Pauley Perrette Says “Never Again” to Acting After Retirement Reveal: “I’m a Different Person Now”

The long-running ‘NCIS’ star lodged accusations about an unsafe work environment, only to bow out of on-camera work years later. Now she reveals why she has no plans to return: “I want to be me all the time.”

When Pauley Perrette said she had no plans to return to acting, she meant it.

The former actress, once a beloved TV star thanks to a long-running role as forensic scientist Abby Sciuto on the CBS stalwart NCIS, further explained her decision to step away from the limelight in a new interview with Hello! “I’m not ungrateful for the benefits that it gave to me but I’m a different person now and I want to be here for it — the good and the bad and the painful,” she said. “I want to be me all the time, and it takes a good amount of courage for me to say that to myself but it’s authentically how I feel.”

Perrette was cast on NCIS in 2003 after having worked as an actor for nearly a decade on such projects as The Drew Carey Show, Veronica’s Closet, Jesse, Almost Famous and Time of Your Life. Her NCIS run found her starring on the procedural for an impressive 15 seasons across 352 episodes from 2003 to 2018. Around the time of her departure, Perrette lodged accusations of an assault or a crime. She later took aim at co-star Mark Harmon by saying that she felt unsafe around him.

CBS TV Studios responded at the time: “Pauley Perrette had a terrific run on NCIS and we are all going to miss her. Over a year ago, Pauley came to us with a workplace concern. We took the matter seriously and worked with her to find a resolution. We are committed to a safe work environment on all our shows.”

An oral history published last September by The Hollywood Reporter shed more light on what really happened. “In Pauley Perrette’s case, there was an incident with the show with a dog. The dog was Harmon’s, and apparently the dog bit someone,” revealed executive producer Charles Floyd Johnson. “Pauley was a huge, huge SPCA [Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals] animal person. And then the dog kept coming with Harmon, and she felt it wasn’t safe for the show. By the end of that year, she just felt like it wasn’t working for her anymore, and it was time to move on.”

NO I AM NOT COMING BACK! EVER! (Please stop asking?) I am terrified of Harmon and him attacking me. I have nightmares about it. I have a new show that is SAFE AND HAPPY! You’ll love it!#HappyPlace Love y’all!

— Pauley Perrette (@PauleyP) June 7, 2019

Perrette went on to topline the short-lived TV series Broke, which lasted for 13 episodes and ended in 2020. She then announced that she would retire from acting. Perrette remains active in causes she cares about and is credited as an executive producer on the documentary Studio One Forever, about the iconic gay L.A. nightclub.

As it turns out, it’s not an accident that her latest credit is a documentary. “At this point in my life I have this deep need to find authenticity in everything, and being an actor, especially at certain points in my life, was a great escape; it’s like a drug because I didn’t have to be me, I could be somebody else,” she told the publication. “My character didn’t have all of the problems that I was having. It’s why I only watch documentaries, I want the truth. For me, going back to being an actor would be taking away from this life of true authenticity that I’m living 100 percent of the time.”