Conversations with Tom Selleck of Blue Bloods

I kinda want to open with a burning question that kind of hearts back to your rear because there there is news brewing that ABC is developing a new series it's going to be a female version of magnum p.i and I kind of want to get your take on it female because there is a female Magnum from the from the story of the show the character of the daughter Lily they're going to build it around and I wonder whether what your take on that is I don't have much of a take I think you know more than I do whoever came up with it hasn't called or written oh really I don't know what it's about Magnum has a lot of sides to it I I hope they understand that and aren't just buying a title to do bigger explosions or change tender that being said I don't wish anybody in this business of a high rate of failure ill so I hope I hope they do well well episode - I hope they also call you at some point that seems really wrong for them to get you out of the process hi I hope she has her French act because she does okay well people will keep that in mind but how does it make you feel as well as knowing that it still stays so much in the culture that they would want to revisit a name as I clinically I'm very proud of Magnum I never mind talking about it you know what it was a show that we fought for some things not because the message is more important than the obligation to entertain but in 1980 I'm very proud of the fact that a Vietnam and the subject and the people who fought the war weren't very popular almost not universally but it was kind of the tenor of the times I'm very proud that Don Belisario who put flashbacks from Vietnam and made it a part of the character and and I also thought because Universal set and CBS said the flashbacks were great in the two-hour movie they they got to go away Viet Nam's got to go away it's death and we said no and we wanted a success yet so long story short in the eighth season of Magnum they put my silly Hawaiian shirt and my Detroit Tiger HAP happen the ring in the Smithsonian and recognized this as the first show I don't want to hit a motional to recognize Vietnam veterans in a positive light give it given the fact that uh that this may come to pass on ABC but there was a period of time when you were very adamant of trying to get a movie or some kind of a sequel done with Tom Clancy I believe the the you know about the time Tom Clancy after did Red October everybody is trying to get him do a movie and I had met Tom and he was a huge Magnum fan and he said that's he was going to do the story and so we had Tom Clancy who nobody could get and and I went to Universal and said I think it's time we revisit this character I certainly had a four picture deal knowing it Disney so I was viable but they said no it was during a change in ownership which Universal had about three at that time I don't think anybody could make up their mind but I've always considered it a missed opportunity well if they give you the opportunity if this if this sequel were to happen and said they kind of went dad to like show up would you would you consider doing something like that if it worked out in your schedule it would depend on the spirit of the show okay if they want to trivialize it or do big explosions no and I'm not going to bless it by doing a cameo because they give you some money quickly good really good well given the audience with this tag after there are some questions that we tend to be asked in these forums and I sort of dealing with the actor's life to some extent and one of the questions would be given that it took a while for Magnum to happen for you and and how did you know all through that time what kept you going how did you know that the actor is what you wanted to be that when you were doing the commercials you had a succession of unsold pilots I believe as well right I did six on Soul pilots do you remember actually I remember all again because one of them actually sold a series with Robert Stack and old friend of mine Shelly Novak it's old and I was about the 6th banana in it and my agent was out of town and and I knew better than to celebrate but I I got a message yes it's old and and so you know I picked up a couple dinner tabs that I probably couldn't afford and made the mistake of celebrating at which point very nice man John Wilder who wrote the pilot but had no it was going to have nothing to do with the series he said look I'm calling you it's not my job I'm not in this show anymore but you're not going to be in it they wrote you out so that was it that was about that was right before Magda my I figured I was going to get a shot at that point that was a little hard to take but everybody has those stories long story short it's a blessing I was doing commercials and getting by sometimes I collected unemployment I also worked in a clothing store selling clothes but when I was 25 I looked 35 and sounded 15 and I I'm not sure I kept getting hired you know they they want me for bit parts where you speak six foot four inch guy who walks in a room and and use he's an idiot an ass and and I I wasn't real good at that first impression stuff because I have slightly different appetites which I think Magnum demonstrated so it was a blessing it was frustrating I was 35 when I got back them and then it was a show that was assigned to me I had done two pilots for Steve channel after the failure I talked about we'd been on Rockford it so I've been on Rockford well I hadn't been honored yet Steve wrote those out of guilt because those two pilots are the only two pilots up to them that Steve wrote that didn't sell so anyway he wrote this great part in Rockford for Lance white the perfect detective who