NCIS stars Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reminisce over another woman who was close to winning the role of Agent Ziva David.
NCIS stars opened up on a “fantastic woman” who auditioned for Ziva David before Cote de Pablo stepped into the agent’s shoes.
The Chilean-American actress shot to worldwide fame when she took on the role of Ziva David in the third outing of NCIS, following the death of Agent Kate Todd (played by Sasha Alexander).
For years, Ziva’s will-they-won’t-they dynamic with Agent Tony DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly) has been a prime reason why CBS viewers have been gripped by the police procedural with their undeniable chemistry.
So much so, that actors Weatherly and de Pablo will be getting their own spin-off, NCIS: Tony and Ziva on Paramount+ which is expected to debut sometime in late 2024 or early 2025.
However, Ziva wasn’t always guaranteed to be the 44-year-old star’s role with another actress also favourited prior to de Pablo’s audition.
De Pablo opened up on her audition for the drama back in 2005, during her and Weatherly’s NCIS: Off Duty podcast:
She said: “I show up to the test, the infamous test, and there’s another actress there and I ask her very politely: ‘How many times have you auditioned?’
“And she goes: ‘Oh my God, I’ve auditioned like 15, 16 times for this part.’
“And I thought in my mind ‘Oh great, they’re just bringing me to have someone to audition her against’ but this is definitely her part.”
The Ziva actress continued: “The worst part is that I was standing outside her audition, because it was a small room and you [Weatherly] were in there and all I could hear was laughter.”
Weatherly interjected: “We had a ball. She was fantastic.”
“You were laughing, she was laughing with you and I thought for sure this was her part,” de Pablo continued.
“So I thought ‘Look, I’m just going to do the thing that I do and that’s it. I can’t think about anything else. I’m not going to do what I just heard.
“‘It’s going to get in the way of whatever I’ve perceived this character to be.’”
But when de Pablo auditioned with Weatherly in front of various executive producers and creator Don Bellarisio, she noticed a shift in the room.
She commented: “What I heard before, you and the girl they were auditioning, laughing, you guys were having fun.
“This time, everything switched, they were laughing at the dynamic.”
NCIS is available to watch on CBS and Disney+.