Shane Harper’s Shares What He Admires About Ex Bridgit Mendler

“It becomes very binary,” he explained, “You can do multiple things. That should be really celebrated. It’s nice to not be tied down to one specific identity in what you can bring to the world because if you’re open to it, there are a lot of possibilities.”

Even in his own acting journey, the 34-year-old has embraced roles far outside his Disney past.In fact, a spontaneous decision to shave his head—despite being urged not to—led to him starring as a drug dealer on High Town and drug lord Vic Flynn in Power Book IV: Force. 

“It’s difficult to transition out of being a kid actor,” he said. “I shaved my head and then I went out and auditioned for High Town on Starz right after that. I got that part playing Junior.”

“I was always capable of doing that as an actor,” Harper continued, “but I think visually, there needs to be something—doesn’t need to be, but in that case—I really just was really fortunate that that personal choice gave way to creatives seeing me as that potential, which was really neat.”

And now, the actor—who is married to fellow Good Luck Charlie alumSamantha Boscarino—is stepping into a new kind of role forNCIS: a straight-edge special agent from Alaska adjusting to life in the city while reeling from a split with his ex-fiancée. 

“Moving from that show to this show, these characters couldn’t be more different,” he explained. “For me, wardrobe is a big way in. What kind of shoes is this character walking in? What kind of jackets do they wear? Do they not wear jackets? So as soon as I tucked in that flannel and put my belt buckle on, I was like, ‘We’re not Vic Flynn anymore. We are Wyatt Sellers from Alaska.'” 

Wyatt was even different from his own team, including Sam Hana (LL Cool J), Nick Schaeffer (Scott Caan) and Robyn Wells (Jennifer Beals).

“He doesn’t have that New York swag,” Harper noted. “He doesn’t have that street-smart New York thing going on that’s very quintessentially New York.”

But Harper is looking forward to seeing how the Big Apple transforms Wyatt as he solves crimes in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s New York office.

“I am really interested in exploring his relationship issues with his ex-fiancée and figuring out why that fell apart,” he shared. “I’m really curious if he’ll get more New York the further down the line, or if he’ll stay the same.”

While fans tune in to CBS every Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET for NCIS: New York, keep reading for more TV shows to add to your queue.