When he joined NCIS Los Angeles, Eric Christian Olsen became a celebrity. The 44-year-old actor, who has played Marty Deeks on the program for 12 years, has acknowledged that it can be challenging to keep in character when off-camera.
In addition to becoming a star on NCIS Los Angeles, Olsen and his wife, Sarah Wright, have welcomed three children into their family.
Though he might not appear to be the fittest, most trained person alive, recent photos of him taken while out for a walk reveal a completely different picture.
Eric was raised in Bettendorf, Iowa, even though he was born in Oregon. He grew up playing sports and was a young player on the community hockey team.
Eric additionally participated in a number of school plays. Even though he wasn’t much of a troublemaker, according to his mother Jeanne, he was good at getting out of things he didn’t want to do.
She told Entertainment Tonight that he learned how to convince the teacher to say, “I think you should pull him out of this,” if he didn’t enjoy a class or a lesson.
Olsen disagreed with the account of what happened and claimed that his piano teacher had a “strange” odor.
“By the way, the piano teacher lady, she smelled weird,” Olsen said to his mother.
“You did it to two piano teachers,” she replied.
“But they both smelled weird,” he fired back.
Music was a big thing for Olsen. In fourth grade, he took to the stage in a school musical. It turned out to be a rather shocking experience for his parents – his mother Jeanne never even knew her son could sing.
I was unaware that he could sing. I’m very anxious as he walks out onto the stage. He then spins around to face the crowd, extends his arms, and begins to sing, she added.
It was obvious that Eric was unique, exactly as his mother had insisted. After completing high school, he made the decision to move to Los Angeles in order to pursue another passion.
Interestingly, there was no acting in that dream. Olsen instead entered in 1998 on a 75% scholarship to Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Naturally, he had to figure out how to pay for the other 25%, which is when the concept of producing advertisements occurred to him.
Soon after landing smaller commercials, Olsen was cast in some modest television and film roles. These included 22 episodes of Get Real in 1999 and 2000, as well as one episode of ER in 1999. Eric really hit it big the following year when he starred in the classic movie Pearl Harbor.
At the time, Olsen was 19 years old and had just $300 in his pocket. It’s typical for actors to receive residual checks, which are payments made after a movie is sold on DVD or shown on another platform. Of course, Pearl Harbor was a big success, which temporarily made Olsen’s life easier.
Suddenly, Eric felt a little more at ease about contributing to his schooling. As a result, he fell in love with acting while attending Pepperdine University. His graduation occurred in 2007. Eric is adamant that a good education is crucial, even for aspiring performers.
Between 1998 and 2007, while working on all those movies, I was also attending school. People were asking me, “Why are you staying with school?,” which is why I finished. Just forget about it; you’ve already seen these television shows and movies. I decided against doing it because, in my opinion, that’s the most crucial thing we can do, Olsen said.
“There’s nothing better than, I mean, whatever it takes, especially right now in the employment market. We all take out loans and put ourselves in debt, but everyone who asks me “I want to be an actor, what should I do?” takes out loans. I advise going to college. If you can attend college in Los Angeles or New York, where you might be able to work in advertising while also trying out for roles, do it. Find another area of interest that you are enthusiastic about, and declare that as your major.
In the television series NCIS Los Angeles in 2010, Eric was given the role of Marty Deeks. When the original NCIS series, starring Mark Harmon, had been on television for seven years, the show’s creators felt it was time to expand to new locales.
In nearly an instant, Eric, Chris O’Donnell, Linda Hunt, and LL Cool J all rose to enormous stardom. The actor, who is originally from Oregon, has so far appeared in 265 episodes of the popular program.
Olsen attended culinary school while also attending college, as was previously indicated. He was an actress by day and a Le Cordon Bleu aspirant chef by night when NCIS Los Angeles initially aired.
He explained to Vulture in 2011: “I knew I was going to do a pilot season, and the thought of just doing that without bringing in fresh information didn’t sound appetizing.”
The terms we use to describe ourselves outside of that realm, such as actor, producer, or student, are irrelevant at culinary school. It is a wonderful sort of art.
