Blue Bloods’ Tom Selleck on guest role which left him ‘scared to death’
BLUE BLOODS star Tom Selleck has revealed one of the most challenging periods of his career before he signed on to the long-running and extremely successful US primetime drama.
One of the most recognisable faces on American TV, Tom Selleck took on yet another iconic leading role when he signed on to lead the cast of Blue Bloods in 2010. Now, over a decade later, the star of one of the biggest shows on CBS has admitted his celebrated sitcom role as Richard Burke in the 1990s has remained one of the toughest parts of his career so far.
TV and film star Tom revealed he was “scared to death” when he first signed on to portray the love interest of Monica Geller (played by Courteney Cox) in Friends.
The former Magnum PI star revealed he took inspiration from his time on the classic sitcom to ensure Blue Bloods guest stars are made to feel as comfortable as possible.
He explained the nerve-wracking experience of joining a well-established and wildly popular sitcom halfway through taught him not to take supporting TV roles for granted.
“The hardest thing is to guest on a show,” he explained.
In this, the 16th episode of season 12, Guilt, Tom’s Commissioner Reagan struggles with feeling responsible for a former colleague getting severely injured in the line of duty.
Despite the often lofty stakes of the police family drama, the TV star told Kelly his iconic stint on Friends was one of the most challenging parts of his career to date.
He told the host: “When I did Friends, everyone was up to speed.
“I wasn’t amazing at what they called a table read. I was scared to death.”
Although he starred as iconic TV detective Thomas Magnum for eight years, his time in the spotlight still couldn’t prepare him for working with comedy greats Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer.“I was on Taxi a long time before, but I hadn’t done a sitcom, so, of course, I was really nervous,” he recalled.
Thankfully, his on-screen partner helped bring him up to speed and make his 10-episode appearance on the sitcom as pain-free as possible.
“Courteney [Cox] helped a lot, Courteney’s a big help,” he told Kelly.
“But that group is an incredible group of friends. They obviously became friends in life as well as on the show, and it shows.”
Monica eventually broke things off with Richard and married her friend and later boyfriend Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry).
However, Friends enthusiasts still look back at her relationship with Richard as one of the highlights of the series thanks to Tom’s winning performance as the older love interest.
Having now starred in Blue Bloods for longer than he was ever on Magnum PI, the TV legend has no plans to wrap up his time on the CBS favourite just yet.
“I love what I do, and I want to keep doing it,” he confirmed. “And so far, so good. Twelve years! It is crazy.”
The 12th season has recently come to an end at the start of May but is already confirmed to be coming back for season 13 after a well-deserved summer break.
