Donnie Wahlberg bought candid about why Boston Blue is filming primarily in Toronto as a substitute of Boston in a brand new interview. This comes after fan backlash concerning the location was spurred by footage of Wahlberg and Mika Amonsen filming in Canada in late July. In keeping with the New Children on the Block star, the Blue Bloods offshoot has to movie in Toronto due to the “dire straits” the TV business is at the moment in financially. On a extra constructive notice, he stated that Boston Blue “goes to blow individuals’s minds” in terms of visitor appearances within the collection premiere.
The feedback got here in an look on the Billy & Lisa within the Morning podcast on August 7. Wahlberg, a Boston native, assured that they’re nonetheless filming Boston Blue in Boston, saying that he performed a giant half in ensuring that occurred. Wahlberg stated in Instagram feedback in July that they have been headed to Boston for filming the next week, and so they did just lately movie a scene in Fenway Park, as Wahlberg particulars on Billy & Lisa within the Morning. However he did admit on the podcast that due to funds constraints, filming in Toronto will proceed.
“I feel we’ll be filming in Boston rather a lot,” Wahlberg stated. “Folks assume it’s a private alternative or that I didn’t wish to movie in Boston. I had the most effective time in my life filming in Boston. I’ve the most effective time in my life each time I’m going to Boston … The business has actually been beat up from COVID and the strike. CBS, for instance, used to make, like, 20 reveals a 12 months. They’re making two this 12 months — new reveals — and I’m on certainly one of them. It’s actually dire straits financially within the business, so I’m actually lucky to be making a present. I’m actually lucky to have the ability to go to Boston and work in any respect. However , once I initially was provided the job, I stated, ‘We bought to go to Boston.’ They stated, ‘We are able to’t afford it.’”
“It’s principally thirty cents on a greenback to movie in Canada proper now, in comparison with eighty cents on a greenback, ninety cents from a greenback even with tax breaks,” he continued. “However I stated, ‘We now have to go to Boston. I can’t not go to Boston.’ And so the plan proper now could be to do the interiors up right here [in Toronto] and go to Boston each couple of weeks and do what we did and put a crew collectively, a Boston crew, and go down and movie everywhere in the metropolis. You possibly can’t pretend what Boston seems to be like. And , we’re bringing Boston actors up right here to visitor [star] within the present. We’re doing all the things we will, and hopefully, in success, we may be in Boston extra. The purpose is, let’s compromise to get the present made. We’ll work exterior and do exteriors in Boston, after which , in success, maybe we will come down there and be there full time. That may be a dream of all desires.”
Wahlberg detailed the Boston Blue scene they filmed in Fenway Park and what it was wish to be a real-life Crimson Sox fan performing like a New York Mets fan beneath the Inexperienced Monster. He stated that it’s true that he advised manufacturing that he refuses to let Danny Reagan be a Yankees fan (he can’t betray his real-life Boston roots like that). Whereas it’s not labored into his contract, he stated that he advised manufacturing that Danny might solely be a Mets fan, and so they agreed.
Talking concerning the first episode and the potential for seeing some Blue Bloods stars in it (Bridget Moynahan is already confirmed), Wahlberg stated it’s “going to blow individuals’s minds.”
“I feel individuals are going to be like, ‘Oh my god, Like there’s some twists and turns within the first episode, after which we’re going to proceed that,” Wahlberg shared. “We wish to pay respect and honor Blue Bloods, but in addition there are hundreds and hundreds of police households in America, and we wish to inform a few of these tales, too. And we wish to let Danny discover, , be a fish out of water.”
Boston Blue, Sequence Premiere Friday, October 17, 10/9c, CBS