‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’: Michael Weatherly & Cote de Pablo Go Inside Filming Reunion

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for NCIS: Tony & Ziva Season 1 Episodes 1 “No Country Is Safe,” 2 “No Friend of Mine,” and 3 “Cover Story.”]

Tiva is together again … sort of. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reprise their roles as Tony and Ziva in the latest NCIS spinoff, and let’s just say that it’s easiest to describe their relationship as “it’s complicated.”

The NCIS: Tony & Ziva premiere — one of three episodes that dropped at launch — shows us the reunion after Ziva revealed she’d faked her own death for the partners and their daughter. But that was in 2020, and now, in the present day, they’re no longer together but instead co-parenting Tali (Isla Gie). When Tony’s security firm is framed for stealing, and even his friend Henry (James D’Arcy) at Interpol, is after him, however, they go on the run together, leaving Tali in the care of her nanny Sophie (Lara Rossi). Across these three episodes, we see that they’re using a wedding to lure in Martine (Nassima Benchicou), the baddie who also happens to be a member of Interpol, with Ziva standing in as the bride (Tony is not the groom), things got steamy between Tony and Ziva in April 2020, and, in the present, Tony has a girlfriend (Sophie Mousel) … who turns out to be married.

Below, Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo break down the major moments of the first three episodes of their new series. (Plus, read what showrunner John McNamara had to say here.)

Talk about filming the reunion scene in the flashback because it’s something that fans have been waiting for years to see. Was there anything you wanted to make sure to include?

Cote de Pablo: I think you and I have always sort of been on the same page, even though we don’t approach the work in the same way. So we didn’t really talk about it with Michael. He wanted it to be a certain way. I wanted it to be a certain way. And it just so happened that when the cameras started rolling, I found a very raw, emotional Tony DiNozzo, which I thought was really beautiful. And I just remembered telling him, I kept on saying, my God, that’s such a beautiful — I called him. Of course, afterwards in the middle of working, we don’t quite discuss what’s going on. But it turned out to be quite a moving scene. I just watched all of the episodes in the past week, and I have to say I was really moved by so many moments on the show, and that was one of them. It was really special.

Michael Weatherly: And I would add to that, one of the great opportunities that we had, which I’m sure you recognized as you started watching it, was that the format has changed in such a way that we are able to explore new layers and go into deeper places and spend time there. What that means is we get to bring the audience to a place where they can be comfortable maybe in the discomfort of that. But when you’re doing a one hour, we got to catch the bad guy drama, we can have a scene maybe where we explore something. But what John McNamara and the writing team and everyone at CBS and Paramount and everyone involved, and especially Cote, everybody was game to go for the ride, to go on this journey and to go away from the paint by numbers kind of procedural and more into a big, romance, action Hitchcock meets, I don’t know who.

And so I think when I was doing NCIS in the beginning, I would have been very cautious about playing something too raw because it wouldn’t have had the context. But I think that what this show is all about, and we’ve started with I think one of the secrets of the show, is you can rewatch an episode immediately because there’s so much packed into it and the device of the time wheel, you go backwards and forwards and at some point you’re like, wait, where the f**k are we? And why is Tony DiNozzo swearing? And so I think that’s kind of that re-watch ability is one of the things. It’s not just the structure of the show, but it’s also you do get emotionally impacted in ways that can sort of surprise you. And I think it’s also laugh out loud funny sometimes. I love the performances of the guest cast.

And to the point of your question, Cote and I, we don’t talk about this stuff because the way Cote and I communicate is on a more sort of psychic, spiritual level. And that just starts with trust. So we know where the other person is, which is in an open, trusting place. And if for any reason we feel the other person is closed up, if Cote feels I’m being one way or the other and not open, then that discussion will happen. But never about the work, only about like, Hey, is everything okay? Do you need my help? It’s the most fun experience to me working with Cote de Pablo. I will end with that.

De Pablo: I feel the same way.

It’s in Episode 3 that we learned about Tony’s girlfriend and then Nicole’s husband (Henning Baum). Tony was serious enough about her to want to introduce to Tali, but how much was him being serious about that relationship, specifically about Nicole, and how much was it him maybe running from Ziva and what was and could be between them?

