“It’s Irrelevant What Colour You Are” — The NCIS: Sydney Cast On Doing Representation Right

When it comes to how Aussies are depicted on the screen, it can be a bit hit-or-miss. Often, many attempts to depict Australian culture can feel inauthentic, shoe-horning in Aussie lingo or simply throwing a few shrimps on the barbie wherever possible. But there's one show that’s giving other shows a run for their money when it comes to representation on-screen. And that’s NCIS: Sydney.

Yes, it might sound surprising at first. After all, many police, navy, and military shows often ooze a certain hyper-masculine bravado. But NCIS: Sydney is flipping the script. Of course, you’re met with your quintessentially Sydney backdrops within the first five seconds: sneak peeks of the Harbour Bridge, a shiny Sydney Opera House, Sydney Tower, and even Walsh Bay, which has been converted into the NCIS headquarters. But beyond pretty backgrounds, the show manages to capture the unique Australian essence. 

As the first Australian television show to premiere on US primetime, there’s somewhat of an education piece going on here — more for Americans than anything. There’s a visit to the Bob Hawke Beer and Leisure Centre in Marrickville, with some clever dialogue explaining our former prime minister’s beer-drinking record. Of course, Bondi Beach makes an appearance (could it be a show in Sydney without it?), to which one character, played by Australia’s own Tuuli Narkle, says, “It’d be twice as good if it had half the wankers”. At one point, a dead body is even referred to as “old mate”. It’s Australian cultural education through and through.

But it’s not just the Australian cultural representation that the show gets right. Yes, you've got the iconic Todd Lasance, best known for his work on Home and Away, as AFP Second-in-Command, Jim 'JD' Dempsey. But of the six main cast members, half of them are women (Olivia Swann, Tuuli Narkle, and Mavournee Hazel) and half are people of colour (Olivia Swann, Tuuli Narkle and Sean Sagar). While it might be easy to see this as an indication that NCIS: Sydney has broader statements to make about colour or gender, it’s actually more of an exercise in authentic casting. 

Olivia Swann (DC's Legends of Tomorrow) leads the team as NCIS Special Agent, Captain Michelle Mackey — a corn-fed mid-westerner from Iowa with an "ask for forgiveness, not permission" attitude. While Olivia (and subsequently, her character of Mackey) is Black, Swann says that the fact that her character's arc isn’t centred around her race and culture is actually a win. 

"I think a lot of the kind of auditions you get when you are an actor of colour — it can sometimes all be about that. It's like, that's what the story is: it's about your race or your culture or the difficulties that come with that," she tells Refinery29 Australia.

"But with a role like this, it's not necessarily a story that's centred around race and culture."

But Swann says that there needs to be an awareness when casting actors of colour and an acknowledgement that these identities will naturally be weaved into stories because “that is part of who we are”. 

"When you cast actors of colour but don't actually think about it, it becomes this kind of wash of uncertainty," Swann says.

It's this uncertainty that Swann argues is what really allowed her to elevate her characterisation of Mackey and challenge traditional stereotypes. "I think, with Mackey, there could be this idea of a stereotype of the angry Black woman," Swann says. "But I would challenge that, because I think Black women and mixed race women can be anything and have all range of emotion and can lead with whatever emotion they want."

Swann says that she purposely ignores any of those stereotypes because she wants to lead with who she is as a human. "I think when we enter into roles like this, we can bring a level of, you know, understanding and background and experience to these characters. I think it really does kind of elevate them."

"[I ignore] any of those stereotypes because we're leading with who we are as humans."

"I'm just so grateful and honoured that I get to be powerful, and strong and unapologetic, for all of those things, and sit in that and stand in that, along with this incredible cast and support."

Sean Sagar plays NCIS Special Agent DeShawn Jackson and is often the comic relief of the show alongside Narkle’s character, Evie. He says that while he (and consequently his character on the show) is a Black man, he doesn't want that to be the focus of his character.

"It's irrelevant what colour you are. It's just incredible that stories are being told from different lives," Sagar tells Refinery29 Australia.

"Of course, it's incredible — being of colour and portraying this [character] — but that's not the be-all and end-all. It's just amazing to create art of different forms of life."

NCIS: Sydney unequivocally feels like it belongs to the classic NCIS lineup, both thanks to its high production value, classic scores, and tried-and-true storytelling format. But it's hard to deny that this iteration ushers in a new era for the cult television show. For starters, it's led by several intelligent, smart, tough and empowered female characters who are integral to the cases. While many shows about the military can feel all too masculine, NCIS: Sydney exists as an outlier because it feels distinctly feminist. 

"What's beautiful about it is that it's captured women in a very powerful sense," Sagar says. "In [NCIS: Sydney], it's the men being the more listeners, and the women being like, this is what's going on. It was beautiful to see and needs to be shown more."

If there's one thing NCIS has historically done well, it's creating rich characters with fleshed-out backstories. The Sydney iteration of the show follows this legacy, with the cast explaining to us the ways in which they ensured their character's identity was accurately shown on screen.

For Tuuli Narkle, a proud Yued and Wiilman Noongar woman, her First Nations identity was gently weaved into her characterisation of AFP Constable Evie Cooper. "We had little nods," Narkle tells Refinery29 Australia. "Evie's coffee cup was done by a First Nations artist. I had a little flag on my desk with a little emu feather."

"I just wanted that to be a little in the foreground. It didn't have to be front and centre all the time. It's just a part of who I am as a First Nations person."

"It just adds depth," Swann adds.

Swann highlights that the beauty of NCIS: Sydney's representation lies in creator Morgan O'Neill's (Last King of the Cross) willingness to understand the cast and weave their experiences into the characters' stories and identities. "He's just so willing to hear our stories and engage with us on a level that we can bring an experience that's personal to us."

Sagar says that it's this relationship between the actors and characters that promote a sense of realness. "Audience members will only be able to resonate with something that they feel. If you make it as real as possible to the person that it is, you're going to get the realest performance that will have people go, woah, I feel that."

The cast recalls that, in many instances, O'Neill would ask questions about their background and what they'd been through. "You just knew, when he was asking us, that this was going to come up [on the show] somehow," Sagar says.

While NCIS: Sydney might seem like a fun, frivolous, and addictive watch, there's also a lot more bubbling beneath the surface. It's a haven for strong female characters. It's proof that diverse casting is worth investing in. It's a lesson in how to do representation right. And if that's not worth a Friday night binge, I'm not sure what is.