Sam Waterston talks about his final episode of ‘Law & Order’
NEW YORK
“It’s been a hell of a ride.” With those parting words, Jack McCoy stepped down from his job as Manhattan district attorney after decades of public service — and Sam Waterston bid farewell to his signature role on “Law & Order” after 19 seasons and 405 episodes spread over 30 years.
The Times recently spoke via Zoom with Waterston.
Q: did you decide to leave now?
A: always knew that I was going to stay on a short time. I didn’t want to turn on the TV and see somebody else playing the part when the show came back [in 2022], but I knew it was not for the long-term. This was always going to be the year [to leave]. And then “Law & Order” designed just a beautiful exit. I couldn’t have been more pleased with it.
Q: me back to 1994, when you were cast on the show. What made the role appealing to you?
A: Wolf took me out to lunch and persuaded me that it was a really good idea. Ed Sherin was the executive producer in New York, and he set the tone and made it a really interesting place to work. He was a theater director, and he did a lot of work in television. He had the dream of a lifetime to set up a resident theater somewhere, but he said that this
Q: you have a favorite scene or episode from your run on the series?
A: episode that hit me the hardest didn’t really have to do with me, it had to do with Steven Hill, who was playing the D.A. [Adam Schiff] in those days. We did a death penalty [story line in which] his wife was on life support and dying. He was against pursuing the death penalty [in a case], but the state of New York was for it. [In the episode, “Terminal,”] they juxtaposed the execution, which Jack and his assistant witnessed, with Steven Hill sitting at his wife’s bedside as she was taken off of life support. It was unforgettable.
Q: came back to the show after 12 years away. Was that strange?
A: was strange was how familiar it was. What was really strange was that our set, for the whole time that I was on the show, had been at Chelsea Piers on the west side of Manhattan and they rebuilt those sets at a studio in Queens. You walked onto the set and you’re back in the same world. It made the hair stand up on the back of your neck.