There are many things that fans don't know about the NCIS franchise. This includes some of the behind-the-scenes drama that takes place. Not everything stays hidden, of course. Some things get leaked and contributed to the negative energy some fans have around the show, particularly NCIS: Los Angeles. Shalita Grant's complicated exit from NCIS: New Orleans is also something die-hard fans are aware of. But they may not know the extent of Shalita's terrible experience making the show.
A lot of press was sparked when Shalita exited NCIS: New Orleans in 2018. She claimed she was treated differently by the crew in comparison to her co-stars. On top of this, she stated that her hair was permanently damaged due to a decision to make her natural Black hair look straighter. In an interview with Vulture, Shalita went into far more detail than she ever has about her terrible experience working on NCIS: New Orleans and why exactly she left...
Shalita Grant Didn't Want To Feel Stuck Making A Police Procedural Like NCIS: New Orleans
One thing that is almost never spoken about when the topic of Shalita Grants' NCIS departure comes up is that she actually didn't want to be stuck in one job. While NCIS: New Orleans offered her incredible job security playing Special Agent Sonja Percy, Shalita was ready for other things when she left.
"After I left, I had a come-to-Jesus moment with myself. For your career, you have to consider more than a couple of things. I don’t have any family in the business. I come from Virginia and Baltimore, nobody in my family does what I do. I was the first person in generations to get on a plane. I’m flying by the seat of my pants, always. I was thinking about the choices that I made, having some compassion for myself, and was like, I need to do comedy. If it’s a drama, it has to be something that I feel love for. It can’t just be a procedural. There’s more to life for me," Shalita explained to Vulture. "Why I wanted to do a procedural was also from a beautiful place. I’ve been to so many hotels across the country and seen Law & Order: SVU and felt like “that’s home.” I was presented with the opportunity to work on NCIS and I was like, I want to be that person for other people too. Then when I got on the show, I was like, Wow, there’s a lot you didn’t know."
What Was Up With Shalita Grant/Percy's Hair On NCIS?
News of the toxic work conditions on the set of NCIS: New Orleans circulated when Shalita Grant left the show. So much of her negative experience was based on how the show treated her hair. This was something fans kept noticing differences in from episode to episode. According to Shalita, this wasn't just because of sloppy work from the hair and make-up department but also because of racism coming from the top of the show...
"For Black women, the way our hair is policed is that we’re told it’s unprofessional in its natural state. From the time that you’re in school, you are getting this lesson. It’s shored up with punishment. Schools expel children or suspend children because of their hair. The way we touch our hair is full of internalized white supremacy, because of the anti-Black myths that it requires stringent chemicals to be manageable," Shalita explained.
On the set of NCIS: New Orleans, the hair and make-up department were policed by the production to make sure that Shalita's hair looked a certain way. According to her, the producers were "committed" to her character not having "a natural curl pattern".
"Between season one and season two, I became a series regular. Season one I did a couple of episodes, and I wore this straight-hair wig. Some of my hair was out, but it was in its natural state. Type 4 hair like mine, in its natural state, our strands are very fragile. If it put heat on it, it could break off. In the hiatus, I was like, I’m going to be doing a lot of episodes, I need to talk to them and tell them that I need curlier hair, because we’re in Louisiana. I called the hair department head at the time, and she was like, 'Send some photos of the wig or whatever it is you want to wear.' What we got back from an executive producer was that he was okay with the curl, but not that type," Shalita said.
Shalita put up with this for a total of three years. Throughout her time working on the show, she really struggled. Not only because of the undercurrent of racism she was experiencing but also because her hair was physically going through agony.
"From episode to episode, my ponytail was completely different, and that was because I was trying to chase the traction alopecia — in 2017 I had less than an inch of hair in the front. When I came back for season four, I was wearing this helmet-head wig thing. I was like, I don’t give a f***, I know this looks crazy, but I have to save myself, because they don’t care. I’m showing them pictures of the bald spot I got in season one, because they had me in chlorinated water and promised me I would have time to get my hair done, and then, always, on the day it’s 'Oh no, we have to … whatever'", Shalita explained.
Ultimately, what was once a dream job for her became an utter nightmare...
"They were so committed to me and my hair being a problem that I had a meeting with a lower-level producer where he was like, 'You couldn’t get your hair wet so we had to reshoot a scene.' The reason we had to reshoot that scene was because it was raining and the stunt couldn’t happen. I wasn’t the only actor in that scene who would need their hair blow-dried for the shot. When I brought up the white actors that would need the same thing for the shot, he had to drop it. It was all because, in their minds, a love interest doesn’t look like that. A love interest has straight hair. It’s all built around those assumptions, and I suffered because of that."
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