Pauley Perrette, who played Abby Sciuto on the hit CBS drama NCIS from 2003 until 2018, has officially retired from acting. In a new interview, Perrette is opening up about why she decided to leave Hollywood behind for good.
Perrette, 55, told Hello! that she will “never again” act.
Perrette Is Done With Acting
“I’m not ungrateful for the benefits that it [acting] gave to me,” she explained. “But I’m a different person now, and I want to be here for it – the good and the bad and the painful. 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 studying criminal science and sociology in college with plans to work for the FBI when she discovered acting “accidentally” in the early 1990s. She soon began making guest appearances in shows like Frasier and in movies like Almost Famous.
It was in 2003 that Perrette got her big break when she was cast in NCIS as Abby Sciuto, a forensic scientist at the Naval Criminal Investigative Service headquarters at the Washington Navy Yard. What are the chances?
“There’s no drug that I ever did that worked as well as being an actor,” she previously said of acting. “What you’re looking for with substance abuse is escape. But with acting, you can escape into 1,000 different things without almost killing yourself doing it. Acting is a total drug!”
Related: Pauley Perrette Never Coming Back to ‘NCIS’ Because She’s ‘Terrified’ of Mark Harmon
Perrette Leaves NCIS
Perrette left NCIS in 2018 after claiming that “multiple physical assaults” occurred during her time on the show. CBS told People Magazine at the time that Perrette came forward with a “workplace concern” more than a year prior.
“Pauley Perrette had a terrific run on NCIS and we are all going to miss her,” CBS Television Studios stated. “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,” CBS added. “We are committed to a safe work environment on all our shows.”
Perrette’s Passion For Documentaries
Perrette then suffered a massive stroke in 2021. Thankfully, she has since recovered, and her current focus is on making documentaries. She recently produced Studio One Forever, a documentary that explored the LGBT history behind the now-shuttered disco club Studio One.
“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,” she stated. “It’s like a drug because I didn’t have to be me, I could be somebody else. My character didn’t have all of the problems that I was having.”
“It’s why I only watch documentaries, I want the truth,” Perrette concluded. “For me, going back to being an actor would be taking away from this life of true authenticity that I’m living 100% of the time.”
While it’s sad that Perrette is no longer acting, it appears that leaving that world behind was the right decision for her. We wish Perrette the best of luck in all of her future endeavors!
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