Chris O’Donnell says that NCIS: Los Angeles made him test his comfort zone as the shooting locations and situations were highly uncertain. By Team Viva

How does Callen convince Sam to come back to work after Michelle’s death?

Callen and Sam are the best partners and are very close to each other. So, he shared the pain with Sam when his wife was dying who was very close to Callen as well. But they need to move on in life and Callen knows that the best thing for Sam is to get back to work and start living his life again for his kids.

How does Hetty’s absence at the start of Season 9 affect Callen?

Callen and Hetty have always shared a strong bond, especially because of the way she loved him. She always talked in a way as if she knows more than she is speaking. She used to watch him from behind the curtain. The fact that she is gone with no explanation was like losing a family member for him.

How does new assistant director Shay Mosley fit into the team?

 With Granger and Hetty out of the picture, Callen tried to get Sam back to work and figure out what has happened to Hetty. All of a sudden, comes a new sheriff in town that is ruffling some feathers, to say the least. And I don’t think that Callen is warming up to her very quickly. But it gives us some interesting things to work with.

Tell us about Mosley joining the team.

She does things in a little more traditional way. My team has some unconventional ways to get things done. And ultimately, we work as a team and face all the hurdles together when the stakes are high. So, she is seeing that spark within us.

What was Callen’s initial reaction to Mosley?

 I don’t think Callen has a problem with somebody who tells him and his team what to do. There was only a certain level of frustration that he was experiencing.

Tell us more on Callen’s take on Mosley.

 As far as he is concerned, he is very efficient and hard working. And we don’t need someone to come in and take over the work or slow us down.  We want people to either help us or stay out of the way.

What are the advantages of having guest stars on the show?

We have to remember to set a pace with the new or guest actors on set because we are so comfortable in our roles that we move very quickly. Generally, the actors get our pace and realise how quickly we work, but occasionally we also get actors who doubt if they would be able to work with us or not in the very first place.

What was it like to shoot the underwater scenes in episode 195, Party Crashers?

We were in the water in the Long Beach and then we’re on the set. We had flooded a tank with the ambulance in water. They’re have these little eme rgency re-breathers which make you think that if this thing gets stuck down here, I would be swimming out of here quickly.  You have no idea. I don’t mind the water, I like it. The only time I got uncomfortable was when we were doing the shark episode. I am actually terrified of sharks but thankfully, we were out of there in the Long Beach, which unfortunately would be more polluted than the sharks probably want their habitat to be. So maybe there weren’t any sharks in there. But I was like, I need a diver down there just to kind of peek around before I jump in. And you’ve never seen someone get out of the water as quickly as me. Precisely, as soon as they used to call out for cut, I was out of that water.

How does Callen feel about Joelle’s return in episode 201, Fool Me Twice?

What was interesting was that I did not see that going that way. They kind of ended that relationship and I thought that was the last we were going to see of Joelle. And then, all of a sudden, they came up with the storyline last season, they brought her back again this year. She is a really talented actress so it has been fun to have her back and she is just so pleasant to be around. But, yeah, it’s someone who burned him. He had no idea what the reality was. And now he is in a situation where he has no choice but to help her. So, he is constantly torn over and has been burned by her once. He doesn’t know if he should trust her but there are not a lot of other options.

Will Callen be luckier in love this season?

I think so and we might see more of Anna and Callen together at some point. I know Callen was interested in her.  He told me. We’ll see. There are still a lot of episodes to do this year.

(NCIS: Los Angeles Season 10 will premiere at 10 pm every Tuesday on AXN.)