Despite the recent proliferation of intimacy coordinators on sets in the wake of #MeToo and revelations of sexual harassment of women in the entertainment industry, some actresses have opted out of the service. NCIS: Tony & Ziva‘s Cote de Pablo is among them, explaining why she didn’t feel the “need” to work alongside one for the upcoming Paramount+ spinoff.
“Did not need one,” she told TVInsider in a new interview. “They asked me first, I think because I’m a female and blah, blah, blah, and I said, ‘I don’t need one. Thank you for offering.’”
The 10-episode series, which will premiere Sept. 4 with three episodes, dropped its first trailer at San Diego Comic-Con last week. The show will follow Ziva (de Pablo), Tony (Michael Weatherly) and their daughter in Paris, as they are forced to go on the run after Tony’s security company is attacked.
“Michael and I have a lot of trust with each other and are great friends,” de Pablo continued. “So, when it comes to shooting these things, we don’t want to be micromanaged. We like to explore it, and we trust each other enough that we allow that to happen.”
Weatherly added, “I said, ‘Whatever Cote wants.’ Love scenes are complicated because that level of nonverbal communication — you kiss someone the way you want to be kissed or you touch someone the way you want to be touched — that is a deep level of communication. Physical interaction starts with trust. Luckily, Cote and I do not have an issue in that area. We had to do that right out of the gate in [NCIS‘s ‘Under Covers’] episode.”
Referring to the Season 3, Episode 8 episode that premiered in 2005, de Pablo and Weatherly have worked alongside each other for decades, with their characters’ romantic tension coloring a majority of their time together in the mothership CBS series.
Telling the Comic-Con crowd on Thursday, de Pablo said of the duo’s unconventional romance, “It’s an epic love story about two people going on a journey,” referencing the fact that the two characters are no longer together but co-parenting in the beginning of Tony & Ziva. Though, as the tagline “Espionage is their love language” indicates, the two can’t be separated for long, with a couple of steamy scenes depicted in the trailer teasing what’s to come.
Weatherly chimed in, saying, “It’s not a will they or won’t they. It’s a when will they.”
