There are some actors you watch and think, Oh, I like him.

Then there are actors you keep seeing over the years until eventually you realize, Wait a minute. This guy is REALLY good.

That’s Austin Stowell for me.

And I didn’t discover him with NCIS: Origins. I actually remember him all the way back in Dolphin Tale.

That Damn Dolphin 😭

Stowell played Kyle Connellan, Sawyer’s older cousin who joins the Army and comes home injured.

That was not an easy part.

Kyle had planned this entire future for himself and suddenly had to figure out who he was when he couldn’t be the soldier he thought he was going to be anymore.

Stowell played that so incredibly well.

You felt like you were a soldier who was a soldier no more right along with him. And when that damn dolphin started inspiring everybody… 😭

I’m sorry. Winter got me.

But looking back, Stowell’s performance in that movie was more powerful than I think people really realize.

Whiplash gave me a completely different version of him.

And it was fun seeing him not be such a nice guy for once. The fact that he actually learned to play the drums for the role just makes me appreciate that performance even more.

He’s Never the Same Person Twice

His voice is the same.

He looks as beautiful as ever because, I mean, I’m not blind.

But he’s never the same person twice.

I’ve watched this man in so many things over the years, and no matter how many times I recognize his face, there’s something about the way he approaches a character that makes me stop watching Austin Stowell.

I’m watching whoever he’s playing.

It’s almost like he falls down a rabbit hole with each character until he knows them inside and out. That’s the best way I can explain it.

He doesn’t need to change his voice or somehow look like a completely different person.

He just becomes somebody else.

And I think NCIS: Origins might be the best example yet.

I Wasn’t Immediately Sold on Young Gibbs

Here’s the thing.

Mark Harmon is Gibbs.

He played Leroy Jethro Gibbs for nearly two decades. That’s a hell of a character to hand to somebody else and say, “Okay, now you do it.”

So when I started NCIS: Origins, I wasn’t immediately convinced.

For about the first two episodes, I was sitting there going…

Hmmmm.

Then I got to the end of that second episode.

And suddenly:

Yep. That’s Gibbs.

I had to change the way I was looking at the character.

Austin Stowell isn’t supposed to be playing the Gibbs we’ve known for all these years.

This is before Gibbs.

This is the Gibbs who’s still unsure of himself and stumbling after losing his wife and daughter. He’s grieving. He hasn’t become the man who walks into a room knowing exactly what needs to be done while everybody else falls in line behind him.

We’re watching him become that man.

Once I understood that, Stowell clicked into place for me.

And as the first season continued—and now as we’ve gotten another season—he has fallen so completely into Gibbs that I genuinely can’t picture anybody else playing this version of him.

Except Mark Harmon, obviously.

Which brings me to my completely reasonable suggestion.

Austin Stowell Could Be James Bond

I SAID WHAT I SAID.

🤯

Look at what he’s doing as Gibbs and then watch him as the romantic lead in The Hating Game.

That’s why my brain went to Bond.

He has the charm. He has the physical presence. He can play the action. He can play the romance. But more importantly, he can put actual vulnerability underneath all of it.

And the way that man carries himself?

Leading Man. All. Day.

Obviously there is one rather important Bond question.

The accent.

I’ve never heard Austin Stowell take on a British accent, and now I desperately want to.

Give that man the right dialect coach and let him fall down another one of those character rabbit holes.

Because at this point, I’m not betting against him.

Hollywood Just Needs to Catch Up

If I could sit down with the people deciding who gets handed the giant movie franchises and giant movie budgets, I’d tell them one thing:

You’re leaving money on the table.

Austin Stowell carries himself like a leading man.

He has the talent to back it up, and he’s spent years proving it.

At some point, somebody needs to stop asking whether he can carry a major theatrical movie and just give him the damn movie.

Years ago, he walked into an audition to play a younger version of one of television’s most recognizable characters.

And before he even said a word, Mark Harmon noticed something.

By the time Stowell left the room, somebody said it out loud:

That’s a movie star.

Exactly.

Austin Stowell is a movie star. Hollywood just needs to catch up.

And hey, if anyone happens to be looking for the next James Bond…

I’m just saying. 🤷‍♀️

Somewhere Mark Harmon is probably thinking:

I fucking told you people. 😂