‘NCIS: Sydney’ Star Mavournee Hazel Talks Blue’s Surprising Backstory (Exclusive)

The first half of NCIS: Sydney’s third season gave viewers a deeper look into Bluebird’s backstory, and Mavournee Hazel spoke to PopCulture.com all about it.

After Season 2 of the NCIS spinoff ended on a cliffhanger, fans learned much more about Blue’s story and her true identity in Season 3.

The third season premiered last fall on CBS, and it was then that we learned that Blue’s real name is Faith Mullens. She and her brother, Eli, were raised in the dangerous Bilpin Collective cult, where their father died trying to escape. Blue briefly leaves the team after she’s lured back to the Collective by a woman named Aspira to help Eli, who is being manipulated by the cult. When it came to exploring Blue’s background, Hazel says it was “so rewarding.” She also had to be patient, given the fact that she knew everything when she auditioned.

“I was privileged enough to receive her full backstory, and it remains somewhat the same,” Hazel explained. “So I knew, for so many years, why she was the way she was and had to be very tight-lipped about it. But I’m really glad that I did know because I was able to plant all these little Easter eggs, and it informed all of my decisions as an actor and my relationships with certain characters, especially Doc.”

“I mean, their relationship, I feel, is so well explained and justified with her upbringing,” she continued. “She’s pretty much an orphan. So she really is this baby bird in this nest looking for a mom and dad, and JD and Mackey will forever be Mom and Dad, but Doc is just really like the grandfather, the father that she didn’t have, that she wasn’t lucky enough to have.”

Even though Hazel had known about Blue’s true identity since the beginning, she admitted that a “few things” had changed. “When I got given the script for Episode 2, with her whole backstory, I was like, ‘Oh, this is incredible. The Gemini twins. This is amazing. Hang on a minute. Wasn’t there a whole storyline about her not knowing her birthday?’” She recalled. “And I was like, ‘Wait. Oh my god. I just said she doesn’t know what her birthday is.’”

“And [they were] like, ‘She doesn’t know the birthday, but she knows that she’s a Gemini.’ And I was like, ‘Okay. I’m in love with that,’” Hazel said. “But for a hot minute, at the end of Season 2, I was actually gonna play my twin. So I went and had all these wig fittings. We bleached my eyebrows. I was like this blonde, Scandinavian thing. And it was the night before we were shooting.”

She went on to explain how Blue was meant to get into a taxi, and there was going to be a whole reveal. “So that was gonna be really fun. But it was the night before, and my showrunner called me and was like, ‘Hey. We’re gonna not do that anymore,’” she shared. “And then we cast Jacob [Collins-Levy] as Eli, which was incredible, and I’m so, so glad that we did that. Because I also had Blue’s tattoos, obviously, we had to establish in Season 1. We didn’t really know what was gonna happen, but we planted all these sort of potential Easter eggs. And the makeup artist designed all these things. And one of them was a little heart with an ‘E’ in it, so that’s an ‘E’ for Eli.”

Fans had been wondering what’s really up with Blue since the Season 2 finale, when the final moments saw her with a mysterious woman. At the time of the finale, Hazel admitted that about half the cast knew about Blue’s backstory, while the other half were in the dark and had no idea what was going on.

“I’m really, really close with Olivia [Swann] and Todd [Lasance], so I tell them everything, obviously,” she said. “But I remember at the table read, there was certain actors that were shocked to hear the truth of who she was. But I wanted to answer so many questions when we premiered and especially with people on Instagram. People were just having all these incredible theories, and so I just have to be patient. It was a good lesson in patience.”

Considering Mavournee Hazel had known about Bluebird’s backstory since the very beginning, being able to finally explore it in Season 3 is “a big relief.” She also said that as an actor, it gives her “more colors to paint with.” Hazel continued, “And now that everyone’s seen how she grew up, who she grew up with, I can make sort of out-of-pocket choices. She already did that anyway. I can pretty much get away with it, which has been really fun this season. And I’ve got to play her a little bit lighter. She’s not hiding anymore, and she isn’t so insecure and fearful. So I’ve got to have a bit more fun this season, especially with Mackey. That’s been fun adjusting that with me.”

There is likely still much more to learn about Bluebird as Season 3 of NCIS: Sydney continues, and there’s no telling what will be in store. Fans will just have to tune in to new episodes of Sydney, returning on Tuesday, March 3 at 10 p.m. ET on CBS, streaming the next day on Paramount+, to see what happens.