was an idiot and I had and I got my dose of he hates he's hated he's gone now Jim but he hated when I called him a mentor but he was right and so when Magnum came along those two pilots were the deal at Universal it was over and they assigned a show called Magnum to me and I said let me see it you can't do that my deals over and they said oh well we found a technicality work we could extend you if you worked at other studios so yes we can I read it and I hated it it wasn't a same Magnum that you end up it was a James Bond type character who owned the Ferrari and had a stewardess on each arm you can't call him that anymore I know but yes the time he could and and you know I said I'd never had a show on the air but I figured you know it's about time so I'm sitting with garner doing Rockford in his truck because we he drove me and is his little then to the next location we were way ahead of the company and he says you look bothered because we were talking a lot by then and I said well Universal which he had no real love for even though he worked there you know this was his lungs yeah I said they assigned this show to me and and and I hate it and he said look I I'm not going to give you advice but I'll tell you this he said if they want you I know you haven't been on the air but if they want you you'll never have more power than you do right now and he said if it's a success if it goes on the air you want to make power maybe in three years you might so he said if you feel like making a stand that's all I'm going to tell you so I said no and the studio said we'll see you and who the hell do you think you are you'll never be on the air and I said nobody but I won't do it long story short I called their bluff and and they they said well how about if we get a new writer and and rethink the show and I had lunch with Don Belisario who done a couple episodes on spec for the Steve Channel show that didn't tell and he said what do you want to do I said I want to do something more like Rockford and he wrote the best two-hour pilot movie or one of the best I've ever seen well that is like awesome advice to be given by somebody and James Garner so because they can make it so long but yeah it was great let's vitae mental and obviously a big risk I had a great dad and who always either said or maybe just taught it by the way taught me it by the way he lived that risk is the price you pay for opportunity and so I took a risk and it certainly paid off and and now we are in the world of Blue Bloods kicking off season seven it's amazing how about that how about that I I don't know what happened to the time it seems like we're in about our third year I'm very proud of the show I know everybody talks ratings yes we're in the seventh year we're still growing we had higher rating in this premiere the one you saw than we did last year that looks industry trends that doesn't tend to happen for lower well you know ever we've been kind of the little engine that could that CBS I think kinda takes for granted they put us on on Friday night at 10 o'clock everybody thought it was the highest testing pie that they had but they stuck us air and everybody thought we were doomed and we kind of said if well if you build it they'll come and you're kinda keeping the lights on on Friday night really and well Friday night yeah free lotion you don't know it was the worst night in television and and 10 o'clock is death nine o'clock shows are supposed to be the the deal so we didn't mind and because it is a character-driven show which is my bent and I mean that's why magnums still on the air in about a hundred countries other than the shorts which are a little out of style it's a character-driven show it's it's not about issues or anything else it's it's about these people and because it's about the people problems of the human condition don't go away and it still translates yeah I thought this was a really strong opener for the season as well in terms of the way that it sort of restates the themes of what it means and why people go into the police work and there and Danny's going through her soul-searching you have the scene with him you've also got the young man that you've been mentoring and wondering whether you should do you know so it really kind of gets to the core of the show in many ways it gets to the core of the show I think very much so I think the shows that its strongest when you get this idea you got this family business and at the same time not in in different periods of time or a different day you you see these different worlds you see Danny's world and Aaron's world and Jamie's world and Frank's world which is a totally different world that it is something we've worked very hard on I did a movie called I countdown to d-day for Annie took your hair off for that one I cut my hair off in my mustache and actually dyed it gray I'm even or not not very gray it's the truth and and it was about the IKE in the in the the months leading up to d-day and it was all about command and I learned a lot and I I don't know whether CBS originally saw it that way I think they saw me in front of a big green screen with cops running all over the city and me ordering them around won't if if I can't be the boss then you hired the wrong guy that's an accident of nature but the weight the sheer responsibility for a character who controls 35,000 lives while he was commissioner he lost his son in the line of duty that weight which he doesn't like and he didn't want the job if for those of you watch the show regularly we found out more and more about that is a very hard thing to communicate and it is a different world from the other world and you really have to it's why I love the challenge of