We’ll admit Maximilian Osinski’s Boris didn’t start as our favorite character on NCIS: Tony & Ziva. But almost like it happened to Claudette, he grew on us. And now, with only two episodes to go, Osinski’s character hasn’t just become a crucial part of the team; we’re all wondering how exactly he could come back in the Season 2 we desperately need.
Fangirlish talked to Osinski about Episode 8 of NCIS: Tony & Ziva, the character in general, and what we can expect to see in the upcoming two hours of the show. And one thing seems clear: Osinski enjoys this character as much as we do.
We started with how much Boris reminded us of the last Osinski character in our general consciousness, Zava on Ted Lasso. And though the characters are not the same, he did have some great insight into their similarities and differences. “I viewed them very differently. I mean, just the circumstances of who they are. And obviously, how they hold themselves, how they behave, like their level of confidence and their point of view about themselves and the world and the people around them.”
MORE: Check out our previous reviews! Here’s Episodes 1-3, here’s Episode 4, here’s Episode 5, here’s Episode 6, and here’s Episode 7.
“You can both say they have a bit of… they have egos, you know. But I feel like, unlike Sava, who probably views himself as a god, Boris still views Lazar as the god of hacking. So, there’s a bit of there’s a difference there and in their kind of humility.”
For Osinski, though, the challenge was in trying to make characters real, whether they’re similar to him or not. “I’ve always just tried to find how a character is different from me. How are they similar to me? And just kind of go from there. I think we all have a little bit of…This sounds really cheesy, but like Brando said, we’re all actors and we all have to act to get through our daily lives. We all have a bit of a dark side or a funny side or silly side inside of us that we don’t let everyone see, you know, and you just try as an actor, whether it’s at the risk of humiliating yourself, you access all those little colors.”
One of the relationships that has required Osinski to access those little colors the most has been Boris’s relationship with Claudette (Amita Suman) and how the two went from basically enemies to a sibling-like relationship. “I think they made great frenemies. And I think what was great is that the writers made sure that they were very different. Although they live in similar worlds, she’s in security, high-tech security. Boris is more like a black hat, underground, computer espionage, and hacking. The way they operate is very different.”
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But the two end up finding a middle ground, of sorts. “What was great is they start on opposite sides of the spectrum in terms of like how they like to get things done and following rules and not. And that’s always fun to see two people put it in a situation like that and then try and figure it out.”
“And then it’s also nice to see how they kind of learn from each other. You know, and how they kind of take little things from each other’s way of doing stuff in order to help the team and find a way to work together. Credit to the writing, I think, and the imagination of making two characters very distinct both in their job and their points of view on how the world should operate and what’s fair and what’s not.”
This was all built from Osinki’s relationship with Suman. “Amita’s just… Amita’s a wonderful actress. And she came to set and I remember she was very open and always wanted to sit down with me and we would talk about the scene and the characters and in rehearsals and even when we’re shooting, we’d always talk about like, what can we do that shows character in the behavior without almost needing the lines? Or you have the lines, but what else would, what else shows this, these characters’ dynamic?”
MORE: The NCIS: Tony & Ziva spinoff was shot in Budapest
It sounds like a great set, honestly. “We just tried to have as much fun with that every time we got to work together. And when you have a great scene partner like her, that’s something you look forward to every day because she’s, she’s like amazing. And I try to bring that same spirit to working with my cast as well.”
The collaboration extended to the little things. “We would always try and come up with like, well, how would he eat in front of you? And how would he type on the keyboard, and how would he take up space on the desk? And all that stuff is really fun to play with when the writing is proposing two very distinct people. So, I give credit to Amita. I think I wouldn’t be able to find all that fun stuff if I didn’t have a scene partner who was willing to play.”
Osinski also shared that, as with many shows, they didn’t know where the story was going when they started filming, so “it unrolls as the season goes along.” To him, “it’s kind of like breadcrumbs every episode.” And then “we feed off each other because what we do on screen, the writers see, and then they kind of add to that.”
MORE: How did we do on the list of things we wanted from NCIS: Tony & Ziva?
“So, it really is collaborative and kind of like what you add to the soup makes the rest of the writers add a little bit more to the soup. And suddenly, you know, you thought it was just going to be chicken noodles and you’re making some crazy dish that no one even knew existed.”
That same sort of dynamic also existed for Osinski with Anne-Marie Waldeck, who plays Boris’s wife Fruzsi. But their relationship is also supposed to be a mirror for Tony and Ziva. Though Osinski tried to give the main couple of the show its due. “They’re kind of meant to be that mirror of what Tony and Ziva don’t have,” he said about Boris and Fruzsi. “King of that happy in love couple that so far doesn’t have any issues. But to be fair to Tony and Ziva, they’re not raising a kid on the run.”
“I don’t know how well Boris and Fruzsi would handle that kind of stress,” he added with a laugh. “But yeah, I think it’s great. And you have all these different mirrors in the show to Tony and Ziva’s relationship, you know, with all the different kinds of pairings. Sophie and Claudette. Jonah Markham and the mean lady.”
MORE: Here are 5 essential moments from the Tiva relationship
For Boris, her name is not Martine. It’s mean lady. Osinski is just being method.
In Episode 8, we also see a nice moment of Tony comparing Boris to a “probie” he knew. Long-time fans will recognize this as a reference to Timothy McGee, who is anything but a probie these days. That was, however, Tony’s nickname for McGee during his time on the show. And if that doesn’t give us a clear picture of how much Boris has come to mean to Tony—and the team by extension, then the next episode might make it even clearer.
“I think it’s nice that like everyone’s out of their comfort zone in the show and they all find each other and learn to trust each other,” Osinski said. Now, the show is almost over. We just hope we get to spend more time with that found family that has been built as effectively in NCIS: Tony & Ziva as it ever was on the mothership.
New episodes of NCIS: Tony & Ziva stream on Thursdays on Paramount+.
