After eight seasons of playing the character of Special Agent Ziva David on NCIS, actress Cote de Pablo is making her television return via the four-hour CBS miniseries The Dovekeepers, the inspiring story of four women who stood up to the Roman Army during the siege of Masada in 70 AD.
The film is the latest offering of executive producers Mark Burnett and Roma Downey, the husband and wife team behind the epic miniseries The Bible, and its follow up series, A.D. The Bible Continues which will air on NBC for six Sundays beginning April 5.
De Pablo, who plays the role of Shirah, a healer accused of being a witch, said her role has its challenges.
"There's a lot of passion and there's a lot of love and there's a lot of loss in this story so it's a heavily emotional piece," she said, according to CBS News.
"I have been living, spending time with my family, which was very important to me. How can I tell stories if I'm not infused by life?"she added.
For her part, Roma Downey shared her excitement over working on projects that bring Bible stories to life for a new audience, especially amid Christian persecution overseas.
"What's amazing to me is how few people know about these brave men and women went through, their sacrifices, to ensure that the Good News spread. You can't help but see the parallels to these early believers and how brutally they were tortured. It's inexcusable that it's happening and that we're not making more noise about it in this country," Downey added.
Downey said the Dovekeepers, which is based on Alice Hoffman's bestselling novel is an example of such persecution.
"A group of Jews escape the fall of the temple in 70 AD and they take refuge in a hilltop retreat built by one of the Herods. Their hope is to be left in peace but the Romans pursue them. This four hour miniseries will screen on March 31 and April 1 and tell their story," she said.
For their supporters, she assured that this will not be the end of the road for her and her husband in creating movies for the Christian audience as they have recently teamed up with MGM and Paramount to produce another Bible epic, Ben Hur.
