[Warning: This story contains spoilers for The Rookie Season 7 Episode 9, “The Kiss.” Read at your own risk!]
In the words of The Rookie creator-showrunner Alexi Hawley, Nathan Fillion might be one of the last real TV stars. Over the course of his three-decade career, Fillion has appeared in over 500 episodes, most notably playing the captain of a futuristic spaceship in the cult classic Firefly, the titular bestselling mystery novelist turned detective in Castle, and heightened versions of himself in Big Mouth, The Big Bang Theory, and American Housewife.
But Fillion still considers The Rookie “the very best job” he has ever had. When the ABC police procedural debuted in the fall of 2018, the show had an intriguing premise that could theoretically last a few seasons: A newly divorced man in his mid-40s moves to Los Angeles to pursue a second career as a police officer for the LAPD and becomes the oldest rookie on the force in the process. Fillion certainly hoped that his latest collaboration with Hawley, who had served as a showrunner on Castle, would have the mileage to go the distance, but he never expected The Rookie to become a social-media sensation. Now in its seventh season, the show just earned its best three-week audience in nearly five years and, like its characters, shows no signs of slowing down.
“What’s great is that, though he’s seven seasons into this new job, the job itself is not a static job. You don’t go in to do the same thing every day,” Fillion tells TV Guide of his character John Nolan’s chosen vocation. “Every time a call comes in, it could be something goofy and hilarious, [or] it could be something life altering and dangerous. So you never know what’s going to happen next, and every single situation is a learning situation.”
Hawley has also not shied away from dialing up the drama. Picking up in the immediate aftermath of the Season 7 midseason finale, in which the cops caught prolific serial killer Liam Glasser (Seth Gabel) and patrolled the streets amid a devastating Los Angeles wildfire, Tuesday’s episode found the officers banding together to investigate the gang-related shooting of Det. Nyla Harper’s (Mekia Cox) husband, James (Arjay Smith), and his friend, Kylie (Maria Zhang), who had just mistaken James’ kindness for romantic interest.
Nolan, Lucy (Melissa O’Neil), and Tim (Eric Winter) are eventually able to track down the shooter, Connor Lowe, at Paramount Studios, where he works as a security guard, and the officers arrest him on the set of a police-psychiatrist drama called Cop a Feel. (Ha!) While he is relieved that they were able to capture the real perpetrator, Nolan decides that he has to come clean to Harper about seeing Kylie kiss James, especially because his witnessing that act immediately (albeit briefly) placed Harper on the list of suspects.
“I really did not like having to lie to you. You are — and this is going to sound goofy when I say it out loud, but you are in no small way my hero,” Nolan tells Harper in the episode’s penultimate scene, which culminates in an emotional hug between the two unlikely friends. “And that’s not just because you’ve helped me out of some really tough spots, but because there’s just no one better as a cop, as a mom, and as a human.”
Below, Fillion opens up about Nolan’s personal and professional evolution, his close working relationship with Hawley — and what sets his interpretation of Green Lantern Guy Gardner apart from his predecessors in the upcoming Superman film.
As you reflect on his journey up until this point, how do you think Nolan has evolved personally and professionally over the years?
Nathan Fillion: I think Nolan, if you remember, started off from a life of duty. He got his girlfriend pregnant, got married, got a job contracting. It was not his dream job, but he had responsibilities. He had to be a husband, he had to be a father, he had to support a family. It wasn’t his dream to go in that direction, but it was a life of necessity. But once his son grew up and his divorce was finalized, he was no longer needed as a father, he was no longer needed as a husband, and he was in a job that he did not choose as a passion. So everything after that point in time — where he decided to follow his heart, his dreams — I think is something that has brought him a real [sense of] calm, in that it’s a happiness. He’s doing something he feels that is meaningful. I think that’s reflected too in his new relationship and now marriage with Bailey. I think he is a happier man because he is a more fulfilled man.
In this week’s episode, Nolan struggles with the knowledge of seeing James kiss another woman and not being able to tell Harper himself due to the investigation into James’ shooting. How did you want to play out Nolan’s inner turmoil over these last two episodes, and what did you want to convey in that final conversation between Nolan and Harper to show how that dynamic has evolved over the years?
Fillion: I think Nolan kind of touches on it towards the end of the episode. He has to come clean and rat out a friend, [and] he knows it’s going to be heartbreaking for someone he truly respects and admires and actually loves in Nyla Harper. So it’s not something he wants to do. Certainly that’s going to cause a lot of pain. That’s not something he’s eager to do, but I think he feels duty-bound and honor-bound to do it. So he’s in a tough spot. It’s certainly not a situation I’d love to be in.
These are two people who are close. These are two people who, if you remember, started off incredibly antagonistically, but Nyla Harper has come a long, long way — as has John Nolan, just as far as his knowledge base in the job. But they have really built a friendship, a relationship of integrity, over the years, and again, John does not want to be the one to cause Nyla pain.
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Nolan and Bailey (Jenna Dewan) have started to repair their relationship after the fallout over Bailey’s actions, which, while morally wrong, came from a place of survival over her fears of her abusive ex Jason re-entering her life. What do you think Nolan and Bailey see in each other that makes them want to make their relationship work in the long run?