playing them so much because you got to get inside Frank's head or we don't have that part of the show doesn't work and if you don't walk in his shoes it's over so I thank our writers for for willing to take that risk I thank CBS for not necessarily understanding it right away because it wasn't safe right but but I that it's a real hard challenge I really loved it seven seasons then are you still finding things out about Frank finding facets the euro yeah I think we're just starting as long as you do a show show like Magnum I left it probably could have gone on for about 15 years we went off the number one show on the air the only eight seasons that's how that surprised me when I looked yeah well I was I was in every shot yes and yeah I had done the number one picture in the world three men the baby I had given them seven years of seven years of a contract and gave them another year and I said I'll do my best but I was tired from it not of it because it was character-driven and when you do a character-driven show which is on network television that's getting rarer to find and the character is allowed to grow and change you never run out of ideas I would like to say something about it you know we we end up hitting on a lot of issues but that doesn't drive the show it is understandable and necessary that we deal with police issues but we don't do ripped from the headlines coincidentally a lot of shows because it's so germane to our modern society and what's going on you'll get this the the theme of the show coinciding with a current issue well you got to remember those scripts were thought of informed four or five months before and issues don't issues aren't as important number one is the obligation to entertain number two is the obligation to your character so that comes first but but the show becomes sometimes startlingly relevant with some of the tragic stuff that's going on and the issues tend to be reflected through the various characters within the family and because they're all there coming at it from some of your different sides well it's a police family they don't we don't pull punches on on their opinions we don't try to water them down to make it acceptable to everybody although I think they're pretty reasonable people but at the same time we work very hard you don't see Frank's adversaries who disagree with them as as written so that everything is set up for Frank so he can always win we try very hard to provide strong characters who present their points of view in very strong ways and that's I think how you get balanced you can't very well say Frank is going to ease a practicing Catholic he's he's I'm not a very religious person I used to get the cross mixed up because I'm I was baptized Episcopalian and I grew up in a Congregational Church and then I I go to church not a occasioning because that's when my mom wants to go I go with her and put that be that being said it's just all very interesting and that's that who he is and you got to be loyal to him not who ever you maybe in your private life okay from the audience a question coming from someone who describes herself as an irish-catholic fan named Mary Margaret and she's asking about could you please describe you I'm open to conversion Mary and then she asks could you please describe your experience working with our outstanding NYPD and their role in advising the show well the the biggest and most important advice for me we have a technical adviser Jimmy nucifera was wonderful he was a decorated detective he's retired now I go to him for a lot of stuff police stuff but the huge help I was in a restaurant after I'd already signed on to the pilot and Bill Bratton was in there right now he was in between Los Angeles Police Chief and the Commissioner again here's his second round and I you don't interrupt people at dinner nuts if you've been interrupted you don't do that so I sent him a note and he was really helpful he and Leonard Goldberg and I had dinner I read his book which I would recommend to people called turnaround particularly the part where he becomes New York City Police Commissioner and he spent a help Lucky's pretty busy guy Ray Kelly was very busy at the time I certainly met him he came to our pilot screening so and those guys are very interesting to me and when I think our our show Frank talks different when he makes a speech than he's in his office because he was a beat cop and I've always wanted to know what happens when the door closes bill Bratton's office and the public face goes away and I think that's what we we try increasingly to do because I think that's real and did it help having met him on a personal level to be very much sighs the character very much so and I'd bump into him because we were going to the same restaurant every so often and it was just useful ID you know actors watch people a lot I didn't stare I snuck peeks in a very very polite way but he was very helpful Ray Kelly was active commissioners he was a little too busy to help some goofy actor McKenzie someone else another's new guy James O'Neill have you met him I may have met him I don't I know he's a cops cop I know and which is very much like Frank right he came up through the ranks and I know he's liked and I think that's a look I walk in the commissioners shoes I start to understand what it's like to be a commissioner I'm very proud of what we do but I'm also very proud of the NYPD so I think that's a real gift that Bill Bratton got us a a cop who knows what it's like to be a cop and isn't some political figure they brought in to to match some buddies political agenda it was amazing me his first day on the job ended with the explosions in Chelsea and it was like yeah it sounds like an