Fresh from the first season of NCIS New Orleans, Zoe McLellan. Hello.

Hi.

Um I I saw that you were uh checking out our pillow, our shark pillow over there.

Yes. I like the idea of Matt Damon on my lap. Right here. It's all for Oh, he's like resting his head on your lap. He's so cute. Matt, you can just sit next to me now. I have things to say.

Yes, there you go. You guys just wrapped the first season of the show. How does it feel?

It was a whirlwind. It was nonstop for 10 months and and super exciting and inspiring and a lot going on, a lot of ass kicking. And now I feel like I can like hang in the backyard for a little bit.

You mentioned moving to New Orleans and also I mean being part of NCIS. What has that been like?

It's surreal. I feel like I really lucked out, you know, to be a part of this huge franchise. And so I feel really blessed and grateful because I feel like I'm a part of something that people really love. You know, that people are proud of. And so I'm still kind of pinching myself. And I especially love that I got to move to New Orleans. I've lived, you know, in LA and New York, but it's really nice to call New Orleans home now. The energy of this city is heart. These people have been through a lot. The everyday there's a celebration. This is a city that celebrates music and food and culture and family. And so I think that there's a part of me that just feels so loved and welcomed there that I just want to give all that back in a really big way. I'm fifth generation from New Orleans, my great grandparents were from New Orleans and I feel like it's this return to home. People are very real and down to earth and the whole Southern hospitality thing, so I feel like I'm where I'm meant to be right now, which is super cool.

Uh, you talked about the ass kicking that you've been able to do on the show all season as Meredith Brody who apparently is a black belt in Aikido. Yes. Are you a black belt as well?

Not even close. Not even close. When I read the script at a table read, I was like, oh, I'm a black belt in Aikido, okay? And then I asked them to hire someone to come in and just give me sort of a crash course. And what I basically asked of my instructor is could he please show me um some tricks that will look good on camera and make it look like I know what I'm doing because I don't.

Oh. Can you share with us? No. I tried. Okay. Congratulations on getting picked up for another season. So you get to go through this all over again.

Thank you. Thank you.

Um you know, what what do you hope Meredith does, you know, in the future. Where do you hope her story goes?

I would like for us to see more of her personal life. I would like for us to see where she comes from. What her parents are like, her heart. I want to see more of the woman. I'm looking forward to showing more of the vulnerability and the layers of her character and we're going to see some more sexy, sassy Brody. I think.

Season finale coming up very, very soon. What can you tell us about it? I mean, what what are fans going to be really into?

The last episode feels like a movie to me. Like a feature film. It's just big. It's just over the top crazy big. Like blow you away big. Um Scott Bakula, who I adore. I I think he's just so cool and fun and

You have you have a whole cast to work with that's just incredible.

Yes.

And are you guys, you know, as tight off screen as you are on screen?

We actually are and that's not a lie. I think part of it is that we were all thrown together, you know, like with pretty much no notice, boom, you're moving to New Orleans, here you are, hi, now you spend 5 million hours a week together. And I I just feel like our producers did an amazing job with casting this team that actually has true chemistry. It's so much fun to go to work and actually like who you work with. And Scott's like one of my favorite human beings on the planet. He always wants to make the scene better and he's always in a really organic way creating room for that to happen. And I just adore him. I feel like he's just this angel. The whole cast is just so much fun. We laugh a lot.

I've been to New Orleans. It's my kind of town. The music, the food especially. So, uh what's your favorite restaurant?

Well, I think just if you want to go old school, go get some proper like a po boy, you go to Parkway. I eat seafood. I don't eat any other meats and I eat pretty clean. And so I have to like prepare myself for this. Same thing with the Beignet. Cafe Du Monde's a big deal, but I actually like Morning Call. I like to go to Morning Call that's at City Park and I take my little boy. You know, I don't take him too often because it's just fried dough with sugar and that's, you know, going to.

Nothing wrong with that.

There's it's so delicious and the way the powdered sugar gets all over your hands and everything you're wearing is so much fun.

And you were a a jazz singer as well. You're a musician as well.

I don't I don't know that I'd call myself a jazz singer because I'm also stepping out into the world as a singer now too. And what I mean by that about stepping out into the world is I've been writing these songs since I was a little girl. So my singing and writing is probably something that's closer to my heart than any other art form I've ever done. And I'm sure in the fairly near future, I will start sharing a little bit more of it. My next project for hiatus is I've got I have a piece of paper that's as big as my living room. And because I have all these journals with all my songs, I'm I'm kind of sectioning off and I'm doing this super cool art project where like different parts of different songs are going in sections and I'm just enjoying like singing and writing and playing and being on the floor just singing.

Zoe, please come back any time. Can't wait to see the season finale and good luck on season 2.

Thank you so much.