Actress Cote de Pablo has shied away from the limelight since leaving "NCIS" in 2013, but she's making a big comeback as the star of the two-night CBS miniseries "The Dovekeepers."
"I remember clearly reading the script by the pool,"
she told TVGuide.com this week. "I was on page 20, I believe, and I started having this sobbing that was coming deep within my belly. And I thought, if that's not a sign, I don't know what is."
The new miniseries tells the story of a group of Jewish women who escaped to the hilltop fortress of Masada with 900 others after Jerusalem fell to the Romans in 70 A.D. The escapees successfully kept the Romans at bay from their hilltop, and the four women tended to the doves.
"It's basically the story of their life in Masada. Their passions in Masada and how they resist the Roman Army for a long period of time,"
de Pablo explained to CBS News.
In the show, the Chilean-American actress plays Shirah, "The Witch of Moab," who is having an affair with Eleazar Ben Ya'ir, played by Mido Hamada.
Executive producer Roma Downey said that the miniseries is a faithful adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name by Alice Hoffman.
"History has often been told through the eyes of men, and what was unique about 'The Dovekeepers' was, the doorway into this extraordinary story is through the lives of these courageous women. That was certainly one of the reasons that I fell in love with this book," she said.
"I was so moved by this story. It is a beautiful story — and it is a love story, but it's set against this dark time in history."
"The Dovekeepers" airs Tuesday and Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST.
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