I was only enrolled in an eight-month course for six weeks before I had to leave to begin filming, but I’ll go back, he continued. “When you work five hours a night, prepare three dinners, two appetizers, side dishes, and sauces, run six stoves, and deal with the constant fire, it becomes zen. It resembles the “runner’s high.”
He continued, “I get to work with, you know, everyone speaks about, you do a movie, and then you go away, you’re with these guys, and then it’s over.
It reminds me of a summer vacation. However, we aim for ten months every year, 60 to 70 hours per week, on NCIS. It truly resembles a family. Whether you like them or not, you’re stuck with these folks. Everyone says it, but we really were fortunate.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, Eric’s net worth as of right now is about $13 million.
One of the most important things for any actor to master is entering character. Because of this, some actors go to extreme lengths to aid in the process, even “becoming” their role months before the filming begins.
The hardest part for Eric, who has played a cop on NCIS Los Angeles for many years, was breaking character.
According to Eric, it was almost like he turned into a police officer, and it became clear in one circumstance when his preparation for the show came in handy in real life.
“I’m on the 10 Freeway now. I’m driving in the far left lane when a black, windowless van cuts me off in the side lane, crashes into the Porsche in front of me, and damages its mirror. From my car, I could hear the woman screaming,” he recalled on Conan.
“What kind of emergency do you have? I yelled, “There’s a black van heading eastward on the 10 highway without any windows.” Tango Charlie 371 on the license plate,” he added.
Eric has achieved tremendous success as a result of his appearances on NCIS Los Angeles. It also turns out that his job on the popular show has evolved into something of a family business.
He appears on film as Marty Deeks and is wed to Daniela Ruah’s character Kensi Blye. Despite their on-screen romance, Ruah and David Olsen are actually in-laws because Ruah is David’s wife.
In an on-screen relationship, there will be kissing. Daniela is Olsen’s brother-in-law, therefore she admitted that it might become uncomfortable.
More than anything else, we’re kind of trying to remain committed to that. Everybody should be able to relate to Dave’s experience because he works in the industry, and Eric’s wife works in the industry as well as an actress.
Olsen and Ruah, who are both professional actors, don’t mind at all having a romantic relationship on screen.
Even though it’s part of their profession, one may imagine that David would feel awkward about his brother kissing his wife. In actuality, though, he’s really sympathetic.
In an interview with Parade, Daniela expanded on the matter, stating, “I think if Eric and I would say, “We’re not doing these things because we’re related,’ it would do a terrible disservice to the program and to the audience. The key goal is to keep viewers interested in the program and passionate about these characters’ growth.
In 2006, he met Sarah Wright, his future wife, while working on the comedy The Loop. Sarah is a skilled actress who has had a number of roles in movies and TV shows throughout the years.
Eric admitted in 2015 that he initially believed she had landed the job because she was “very attractive” rather than because of her talent.
He admitted, “I was rude to you when we first met.
Meanwhile, Sarah described Eric as “a big jerk.”
However, Sarah continued, “during the first table read, you laughed at my jokes and afterwards approached me and apologized.
Later, Sarah and Eric started dating. In Mexico, they got engaged after five years.
The pair wed in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 2012. They gave birth to their son Wyatt a year later. After that, in 2016, Sarah and Eric welcomed a daughter named Esme.
The couple announced the birth of their third child, a daughter named Winter Story, in September 2020.
She has arrived! We anchor ourselves with the things that matter most as a society as we traverse the upheaval and existential crisis that is 2020. Relationships with friends, family, and other people, Sarah wrote on Instagram.
She weighs 10 lbs. 4 oz. of newborn happiness. Mama and the baby are doing wonderfully, safe at home with a cuddle puddle of children and enormous dogs. Life is both spectacular and transitory; love without fear.
Eric always makes time for his family, despite his busy schedule on NCIS Los Angeles.
Fans are astonished by the metamorphosis the father of three has experienced after spending numerous hours in the gym, so it appears that he has used it effectively.
“Having the strength to hoist your kids higher into the air is one among the advantages of hard workouts during the pandemic…And isn’t that truly the point of responsible parenting?”, Olsen shared a photo of himself and his daughter Esme on Instagram.