Donnie Wahlberg revealed that costar Tom Selleck broke down in tears while filming the final scenes of Blue Bloods.
“He’s really tall and he’s standing above everyone in the back corner just watching with tears in his eyes. It just was like the waterworks turned on,” Donnie, 55, recalled about shooting the series finale with Tom, 79, while appearing on Sirius XM’s Andy Cohen Live. “I could literally cry just thinking about it.”
Donnie starred on the show as NYPD Detective Danny Reagan, while Tom appeared as Danny’s father, Commissioner Frank Reagan.
The former New Kids on the Block member continued to share insight into his relationship with Tom, adding that they had “real conversations” and “work” well together.
“I don’t show up and go, ‘Tell me what to do, Tom,’” Donnie continued. “We have a back and forth … there’s a process and he respects me … what I do and what I bring to the table as I do him.”
Donnie also teased the series finale, sharing that fans will “be happy” with the show’s conclusion. “There’ll be a lot of tears. I think the same kind of tears we had, but there is… a very sad scene that happens in the middle of the final episode, which will be very emotional,” he said. “It feels like a finale, but a hopeful, forward-thinking finale.”
He reflected on the last day of filming after Tom expressed his frustrations about the show being canceled after 14 seasons.
“I’m kind of frustrated,” he told TV Insider in an interview published on October 3. “During those last eight shows, I haven’t wanted to talk about an ending for Blue Bloods but about it still being wildly successful. In a Top 100 Shows of 2023-2024 (in total viewers, we were No. 9 out of 100), if you discount the three football shows, we’re No. 6! I’m not going to turn into a bitter old guy saying, ‘Get off my lawn!’”
While Tom was transparent about his sadness over the show ending, he insisted that he wouldn’t hold any grudges about the situation.
“I don’t believe in holding grudges, but if you were to say to the television network, ‘Here’s a show you can program in the worst time slot you got, and it is going to guarantee you winning Friday night for the next 15 years,’ it would be almost impossible to believe,” the Friends actor explained. “My frustration is the show was always taken for granted because it performed from the get-go.”
As the interview continued, Tom explained that he will miss getting to work with his costars.
“The actors. The family of actors is as close as the Reagan family and the characters that they play,” he said when asked what he would miss most about the CBS show. “There’s isn’t a single one of them who didn’t want to come back. Most shows don’t end that way — there’s petty jealousy and all sorts of things– and we seemed to overcome that. It’s something for everybody to hang their hats on and be proud of.”