Donnie Wahlberg Reveals the Tom Selleck Advice He Brought From ‘Blue Bloods’ to ‘Boston Blue’ (Exclusive)

Tom Selleck gave some words of support on set of Blue Bloods Season 1 that defined how Donnie Wahlberg played Danny Reagan. Now, Wahlberg has passed that wisdom onto Sonequa Martin-Green in Boston Blue. He shared what he learned from Selleck with TV Insider.

Wahlberg has played Detective Danny Reagan for 16 years and counting. After hesitating to move up the NYPD ladder in Blue Bloods, Danny finally accepted a promotion to sergeant detective in Boston Blue Season 2, which premiered on October 9 on CBS.

He made sure his BPD partner, Detective Lena Silver (Martin-Green), was OK with it first, because she had been passed over for the job before Danny moved to Boston. But Danny was offered the role after Lena turned it down first and recommended him.

Marni Grossman/CBS

Wahlberg tells TV Insider that from the very first episode of Boston Blue, he felt protective of Lena’s new story and Martin-Green felt protective of the Blue Bloods legacy. To assure that Martin-Green felt confident and that she had agency to step into a leading role in this universe, Wahlberg offered her the same support that Selleck gave him back on Blue Bloods Season 1.

“I had to play Danny a certain way in the very first Blue Bloods,” Wahlberg tells us. “The first thing we ever shot was the dinner scene, and I was kind of a steamroller in that dinner scene and arguing with Bridget [Moynihan] and getting Tom annoyed and doing all this stuff, or the characters rather. I knew that for Blue Bloods to work, or at least for Danny to work and for me to be able to play this character, I had to have the confidence to do that and I had to have the support.”

“Tom looked over at me at one point and was like, ‘I love when you improvise and fill in the blanks in the scene. It just keeps it alive. I love that. Keep doing it.’ I did it for 14 years, and I think I passed that on,” Wahlberg continues. “I think I saw how much that support meant to me, and I wanted to carry that on for Sonequa, too, and for her character. If her character isn’t strong and formidable, it’s just the adventures of Danny in a new city, and that’s not what this show is.”

Wahlberg says that he and Martin-Green “work tirelessly” on the Boston Blue scripts to make sure their characters are honored, and it’s often Wahlberg advocating for Lena and Martin-Green advocating for Danny (the Star Trek: Discovery alum echoed this sentiment in our interview with her about the Boston Blue Season 2 premiere).

Seacia Pavao/CBS

“Danny and his family and his partner, Danny and Lena are at the center of this show and the center of this family,” Wahlberg says. “She didn’t need me to instill confidence in her, but I wanted her to know, Sonequa, and Lena from Danny that she has my full support.”

Wahlberg describes what it’s like on set of the spinoff with this dynamic in mind.

“Every day we show up and it’s like, ‘Yeah, you should probably be the one to discover this because Danny wasn’t paying attention when that happened.’ And she’s like, ‘Right, but make sure Danny says this,’” he says. “We just bounce it off each other and we want each character to be as strong as they can be. And in truth, either character could be the sergeant or the boss or the head of their own show. And here we’ve chosen to do this together and we want to fully support each other.”

Clearly, this partnership is strong both on-screen and off.

Boston Blue, Fridays, 10/9c, CBS