Weatherly: Well, I think anyone who still is in love with someone but knows that that can’t work, that relationship can’t work, they can’t be together for whatever reasons, be it geographical or emotional, and you try to move on to someone else, what you end up doing is freighting that relationship, which is what DiNozzo does. He finds someone who really isn’t available and he immediately on some level senses that she’s not available. So that’s very appealing to him because he knows it can never be. And I think he’s also projecting onto her things that she never was or would be. And so whether or not he was really ever going to introduce another woman to Tali, I’m not sure, but I think he told himself that that’s what he was going to do. Does that make sense, Cote?

De Pablo: Totally.

How does Ziva feel about Dr. Lang (Terence Maynard) as a therapist? There is a question of who can be trusted, like anyone they meet. But therapy is also clearly helping her. Just looking at the backfire scene in the premiere.

De Pablo: The Dr. Lang character to me was sort of the rock for Ziva in that season. Obviously Tony is the counterpart, right? They’re one, but they’ve lost their way. And through that season you sort of get to see them connect in this way where they start working as one, as a unit, which is how most couples and certainly families could work. I’m not saying they should, I’m not going to should anything. But it’s sort of the magical thing that happens in that season. But through all of that search, there is this doctor, Dr. Lang. I think she has learned to trust him. I think what we haven’t seen is that she’s gone through years of therapy. So you catch her in this first episode when there’s that big sort of explosion and she catches herself and she goes, “Relax, this is what happened.” And she’s not frazzled and then she goes to therapy and she sees Lang and she realizes that that’s a pivotal moment in life because she’s gone through something that is very healing to her. And that is the moment that she realizes, “Holy crap, I’ve just gone through something massive here.” It’s an aha moment as Oprah Winfrey would say.

To answer your question, I think he’s a rock in her world. I think Terence also the actor has this incredible quality. His voice is very deep and he’s got this very sort of peaceful, grounded, almost on a spiritual level that is quite beautiful. So when you’re in a room with him, it’s very easy to open up. And we had these very intense scenes from the get-go, and we just sort of went into that room with this absolute openness. We wanted to explore what this was, and we just kind of gave ourselves to the scene. We both really, truly liked each other as people, but we met each other more as actors first. And there was that mutual respect and that mutual trust, which came very organically. So it’s funny how the universe works and how people are put in the right place. These characters sort of needed to be filled by these very human creatures. And by that, I mean people with their humanity filled these characters. And it’s kind of amazing how it all came together and how we met all of these fantastic actors along the way, these very talented people that got to fill these shoes in such a fun, deep way.

Talk about having that McGee mention in Episode 3. And in general, how often do you think Tony and Ziva are in touch with McGee and everyone in D.C.?

De Pablo: I think Michael, you and I have talked about it. I think NCIS the mothership, it first of all was an undeniable beloved show on an international sort of level. It would be farfetched to not understand that these characters, first of all, met, fell in love in that place. So to go back and talk about these characters makes total sense to me because they’re a part of the family. They were the very structure that allowed them to get to know each other in the way that they did. And they wouldn’t exist without the mothership. They wouldn’t exist without that world and that world, Michael and I have talked about it, it was a beautiful ensemble that was very family oriented and that allowed so many storylines to live. So we will definitely mention all these characters innately just a part of their lives.

Weatherly: And I did go back. DiNozzo went back for Ducky’s memorial, and in my mind, Ziva and Tali were there as well, but I went down to have a personal moment and wanted to spend my time sleeping on McGee’s couch and having a moment with Palmer. Cote and I talked about that because David was so important to us and we loved him.

De Pablo: But we also talked about that moment, Michael, and it’s very funny because Michael —

Weatherly: We knew that we were doing this, so we didn’t want to —

De Pablo: We couldn’t both be together because then it would ruin the element of surprise, so we had a discussion and it was Michael who got the chance to go and sort of pay homage because we both couldn’t be there because then it would ruin the idea that we would be seen together in our show. We wanted to save that for the fans. It actually worked out quite beautifully. And I think Michael going, he was also quite close with David, and so he got a chance to go pay his respects and make a physical appearance, which I thought was the right move.

Weatherly: It’s the only signed autograph I have in my office, is David McCallum.

NCIS: Tony & Ziva, Thursdays, Paramount+