Pauley Perrette has officially stepped away from acting, stating in a recent interview that she has moved into a new phase of her life.
The former NCIS star departed from the CBS police procedural in 2018 and ceased acting after the cancellation of her sitcom Broke in 2020.
In her conversation with Hello magazine, Perrette declared that she will “never again” return to acting, emphasizing her gratitude for the experiences it provided her while acknowledging a significant personal transformation. “But I’m a different person now and I want to be here for it – the good and the bad and the painful,” she shared. “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 portrayed Abby Sciuto on NCIS for 15 years before her exit in 2018. After one season of Broke, which was also canceled by CBS, she has shifted her focus to producing documentaries, including the recent 2023 release Studio One Forever, which highlights an LGBT nightclub in West Hollywood, California.
“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. My character didn’t have all of the problems that I was having,” Perrette remarked in her interview.