Waterston bids final farewell to ‘Law & Order’
Actor knew return as McCoy would be for short time only
“It’s been a hell of a ride.” With those 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.
To put this run into perspective, Waterston made his debut appearance as McCoy in September 1994 in the Season 5 premiere of “Law & Order” — the same week that “ER” and “Friends” premiered on NBC. The Dick Wolf procedural — which told stories about “the police who investigate crime and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders” was already a well-established hit, but it had yet to become a ubiquitous, seemingly indestructible pop culture franchise.
Waterston, who joined the series after the contentious departure of actor Michael Moriarty, helped prove that the format was durable enough to withstand major cast shakeups. Yet he also became the closest thing “Law & Order” had to a central protagonist — the “ultimate conscience of the show,” as Wolf has put it.
Well before male antiheroes took over TV, Waterston played McCoy as a no-nonsense attorney who was passionate about justice but also willing to bend the rules in order to obtain a conviction — a prickly character whose sharp edges were somehow softened by Waterston’s soothing voice and avuncular demeanor. And though McCoy’s personal life was hinted at only fleetingly throughout the series, the character clearly wrestled with private demons (including a proclivity for affairs with his glamorous assistant district attorneys).
A Yale-educated actor who has played Hamlet on Broadway, Waterston admits there was a time he looked down on TV. Initially, he only planned to do a single season of “Law & Order.” But Waterston remained on the series until it was canceled in 2010. He is the rare actor to star in a long-running TV series who managed not to be pigeonholed by the part that made him famous, working continually in the dozen years “Law & Order” was off the air in shows including “Grace and Frankie.” He agreed to reprise his role when NBC revived the series in 2022, anchoring a new cast that included Hugh Dancy as assistant district attorney Nolan Price. But earlier this month, NBC announced that Waterston would be leaving the series, with Tony Goldwyn set to star as the incoming DA.
Waterston’s farewell episode — written by Rick Eid and Pamela Wechsler and titled “Last Dance” — follows the case of Scott Kelton (Rob Benedict), a billionaire tech mogul who is accused of murdering a young woman in Central Park. Mayor Robert Payne (Bruce Altman), whose son is implicated in the case, pushes the DA’s office to cut a deal with Kelton — or else he’ll support McCoy’s opponent in the coming election.
McCoy resists the pressure and decides to try the case himself, urging the jury to rule fairly and without prejudice despite the high-profile defendant. It works: Kelton is convicted. Over a celebratory drink with Price, he announces he’s going to retire so that the governor can appoint “someone with integrity” to the job.
In the closing shot of the episode, McCoy stands alone at night outside the Supreme Court building in
lower Manhattan — then walks off into the darkness.
At 83, Waterston is eager to tread the boards once again — and to continue working as steadily as he has for the past six decades. This interview with Waterston has been edited for clarity and length.
Q: Let’s start with the obvious: Why did you decide to leave now?
A:
I 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. They gave me this fantastic send-off, with a pop-up delicatessen on the set, called Sam’s Delicatessen. The last shots were all in the courtroom and speeches were made. Dick Wolf showed up. It was something else.
Q: Take me back to 1994, when you were cast on the show. What made the role appealing to you? A:
Dick 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 was the fulfillment of that dream. And he grew talent, staff, sound guys, focus pullers — people that are now directors out in the world because of him. It was an extraordinary place to be. It was easy to stay, but I always thought I was gonna leave the next year. I kept on signing up for one more season.
Q: It was known for drawing many actors from New York theater.
A:
We used to joke that it was the Café de la Paix of television. You know that saying about the Café de la Paix, “If you sit there long enough, the whole world passes by?” We used to joke, that was what went on (at “Law & Order”). We had
fantastic guest stars, and all kinds of people who then grew up to be stars on their own. Don’t ask me to name them.
Q: One of the things that’s interesting about “Law & Order” is that we never learn much about the characters outside of work. Jack McCoy’s backstory is pretty patchy, even after 19 seasons. Does this present any challenges — or rewards — to you as a performer?
A:
The reward is that your own life is not used up. A lot of what you can do and what you are as an actor is also not used up. That means that if somebody goes to see you in a play or a movie while you’re doing “Law & Order,” the audience doesn’t think, “Oh, gee, I already saw this.” And the stuff that you do get to do on the show, and in the case of (when I was) playing McCoy, was very intense, very engaging. The quality control at Wolf Films is fantastically high, so it was good stuff.
Q: Do you have a favorite scene or episode from your run on the series?
A: The 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 DA (Adam Schiff ) in those days. We did a death penalty (storyline 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. It wasn’t just great “Law & Order,” it was great TV and not just great TV, but really, really mighty.
Q: How do you think Jack McCoy evolved over the years?
A:
I don’t think he changed. I think being the DA was hard on him because he didn’t change, but to do what was necessary to do the job, he had to restrain himself in ways that he didn’t have to before.
Q: You came back to the show after 12 years away. Was that strange?
A:
What 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.
Q: Do you ever find yourself in a hotel room or on a plane, watching yourself in episodes of “Law & Order” and getting sucked in?
A:
My wife likes to watch old episodes of “Law & Order” while she’s cooking. Sometimes I’m passing through the kitchen and I stop and I think, “Why were you so critical of how you looked in those days? Look at yourself now.”