Donnie Wahlberg is opening up on what fans can expect from his character, Danny, in BLUE BLOODS’ last-ever season.
“I think in the last few episodes, he is obviously going to be dealing with a really massive case that needs to be solved and resolved but also a lot of personal stuff,” Wahlberg told TV Insider this week. “I think overall, not just for Danny, just for the entire cast, there are a lot of questions that audience members have had for a long time that I think will be answered, if not teased, in a way, that will give you answers for where people’s lives may go in the future.”
On whether or not Danny and Baez will develop a romantic spark, Wahlberg is keeping his lips sealed.
“I think the audience at first was reluctant for a possible Danny and Baez relationship because of the loss of Linda. I think that was very traumatic for the viewers. It was also very traumatic for me personally being a friend of Amy Carlson and you know for the for the show,” Wahlberg explained. “ So I think for a long time everyone was very reluctant to even consider such a thing, but I think as the show is winding down, it’s become clear that they have a special partnership and a special bond, and I don’t know and won’t say whether or not there will be or should be a relationship.”
“I will only say that the final episode will make a lot of people smile — that’s all I’m saying — and cry but also smile,” he continued. “I don’t want to give away too much about how the show ends, but I will say the show started with family and it will finish with family, and each member of the family has a lot of personal questions and things that they need to resolve, and Danny’s future love life, will it be discussed and explored? Yeah, maybe, not as much as a few other characters in the show, but Danny will receive some sage life advice from his favorite Reagan, which is Grandpa, and we’ll see where that leads him.”
The last day on set was a tearful day for the cast and crew.
“My final day was in the school squad room where Danny and Baez film most of their scenes and, you know, Tom Selleck doesn’t come to the squad room ever. I don’t think he’s ever been in the squad room, but he came that day to watch us film the last day of the show, and you know, seeing him there and seeing the emotion on his face…it turned on the waterworks for me,” the actor said. “It was very emotional and I would say more gratitude than sadness but there was an element of sadness, of leaving a family.”
“I felt tremendous gratitude, not saditude, but everyone cried. Everyone was crying, of course. The last day was heartbreaking…
“Not just the onscreen family but the offscreen family of the crew that we had on this amazing show,” he continued. “…It’s hard to let go of that and to say goodbye to that after 14 years, the relationships. I mean, it’s a lot, and I…went on tour with New Kids on the Block right after my last day of filming, and I got to sort of bury those emotions for a while, but now I’m back promoting the final season, and it’s all right there, and I have to kind of reopen that Pandora’s box of emotion right now.”
The actor added that he might write a book about his experience on the much-loved crime drama, noting that the final scene with all of the cast members around the family table was the most emotional scene of all.
It “was probably the single most emotional day on the BLUE BLOOD set in the history of the entire show, and that’s saying a lot ‘cause we’ve had some emotional days that followed, but, you know, the first scene we ever filmed in the history of the show was the first ever dinner scene, which was kind of like getting thrown right into it, right? It was like a lot of us didn’t even know each other, and it’s like sit down and fight like you’ve known each other for your entire lives, and we did it, and it set the tone for what that scene would mean to all of us professionally and personally.”
Wahlberg recalled that over 200 cast and crew members were there, and everyone had tears in their eyes.
“It was a chance for us to get together, to get to know each other, and as we got to know each other to reconnect with each other and to learn more about each other every single time,” he shared. “We all sat around that table. So you can imagine the last time filming, it was heavy.”
There’s no promise of a BLUE BLOODS spinoff anytime soon. But if one does come around, Wahlberg will support it as long as it stays true to the original series.
“I would say whatever happens next if it’s done with the spirit of BLUE BLOODS and done with with the care that we tried to put into BLUE BLOODS every week, it would be something that I would look forward to watching or being a part of, either way. I’ve heard stories of prequels sequels, you name it, but for me personally, I love the show,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed working on it for 14 years and like I said, whatever comes next as long as it has family at its core and you know, the spirit of BLUE BLOODS then I’m all for it.”
Tom Selleck recently shared what he misses most about working on BLUE BLOODS:
“We’d be working about now on the schedule, and I really miss that. But what I miss most is my friends, my actor family. I had a team. You always say, like in high school, ‘We’ll see each other,’ but it never works out that way. Everybody works, everybody goes this way and that way and suddenly that opportunity we had, that gift of once every eight working days seeing everybody [at family dinner], that doesn’t happen.”
Bridget Moynahan also misses working with her co-stars. She said succinctly, “It’s bittersweet. I want my job back! It was a good run. Fourteen years with a group of people, we were a family on and off the screen.”
