Cote De Pablo Found Michael Weatherly's Behavior During Her NCIS Audition 'Unprofessional'

Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly reuniting for the "NCIS: Tony & Ziva" spin-off series suggests that they enjoy working together. After all, they starred alongside each other on "NCIS" for years, with their characters, Ziva David and Anthony DiNozzo, becoming one of television's best slow-burn couples in the eyes of fans (even though they still have yet to fully cement their relationship in a traditional sense). However, the actors have butted heads in the past, most notably during an early audition for the procedural series.

In an interview with TV Guide, de Pablo recalled Weatherly trying to ruin her "NCIS" audition, forcing her to stand her ground and fight back. According to the Ziva star, he went off-script without her knowledge or consent, which only motivated her to stand up to him even more.

"I immediately perked up and went, 'I will not allow this actor to do this to me,'" she recounted. "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."

Despite their friendship's shaky start, the actors have built up a lot of trust since then — so much that de Pablo and Weatherly declined to use an intimacy coordinator on "Tony & Ziva." What's more, she credits her co-star for making her feel protected and respected on the set.

Tony and Ziva shared some intimate moments on "NCIS" throughout the years, and Weatherly approached those scenes professionally, according to de Pablo. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, she recalled a time when he made the extra effort to make her feel comfortable during a tender moment, given that the set was full of onlookers at the time.

"Most people don't know this, but during that scene, there was a dress — a dress came off," she said. "Michael covered every part of my body because he was afraid that some of the crew could see parts of me. Not that that thought ever crossed my mind, because I was like, 'No, this is the scene. I'm going to play the truth.'"

It seems that the pair have come a long way since that audition, and de Pablo no longer views Weatherly as a problem. Be that as it may, their working methods have helped turn the "NCIS" franchise into a success — and "Tony & Ziva" has allowed them to bring an international flavor to the saga, as the action sees the characters doing their thing in Europe. It remains to be seen if their romance will go the distance, but at least the actors have left that early personality clash in the past.