As Jamie, the youngest brother of the Reagan clan on “Blue Bloods,” Will Estes is constantly growing, changing, and learning — both on screen and off. One of Jamie’s biggest champions and mentors is family patriarch and New York City police commissioner, Frank Reagan, who’s played by Tom Selleck.
Selleck is a huge draw for the series, having reached superstar status in the 1980s by starring on “Magnum, P.I.” The veteran actor has also had memorable roles in “Friends” and on “Three Men and a Baby,” as well as the made-for-TV “Jesse Stone” franchise. Meanwhile, Estes has previously starred in “U-571” and series like “7th Heaven” and “American Dreams” — but “Blue Bloods,” which is in its 12th season and airs Fridays at 10 p.m. on CBS, is arguably his biggest role to date.
As he does on the show, Selleck is constantly teaching Estes new things on the “Blue Bloods” set, as Estes recently revealed in an exclusive interview with Looper.
Tom Selleck knows his Blue Bloods character ‘inside and out’
On “Blue Bloods,” Commissioner Reagan is thoughtful, precise, and the emotional core of the series, which culminates in the weekly Reagan family dinners that the show centers around. It’s a personality that’s not too far off from the real-life actor.
“It’s funny, Tom isn’t that different than the commissioner,” says Estes. “He is really so professional. He’s so studied. He knows his character inside and out. You come on set, and you know you’re working with somebody who’s very well studied and very professional and executes time and time again, every scene. You need to be on your toes when you work with him, which makes it a lot of fun.”
There’s more to Selleck than just nailing his lines week after week and bringing a protective heart to the series — the show might not be what it is if it weren’t for him.
“He does a lot in small ways to architect the scenes that he’s in,” reveals Estes. “Things like, we need to stay ahead of the audience. We need to make sure that we don’t tell them what we’re going to do before we do it, whenever possible. Just a ton of things like that, how certain things, certain dialogue, can be trimmed if it’s expositional or it’s not getting us where we need to go or it’s not progressing the story or the character arc. He could write, produce, and direct the show, but maintains that he just wants to perform as an actor.”
With 14 seasons under their belt, the “Blue Bloods” family — which also includes Donnie Wahlberg, Bridget Moynahan, and Lou Cariou — is a tightknit cast that Estes constantly learns from: “I’ve just tried to soak up as much of it as I can.”