By Michaela Gordoni
Cote De Pablo and Michael Weatherly sat down with TV Insider for an in-depth interview about their new show, NCIS: TONY & ZIVA.
“My truth is I am so grateful, because who gets the chance to work with their very, very good friend on something that they really, truly care about, that they’ve been conjuring up for years and years?” De Pablo said.
In the show, Tony and Ziva reunite after several years to raise their daughter, Tali, in Paris. However, they’re soon on the run after Tony’s security company is attacked.
“The audience will get a glimpse of what happened in flashbacks. In the beginning, Ziva thinks [the relationship] is done. In flashbacks, we explore how they get together and where the communication broke down,” De Pablo explained. “These two stories are happening at the same time.”
“The B storyline is how Tony and Ziva dealt with the obstacles they had before them, the trust issues, and everything else,” Weatherly added. “Are we going to co-parent? That’s the root of it.”
De Pablo explained that the characters’ attraction comes back to life in a different way.
Related: Don’t Miss This First Look at NCIS: TONY & ZIVA
“There was a new feature inside Cote’s demeanor; there was this new angle of light. I didn’t realize [why] until later,” Weatherly added. “I was like, oh, she’s a mother.”
“I’m meeting the mother. The mother was always there, but now the mother is the mother. I was able to see that aspect of Cote that I had blinders to,” he said.
“We’re parents in real life, but we’re now playing them. This is a show about trust at its core. We have had to trust many aspects of this [series]. The characters are exploring this theme,” he said.
In NCIS, Ziva had faked her own death, which creates some trust issues in the relationship.
“Ziva has lived realities within realities. They’re also survival mechanisms. There were years where she had Tali, and then she was gone,” De Pablo said.
“We still don’t know exactly what happened. That will unfold. There’s this idea that the past comes back, and she deals with that in therapy,” De Pablo said.
“We know she was in a world of pain. They’re both infinitely wounded. They do love each other and are trying to figure it out,” she continued. “There’s a lot of heat, passionate arguments, passionate scenes.”
The series starts with Tony and Ziva separated and co-parenting their daughter. Showrunner John McNamara said the reason is because he wanted more drama. He turned to classic movies to help him set up the dynamic.
“I thought starting them apart and then having the action at least draw them together physically so they have to be together all the time,” he said.
“I didn’t invent the wheel. This is THE 39 STEPS. This is NORTH BY NORTHWEST. This is THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR. Those classic movies are all about pairing people who don’t want to be together, but they’ll die without each other.”
The series also stars Isla Gie as 12-year-old Tali and Lara Rossi stars as Sophie, Tali’s SAS-trained nanny. Amita Suman stars as Claudette, CTO at Tony’s security company. Maximlian Osinki plays Boris, a Russian computer hacker, and James D’Arcy plays Henry, a high-rank Interpol official.
Per TVLine, TONY & ZIVA premieres on Paramount+ on Sept. 4.
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