12 years ago, Nip/Tuck actress Roma Maffia guest starred in the NCIS Season 11 episode “Under the Radar” as NCIS Special Agent Vera Strickland, the late Mike Franks’ former partner. Since last year, Diany Rodriguez has been playing the younger Vera on NCIS: Origins, but now the prequel’s crossover with the flagship series has allowed Maffia to return to the role as well. Ahead of these special episodes airing on the 2025 TV schedule, Maffia told CinemaBlend how she went about preparing to reprise Vera after so long away, as well as what she considers to be “absolutely fantastic” about Rodriguez’s version of the character.
Maffia will reprise Vera in the NCIS half of the crossover, acting as a nice balance to Mark Harmon appearing on camera in Origins for the first time since the series premiered. I asked the actress if she rewatched her previous NCIS episode or looked at any of Diany Rodriguez’s Origins episodes to help her get back into character. Maffia answered:
I did look at what she was doing on Origins. Yes, I did. But I did not go back to look at myself as Vera. Because first of all, it's really hard for me to go back and look at myself and my work, period. But also, Vera was so clear on the page, this page, the script I got, that I felt her immediately. So I didn't feel the need to rewatch.
Diany Rodriguez has had an almost blank slate to work with when playing Vera Strickland in the early ‘90s, aside from the character’s feisty personality and her backstory with Mike Franks needing to be retained. So Roma Maffia found that helpful when preparing for her appearance in “Now and Then,” NCIS’s half of the crossover, as well as opted to forgo rewatching “Under the Radar.” I definitely relate to not liking to look at footage of yourself, so that makes it all the better that the detailed script provided Maffia with just what she needed.
One of the major ways NCIS: Origins has fleshed out Vera Strickland is by making her a psychological profiler, which made her a key figure in the Sandman case last season. I was curious if learning this new aspect of the character led to Roma Maffia adjusting her performance as the older Vera, and here’s what she said:
Well, I think it's absolutely fantastic, and I think it's exactly who Vera is. Only because I think she's got street smarts, and I also think she has a very practical brain. And intuition and instinct. I could see in Origins, and also I could bring this time. I think that's who Vera is. She's also very good with sussing out humans, which is really great to be a profiler. I think she's very good at that.
NCIS and NCIS: Origins are switching timeslots for this crossover that spans over 30 years. In Origins, the team will travel to the small, dust-blown town of Serenity, California to investigate the death of a naval officer. The results of this case will reverberate decades later in NCIS when a prison inmate who only had three weeks left on his sentence breaks out early. Roma Maffia’s Vera Strickland will be called out of retirement in to help out due to her connection to the case from 1992.
Because of the temporary timeslot shift, catch Roma Maffia reprising Vera on NCIS tomorrow at 9 p.m ET on CBS. The episode will be available to stream with a Paramount+ subscription the next day, and if we’re lucky, maybe the procedural’s writers can find a way to bring the actress back for a third time as Diany Rodriguez continues playing Vera on NCIS: Origins.
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