Tony and Ziva’s Relationship Defined by Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly’s First Meeting
Even the slowest of slow-burn couples have nothing on <em>NCIS</em>‘ Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David. The two agents first met in the Season 3 premiere under awkward circumstances; not only did Ziva (Cote de Pablo) catch Tony (Michael Weatherly) daydreaming at his desk, she was also at NCIS to prevent a manhunt for the person who killed Agent Kate Todd (Sasha Alexander), putting her in direct opposition to the team. Though they would soon become close allies professionally, Tony and Ziva’s personal relationship has been a long and winding road spanning over eight seasons of the flagship series and ten episodes of their own spin-off, which unfortunately just saw its end.
Their time at NCIS was defined by flirtatious interactions, emotionally charged moments, and several instances of skirting around the clear feelings they had for each other. They properly kissed for the first time onscreen in the Season 11 episode where Ziva made her departure from the series, and when Tony later left in Season 13, it was revealed they had a child together. Even then, they didn’t officially get together romantically until this year’s <em>NCIS: Tony & Ziva</em>, which still featured plenty of back and forth between the two former agents. Ziva and Tony’s story is far more dramatic than most onscreen couples’, and that was true even before de Pablo officially got the role.
Cote de Pablo Thought Michael Weatherly Was Trying To Sabotage Her Audition
As de Pablo recalls it (via TVLine), her NCIS audition opposite Weatherly didn’t go quite as smoothly as she might’ve hoped. While they were reading lines together, Weatherly went completely off-book, which startled de Pablo and immediately put her on the defensive. As she explained:
I immediately perked up and went, ‘I will not allow this actor to do this to me.’ So what people saw in the audition room really was a person fighting the other person back and refusing to give even an inch. He was trying to flirt with me. He grabbed my face and said, ‘You know, you look so much like Salma Hayek.’ I thought it was disrespectful and completely unprofessional. It was just all the things that I think later on translated to the relationship that Ziva and Tony had and still have.
In a way, Weatherly was lucky that his improvisation paid off. Any other actor might’ve been put off by it, but de Pablo matched his energy and refused to back down, thus giving birth to the fan-favorite Tony/Ziva — also known as “Tiva” — dynamic that would go on to be such a key part of their tenures on NCIS. To this day, de Pablo and Weatherly are quite close; they hatched the Tony & Ziva spinoff together, co-hosted a rewatch podcast, and even declined an intimacy coordinator for their steamier scenes (via TV Insider).
When she got the role of Ziva, NCIS was de Pablo’s biggest project to date. She’d had a few minor roles on other television shows, but NCIS, as a series that already had two successful seasons under its belt, was a different beast. That she felt confident and brave enough to push back against Weatherly’s surprising audition tactic is impressive, and had she not done so, NCIS likely would’ve looked very different.
‘NCIS: Tony & Ziva’ Finally Gives Us What We’ve Asked For All Season | Finale Recap
Our favorite couple comes full circle.
Ziva Matches Tony’s Energy – Which Is Why They Work
Tony’s personality seems to match Weatherly’s, in that he is known for teasing others, making quippy wisecracks, and seemingly never taking things seriously. When he’s with characters like McGee (Sean Murray) or Palmer (Brian Dietzen), it usually results in DiNozzo smirking and the other person fuming or blushing. Ziva, meanwhile, never lets Tony get the upper hand. She’ll match his energy and push his buttons right back, whether that be by following him into the men’s bathroom or saying something so provocative that he’s the one left speechless.
It’s exactly why Ziva and Tony’s dynamic is so compelling to watch. They’re equals in wit and stubbornness and compatible as field agents, which gives them an underlying urge to always protect each other. Tony typically puts up a front, preferring to hide behind jokes when things get real, but Ziva is the one to call him out on it. Take, for example, the NCIS Season 7 premiere, when Tony (along with McGee and Mark Harmon‘s Gibbs) risks his life to rescue Ziva in Somalia. When they finally come face-to-face again, Tony fires off his usual snarky comments until Ziva pushes him to be honest about his intentions. It helps that he’d been injected with truth serum, but Ziva still didn’t let him deflect.
The playfully combative energy present in de Pablo and Weatherly’s first meeting extended into Tony and Ziva’s first onscreen interaction in Season 3. After walking in on him fantasizing about Kate, Ziva point-blank asks him if he was having phone sex and when he tries to salvage the situation pokes holes in all his explanations. She even teases him about having sexual thoughts. Their interaction gets more fraught when Ziva’s reason for being there is revealed, but it still crackles with tension and intrigue. At one point, Tony even says, “We got off to a bad start.”
De Pablo and Weatherly also got off to a bad start, but that didn’t stop their friendship from eventually blossoming. If anything, it showed how brilliantly they play off each other. Amid all the flirty banter and blatant longing, Ziva and Tony’s relationship is built on a deep-rooted loyalty and willingness to follow each other to the very end. De Pablo might not have realized what she and Weatherly were creating during that audition, but for them and NCIS fans everywhere, it led to something incredibly special.
