Former NCIS actor Pauley Perrette said she is a “different person now” since retiring from acting, and she wants to keep it that way. Perrette told Hello magazine that she will “never again” act because she wants to “be here” for the person she has become: “The good and the bad and the painful,” she said. “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.” However, Perrette shared that she is “not ungrateful for the benefits” that acting gave her. Perrette left NCIS, which also starred Mark Harmon, Sasha Alexander and Lauren Holly, in 2018. After a brief role on the canceled sitcom Broke, Perrette retired. “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,” she said. “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 has since transitioned into producing documentaries, including Studio One Forever (2023), about an LGBT nightclub in West Hollywood.