NCIS Star Thought She Failed Her Audition Miserably, but One Thing Saved Her
That controversial audition turned out to be a real blessing.
There’s only a few months until NCIS will finally make its grand comeback with the show’s season 22 and two more exciting spinoffs about the franchise’s most beloved characters.
One of the brand new series will bring Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David back to the screen, now finding them in Europe as they embark on their own missions across the continent and still try to be a normal family now that they both have to take care of their daughter Tali.
After appearing on NCIS season 3 as Caitlin Todd’s replacement, Ziva David quickly garnered lots of love and since then has always been a compelling character to expect on the screen, yet things could have been pretty much different if Ziva David had been portrayed by a completely different actress.
NCIS’ recently launched new project, a podcast titled Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch, features Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David’s actors, Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo, as its hosts and finally lets them and the show’s longtime fans dive deeper into the series’ most memorable moments and all the behind-the-scenes details that could’ve actually changed everything back then.
Recalling her weird audition alongside Michael Weatherly, Cote de Pablo also mentioned that she had zero hopes for eventually landing the role as, according to her, another actress had auditioned for Ziva David’s role at least 15 or 16 times, which left de Pablo reassured that the creators would never have chosen her candidacy anyway.
However, the whole trip to Los Angeles just for one day of audition wasn’t a waste of time and money, as the actress later nailed her first ever test read, though at some point she got convinced that her on-screen partner Michael Weatherly was trying to sabotage her audition.
The actor was quite surprised by his co-star’s revelation and then explained that his goofy behavior during the test read was nothing more than a mere experiment with his acting skills.
Despite all the confusion, Weatherly and de Pablo were quick to confirm that the chemistry between them had indeed existed, and since then the NCIS creators had never doubted their choice for Ziva David’s role.
Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo will return as Tony and Ziva in the upcoming spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva, which is now set to premiere on Paramount+ this fall or a bit later.