Intimacy Coordinators Are A Hot Topic In Hollywood. Why Michael Weatherly And Cote De Pablo Said They Didn't Need One for NCIS: Tony And Ziva

Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo embracing each other in apartment with the Eiffel Tower glimpsed outside in NCIS: Tony & Ziva Season 1 finale.

Along with NCIS, NCIS: Origins and NCIS: Sydney continuing their runs on CBS, 2025 also delivered the Paramount+ subscription-exclusive spinoff NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo reprised their NCIS roles and executive produced the show, though it ended up being cancelled. Still, given the romantic nature of the first season, and some steamy scenes, I was surprised to learn the two leads had declined using an intimacy coordinator. With this being such a popular topic in Hollywood, I had to ask the actress to elaborate!

Just this month alone, we've read The Housemaid's intimacy coordinator sharing why filming sex is like "stunt scenes," as well Heated Rivalry's intimacy coordinator passing along advice on what actors should do when they get aroused. Regarding NCIS: Tony & Ziva, I asked its leading actors during the show's junket if it was challenging at all figuring out these steamy scenes.

After all, they were a step up from the OG network TV days. Cote de Pablo told me:

We had the chance to use an intimacy coordinator, and I understand why people do it and I completely respect it. That being said, Michael and I have known each other for 20 years. We were going to work those beats out with a director, a closed set, a writer, Michael and I. And we did work them out. So it wasn't like we were just sort of free flowing. ‘Oh, it's just feel it out.’ The director wanted something, the writer had something very specific in mind. They wanted a tableau of these romantic moments. And we were being told, ‘Hey, would it be OK to do this? Would it be OK to do that?’ And Michael and I just explored, but we were being guided.

As I already mentioned, there were a few instances in the original NCIS where Michael Weatherly and Cote de Pablo acted out intimate scenes, though that was usually as part of maintaining cover for an investigation or operation. So, the actors already had that familiarity with one another, and like de Pablo said, they planned out what they intended to do during these scenes on NCIS: Tony & Ziva. Improvisation was not the name of the game. So she and Weatherly decided they had the intimacy handled on their own.

Of course, I feel having maybe another person there for Michael and I wasn't necessary. I think we trusted each other enough, and it was a very organic exploration of romance. We were coming out of this scene, which was kind of a flirty scene, and it was certainly filled with this kind of anticipation and tension, and it was a kissing scene against the wall. There was this sort of old young romantic thing which is ageless, which I love to say because it is that. And then this very sort of like kid-like, childlike energy, which I think is the energy of romance. Where it's giddy and it's like, ‘Oh my God!’ It’s filled with all that stuff. It's the butterflies.

Some minor spoilers from the season can be found here! Though NCIS: Tony & Ziva started out in the present day with its protagonists simply co-parenting their daughter Tali, flashbacks depicted Tony and Ziva getting romantically close once the latter’s life on the run ended, resulting in them nearly getting married.

Then as the present day storyline continued, they got close again, and by the end of the season, they were once again a couple. Looking back on filming the Paramount+ series, Cote de Pablo was pleased with how her and Michael Weatherly’s decision to decline an intimacy coordinator, concluding:

Then after the initial giddy bits, it goes into profound stuff that happens. So it was quite beautiful, and I think how it was edited and how it was presented, I think captured all of those elements. It captured the flirtiness. It captured the innocence. It captured the, ‘Oh God, what are we doing? Are we gonna fall back into this?’ It captured the giddiness, the little bit of that child, the anticipation, and then it went into all of the other stuff which is very beautiful.

Fortunately, NCIS: Tony & Ziva season delivered on the “happy something” that Cote de Pablo desired for these characters, and Tali was also ok with her parents getting back together. It's just a shame we won't get to see them front and center in the NCIS-verse again, though I'll keep my fingers crossed that Tony, Ziva and maybe even Tali can appear on the flagship series, or elsewhere, someday.

Meanwhile, the other NCIS shows will resume their current seasons Tuesday, February 24.