At the 2025 New York ComicCon, I had the chance to speak with Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, better known as Tony & Ziva from the incredibly long-running hit CBS show NCIS, and now starring in a spin-off of their own on Paramount+, NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Both actors were incredibly gracious and generous with their time, and here’s what they had to say about the show and their characters.
Question: What was it like coming back to these roles after so long, and after having so much fan expectation?
Cote de Pablo: A treat. We had not worked together, Michael and I fight some time, and the idea that we got to do it again was a little bit of a dream. All of that spark and that chemistry and that magic was there. We didn’t doubt it, but also we didn’t know if, you know, it was going to be there, how much it was going to be there, how strong it was going to be, and it’s very strong.
Michael Weatherly: The fan expectation is really where it all came from and where it originated. And what was it like coming back to the role? I mean, that’s interesting because the role is… We didn’t see a lot of things that happened. I think the last episode of season 13, when DiNozzo leaves, is you see something change in him. And I did that, you know, all hands on deck, and I smashed the table. sorry to self-reference, but I I got very emotional doing that scene. I don’t think it was intended necessarily to be as crazy as I got. And I’m there and Gibbs is there, and then Robert Wagner comes in, DiNozzo Sr. comes in and takes me away. So I have my two father figures there as I’m becoming a father. You know, it’s like you just see this guy spinning out of control.
And so I was really curious, like, how do you come back and explore that guy and bring him, integrate all these things that happened off camera? And where do we meet him? Like, what’s he like? So I’m hoping that fans of the old show recognize the character that they knew and loved, but also can see that he’s evolved. And if you’ve never seen the show before, you’re like, why does he cry so much?
Q: How is it playing this side of the characters, to being more emotional and kind of really being more vulnerable?
Michael Weatherly: So I think that what that really comes down to is all of those feelings were there. He just had so many defense mechanisms covering them. The jokes and the movie references and making someone else sometimes uncomfortable. If you’re uncomfortable, I’ll win by making you uncomfortable, because then I blow it up and you can’t attack me now. ’cause I blew us all up. Burn the village to save the village social dynamics, you know. And he didn’t even know he was doing it. And I think that he learned a lot from Tali and the patience it took to become a father and put himself second and realized that as good as an investigator as he was and as much as he had learned from Gibbs, Gibbs was a very damaged father figure and wasn’t really great at teaching him love. He’s got at teaching him how to solve a crime and be lonely and eat steak with a knife. But he wasn’t great at integrating all these other aspects.
Cote de Pablo: I also think it’s really great because most of the time with the character of Ziva, she withholds a lot, right? So it’s all about, like, people not being able to read her, right? I think it comes from that sort of like spy background where you’re not really supposed to wear the emotions on your face. And there’s a lot of deflection and all of that. So it’s great because then the fans get to see the honesty within the emotional journey. And then when she goes on to the world, she can put her mask back on. But then the fans already know what she’s going through because they’ve tracked her in therapy. They know what she’s going through and they know how she’s masking. So it becomes really interesting tool to tell a story, like the reality versus what she wants everyone to see, you know? And the truth is, I think she’s doing a pretty great job because there is no big mask. I think in the mothership show, there was a bigger mask; let’s all repress the emotion. I think there’s a fully integrated person. that’s working to be able to be honest, so she can be the best mom and hopefully the best partner. And so I think seeing that in the trajectory makes the characters interesting. You get to see the evolution for both of us.
Q: So you two know these characters so well as actors, but now you’ve also stepped into being executive losers on the show. I’m curious, what does that add to your workload or your approach to, shooting? How’s that journey been?
Michael Weatherly: Gosh, you know, it doesn’t really change how much I care. Because even when I was, you can ask people I’d worked on the soap with, you know, I have been crazy for a long time. really crazy. And I think that, uh. for me, it’s like revisiting, going back into the Tony DiNozzo world, it’s like, uh. Have you ever been in a really deep cave? Have you ever been spelunking? Like where you go so far underground that it’s like, oh, shit, like something bad could happen and I would not be able to [survive.]. So I feel that way about DiNozzo sometimes. which is like he doesn’t even know where he is, but when we go with him for that ride, it’s kind of scary, and we’re seeing stuff that we’re not quite sure of
Cote and I don’t really discuss how scenes are constructed and like how we’re going to play them or how they were. But we we get into the rehearsal process and it becomes very creative and collaborative and it’s fertile. But I think that’st the great thing about Tony & Ziva is you’re getting to see, there’s so much about mental health inside these episodes. And I think that can be helpful for… we went through COVID, I mean, the country has gone through so many things. So it’s kind of a cool thing from that perspective. And also, it’s a puzzle. So you’re going to get to the end of 10 episodes and go, “Wait a minute…!”
Cote de Pablo: You know, behind the scenes, we had a little bit of a say when it came to the casting, we were a part of the casting process, which was so much fun. So, in many ways, we got a chance to build this family that a lot of people are falling in love with, you know, which is great. It’s kind of one of the big perks of being as involved as we have been. Then Michael and I talked about storylines, I think for years before John started writing the show. We knew there were things that we needed to tackle. We knew there were things that we needed to address. One of them, obviously, where is this child? How is this child? How are we relating to our child? What happened to them? Did they ever get together? How did they get together? Did they try to make it work? How did it fall apart? You know, all of those things had to be answered. And then John came up with this sort of flashback thing, which works, you know? And it does explain the past, and it informs the present, that present is somehow, you know, trickling into the future, which is where the relationship goes. That part of being executive producer is super fun.. But when you start shooting and are in front of the cameras, there’s very little time. We’re pretty much in the entire thing, so that’s when it becomes trickier. That’s when we have to trust that the people that are writing and the people that are sort of unfolding the storyline are doing their part.
Q: Tony and Ziva are such beloved characters, especially together. What’s the fan reaction been like so far to the new show?
Cote de Pablo: I think it’s been beautiful. You know, Michael and I just came back from Europe, and that was like its own mayhem, because we were in Rome, we were in Milan, we were in Berlin, and I was in Paris. The show is huge in Europe. They love the show, you know, and they love these two characters together. Michael tells me all the time, he’s like, “Oh, Cote, you know, people on Instagram are writing this and, you know, people are liking this.” And so apparently the reviews have been really good. Rotten Tomatoes, I think, gave it like an 80 something. So it’s, a treat for us because we make the show for them, you know, for the fans. It was a love letter to the fans. And I know they appreciate that.
Q: Is there any official word on the future of NCIS: Tony & Ziva? Do we know for sure if more is coming?
Cote de Pablo: Not that I know of, you know, not now. So we’re just, you know, we’re celebrating what’s presently on the air and what people are loving. And so that’s where we’re at.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva is streaming now on Paramount+