Donnie Wahlberg revealed that his final day on Blue Bloods was even more “emotional” after he realized Tom Selleck was watching his last scene.
“Tom Selleck never really shows up in Donnie’s scenes,” Wahlberg, 55, said during his Wednesday, October 16, appearance on Today With Hoda and Jenna. “It’s Danny world and Frank Reagan world.”
The actor, who has played Detective Danny Reagan since 2010, explained that his character only crosses paths with Selleck’s Commissioner Frank Reagan at home or at Sunday dinners. Their characters rarely film together when at work. (Frank is Danny’s father.)
During his last day on set this summer, Selleck, 79, made a rare appearance to take in Wahlberg’s scene with Marisa Ramirez, who plays Danny’s partner, Maria Baez.
“He was there watching. I looked across the room and saw him standing there,” Wahlberg recalled, noting, “Tom he’s a really serious and focused man. He likes to cover up his emotions. He doesn’t like to show vulnerability.”
That changed when Selleck stood in the wings for Wahlberg’s performance. “I looked across and he had tears in his eyes,” Wahlberg revealed. “That memory for me still brings up a lot for me.”
The New Kids on the Block singer added that seeing Selleck, whom he watched “as a little kid” on TV, get emotional was a big deal.
“To suddenly now [be] working with this man and he’s there to support me on my last day of work. It filled me with tremendous humility,” Wahlberg told Hoda Kotb and Jenna Bush Hager. “It’s more gratitude, it’s not saditude.”
While Wahlberg and Selleck have already filmed their final episode of Blue Bloods, fans have not seen it. CBS chose to air the 14th and final season in two parts, the first of which concluded in May.
On Friday, October 18, the first of eight farewell episodes will begin to air — and they are going to pull at fans’ heartstrings.
“I cried when I read the last episode,” Abigail Hawk, who plays Abigail Baker on the show, exclusively told Us Weekly earlier this month.
She confirmed that the Reagan family — which also includes grandpa Henry (Len Cariou), and Frank’s daughter, Erin (Bridget Moynahan), and youngest son, Jamie (Will Estes) — will get closure.
“There will be satisfaction,” Hawk, 42, said, teasing, “There is sadness, there is joy and it is all wrapped up in the same beautiful final moments.”
Wahlberg, meanwhile, revealed on Wednesday that he is content with the closing of this chapter in his career.
“I don’t want to say [I’m] sad, because there are a lot of things to be really sad about in life. This was an amazing opportunity and a wonderful experience,” he gushed. “I made so many amazing life-long relationships and had a wonderful 14 years with our cast and crew in this city. So I don’t want to say sad. It’s emotional.”
Part 2 of Blue Bloods season 14 begins on CBS Friday, October 18, at 10 p.m. ET.
