NCIS: Sydney’s Olivia Swann Teases Mackey’s Compelling Season 3 Journey, JD Dynamic & More!

We’re counting down the seconds until we get to return to the land down under to spend time with one of the most endearing teams in the NCIS Universe.

After an explosive finale, NCIS: Sydney Season 3 promises to hit the ground running with an action-packed season opener and a full season in which the pasts of many of our favorites will come back to haunt them.

We had the pleasure of catching up with the talented, beautiful, and generous Olivia Swann to chat about what to expect this season, Mackey’s struggles this season, and so much more!

Congratulations on the third season, because that’s huge, especially now, things don’t last as much as they used to anymore.

I know, right?

So, of course, the finale was amazing; it was action-packed, with everything imaginable happening at once. Will we have a time jump? Are we picking up where we left off?

It’s not like a direct pickup from. We definitely deal with the fallout of Darwin for sure. We see Mackey kind of wrestling with her choices, her decision to trust the wrong person, and how that kind of rocked her self-confidence in the sense that she’s so used to making the right call.

And so we see her in this episode trying to trust her gut instinct again, but not quite being sure if that’s the right thing to do.

And then we have an added time pressure of a terrorist is on the loose in Sydney, there’s this whole terrorist threat, so she’s got to make decisions quickly. And so it’s that kind of juxtaposition of wanting to lead and make the right choice, but also not being sure what that is. So it’s really, really kind of dramatic from the start.

You hit on one of my next questions, because after everything with Entienne, she was very shaken. I was curious about how the aftermath of that betrayal would affect her professionally and personally, given that Mackey trusted the wrong person, as you said. She doesn’t give her heart or trust freely.

Will that struggle continue for the rest of the season?

Yeah, it’s a huge blow for Mackey, both professionally and personally, and she takes that really seriously. And we also get a sense that maybe JD didn’t really think much of her choice either. So there’s kind of a little bit of friction there.

But this season is very much about the past catching up with you. And so that’s very true for a lot of the characters, Mackey especially. And so we see that a lot of the choices that she’s made in life, a lot of the things that have happened to her, have consequences, much like the decision to trust someone in Darwin.

And that will be the through line of this season, which is really exciting. And we get tested in ways that we’ve never seen before. It’s really electrifying.

That sounds very exciting.

One of the things I love about this show is how it differs from your standard procedural. It balances the character or personal arcs as well as the cases.

I was curious if we’d delve a bit deeper into everyone’s personal lives this season, especially with the cliffhanger involving Blue and someone from her past returning.

You already tackled that for me. So I’m really excited.

Of course, there are so many layers to the dynamic between Mackey and JD. It’s an exciting push-pull thing they have going on, where usually when one’s finally kind of opening up, the other one’s retreating. And it feels like we’re in that same situation again, yes?

You’re so right. And I think that’s what is so great about the Mackey and JD dynamic: we’ve seen them grow closer. We’ve seen their trust build.

We’ve seen them become friends and better partners in the professional sense, which has been so lovely. And I love that we’ve seen Mackey open up to JD about her son. We’ve seen all of those elements.

And now it’s teetering into a bit more than that space? But I think the thing for Mackey is that for both of them, really, they are the leaders of this team. So there’s a hierarchy.

And if you mess with that, that has a lot of repercussions. And so I think what Mackey is holding on to the knowledge that she has to remain professional, no matter how much she may want to not remain professional. She’s kind of choosing to put that stuff aside for the sake of the team.

Does that always work? Maybe not. But that’s part of the fun of it, seeing these two people have that push and pull, like you said. I think that’s a really good way to put it. With each other and grow together, maybe even in a way that they don’t even realize they’re just getting closer. And whatever that means for the two of them, I think it’s really exciting and very fun to watch.

I even love how it extends to the team. Because it started a bit, maybe fractured. And now they’re like this really fun, misfit toys family — found family. Will we see a lot more of that really fun team dynamic this season?

Yeah. And that’s what I love about Sydney: the found family dynamic is just so, it’s like a kind of all-time classic.

You kind of can’t beat it because you have so many individual clear voices that come together, and that dynamism, the different backgrounds of each character, and how they will interact and combust sometimes is really fun.

But you also see that these people need each other in a way. Everyone needs some form of family sense — it helps us feel safe and secure. And I think that’s what these characters, what helps them be who they are now, is the bond that they’ve all formed.

Three seasons in, how do you keep it bigger, better, fresher, more fun, and keep fans talking?

Oh, just wait. I don’t know how the writers do it, but they do it. And every single episode, we’re like, we’re doing what now? And this is how, what?

It just keeps upping the ante and upping the stakes, and the action, the drama, the cases —everything is just taken up to the next level. It’s more explosive. It’s more heart-pounding. We are throwing everything into this season, and I’m so excited for people to see it.

I love it. I also love that you guys have so many fun bureaucracy issues. I mean, everyone hates the red tape, and you guys bump up against it all the time for everything. Are we getting more of that this season?

Always, always. I don’t think Mackey would be Mackey if she didn’t try to test the boundaries of red tape, which is what I love about her. And this season, we discovered that there’s a kind of overarching conspiracy theory that does link to her.

And so there’s a whole kind of intrigue in that sense, it’s this: have we known Mackey for the last two seasons? Is she somebody else? A lot is going on, which is so exciting. And we see her tested in a whole new way. But she’s still Mackey in the sense that she’s still Mackey.

What are you most excited about the viewers seeing this season? It sounds like Mackey is going to have a really great arc.

I think for me, it’s the level of vulnerability that we start to see from her, because so much of her past is brought up, that she has to face it, even if she doesn’t want to. And we know her as a very strong, very put-together woman who knows what she wants and gets what she wants.

But for me, a part of strength is the fragility of someone and the fractures that are within their armor. And that is really kind of put on show this season for Mackey. And I just think it’s really compelling.

It just shows everyone a different side to her. And it’s been so fun for me to kind of delve into that side of her that I’ve not explored before. So I’m very, very excited if you can’t tell already.

I can tell. And again, I was gonna ask you, what has been the most challenging aspect of playing a character like Mackey?

It is really finding the levels of her strength and the color within that, because it could be very easy to keep her cards close to her chest.

Absolutely, you know, kind of fierce, cold, badass, all qualities that I think are phenomenal for a woman, especially a woman of color on screen to possess. But it’s also been the most fun to see her warmth come through, too.

You know, we see her existing with the team in a different way. We see her fun come out as well, along with her vulnerability. And I think that’s really endearing to see her let loose a little bit and drop her guard a tad. That’s been great.

Yeah, I agree. I think she has become one of my favorites. I love a great complex female character on screen, especially as a woman of color. Because of the layers to that, I think there’s always so much emphasis on the strength and not always as much on the vulnerability.

And she’s a really great combination of both, which is really important to see. So I really love that about her. So I am excited. I’m super excited to hear so much Mackey content this season. I’m going to be thrilled about it.

And final question, if you can describe this season so far in three words to get viewers really excited about it, what three words are you choosing?

Three words. Explosive, compelling, and aliens. Let me say that.

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