episode of Blue Bloods well bradon's book turn around the for his first day on the job was astounding what happened in this city that I think is policed yeah there's mistakes but it is police pretty well I think I'm now biased you know but we we do shows about the mistakes quite often and I think that's important too so without flaws you really don't have drama so yeah that's great I would have to take a little focus onto the one of the staples of the show one of the signature scenes in every episode basically is the dinner scene the family dinner scene where they all come together and they all hash it out and I curious whether you look forward to those scenes or whether you how do you feel about them when they're coming up in our sky I really look forward to them I'm not crazy about once you make a choice of what you eat you're going to eat it for eight hours because that's about how long it takes to film that many characters in a scene like that when I when I got the script I read it and it surprised me it surprised me because it was character driven an age of almost total procedurals met with Leonard Goldberg and and I said this family dinner it was eight pages long in the pilot is the first said I love that scene but I know what's going to happen the after we say yes and networks going to you know cut it down to two minutes and we'll never do it again he said no no that's aceptas that is going to be in every show this is Leonard this is right out of Leonard's mind and he saw a Norman Rockwell painting called Thanksgiving dinner I think that's in England and got this idea what if Thanksgiving dinner was a table full of people in a family business in this case the police business and the law enforcement business so Leonard knew from the very beginning that was going to be in the show and that eight-page scene didn't get cut it didn't get cut down it's the heart and soul of the pilot the hard part for our actors out there I got the show I had about two weeks I some of our other regulars my sons and daughters maybe had two days so we shot the beginning at Toronto in Toronto some of the interiors because it's cheaper and first scene we ever shot for the pilot of this shell was family dinner that's crazy we didn't know each other we I had met Bridget that morning I think I met will maybe the night before and met Donnie two days before and the director had had said I asked him the beginning you want me to work on a New York accent and they went no and letter goes no no no and director michael cuesta said well no because Leonard said no and I said you want me to shave off the moustache and and Michael question said yeah that's that's great and I said you better check with CBS about that that went away but that's okay for a cop or police commissioner and then and he says no accent and then two days he Michael didn't understand this he meant well he calls me up and he says you know I've changed my mind this two days before we're going to shoot the thing he says I think you ought to try the accent well I don't have a New York accent in the bag you know I've done other accents but I've just scared the hell out of me he said well I got a dialogue coach up here it's just a little little two things and I'm that's all I could think about for two days preparing for the show not not what's Frank like what what am I going to do and I went to him and Leonard I said Michael we got to talk I said this is I don't mind a challenge but not two days before this thing starts and I also have seen actors who are pretty well known try and take on something that can be extreme and whether or not that's accept it is sometimes doubtful yeah this is your instrument this is what you work from but just to prove you can do something might not be the best thing especially when you're doing a character that the audience has to walk in his shoes right away they go tom sounds kind of funny yet way talk so it's a balance thing you do well in these in these dinner scenes you get to interact with everybody and you know right now they're playing repeats of the first season in local syndication and you look back at them the family has grown it really is also a chance to reconnect with this family that is informing on the show the other thing I was going to say about family dinner is you can do a television series like this with a big ensemble and and because of the nature stories particularly these different stories you might not see one of your co-stars for 2-3 weeks because you don't work the same days you don't work same hours you're in a little separate world I love these people the actors I love the characters Frank loves the characters but I love these people and and they're terrific actors they commit to the work and that's why I think the show is so strong and it's like every eight days other than the eating thing I told you about every eight days we have a little reunion and and you know the table talk sometimes visitors get a little something they didn't plan a lot of it because they're wearing headsets out looking at the monitors but the table talk is is is great fun sometimes we talk too much in the director can't get our attention to shoot the scene but it oh one of our audience members julie has asked about the Sunday dinners and is the thing never really struck my mind how is it possible that Danny and Jamie are often able to join the family every Sunday when detectives and and such often have to work I mean is it possible they've been late they've been early okay Frank missed one because his friend was dying but I think that's the point yeah okay you can dwell on well isn't that kind of impossible I think everybody who watches the show would like to believe that it's not