What Happened To Linda Hunt’s Hetty On NCIS: Los Angeles?
Where would the agents of “NCIS: Los Angeles” be without Hetty Lange (Linda Hunt), their no-nonsense but still loving Operations Manager? Season after season, Hetty pushes the team to new heights and acts as something of a surrogate parent to G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell). Unfortunately, Hetty’s presence on the series diminished over the ensuing years, and in seasons 13 and 14, she’s reduced to one appearance each.
In storyline terms, Hetty initially disappears during Season 9. It turns out she’s being held hostage in Vietnam, looking for Keane (Jeff Kober), an MIA former member of her team from the war who is eventually revealed to be alive after all. After her rescue, Hetty comes into conflict with new NCIS team leader Shay Mosley (Nia Long). When Mosley sends the whole gang to Mexico, Hetty realizes that the clandestine mission may result in heavy casualties — and worse, that Mosley doesn’t care, as the team’s recon target is her son.
After the team returns from Mexico, Mosley has been removed from her command post, and Hetty is placed on a long-term OSI mission in Syria. She calls upon her friend Hollace Kilbride (Gerald McRaney) to take her place on the NCIS team. Hetty is last heard from via a letter to Callen and his new bride, Anna (Bar Paly), in the series finale. Apologizing for her absence, she warmly congratulates her protégé, calls them family, and offers the couple use of her home on Mykonos. She also gives G and his partner, Sam Hanna (LL Cool J), a lead on a mission in Morocco, sending them on their next adventure.
Why was Hetty gone for so long? It turns out Linda Hunt definitely had a good reason not to be around for the last few chunks of “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
The show’s producers did what they could to ensure Hetty stayed an onscreen presence
While the producers of “NCIS: Los Angeles” managed to weave the story of Hetty’s absence into the general plotline without too many jarring bumps, it turns out there are multiple reasons for Linda Hunt’s absences on the show.
The first reason was a car crash, which occurred in 2018. Though she wasn’t seriously injured in the incident, the actress required recovery time. She told TV Line that she’d hoped to be back filming the series earlier, but the timetable for her rehabilitation proved to be slower than anticipated. “Though I had hoped to return to playing Hetty at the start of the season, I had to take some additional time to recover. I look forward to returning later this season,” her statement read in part.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic occurred, and Hunt’s age (75 at the time) forced the producers to use her sparingly until a vaccine could be distributed. Even with Hunt back working full-time, the actress wasn’t available to shoot much during the show’s final season. Thus, Hetty appeared at Callen’s wedding via a letter in the series finale.
“It wouldn’t have been a series finale without some element of Hetty, and we felt like she — being all knowing and all seeing — would have known about the wedding somehow,” showrunner R. Scott Gemmil told TV Line in May 2023. He added that if the show had received one more season, it would have seen the “NCIS: Los Angeles” gang go on a rescue mission to retrieve Hetty from Morocco. Perhaps that’s something fans can look forward to in a reunion movie someday.
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The Real Reason Zack Addy Left Bones
Of all the characters that have passed through the Jeffersonian, none carved a bigger place in the hearts of “Bones” fans than forensic anthropologist Zack Addy (Eric Millegan). The socially awkward, multi-talented genius spent three seasons winning us over with his well-meaning ways (even if they often missed the target) and brilliant analyses (which rarely did). That’s why the decision to cast him as the apprentice to a cannibalistic serial killer and send him to a mental institution at the end of the third season was met with raised eyebrows and more than a little fan outrage.
Millegan returned for a few guest appearances and flashback sequences, but after Season 5, he disappeared from the show seemingly for good. It would be six years before we saw Addy again, and during that time, “Bones” fans took to forums to wonder what in heck had happened to him. After returning for a dramatic Season 11 finale, Addy finally got his semi-happy ending in the show’s final episodes.
But why did Millegan step away from the show in the first place? Here’s the real reason why the actor left “Bones.”
Bones’ writers cooked up a devious plot twist involving Eric Millegan’s character
Often, characters are written off of shows at the actor’s request: crime drama fans may know that’s the real reason Sasha Alexander left “NCIS” after Season 2. But that wasn’t true in Eric Millegan’s case.
During the filming of Season 3, Millegan was summoned to a meeting with “Bones” creator and producer Hart Hanson and writer-producer Stephen Nathan. At the time, no one knew the identity of the Gormogon — the serial killer with a taste for human flesh — and his apprentice. In the meeting, the pair revealed to Millegan that Addy had been pulled in by the Gormogon’s ideas and was the one assisting him with the murders. (That turned out to only be partially true.) “It wasn’t my choice,” Millegan explained to TV Guide at the time. “It was a creative decision to shake things up and make a good season finale.”
Millegan said that after clarifying that Addy was not a cannibal, he had mixed feelings about the revelation. “I tried not to focus on the fact that I was going to be off the show, and focus more on wow, look at all this great material they are giving me as an actor,” he said later. We suppose that if you have to go out, you should go out with a bang — and, er, a possible link to a cannibal.
Eric Millegan did not leave Bones because of his bipolar disorder
If you’re enough of a fan to be familiar with the untold truth of “Bones,” you’re already aware that the show has had its share of behind-the-scenes drama. But despite what the rumor mill will tell you, Eric Millegan never linked his departure to his bipolar disorder. Quite the opposite: he has repeatedly said that the show’s team was always supportive of his mental health, especially creator Hart Hanson and co-star Emily Deschanel.
Millegan shared his bipolar diagnosis in a two-part Huffington Post piece in 2011. He explained that he had a tough time dealing with depression and mania while shooting the first season of “Bones,” partly triggered by moving from New York to LA for the series. He was diagnosed in 2006, during the first season, and eventually found a combination of medications and therapy that helped stabilize his condition. “Bipolar disorder is a scary disease, but it is manageable … take your medicine, get to people who are supportive of you, and know that you can get through it,” the actor said.
He also expressed gratitude that “Bones” helped him to get through some of his worst days, saying, “I feel I probably would have ended up in a mental hospital if it weren’t for the structure that ‘Bones’ gave me.” Hanson, in particular, took it upon himself to watch out for the young actor; not only did the “Bones” creator promise to hold Millegan’s job for him if he needed medical leave, he researched bipolar disorder extensively. If you’ve been keeping an eye on what the cast of “Bones” is doing today, you’ll know that Millegan is still advocating for mental health — and may yet return to television.
Read More: https://www.looper.com/203090/the-real-reason-zack-addy-left-bones/
