so right about what they’re doing and Franks is the old guard, “What’s up with this technology?” He’s a man of the analog era. And Randy is a pioneer of digital crime-solving. And for Franks who’s been doing it for however many years, that doesn’t make any sense. That’s not how you solve a crime. And he’s so sure of himself. And then you meet someone else, Randy, who is so gosh darn unsure of themselves. They just have absolutely different tactics of going about it. In this episode, Franks is more of a hammer, and I guess Randy is more of a Phillips-head screwdriver. [Laughs]

Every time I see Randy with a computer, I’m like, Randy and McGee (NCIS‘ Sean Murray) would get along so well.

Yes, absolutely. It’s so cool because of the technology of NCIS and how important that is, and I mean, I think that’s what makes sense. A big reason why NCIS is so cool is because it’s naval-related and that just introduces a whole level of technology that is just a little higher than what you have at home. And then to do NCIS: Origins, it’s an honor to be the guy that is bringing forth, that is shepherding the technology into the crime solving. Abby would be so proud. [Laughs]

How does Randy feel about Franks at the end of the episode? He leaves him that apology note and writes, let’s hug tomorrow. But he never talked to Franks, and he doesn’t seem to be expecting an apology from Franks.

Yeah, I think this is one of those situations where Randy just had to take the high road. It might come back because everyone’s an elephant on a TV show like this. Once you establish something, it’s going to return and that payoff is really valuable for audiences. But it’s just something that Randy, he’s not taking the higher ground, but I guess he recognizes the virtues of his boss, and in a way, he’s forgiven him because he knows that’s who he is. He’s a great guy, he’s a wonderful detective, and really, he was just trying to solve this case and do right by his team. He just went about it incorrectly. So, Randy at the end has, I would say, forgiven him.

Is Randy going to find out that Franks is helping Herm get the computer set up? That’s kind of his way of apologizing.

Absolutely.

Is Randy going to find out?

Absolutely. Even though we don’t film that reaction, it’s always insinuated with our team that we do care for each other so much, so we don’t film Randy’s reaction in a later episode being like, “Oh my gosh, you did this for me. You’re the best boss ever.” It’s just that’s who he is, and some things you don’t need to show.

In the December 2 episode, Randy and his wife go on a double date with Gibbs and Diane. What can you preview about that and how that goes?

[Laughs] Holy crap, that was so fun. It was so fun to just be out of the office and for there not to be a dead body, and our cast is so sweet and so, it was kind of the first time that we could really let loose as a cast — I guess outside of any Smitty scene, but it’s the first time this season that we were able to just laugh and just lower the stakes and have a good board game night. It was so funny. Randy’s in shorts, too, by the way. It’s like the reverse tank top, which was hilarious. I’ve never done a scene in shorts.

I’m kind of shocked you said no dead body. I was half expecting this to be like, oh, a dead body is going to interrupt their night.

And we actually have it at Gibbs’s house, which is hilarious because Gibbs is still at the stage in his life where his house is pretty depressing. It’s just boxes of unsolved cases and no art on the wall. We’re having a board game night at his house. It’s very kind of him to host.

Well, we see Randy dancing at the end of this episode. Is he going to try to get Gibbs up and dancing during this date night?

We actually get Gibbs to play charades, which is so funny. And he does it in the most Gibbs way, where he’s quite prolific at it, but he’s not trying very hard. He does everything he needs just to win in charades. It’s like one word, movie, and then he just does one gesture, and then boom, you know it immediately, because Gibbs is a very tactile, specific man, and so he’s great at charades without even trying really. It was his first time ever, and he wins.

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I want to bring up the fighting alongside Gibbs that we get in this episode.

Pretty sweet.

Do you think Randy kind of needed that as a way to let out some of his anger and frustration at that point with what was going on with the computer?

I didn’t really think about that when filming it. Typically, when I see that I’m involved in an action scene, I turn into a 12-year-old boy and I get so excited. We filmed him taking down two more guys than we actually ended up showing. And so I think maybe in the original version, we just had a little too much combat for an escape scene. But our current escape scene is wonderful and precise. I think they have, as a storytelling element, that in the episode, to just remind the audience that Randy is, in fact, a prolific detective and a prolific agent. Because it is being questioned by Franks the entire time — Randy’s losing his spark, Randy’s losing it — And I think it’s just a little gentle reminder that no, he’s still out there kicking ass. He’s just also trying to figure out the future of crime-solving.

And last season, it came up when he was talking about a desk job. So it’s like he can still be in the field.

Totally.

With whom does he have the most significant conversation coming up?

Austin Stowell and I, the next three episodes, have a lot of really great scenes together and we keep coining it the buddy comedy, and the buddy comedy starts in this episode, and the buddy comedy continues through Episode 8. I have some really, really juicy stuff with Gibbs, really juicy buddy comedy stuff and some pretty deep conversations because that’s what makes the show so wonderful is that between the buddy cop comedy, I’m going to be asking him about his relationship and he’s going to be divulging information that Gibbs wouldn’t typically tell anyone because he’s a very to himself man.

Yeah, because he’s going to be there for the double date, but then Randy’s also seeing the Gibbs and Lala (Mariel Molino) stuff firsthand at work.

Dude!

So he’s getting both sides.

He’s deep. He’s deep.

NCIS: Origins, Tuesdays, 9/8c, CBS