“Anybody want to call Mark Harmon or Sean Murray or Brian Dietzen?” Weatherly said
NCIS fans rejoiced when it was announced that their favourite duo, Ziva David (Cote de Pablo) and Anthony “Tony” DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), were getting their own show. Concluding with a thrilling and satisfying Season 1 finale, NCIS: Tony & Ziva (on Paramount+) is everything fans needed.
“There were so many questions that needed to be answered, and there was a huge fandom out there that had a lot of these questions. And so it’s a love letter,” de Pablo told Yahoo Canada in Toronto.
“When [The Police] got back together in 2007, I was right there, front row center in Vancouver. … So as a fan, I totally understand this fascination with the group getting back together, and that’s kind of the way this is, except we recorded a new album,” Weatherly added.
In the season finale, much of the story revolves around an epic chase for Tony and Ziva to rescue their daughter, Tali (Isla Gie), after she was taken hostage by Jonah (Julian Ovenden). Adding to the emotional impact of Tony and Ziva trying to save their daughter is that Isla Gie is such a perfect fit with Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly. Tali has a lively personality, smart and a little sarcastic, just like her parents.
“That was a little bit of a gift, because we found such a great, gifted actor,” de Pablo said. “She actually comes from the theatre. So I think she was at the West End playing Matilda, in Matilda, [she also] just so happens to be like a professional gymnast.
“It couldn’t be better. If you were ever to cast a kid who was our child physically, and her disposition, her curiosity, twinkle in her eyes, … the sarcasm. … She really wants to do her own stunt sequences. And she’s very keyed into, how do you do that emotionally, and how are you present? And she’s very curious.”
“We were doing our first scene together, and after the third take she went, ‘So you’re not going to do any of them the same?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, well, you see, Isla, I’m not a very good actor. And so what I have to do is, I have to keep reinventing the wheel,'” Weatherly added.
‘There is an evolution’
But NCIS: Tony & Ziva also proved that effort was made to really evolve its title characters.
For Ziva, a lot of that is shown through the therapy sessions she has throughout the season, where she reconciles with all the intense situations she was in for her job, and gains an understanding of her emotions and reactions, and how those things are connected.
“There’s a little bit of self-love in there,” de Pablo said. “The idea that you have to take care of yourself, the idea that you revisit your past, the idea that somehow you are a part of your own healing, is directly associated with self-love. And I think the integration also of that, which allows her to then love somebody fully and be present fully, not only as a mother, but as a partner, the kind of partner that she wishes to be, I think it’s part of the journey.”
“And I think it’s kind of a fascinating thing from an actor’s standpoint. … It’s rare, because it’s been a 20-year trajectory, right? So there is an evolution to the character.”
We also had an interesting moment in the series where Tony reveals to Ziva that he has a girlfriend, whom he plans to introduce to Tali. But then he finds out she has a husband, resulting in an emotional gut punch for Tony.
“I think Tony projected onto this young woman all the things that he fantasized about, and he dreamt and felt that he needed. But projections are not always telling the actual reality of a situation, and we see just how off the mark he was,” Weatherly said. “For a talented detective, he did not detect any of the real truth … about her.”
“But I think that it really tells the story about what he wants from Ziva that he can’t get, and he’s still got one foot back in that relationship, and he’s not able to focus fully on it. So that projection comes ripping apart very quickly.”
Are Tony and Ziva a couple again?
The big question from the start of the season has been whether Tony and Ziva will rekindle their romantic relationship. Going a bit deeper, there’s also the question of what that would look like for Tali. While we won’t spoil exactly how they end things after the first season of NCIS: Tony & Ziva, the show’s stars do want to explore a romantic relationship for their characters in any continuation of this story.
“I would like to see them fully together, as just a functioning couple,” Weatherly said.
“But they need to earn that,” de Pablo jumped in to say.
Weatherly also has ideas for NCIS actors who could be added to future seasons of the show, as well as different locations the series could go to in its storytelling.
“The flashbacks were an important part of telling the story. I’d love to see maybe a new structure in another season. I’d love to see guest stars. … Anybody want to call Mark Harmon or Sean Murray or Brian Dietzen? … Having those people pop up in this world would, I think, be a huge, interesting thing to experience,” he said.
“And then the characters that we did meet, finding out more about them. Travelling to places. How would you like to go to North Africa? How do you feel about Montreal? … You want to go to Snowbird Lake in the Northwest Territories? North of 60 degrees latitude. Here we go!”
