From UCLA to NCIS

Wisconsin State Journal

Postado por Kris Em Saturday, February 21, 2009

Norvell was chatting with someone on the set when Mark Harmon, the star of "NCIS," appeared...




Moe: Madison native fits right in on 'NCIS'

Doug Moe

It didn't take Aaron Norvell long to feel comfortable on the set of the hit CBS series "NCIS."Norvell, who has a guest role on Tuesday night's episode, which airs at 7 p.m. on WISC-TV (Ch. 3), is a Madison native who played football at Memorial High School and the University of Wisconsin.

Norvell was chatting with someone on the set when Mark Harmon, the star of "NCIS," appeared in front of Norvell and said with a grin, "Your brother is a great coach!"

Prior to becoming an actor, Harmon played quarterback in college for UCLA. Naturally, he follows the Bruins' fortunes today. Jay Norvell -- Aaron's older brother -- was UCLA's offensive coordinator in 2007.

Aaron quickly agreed with Harmon's assessment of Jay's coaching talents. And then the two actors were off and running in a sports conversation.

"We got a chance to talk football a long time," Norvell, 38, was saying Thursday, by telephone from California. Among the topics: Jay's recent move from UCLA to Oklahoma, where as assistant offensive coordinator he helped take the Sooners and their no-huddle offense to the 2009 national championship game.

Aaron plays a uniformed cop in Tuesday night's episode, and he shares a scene with Harmon, who stars as Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs. "NCIS" stands for Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which is the primary law enforcement and counter-intelligence arm of the United States Department of the Navy.

"I play cops and military guys in my sleep," Norvell said, and he's speaking with the experience of someone in the Hollywood trenches.






Norvell has spent a decade there, on and off, auditioning for movies, shows and commercials, getting his share of parts, getting rejected, making contacts, learning the ropes. Somebody once called Hollywood a place where you can die of encouragement, but Norvell is a survivor.

He got the "NCIS" part when the casting director called in December and asked him to read for it. They knew each other because Norvell had auditioned for the "NCIS" pilot episode several years ago. He didn't get that part but he got the one that airs Tuesday.

Lately, Norvell's phone has been ringing pretty consistently. He has a role in the "Transformers" sequel due in June. It's titled "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" and it's directed by Michael Bay. It shot in New Mexico last summer. "They didn't kill me," Norvell said with a chuckle, noting that his character will be available should the franchise yield a third movie.

In the past week Norvell has taken calls from a producer of the NBC show "Chuck" and another that offered potential commercial work with the retailer Marshall's.



He also -- to stay in shape and draw a regular check -- teaches what he calls "boot camps" every morning on Hermosa Beach, south of Los Angeles. Norvell guides 30 students through wind sprints and assorted tortures that he said he learned on the practice field in Madison.

"I use everything Coach Cosgrove taught me," Norvell said.

Kevin Cosgrove was the inside linebackers coach when Norvell played for the Badgers in the early 1990s.

Norvell was raised in Orchard Ridge, and he laughed when I told him I was sitting in a house about three blocks from Ridgewood Pool.

"I grew up on Gilbert Road," he said. "I terrorized Ridgewood Pool."

After Madison Memorial, Norvell first went to Iowa -- where Jay starred -- but he was told he couldn't play football because he has only one kidney, the result of being struck by a motorcycle when he was a child.

He came home, and UW doctors cleared him to play. Barry Alvarez nicknamed him "Scrapper," a nickname that still fits.

Norvell played pro football in Europe for a few years after college, then took a job working for the Fiesta Bowl in Phoenix. But he missed the spotlight, and soon he was doing stand-up comedy in Phoenix, which led to his getting an agent, and that led him to Los Angeles and acting.

With one year off -- he tried his hand at being an agent himself, a sports agent -- Aaron Norvell has been at it ever since.

"I'm still pitching myself," he said, and a measure of his success can be found Tuesday night on CBS.