Cote De Pablo Said Michael Weatherly Has a Tougher Time With Boundaries Than She Does

NCIS stars Cote de Pablo and Michael Weatherly grew close quickly after meeting each other. And although they had a lot in common, de Pablo felt she had a pretty solid idea about what their boundaries were. Whereas it was sometimes still a learning process for her co-star.

Cote de Pablo recently reflected on her friendship with Michael Weatherly

De Pablo and Weatherly seemed to have a lot in common, which was why they were able to click almost immediately after they met. De Pablo had to quickly get over her first impression of her co-star, however, who ended up jeopardizing his on screen partner’s audition by going off script . Since then, however, de Pablo and Weatherly have only gotten closer.

“That relationship was established the moment that we met. Nothing changed, it was just enhanced. And we loved each other as well. We realized we’re so drastically different and so much alike that there was an immediate attraction,” de Pablo once told Entertainment Weekly .

Their partnership and banter seem to be not too unlike their onscreen relationship in NCIS . And their real-life chemistry hasn’t changed a bit since their first meeting all those years ago. In a recent interview with Variety , de Pablo delved a little bit further into their dynamic. For instance, de Pablo knows where the boundaries are between them when they’re having fun and ribbing each other. But Weatherly sometimes still has a difficult time identifying those same boundaries, which can lead to more fun between the two.

“You know what I’ve always said about working with Michael is it’s always refreshingly unpredictable. I think he also likes my … you know, the fact that I love to play,” de Pablo said. “Even though sometimes I come across as very, sort of, put together, my favorite thing is to go into kid land and play. I think we relate on that level. We are both, at our core, kids. We love playing. I respect the boundaries and the structure of that. He has a tougher time with the structure and the boundaries. But at the end of the day, we both like to play.”

How Michael Weatherly helped Cote de Pablo with her first onscreen kiss

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It would take several years before Weatherly and de Pablo’s onscreen romance could be explored. But some time before that, Tony DiNozzo and Ziva David experienced a taste of their feelings for each other in the episode “Under Covers.” The episode saw the federal agents pretending to be a married couple, which required the two to kiss. But the moment was a slightly worrisome experience for de Pablo, who never kissed another actor onscreen before . But de Pablo recalled Weatherly making the experience as comfortable as possible for her.

“Well, I just remember this particular moment showing up the set, and then you were so worried about how you smelled. I remember this because I remember it was very cute,” de Pablo told Weatherly on the podcast Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch . “I remember thinking, ‘Oh my God, he really cares.’ And you’re like, ‘Oh, is this ok? Is this deodorant ok?”

But Weatherly was also surprised by de Pablo during their kissing scene. Just for different reasons.

“This episode was so much fun to shoot. Cote de Pablo, who plays Ziva, came to me right before we were shooting the first scene where we kissed and said, ‘I’ve never kissed anyone on camera before,’” Weatherly once told The Daily Beast . “I was expecting this timid little bird-kiss, like a little peck, but she was like a lioness – she practically ate my head off!”