{"id":3734,"date":"2025-10-24T18:31:48","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=3734"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:31:48","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T18:31:48","slug":"ncis-tony-ziva-star-cote-de-pablo-on-the-importance-of-healing-trauma-how-becoming-a-mom-irl-influenced-her-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/?p=3734","title":{"rendered":"\u2018NCIS: \u2018Tony & Ziva\u2019 Star Cot\u00e9 De Pablo On The Importance Of Healing Trauma & How Becoming A Mom IRL Influenced Her Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Returning to the world of\u00a0NCIS<\/em>\u00a0has been a gift to Cot\u00e9 de Pablo, who reprised the role of Ziva David in\u00a0NCIS: Tony & Ziva<\/em>, alongside Michael Weatherly as Tony DiNozzo. The entire first season is available now via Paramount+ and is currently pending news of a second season renewal.<\/p>\n

De Pablo is coming off a major high from reuniting with her longtime friend Weatherly to expand on their characters\u2019 stories and to introduce their daughter, Tali (Isla Gie), as a pre-teen to fans who can\u2019t get enough of the DiNozzo family. The duo has a fresh start on a new show, heralding in a new era while still honoring the past. There\u2019s also a lot of action-packed adventures, drama at every corner, and a whole lot of girl power.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt was clear well before\u00a0Tony & Ziva<\/em>\u00a0premiered that there was a huge appetite for this NCIS spinoff, given that the trailer broke the franchise\u2019s record for most views in a week with a whopping 93M. When it finally hit Paramount+, the series soared to No. 7 among all streaming series for the week, with 6.8M hours viewed across four episodes, per Luminate. Since then,\u00a0Tony & Ziva\u00a0<\/em>has steadily remained among the Top 30 streaming series in Luminate\u2019s weekly rankings, illustrating quite a strong season-long performance for the series,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In addition to de Pablo, Weatherly and Gie, the series also stars Amita Suman, Maximilian Osinski, Lara Rossi, Isla Gie, Nassima Benchicou, Terence Maynard, Julian Ovenden and James D\u2019Arcy.<\/p>\n

To read more about the Season 1 finale of NCIS: Tony & Ziva, featuring a Q&A with showrunner John McNamara, click here.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deadline caught up with de Pablo this week to discuss all things NCIS, including how becoming a mom helped influence Ziva\u2019s character this season and how it changed de Pablo as an actor. Part 1 of our interview can be found below, with the second part coming tomorrow.<\/p>\n

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L-R\u00a0Cote De Pablo\u00a0as Ziva David and Michael Weatherly as Tony Dinozzo In \u2018NCIS: Tony & Ziva\u2019<\/span>Marcell Piti\/Paramount+<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

DEADLINE: At the start of the season, Ziva\u2019s therapist encourages her to \u201cchoose happiness.\u201d Why was it important to you that, after all these years, Ziva do just that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

COT\u00c9 DE PABLO:<\/strong> It\u2019s really great to talk about the idea of a person loving themselves, which comes through choosing happiness, choosing therapy, allowing for healing to happen, giving yourself a little bit of time, and resetting to gather yourself so you \u201clet the soft animal of your body love what it loves.\u201d That\u2019s a famous quote from a poem [\u201cWild Geese\u201d] that I love, written by Mary Oliver. It\u2019s been quite a journey to be able to do that with Ziva.<\/p>\n

DEADLINE: While it was exciting for fans of Tony and Ziva to see them reunite and perhaps continue their love story that has been nothing short of complicated, why was it important to you that Ziva focus on healing her traumas?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DE PABLO:<\/strong>\u00a0I don\u2019t think there is any love, the kind that lasts anyway, without really tackling the crap, the past, and the trauma, all of that. I didn\u2019t really know that was such a huge lesson for Cot\u00e9.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s like, you watch the arc of the character and you go, \u201cWell, what can I learn from this?\u201d and there are many things you can learn from a character\u2019s journey. You\u2019ve been honoring the character for months, and then you finish. Usually, what happens when you\u2019ve been working so diligently and so passionately with a character is that you are very much plugged into that energy, that frequency. Then all of a sudden, you step outside of the job, and you have a bit of a dip in energy. There\u2019s a little bit of, \u201cWhat\u2019s happening? Wait, one second. Where\u2019s the velocity? Wait, who turned off the engine? What\u2019s going on?\u201d You know? And there\u2019s really none of that here. It\u2019s just a moment to take it all in. That\u2019s when I started seeing the trajectory, the arc, and the evolution of the character. It was fascinating to watch from far away, and also to see how I could apply a little of that into my life.<\/p>\n

DEADLINE:\u00a0<\/strong>Now that we\u2019re at the end of the Season 1 journey, with a satisfying ending if the show doesn\u2019t return for another season, what was your overall experience like?<\/p>\n

