In 2021, Sean Murray has carved out a piece of stardom with his role as NCIS special agent Timothy McGee. That wasn’t always the case.
Before he took on the role of McGee in 2003, Murray was still getting on his feet as a known name. While he stood out as immortal cat Thackery Binx in Hocus Pocus, he didn’t really make a huge splash.
Fortunately for Murray and NCIS fans, he was casted as McGee for a reoccurring role in Season 1, then becoming a main cast member from Season 2 onward.
One of the roles he took was on crime show Silk Stalkings. TV crime fans may remember the 1990s show after it ran for eight seasons on CBS and USA Network. In the Season 5, Episode 3 episode, “Sweet Punishment,” Murray makes a guest appearance as side character Derek Paston.
But really, the notable part of his appearance isn’t what made it on screen. It was what happened off of it. In a sit-down with the Chicago Tribune, Sean Murray went deep on a pretty nauseous day.
“My character was supposed to be a basketball star and I could play just enough to where I could kind of fake it,” Murray started. “So I was me with a bunch of guys who actually knew how to play ball. We’re mixing it up and they have the cameras going. And all of a sudden I was completely overcome and ran to the corner and started throwing up because I had physically exerted myself so much.
“Getting sick in front of all the guys? That was embarrassing. It was like, yeah, I’m not as physically fit as all of you and now I’m throwing up.”
NCIS Star Sean Murray Explains Why He’s ‘Not a Major Jock’
If that wasn’t brutal enough, Murray also points out that he wasn’t a dignified, grown adult at that point. Nope, the future NCIS star was still in his teenage years.
“I was a teenager during [Silk Stalkings,] which is an awkward age,” Murray continued. “You’re so self-conscious about everything to begin with, so the little things that go wrong are so much bigger and really embarrassing.”
He went on to reveal that wasn’t his only athletic flop. He listed off a number of other sports-based roles that he had tried out for or portrayed, all to varying degrees of success. The one thing he was a natural at?
Hitting the slopes.
“Basically these two stories point to the fact that I was not a major jock,” Murray said. “They never asked if I could play tennis, they never asked if I could play basketball. In fact, the one role I did where they did ask if I could do something sports-wise involved skiing and I’m actually a pretty good skier, so I was able to do that.”
