It didn’t take long for Cote de Pablo to become a fan favorite on the hit CBS show “NCIS.” The actor brought the character of Mossad agent Ziva David to life with her contagious on-screen energy and her chemistry with special agent Tony DiNozzo, played by Michael Weatherly.
It was all going well, but then came de Pablo’s abrupt exit from “NCIS” ahead of the show’s 11th season. Was it a surprise? By then, it had become a pattern for “NCIS” to play around with their characters and mark their exits, letting them introduce new storylines. De Pablo had left to show, and there was so much else for her to explore. After her exit, she went on to play interesting roles in other movies and mini-series before finally returning to “NCIS” several years later in its 17th season. Her return to the show was enthralling, and there was a sense of excitement on the sets “They were waiting for me, standing up, and they clapped as I went in,” she said, per USA Today. “I think I said something along the lines of, ‘Woo-hoo, I’m back!’ It was great.”
De Pablo’s contribution to “NCIS” and the way the show has evolved is undeniable. As an actor, she has given it all, even sustaining injuries while filming the series. Here’s more on how de Pablo got injured on the sets of “NCIS.”
Cote de Pablo was hit by a flying cabbage
Cote de Pablo’s role of special agent Ziva David on “NCIS” was physically taxing and involved several stunts and action scenes, which the actor did not shy away from. It was during the filming of one such scene that she got injured. De Pablo recalled the incident in a 2012 interview, remembering how filming the scene felt like being in a “war zone” as she and her colleagues were not well prepared for it.
“When the stunt started, I was trying to scream my line, because of course as an actor, you’re like, ‘Remember your lines–you only have one pass at this, ’cause they can’t recreate the entire explosion!'” she told Prevention, adding that she had to “say one line, turn around, and then there would be explosions, gunshots, all sorts of things.” Her injury was unfortunate, but also unique. “We were supposed to be in a big restaurant kitchen, and I was being hit by flying cabbage — I still have the bruises on my legs,” she explained.
Despite the injury risks associated with her role, de Pablo did have an idea of how to be tough enough for that, as her fighting spirit was something that came naturally to her. She had revealed in an interview with CBS New York in 2019 that her character was inspired by her everyday life in Brooklyn, which required her “to be tough about a lot of situations.”
Cote de Pablo was also injured by an NCIS writer
Cote de Pablo “woke up in horrible neck pain” after the cabbage incident. “My mother always used to say, ‘You don’t think about your teeth until you have a cavity’,” she told Prevention, adding it was the same case with her neck. Thankfully, de Pablo recovered from the injury and got back to work.
But her neck injury wasn’t the only time that she got injured while filming “NCIS.” In 2013, one of the writers at “NCIS” tweeted more about de Pablo’s injuries on the show’s sets. “I hurt Cote de Pablo on at least two occasions,” he tweeted. “Hit her in the face with a gun barrel in Cloak [Season 6, Episode 8] and shrapnel in Enemies Foreign [Season 8, Episode 8]. She’s tough.”
With everything de Pablo has been through while filming “NCIS,” her return really made sense, especially when her character’s exit wasn’t entirely natural, with fans feeling like something was missing. “The timing was actually great,” she told Entertainment Weekly about her 2019 return. “I was excited about exploring the character of Ziva again. I felt that I owed it to the fans. I felt that there was something still missing from that character that I needed to go back and revisit that home.” De Pablo added that it was relieving to know that she could finally answer the many people constantly asking about her return, saying, “So at this point, it’s just good to say, ‘Yep, I am.'”