DE PABLO:\u00a0<\/strong>Michael and I have talked about it, and we both came up with the same word about our experience. We thought Season 1 of\u00a0Tony & Ziva<\/em>\u00a0was very healing for both of us. We had never really had a conclusion to these characters, and we wanted to give them something that, in the end, was going to be some type of happy ending. And of course, the nature of the characters, too, is such that they\u2019re going to get in trouble. The past will always come back, and they\u2019re always going to be trying to find each other through the adventure, through the miscommunication.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a story about a family trying to remain a family, trying to stay together, trying to be loyal to their feelings. That requires a lot of honesty. Michael and I thought it was a very healing journey for both Michael and Cot\u00e9 as friends to reunite and be able to tackle these characters, but also to be able to give the fans who have been so supportive for so many years something to look forward to and something that has been so well deserved.<\/p>\n

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L-R Michael Weatherly as Tony Dinozzo, Cote De Pablo as Ziva David and Isla Gie as Tali<\/span>Marcell Piti\/Paramount+<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

DEADLINE: You recently revealed you had become a mom. I\u2019m curious how that experience helped shape Ziva\u2019s relationship with her daughter, Tali (Isla Gie), on the show, if at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DE PABLO:\u00a0<\/strong>Absolutely, in fact, Michael and I talked about it a lot. I don\u2019t think he or I would have been able to really tackle the storyline without understanding that it\u2019s such a huge thing for both of us in our lives. If you look at the character of Ziva, she\u2019s had a lot of loss. I think she tackles motherhood very lovingly, but she\u2019s very protective. There\u2019s a certain innate paranoia that probably comes from her past that is constantly trickling into the relationship, which is something that she\u2019s going to have to manage if we have the great fortune of taking [the series] forward. I think this would be interesting from an audience perspective, because a lot of people can relate.<\/p>\n

DEADLINE: Talia is such a fantastic character. Can we discuss her little power moves in the finale, please?! She\u2019s definitely Tony and Ziva\u2019s daughter, and she\u2019s ready to kick butt!<\/strong><\/p>\n

DE PABLO:<\/strong>\u00a0[Laughs]I knew that would be such a revelation. After Episode 6, you can expect anything from this kid. She\u2019s so good in her body. What you don\u2019t know about Isla Gie, who beautifully plays Tali, is that she is a gymnast, and she comes from the theater world. She\u2019s not only a theater kid, but she\u2019s also like this really wonderful, curious child that\u2019s always asking questions, like, \u201cHow do you approach that scene?\u201d<\/p>\n

DEADLINE: Can you share an example?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DE PABLO:\u00a0<\/strong>During Episode 1, we were doing this scene where we were saying goodbye to her at the safe house, and I was pretty emotional in many of the takes. I would have Isla very close to me during a very intimate scene in which I was saying to her, \u201cWhatever you do, Sophie is the person that you have to trust. And whatever she tells you to do, you have to do it.\u201d And she would look at me and ask, \u201cHow do you do that?\u201d I was like, \u201cHow do I do what?\u201d She explained that she was curious about how I access [those emotions]. So, I said, \u201cAll you have to do is open your eyes and stay open to that moment, because you\u2019ll learn so much if you just listen.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Episode 1 to Episode 10, you see her curiosity leading her to her incredible evolution as Tali, and that\u2019s all her. There are directors giving her wonderful direction, but she has this innate thing that is her curiosity. She comes from the theater, so she understands actors, and also she lives in her body, so she\u2019s like the perfect kid to be Michael\u2019s funny daughter and Zia\u2019s kick-ass daughter. She is really such a great combo.<\/p>\n

DEADLINE: In the finale, there\u2019s a moment where Tony and Ziva ask Tali how she feels about her parents potentially dating again. This may fly under the radar of most, but with all the back and forth between these two adults, it\u2019s easy to forget how important stability is for a child. Why was this tidbit important to you to include?<\/strong><\/p>\n

DE PABLO:<\/strong>\u00a0I think they both really care about this child, who is wise beyond her years. I think they know that she\u2019s a special kid and that she\u2019s gone through a lot. In Episodes 3 and 4, there\u2019s a beautiful moment in which they both acknowledge that they don\u2019t want to carry the worst of their parents into their parenting. They\u2019re consciously making decisions to be the best versions of themselves so they don\u2019t burden Tali with their past. At the end of the day, she\u2019s a child, and she should be able to live a beautiful life. So they shield her and protect her as much as they can, which also forces them to confront their shadow and their issues, and make them step up to the plate as human beings. They can become the best version of themselves for this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Returning to the world of\u00a0NCIS\u00a0has been a gift to Cot\u00e9 de Pablo, who reprised the role of Ziva David in\u00a0NCIS: Tony & Ziva, alongside Michael Weatherly as… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3736,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3734\/revisions\/3736"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncisnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}