The NCIS: Los Angeles season 6 finale saw the team assuming undercover identities to head to Moscow. The new season, premiering tonight, finds G. Callen (Chris O’Donnell) going rogue while the team scrambles to locate him. EW chatted with LL Cool J, who plays Sam Hanna, about challenges facing the team this season.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Between presenting at the Emmys last night and the seventh season of NCIS: LA premiering tonight, you’ve had a busy couple of days.
LL COOL J: I’m definitely running on adrenaline. I had a long night last night, as you can imagine. But I feel good. I’m excited about the premiere. I’m excited that we just celebrated our 150th episode. I’m excited about the story line: Chris O’Donnell, his character G. Callen, and my character, Sam Hanna, kind of playing this cat and mouse game because Callen’s decision to go rogue puts Sam in a position where he has to choose between loyalty and following orders and supporting his partner.What’s that going to do to the dynamic of the team this season?
That remains to be seen. But it definitely derails things for this episode and for some more episodes to follow.Sam is also facing big challenges that will stretch throughout this upcoming season. How will it affect him?
You know, we find out a lot of different things about Sam and his personal life. We find out his former partners are involved in shady deals. We just find out a lot of things. His integrity is put on the line, [there are] some near death experiences. I mean, it gets crazy.It has been a lot of fun [to play]. It just feels good to do great character work after six seasons and now into the seventh. The writers are still exited and passionate and connected to the characters and connected to what they’re writing. No one’s phoning it in. We still all have a burning desire to do great work and to dig deep and to give people the excitement that they’ve come to expect from the show, and hopefully this year they’ll continue to watch us and enjoy.