that the one thing you don't miss in this family is family dinner on Sunday now some of us had that I had it when I was very young but when my brother and sister were born they were eight and ten years younger suddenly there were two different worlds and and and he didn't do that anymore some people had it and still do and it's reaffirming some people never had it in which they did some people never had it and are grateful they didn't when they see some of the vice we had right so it's a very kind of galvanizing thing in it at the point where it comes up in most shows not always but it is in the third act where the audience is now carrying the secret knowing what each character separately has been going through so when a given subject comes up the audience is kind of in on they shouldn't brought that up that's not going to sit very well with Danny or that's not going to sit very well with Frank where he's at so it's a little in Magnum you have the secret of him sharing in narration with the audience you know it he'd lied to somebody in the scene and then he'd come out and he'd get in his Ferrari and say I know what you're thinking to the audience I know what you're thinking I shouldn't know why but and those that little secret I think is a very important element another thing that happened in this episode they introduced a character played by Lori Loughlin who clearly you have mentored that the son become almost a surrogate father and the producers in some interviews with as we have a new season we always interview the producers of the show they say you may not have seen the last of her and everybody always almost any given season we know this isn't a soap opera but at the same time to keep thinking when's Frank ever going to always we have a cumulative narrative yeah yeah Frank got lucky once yeah there's a part of Frank who is in the in the detective genre what we call a man alone you may think you want to see that secondly Laurie is lovely and a wonderful actress as you saw Frank Reagan who still wears his wedding ring look if he dated somebody I think he'd be afraid to tell his kids and there they're the ones is why doesn't dad get on with his life that's an interesting question to go into if you want to complicate that for Frank I saw that in in an article and I'm going okay what is that a two-season arc because this is this is one of his best friend's wife who and I I don't know as a guy when I was younger and you just you know with the no matter how attractive somebody is if they're connected to a friend you just shut down that part of your brain there there'd be a long road but that may be a good writing obstacle button I don't think you'd see them jumping in the sack in the first show or maybe their fourth show together it's a decision interesting problem Frank is I think he's got issues about it now I don't know what they are that's one of the rate great things about a character-driven series you keep learning stuff about your character the more episodes you do you I have no idea half the stuff about Frank when we started the show season 9 you never know you know exactly now a lot of questions from the audience of myself have questions about another role that you've been associated with in recent years and we want to know if there is a future for Jesse Stone Bert yeah awesome yeah thank you 9 movies and I think still going strong I'm personally I'm I think the last one number 9 was as strong or as good or maybe better than then any others a lot of people did we're now doing them for hallmark it's a to picture deal if I want to do another one they have to do it right my my you know I wrote the last one because of the timing of things with my partner Michael Bremen during the filming of Blue Bloods shot it in the time I was often our hiatus went in the editing room edited it and and in between bluebloods episodes promoted it and I was pretty shot the what I'm you get what I gotta find is the the inspiration it's nice to have a choice I won't the franchise have been too good to me to get a payday just because it's laying there before me so it's a big thing my partner Michael and brandman and I are talking about it we we both became friends with Robert Parker Michael already had a relationship with Bob Parker who's passed on he's the man he's one of the few writers of novels that you can lift their dialogue and put it right on the screen maybe Elmore Leonard - so we got a lot of things that are driving us to say we really got to make sure we can do another good movie and that so I I don't know maybe in the hiatus we could film one if I got to work writing it I don't become someone else 24 hours a day when I act but you're pretty my heads pretty much in Blue Bloods so it's very hard to switch gears just say the problem I write when I write I got to make an emotional commitment to the work I got to sit down and walk in Jesse's shoes so it's hard to do while you're doing Frank but since you have you've written how many of them were you in the bulb in the row we Michael and I did page one rewrites from the first one I think we started getting actual credit as the sole writers in about my round five six so and we didn't have books anymore right well so you clearly have made a connection with this character and he said I love it and one of the people he's a mess yeah he's in the same business as Frank Rick and buddy ain't Frank Reagan exactly always three or one of these days you might end up in jail he is as described in one show the head of the Town Council says here you're like a small-town sheriff making up your own rules and he said you mean like Gene Hackman and the Unforgiven and he says so the guy is very arrogant Jesse he says I'd