Following the death of Sasha Alexander’s Kate Todd in the NCIS Season 2 finale, Cote de Pablo was brought aboard in Season 3 to play Ziva David, who ended up taking Kate’s spot on the team. Over the character’s eight-season run as a series regular on the CBS show that’s ran well over 250 episodes and can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, she built a flirtatious dynamic with Michael Weatherly’s Tony DiNozzo, leading to fans affectionately referring to them collectively as “Tiva.” In fact, it didn’t take long for Tony and Ziva to end up getting intimate with one another on NCIS, and de Pablo recalled how a “considerate” Weatherly sweetly looked out for her while filming this scene.
The actors recalled their time working on “Under Covers,” i.e. NCIS Season 3’s eighth episode, on Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch, the podcast they host together to keep fans entertained while they wait for the spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva. This episode follows Tony and Ziva going on an undercover assignment where they’re pretending to be two married assassins, and it gets off to a steamy start when they passionately kiss and pretend to have sex in order to fool anyone who may be watching and listening in. Starting off, de Pablo had this to say about how Weatherly wanted to make sure she was feeling comfortable while they were in bed together:
Well, I just remember this particular moment showing up the set, and then you were so worried about how you smelled. I remember this because I remember it was very cute. I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, he really cares.’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, is this ok? Is this deodorant ok? And I was like, ‘Oh my God!’ I kind of loved you because we’re going to be having these very intimate [scenes]… and I’m saying it like you were very considerate and you were like, ‘Did you like this deodorant?’ You were very sincere about this particular exploration of intimacy between these two characters… And I remember thinking, ‘Michael, you always smell great, that’s not a problem.
Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo hadn’t been working together long at this point, but it’s great to hear he was already being courteous towards her by making sure she liked the smell of the deodorant he applied. After all, if you have to spend a long amount of time filming a scene in bed with one of your costars, you want to make sure the scent doesn’t bother your onscreen partner. Additionally, de Pablo shared a subtle way that Westerly helped to make sure that she would look her best on camera, with the actress explaining:
… You did something that was so kind, which is you grabbed my hair and you were holding onto my head, and you lifted me ever so slightly so I was in a good angle so that I looked good. I remember thinking, ‘What is he doing?’ ‘Cause I wasn’t used to that. I was used to doing stuff on in the theatre or whatever where you’re not really thinking about those things. Like weight, the angle and is going to be flattering and am I going to see a double chin or whatever? And you were just very much aware of that, and without me knowing, you were protecting me. You were making sure that I was looking good.
Although this “relationship” between Tony and Ziva was only a ruse so they could figure out who hired the couple they were impersonating and who they were sent to kill, “Under Covers” planted the first Tiva seed. The two had a ‘will they, won’t they’ thing going over the course of nearly a decade, and in the end, they acted on their feelings for one another. Now they are finally raising their daughter Tali together since Ziva is no longer on the run as of NCIS Season 17 episode “In the Wind.” Unfortunately, the events of NCIS: Tony & Ziva will shake up their lives and force these two to hightail it across Europe after Tony’s security company is attacked.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva doesn’t have a premiere date, but unlike the other NCIS shows, it will stream exclusively on Paramount+. Meanwhile, the 2024 TV schedule will bring NCIS Season 22 and the debut of the prequel NCIS: Origins on Monday, October 14, and NCIS: Sydney has been renewed for a second season, though there’s no word on when it will return.