Michael Weathery & Cote de Pablo Explore the Love, Labor and Loss of ‘Tony & Ziva’
The two perennial TV actors, who have costumed themselves with Tony and Ziva for two decades, delve into the success and the threads of the premiere season of the new ‘NCIS’ spin-off.
For a show to last over 20 years, almost 500 episodes spread across 23 seasons and spawn countless spin-offs, it must have a few characters that audiences gravitate towards and want to live with for that long. Perhaps the only other show that has accomplished something akin to NCIS is Law & Order, and both have been mainstays of network television because they are populated with beloved characters.
Two of those stemming from the world of the Naval Criminal Investigation Service is Tony DiNozzo (played by Michael Weatherly) and Ziva David (played by Cote de Pablo), who represent arguably the heart of the NCIS world have been one of the strongest hooks of NCIS for that entire time. Even when Weatherly had left the ‘mothership’ as they refer to it, and had six seasons on ‘Bull’, fans never really let go of Tony and Ziva. Their love story was always sweet, funny and yet tragic and made for a very open-ended chapter when they were last seen together on the mainstay program. The two joined FilmSpeak to discuss picking up where they left off, and what leaving the mothership means for the expansion of Tony and Ziva’s story.
NCIS and Paramout+ have blessed audiences with another chance, another chapter, and the aptly named Tony & Ziva has allowed fans to witness the next instalment of this star crossed love story. De Pablo, is no stranger to Shakespearean threads. The actress, pre-NCIS, appeared as the lesser known Shakespearean Juliet in the New York Public Theater’s production of Measure for Measure in 2001.
To watch the full interview, click below, or continue scrolling for the remainder of the article.
“I've always been interested in the theme of love” de Pablo tells us. “I think it's the reason why I got into theatre. I think it's the reason why you want to tell the story.”
Weatherly, who is welcomed to hijack our interviews any time he wants, graciously jumps in to ask his costar if she believes it goes deeper, and perhaps even earlier than her theatre days.
“Levels of sensitivity and sensibility and how we perceive things are sometimes altered by events that we perceive as children,” de Pablo admits. ”I left my country at 10 years old, and I think it did something to me. So I think the idea of loss and love and all those themes are really important to me. Those are things that I deal with.”
Weatherly once again jumps in, beating this writer to the follow-up questions and asks of de Pablo “Do you gravitate and find yourself drawn, or even just getting cast in things that resonate with what your journey is?” De Pablo simply states “I think there's a little bit of life imitating art.”
Not to be outdone by upstart journalists like Weatherly, this writer continues to delve into the perhaps undeniably tragic threads of Tony and Ziva’s story, and poses an important question that undoubtedly weighs heavily on the minds of NCIS fans everywhere, are the two lovers inevitably doomed?
Weatherly jumps in, recognizing it’s a major theme of the show. “I know there is that great song that was written for the show, ‘Doomed to Loving You’.” His costar quickly recalls the powerful lyrics from that song, as de Pablo recites “I will find you in every lifetime. I will haunt you.”
“I think this is something that when we were first discussing things that we wanted to see, and how we wanted to express that [possibility of being doomed] to each other through these characters.” Weatherly reveals. “It's no use spending years of your life doing something if it's not fully an investigation of your own wonder and awe and fascination with the universe. So the universe of love that we have for each other as friends is fully explored as this star-crossed storyline. It's not will they won't they. It's what the hell is going on?”
Just like the onscreen chemistry they have exhibited for two decades, de Pablo finishes Weatherly’s thought and expands on the relationship. “They are a complete mirror to each other. They mirror each other in the greatest of ways. So they're learning from each other. They're pushing each other to be their best. I think it happens because they cannot run away from this thing that they inevitably feel. So they have to keep fighting.”
While the characters push each other to be the best version of Tony and Ziva that they can possibly be, that doesn’t mean they’re suddenly going to be something they’re not. For both these NCIS icons, that means they will always have something to fight for. The new international flavor of the show gives the duo not only a beautiful European backdrop to fight in, but a great new spy-thriller sensibility for the show. A far cry from the procedural format of the ‘mothership’.
But as mentioned, something’s never change. Despite what de Pablo might say. “She really is done with the fighting.” But before she even gets an opportunity to finish her thought, that upstart amateur journalist strikes again. “You've never fought more, no?” Weatherly asks. Di Pablo recognizes the irony of Ziva’s journey - the two characters are growing and evolving, but can’t escape who they are. But the actress recognizes this doesn’t define Ziva, and who they used to be in NCIS doesn’t mean that Tony & Ziva can’t be it’s own creation.
“That's not something that she wants.” de Pablo interjects. “That's just something that she has to do. Of course, this whole thing about raising this child and the potential threats that this child may encounter push her to sort of become the best and also the worst version of herself”.
Part of the evolution of these characters is not simply seeing them in a coparenting relationship or life or death situations, it’s seeing how they want to give back to the world, a world they both recognize can’t be extremely dangerous. It’s a thread that was an integral part of the original NCIS, as they show often dealt with different leadership styles and surrogate father-figures, such as Mark Harmon’s Gibbs. While Tony seems to have hung on to the DiNozzio charm his father (Robert Wagner) gave him, for Ziva, it goes much deeper and darker.
“You get to see Ziva reconcile the past with her dad.” di Pablo reveals. The relationship with her father is tumultuous to say the least, but one of the great new traits of Ziva in this show is that she has opened an international school of language, which says a lot that the character would delve into becoming an educator. “We have these very deep conversations about not wanting to be like our parents, and yet that past seeps into these relationships. How can I make sure my child is safe if I'm not there? Well, I have to give her the tools. How do you do that? I have to teach her. What will you teach her how to use a gun, how to use her fists, how to you know, but there is a beautiful scene, she tells Tali that she wants her to use her brain, you know, her head to think before she, you know, basically not be reactive. And I think that's such a smart piece of advice”.
If anything, Tony & Ziva has taught fans of the show, who have seen these characters love, fight and grow for over 20 years that there is still so much more story to tell.