prefer you think of me as a benevolent Gene Hackman right but as he's a sheriff in a small it's a bit in that sense of western concept as most shows are and and he makes up his own rules he has his own sense of justice which is pretty dark you know the network's are pretty much brought cast networks are pretty much gone out of the movie business so you moved it to cable but you still have a connection with it this character is I mean the tone of the movies are so different than what you normally see on TV I love the tone of them it's like we were the last I'm proud to say Network movie of the week first we were part of their movie of the week thing and then that went away but they had their home our call of Fame's in us and then they let those go and the way it started without making it a long story and you want to know it I mean I had had this book they were CBS says we want to do a movie so I met with les who's an old pal we were in acting class together he doesn't like what when I remind him of that and and we pitch the seagulls yeah and I said well you know it's a series of books lassie they wanted a movie and then I got into the process where most television networks and most of the time executive produced all their movies so that's where the sameness comes from and and I asked for and got script approval I remember the first note session I was on the phone and they said we want you to do this this this and this and I said no and they said who do you think you are I said I'm the guy you gave him script room and and they they did not like the Jesse Stone when we delivered it we got 5 pages of notes they said do this this and this we went No so we took a risk big risk it is not a typical Network movie we aired in between spring break shark attack and category 7 end of the world on CBS so brief it obviously paid off by the set then they gave us a to picture deal when they got it was a top ten show it's been a top ten show almost every time it ran including number eight movie number eight which they didn't want to do anymore well I respect I respect how quiet the tone is of it it's just it just is it's so different than regular television we will always respond to that I've got another question for the audience as we have to start to wind this thing down I'm sorry to say but um Amy wants to know in your vast and varied career is there a certain type of character you have not yet played and would like to you know I don't I don't have that kind of list I really don't I'd love to do another Western I it just became a part of me that when I did a miniseries called the Sacketts and I I just said you know to take a line out of Quigley down under that my friend the late Alan Rickman said maybe I was born in the wrong century but I love westerns I'd love to get back on a horse again other than that I don't know my job is to read somebody else's work most of the time and that's certainly what I did in Jessie even I read Bob Parker's work and see if I fit in when you get in those deals and I've had them where you sign the deal and they announce the deal and the deal proceeds the material I've never had any success with that I've had some failures with that because it's backwards I said that emphatically didn't I don't know where that came from but it it it then it becomes what do you want to do and now you're not the guy reading somebody else's heartfelt material where you go I can fit in here or I don't belong there what do you feel just to look at the industry as a whole now how the industry is so changing nowadays that there are more opportunities there are more platforms do you look at places like Netflix Amazon all that is like possible opportunities for your for the future I do I mean jesse is a such a dark character we we we give those shows in a sense of film noir style an edge it'd be fun to see be able to have more edge yeah for sure do you binge watch at all is that is that I I don't you know I'm I'm turning into a certified Luddite and I'm I'm I don't know I'm I'm pretty old now but I'm discovering you know I I finally went to the theater for the first time in seven years I work a lot when I'm back here so I can get home to see the family and see my ranch but it was Jillian my anniversary and she's in LA running the ranch so I don't know month ago right the week it opened I met my wife in cats like I saw at eight and a half times in London for a very specific reason that is true love and so on the six my anniversary is a seventh August on the six August I went to cats on the matinee and you know it's it's a lot of memories for me I miss Jilly up there but she's home and I'll see your Sunday so you're still making the commute I make the commute every two weeks I hate the flight I'm an expert I know all the seat positions because they don't fit I'm 6 4 and it just doesn't work out but it's worth it they compress my work I work about four days in episode so they put me in the last four oh one and the first for the next boots Leonard promised me and and did and because the show belongs in New York I should say something about this cast that I love sir please all four of the primary Reagan family relocated to New York because that's where they thought that show belong well Jamie Donny Bridget and me we're happy to have you here and we're thankful that you came tonight I think that we've hit our limit but thanks so much for your questions and thank you for being here tom

Channel: SAG-AFTRA Foundation

Views: 76,102

Keywords: SAG Foundation, SAG-AFTRA Foundation, Acting, Actors, Tom Selleck, Blue Bloods, Conversations, New York, Q&A, Interview

Id: ZhiMtVLWt8E

Length: 41min 38sec (2498 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 11 2016