“I was bummed”: When ‘Eric Beale’ Barrett Foa opened up about missing the NCIS: Los Angeles series finale

Barrett Foa had been an integral part of NCIS: Los Angeles since the show’s beginning, playing the role of Technical Operator Eric Beale. Despite the character’s popularity, he exited the police procedural drama after Season 12 in 2021, along with his co-star Renée Felice Smith, who played Nell Jones.

Two years later, the show aired its finale and brought back some iconic characters who had been missing for a long time, including Nell Jones. However, Eric Beale was not even seen in the series finale, which left fans disappointed as they could not see their favorite character on screen one last time.

Following the conclusion of NCIS: Los Angeles in 2023, Barrett Foa had an interview with TVLine, where he revealed that even though he wanted to return to the show for the final episode, things could not materialize:

“Getting to play Eric Beale one last time would have been a dream, so I was bummed when it didn’t work out. I’m grateful he got a shout-out and that he’s out there making the world a better place. How cool that CBS gave the show a chance to give our fans a proper series finale.”

Barrett Foa once talked about not returning as Eric in the NCIS: Los Angeles series finale

Showrunner R. Scott Gemmill also talked about Eric’s absence and revealed that the team wanted Barrett Foa to reprise his role in the NCIS: Los Angeles series finale, but he could not be a part of it due to availability issues.

“That was about availability, and what we could do and what we couldn’t do. If I’d had the time and the money, I would have probably had everybody who had ever been on the show. We couldn’t do everything we wanted to, unfortunately.”

Barrett Foa debuted the character of Eric in NCIS: Los Angeles Season 1 and made his final appearance in the show in the season 12 finale. At the time, Eric decided to move to Tokyo to work on his Kaleidoscope-based company, and asked his on-and-off love interest, Nell Jones, to be his business partner.

Nell returned in the Season 14 finale, which also served as the series finale, and mentioned that Eric was busy with a TED Talk in Singapore. As for why Foa left the series in the first place, Gemmill revealed that both he and Renée Felice Smith wanted to pursue other projects in their careers. He said in an earlier interview with TV Line:

“Both Renée and Barrett have been on the show a long time, and they’re both very ambitious individuals who have projects that they want to do on their own — and we’ve been giving them time off to do so.It seemed like a natural time to let them go off and do some other things, and give [their characters] what is a happy, hopefully, ending.”

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NCIS: Los Angeles was the first spin-off of NCIS, which told the story of undercover agents working with the Office of Special Projects of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Apart from Barrett Foa and Renée Felice Smith, the show starred Chris O'Donnell, Daniela Ruah, Linda Hunt, LL Cool J, and Eric Christian Olsen.

NCIS: Los Angeles is available to stream on Paramount+.

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