Congratulations on the show. What’s it been like delving into another long-term gig like this?
It’s a dream. I pinch myself every day. Some days I go to work and I’m like, “Is this real? I get to do this?” It’s the most incredible job.
And then some days you’re like, “Is this Boston? Oh wait, no, it’s Toronto.” I am kind of dreaming.
[Laughs] I definitely felt that this winter! Everyone was like, “Toronto winter is rough.” And then this winter happened and they were like, “OK, it’s not usually this rough.”
I mean, I love it because I’m in L.A. and I never get to really experience that, but it was next-level cold in Toronto this year. But I love Toronto, and I love filming there. I love our crew.
But it is funny, because sometimes we’ll be on the streets of Toronto, but there’ll be all these Boston police cars everywhere and it’ll be Boston Police “Don’t Cross” [signs], and people are so confused. There was one time I was in my uniform and I had to walk from set back to where our little green room was, and a couple people on the street were like, “Thank you for your service. And also, Officer, there was a guy . . .” I was like, “No, no, no. It’s fake. I’m on a television show.” But they thought I was a real cop, which made me feel good.
Well, if you wanted to avoid the weather, you should’ve just come back out here to B.C., your old Psych stomping grounds. We barely had a single flake of snow this winter . . .
Are you in B.C.!? Where?
I mostly split my time between Burnaby and White Rock. You filmed a fair bit in White Rock, right?
Our stages were in North Van, but we filmed in Burnaby and we were out in White Rock a lot. I mean, we filmed all over Vancouver. That’s so wild! I miss Vancouver.
Picking up on that, you shot Psych, which was set in Southern California, out here in British Columbia. Now you’re shooting Boston Blue in Toronto. It really is remarkable how easily one city can double for another . . .
There were days [on Psych] that, by truck, we were bringing palm trees to Vancouver because it had to be Santa Barbara. It was so funny because I remember when I first heard we were shooting in Vancouver for Santa Barbara, I was like, “How? It’s raining all the time. Santa Barbara’s sunny.” And it’s amazing what they can do. It was, like, a couple establishing shots [filmed in the real Santa Barbara], truck in some palm trees and there you have it!
The cop drama is an especially well-worn genre. What is it about Boston Blue that stands out for you?
We were lucky to follow in the footsteps and have Blue Bloods established — you know, bringing over the legacy themes, but also establishing a new identity and having the audience come with us.
But it’s honestly the layers of an entire family [that is the appeal of the show] — and going at every piece of it. It’s not just a procedural. There are the family dynamics, the relationship dynamics, and we really lay into and feel into those relationships — which I think is what brings so much meaning and emotion to the cases that we’re solving.
And having this dinner [scene] every week is a side to law enforcement shows, and law enforcement in general, that we don’t get to see. So, again, coming from that sort of Blue Bloods family — that table to our table — and then having this extended family while also including that family, we were really lucky to be able to honour that, and then also have this new identity.
I think that is what sets us apart. There is a lot of heart. Like, come have dinner with us every week — walking not just through the cases with us, but watching this family dynamic. There’s a lot that people can relate to and follow and feel and think and reflect. I like what we do every week. I hope the audience feels that way, too.
How exactly does Sarah fit into — or fail to fit into — this sprawling family
of cops?
I think it’s hard being in the position that she’s in of “the boss.” Where it can get really uncomfortable, where it can get complicated is having to make decisions . . . even in the pilot, Lena [Sonequa Martin-Green] wants a promotion, it’s not really her turn yet; of course I would wanna give it to her, but I can’t because there’s somebody who actually deserves it more, for the time they’ve put in . . .
I do sometimes think with Sarah, there is . . . not a “stoic” [quality] — there’s obviously emotion behind it — but she can’t often show that emotion at work. She has to be a boss who has to keep a lot together. And sometimes the shift-off from that [is a struggle].
I do think she and Lena, that is a very quick shift. I think the sister bond removes Sarah’s boss mask for a minute and she can step into that a little bit easier with her. I also think that Phoebe [Sarah’s stepdaughter, played by Matia Jackett] now coming into the mix has created also a new dynamic where Sarah has been able to kind of process and deal with her day, her emotions on her own. There are now eyes on her — a 14- or 15-year-old who has eyes on her.
So, the hardest part for her is almost a thawing out from work, having to kind of sink back into being the emotional version of her, because she has to keep a certain kind of face to be a boss.
And I actually love seeing how we’re playing that out. Going to work as a boss and then coming home and being a partner, sister, stepmom . . . I think Sarah is having to learn a lot about herself in that way, on an emotional level, of how she balances the emotions after work.
She’s got the work part down. It’s the other that she can struggle with a little bit.
I’ve heard actors talk about playing cops, and how they didn’t really know if they were going to be able to pull it off — until they put on the uniform and the gun belt, and then that just instantly changed the way they carried themselves, the way they moved through the world. Was it like that at all for you?
That is so crazy! I have said that a couple times today [about the uniform] when people say, “What makes you feel the most like Sarah?” It’s wild that you just said that. I’m experiencing that.
That, for me, was really unexpected. I didn’t anticipate that. It was more like a thing that happened once I got to set and I learned I would be wearing my uniform almost all the time — which not all superintendents do; the superintendent in Boston does. When I put that uniform on, when you put the belt on, when you put the boots on, there is something that happens. You do transform a little bit.
And it is the way you hold yourself, yes, but I think you naturally feel like, “Oh, this is to be honoured. I am now representing this [job] in a certain way.”
It’s funny, I actually visited our writers’ room here in L.A. yesterday and they were asking, “What was one of the things you really loved about the season?” And I’m like, “That uniform.” It is Sarah. That is when I feel something happens. I don’t even have the language for it. But that was unexpected, and really powerful. And it is my favourite part of the day. That’s when I feel complete.
You go through hair, you go through makeup, I put that uniform on and we’re in.
Boston Blue airs Fridays on CTV & CBS
MEMORABLE ROLES:
This isn’t the first time you’ve seen Maggie Lawson sporting a badge and gun. From 2006 to 2014, the Kentucky gal spent eight seasons playing Santa Barbara detective Juliet “Jules” O’Hara on USA Network’s breezy, B.C.-shot cop dramedy Psych, partnered up with fake psychic/real con man Shawn Spencer (James Roday Rodriguez). It’s a role she’s since reprised for three TV movies (and counting!). Over the years, Ms. Lawson has also guested prominently on such series as Justified, Two and a Half Men, The Ranch, Lethal Weapon, The Great Indoors and Santa Clarita Diet, while leading the casts of quirky comedies Angel From Hell and Outmatched.
CURRENT GIG:
A spinoff of CBS’s long-running Blue Bloods, Boston Blue hit the TV beat this past fall, following the original series’ Det. Danny Reagan (Donnie Wahlberg) from New York to Beantown, where he becomes immersed in another unruly family of cops. One of those esteemed officers is Sarah Silver (Maggie Lawson), Boston PD’s superintendent of detectives — who balances her stalwart devotion to the job with the inevitable complications of sharing a badge with her literal brothers and sisters in blue.