Fillion: Where do I start? What makes two people want to get married? I mean, we’ve been there with them since the beginning, and one of the benefits of having a long-running TV show is that we can be there with these characters as they experience life together and build something together. We’re there to witness for all of that. I think you just have to look back and watch their relationship grow. There’s all the reason you need. The fact they truly care about each other — this is not a match like Nolan’s first marriage where he was kind of cornered into it, but this is something that they’ve both chosen. They both come from unhappy marriages, and now they’re in a happy one. So this is, I think, something that’s important to the both of them because it’s true to their heart.
One of the common criticisms of this season has been the way that Nolan and Bailey have been able to get off relatively scot-free for their actions. Has that ever been a concern of yours as well? Will either of them face any kind of legal fallout for what happened with Jason?
Fillion: Let me put you at ease: I think one thing that you really have to remember when you’re getting involved in a television program and you’re getting invested, which I highly approve of, is at the end of the day, it’s a TV show and we have to tell a story and stakes have to go up. Drama has to happen. But if you pull at the threads, the sweater will unravel.
Looking ahead to the second half of the season, now that he has finished serving as Celina’s (Lisseth Chavez) training officer, is Nolan going to be working with a newer rookie? What else can we expect from the back half of Season 7?
Fillion: We have a couple of new rookies on the program, so yes, Nolan will continue to be a TO and continue to pass his wisdom down to other rookies. One of the things I love about a long-running television program is the ability to bring back characters that have done so wonderfully for our program. And we do that in this season with both Bridget [Regan] who plays Monica and Matt [Glave] who plays Oscar. We can’t forget about Oscar! He’s been around since the get-go, that guy. I think Season 2, we brought him in and he comes across very charming and affable and hilarious. But you’d be wrong to turn your back on that guy. He will stab you quick.
Do you think Nolan is happy to stay in that TO capacity, or does he have higher career aspirations?
Fillion: Nolan had the golden ticket; he had an opportunity to do whatever it was he wanted. He is exactly where he thinks he will be able to do the most good, and I think that that’s his driving force.
Alexi Hawley said his end goal for The Rookie is to become the next Grey’s Anatomy, presumably in terms of longevity and cultural impact, and the show certainly has the engine to go the distance. Realistically, how much longer do you think you can withstand the physical demands of this role? Do you have another 125-something episodes left in you?
Fillion: Yes, so long as they have a stunt double who can do all the running for me and all the stairs, all the upstairs. I can do the downstairs stuff, but the running upstairs — we got a guy for that, [my stunt double] Dave [Rowden] Jr. He helps me out all the time. Just film me running from my back — it’s him, not me — and I think I can do this for another, give me another eight [seasons].
You’ve made an astounding amount of television over the years. At this stage of career, what stands out to you about the experience of making The Rookie? How has this experience compared to your past shows?
Fillion: When folks watch this TV show, they’re seeing it at 42-minute intervals; they’re seeing chunks that have taken us eight days to film. So for me, it’s about the day-to-day. It’s about, how do I spend my hours in these long days, sometimes nights, early mornings? And it’s about who I spend those hours with. And after 31 years in the business, I can say this has been the very best job I have ever had. I smile when I’m driving to work. It is an incredible community that we have built — not just with the cast who I find phenomenally talented. Everybody is so good at their jobs. This show can rest squarely on the shoulders of any one of our cast members, and [there’s] not an ego in the bunch, so that makes my days incredibly pleasant. And on top of that, the community of crew and production staff, writers, casting — the people that you never see on camera who make my days joyful, honestly. It’s incredibly meaningful to me because of how I spend my days and who I spend them with.
You’ve chosen to have full faith in Alexi to continue to tell this story as he sees fit. But at this stage, do you still have any unanswered questions about Nolan? Is there something in particular that you’re still hoping to explore in a potential future season?
Fillion: I pitch little bits all the time, but I don’t tend to go very deep with my pitches. I more so pitch cool moves for cold opens, but I think if I have a talent, if I have a superpower in this industry, it’s A) riding coattails and B) being able to choose excellent coattails to ride upon. And that’s really the long and short of my relationship with Alexi. I leave the heavy lifting to the people who are good at that. I’ll handle the acting part. I got that part down. But as far as other realms that I am not trained in nor talented in, I let people handle that who can truly handle that. By the way, I don’t think Alexi would be saying, “I can do some little bit of acting here and there,” just the same way I say, I’m not going to take control of this show. You know what I mean?
Melissa, Eric and I have discussed the fact that Tim probably still doesn’t seem to know that Nolan and Lucy dated in the first season.
Fillion: We talk about this! We talk about this all the time.
To be fair, the show also makes little reference to the fact that Lucy works with two of her exes now. What do you guys talk about?
Fillion: My pitch for that is, in eight years’ time, when we know we are wrapping up the whole series, [in] the very last scene, it slips out that they dated. And [Tim] says, “I’m sorry. [Shakes head in disbelief.] You dated?!” “Yeah, we—” [Mimics a cut to black.] And show’s over. That’s it. That’s the end of the series.
You have developed a close relationship with James Gunn over the years, and you are part of his overhaul of the DC Universe, starting with the forthcoming Superman reboot. What sets your Guy Gardner apart from all of the past iterations of Green Lanterns?
Fillion: He’s a jerk! What’s important to know is, you don’t have to be good to be a Green Lantern; you just have to be fearless. So Guy Gardner is fearless, and he is not very good. He’s not nice, which is very freeing as an actor because you just think to yourself, what is the most selfish, self-serving thing I can do in this moment? And that’s the answer. That’s what you do in that moment. I think if he has a superpower, it might be his overconfidence, in that he thinks he could take on Superman. He can’t!
