Rookie Blue grows up
Popular made- in- Canada police drama enters third season
TORONTO — A man with a giant Mohawk hairstyle is gesturing wildly at a uniformed police officer. Although it looks as if the scene could escalate to G- 20 proportions, this one plays out differently, ending with the officer walking away, looking deep in thought, while the towering punk ( also known as director Steve Dimarco) takes a seat behind a monitor and yells “action!”
Everything on the set of Rookie Blue is much less tense than it first appears. What started as a surprise summer hit for Global and ABC is now on its third season and, like their screen counterparts, the cast appears to have shed the anxiety that comes with being the new kids on the block. During shooting for this season’s fourth episode, the actors goof around between takes. Matt Gordon, who plays training officer Oliver Shaw, has taken to teasing the season’s new addition, Peter Mooney, by repeatedly calling him by his full name in a foreign accent.
“There’s a little bit of requisite hazing but it’s all very warm,” Mooney says with a laugh. “It’s tricky coming in to a third season of a show but it’s been really great.”
As Gordon continues taunting the latest addition (“petermooney!”), Mooney compares his experience of joining the tightknit cast with the story arc of his character, ex- soldier Nick Collins. Collins, though he’s the only rookie this season, has a complex history with one of the 15th Division’s regulars.
“Nick has some serious history with Gail [ Charlotte Sullivan],” he says, explaining that they were once engaged. “They knew each other very well before she went into the police force and he went into the army, so that history comes back to visit them pretty early on.”
In real life, the transition has not been so fraught with drama.
“It’s reflected in the dynamic of the show that they’re really a tight group and that could be daunting as the new guy, but everyone has been so welcoming and helped me out so much,” the Winnipegborn Mooney says. “They’ve definitely taken me out drinking. As it is in police culture, we’re very method.”
In contrast to Mooney’s brighteyed optimism, series star Missy Peregrym sees the show’s third season as a big, emotional evolution for both her and her character.
As the season begins, Peregrym’s character, Andy, has just returned from serving a three- month suspension for being romantically involved with her training officer, Sam ( Ben Bass) — which nearly led to Sam’s death after their relationship outed him as an undercover officer in the second season finale.
“Sam and Andy are going to try to figure it out,” Peregrym explains. “Sam’s totally mad because I ditched him because I couldn’t deal with my suspension and our relationship. So this year is about finding that boundary between when everything was great — we had that attraction for two seasons — and now, when we get [ back] together, but we don’t know where those boundaries are between personal life and the work.
Peregrym says of her character: “Even though I may feel more confident and more comfortable in my position, now I’m dating Sam [ again] and it really does complicate things for me. It’s really hard for me, when we’re not doing well, for me to go to work. So there’s a brand new set of challenges.”
The actress, who has been linked to Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and former Chuck star Zachary Levi in the past, says that she’s come to better understand her own relationships through her character’s romantic struggles.
“On a personal level, I’ve always related to Andy. The writers write her partly based on my experiences,” she says. “Sometimes it’s therapeutic and sometimes it’s irritating.”