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‘Blue Bloods’: Donnie Wahlberg Discussed the Challenges of the Show’s First Scene

Before the show even aired, Donnie Wahlberg knew just how important those Blue Bloods dinner scenes would be. So he made sure that the first of those scenes was filmed just right.

In the pilot episode, Danny and Erin have a pretty heavy fight because Erin thinks her brother may have ruined a case she was working on. Danny was the arresting officer for the defendant, and his lawyers were claiming that Danny used excessive force. So, they wanted the charges dropped.

In the show, the argument plays out at work and then carries over to the dinner table at the end. But the dinner was actually the first scene they filmed. And Donnie Wahlberg thought everything about it was intimidating.

“The very first dinner scene was the first scene we shot,” he told Watch Magazine. “Do you know how hard it is to show up, 10 actors, and Tom [Selleck] at the head of the table, and I’ve got to have this knock-down, drag-out with Bridget [Moynahan]? If I’m not ready to go full-out in that scene, the show doesn’t work. Danny has to be hard-headed and fiery in front of Frank. And I had to be willing to do that in front of Tom. Any good actor would know that’s what you have to do — you commit.”

The ‘Blue Bloods’ Dinner Scene Gave Wahlberg Childhood Flashbacks

During an interview with TVInsider, the actor recalled thinking that Tom Selleck looked like his own father because both men donned mustaches.

“And [my dad’s] very intimidating,” Wahlberg said. “And he sat at the head of the table like that.”

Donnie Wahlberg went on to say that the whole experience was “sort of traumatizing” because he had to come in on his first day and “basically take over the dinner table.”

“But I knew if I didn’t do it successfully, the show wouldn’t have a chance to thrive,” he continued. “We had to be able to speak our own voices and stand up for our characters’ points of views on the show or it wouldn’t work.”

Even though his nerves were getting the best of him that day, Wahlberg nailed it. He found his inner Danny and he went into an emotionally heated tizzy. He even found enough confidence to improvise a few lines.

And considering the show is now in its 12th season, we’d say he managed to make the series thrive.

Wahlberg’s acting chops even earned him some high praise from his A-lister co-star. As the actor shared, once the scene cut, Selleck gave him “the biggest smile and pat on the back” and told Wahlberg “that’s what’s going to make this show magic.