Cote de Pablo recalls how Mark Harmon chided her for not being on the NCIS set because she was sick. Introduced in NCIS season 3 as a replacement for Sasha Alexander’s Kate Todd, de Pablo’s Ziva immediately became a fan-favorite. She, Sean Murray’s Tim McGee, and Michael Weatherly are widely regarded as Leroy Jethro Gibbs’ best NCIS team. As the longest Major Case Response Team (MCRT) leader, Gibbs was known for his rules. As it turns out, Harmon also had them in real life, and one of them was about not missing work.
During Murray’s guest appearance on Off Duty: An NCIS Rewatch podcast, de Pablo reveals that Harmon chided her once for not going to work despite being sick. In her story, she says that she was pulled aside by her co-star, who told her that even though she was ill, she still needed to show up so that they could decide how to handle the situation. Read the full quote below:
Don’t take a sick day, I learned that one. I was sick, in season 3, really, really sick, and I had Doctor Pat. You know famous doctor Pat? He was sent over, and he came over the house I had like a really awful fever and Doctor Pat said ‘You can’t go to work.’ So I thought ‘Well, if the doctor’s telling me that I can’t go to work, I must follow orders.’ So I made the grave mistake of staying home, and I was sent a car and I went to set and Mark came up to me, and he was kind enough, but he was very stern, and he said you come to set we decide when you’re sick something along the lines of that like.
But it was like ‘You come to set, and then we will determine how we address this.’ By the way, I don’t think I ever got sick again. But I think mentally, it just did a trick on you. And when you think about it, you k now, anyone can do a job, better, worse, whatever. But no one can play McGee, no one can play DiNozzo. No one can play any of the characters. So you really had to be there, and that’s a lot of pressure.
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NCIS: Tony & Ziva will see the couple on the run across Europe with their daughter, Tali.
The incident happened early on in de Pablo’s time on the show. Since then, she appeared as a main cast member for almost a decade, being a core player in countless episodes — many of them with Harmon. It doesn’t seem like de Pablo has lingering issues about the matter, especially since she even returned in NCIS season 17 with an arc that sent Ziva and Gibbs on the run. Meanwhile, DiNozzo recently returned in NCIS season 21, in light of Ducky Mallard’s tribute outing. After that, the pair is spearheading their own spinoff.
NCIS: Tony & Ziva will see the couple on the run across Europe with their daughter, Tali. It’s currently unknown what trouble they are in since DiNozzo didn’t talk about it the last time he visited MCRT. That said, if they need help, they can always rely on Gibbs. Granted that he is retired and now living off the grid in Naktok Bay, Alaska, but it’s doubtful that he wouldn’t do anything in his power to be of assistance. This opens the door for Harmon to play Gibbs again in the Paramount+ series, even for a limited time.
It’s worth noting that before de Pablo and Weatherly spearhead their own show, Harmon will already be back in the NCIS universe via NCIS: Origins. Starring Austin Stowell as young Gibbs, the prequel will tackle the character’s earliest days in the agency as part of Mike Franks’ rag-tag team. He won’t have a physical appearance, however. Instead, he will only narrate its events, similar to Jim Parsons’ role in Young Sheldon.