Actor Tom Selleck’s encouragement on BLUE BLOODS is still paying off in Boston, where actor Donnie Wahlberg is passing that support to his BOSTON BLUE costar.
“I think I saw how much that support meant to me, and I wanted to carry that on for Sonequa, too, and for her character,” Wahlberg told TV Insider, explaining how Selleck’s encouragement now shapes his partnership with actress Sonequa Martin-Green.
The lesson started during the very first BLUE BLOODS dinner scene the cast shot. Wahlberg needed room to make Detective Danny Reagan outspoken enough to challenge his family, including Selleck’s character, without worrying that he was overstepping as a performer.
Wahlberg recalled Selleck welcoming his improvisation and encouraging him to keep filling in the scene’s gaps. The support gave him confidence to play Danny that way throughout the original show’s 14-year run.
Now the setting has changed, but Wahlberg wants to preserve that generosity. Martin-Green plays Detective Lena Silver, Danny’s police partner in Boston, and he wants her character to have strength and authority of her own rather than simply accompany an established favorite through a new city.
“She didn’t need me to instill confidence in her, but I wanted her to know, Sonequa, and Lena from Danny that she has my full support,” Wahlberg explained.
Related: Donnie Wahlberg Calls BLUE BLOODS Co-Star Tom Selleck ‘Dad’: ‘Become a Family’
He described an unusually practical kind of teamwork: the two actors look through scripts and advocate for each other’s characters. Sometimes that means recognizing that Lena should spot a clue; sometimes Martin-Green makes sure Danny gets an important moment.
That give-and-take matters as Danny steps into a new leadership role. He accepted a promotion to sergeant detective in the second-season premiere, but the actors also wanted the story to account for Lena’s ambitions and experience.
In an Oct. 14 interview with TV Insider, Martin-Green explained that she discussed Lena’s response to Danny’s promotion with the series’ creators and writers. Their agreed background was that Lena had received the offer first, declined it and recommended Danny.
That conversation was not a scene viewers missed in the broadcast. Martin-Green described an offscreen exchange the creative team discussed but did not write, a distinction that helps explain how the actors understood the promotion.
“It would’ve told a very different story and not a good one otherwise,” Martin-Green said, explaining why considering Lena for the job mattered, even though the character did not want it at that point.
The partnership also sits inside a much bigger family story. CBS’ second-season description places Danny and Lena among the Silver family’s law-enforcement veterans and younger officers, with Boston District Attorney Mae Silver and Baptist pastor Reverend Edwin Peters helping anchor the household.
The idea is not to leave Danny’s history behind. It is to let a new family and a new partner matter alongside it, with Wahlberg extending the same professional courtesy that Selleck once offered him.
BOSTON BLUE began its second season Oct. 9 and airs Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. Paramount+ Premium subscribers can stream new episodes live, while both Premium and Essential subscribers can watch them on demand the following day.
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