Tom Selleck returns to series television as a New York police commissioner and the patriarch of a cop family on “Blue Bloods.” And while the surprisingly youthful-looking veteran has been keeping busy on television, he freely admits he’s still most recognized for “Magnum P.I.” Metro spoke with Selleck during a break from filming “Blue Bloods.”
You don’t seem to age. Any reason for that?
I don’t know. I’m truly not very gray. And for the show, I spend 20 minutes in the chair every morning graying my hair and graying my mustache a little and I’m going, “If the show goes eight years, that’s nine months a year, 20 minutes a day. I just wish I would get a little grayer.” And then sometimes you can’t see it because when they shoot in the high-def, it’s very contrasty sometimes and I go, “I put gray in my hair and it doesn’t show.” So that’s my lot in life right now. It’s not a bad problem, but thank you for that.
Do you mind that people still recognize you most from ‘Magnum P.I.’?
No. I have never minded talking about that show. If I did my job right as an actor, when I left “Magnum,” it was my main credit. I have done Westerns. I’ve done comedies. And people are aware that I have broader appetites than they might suspect. But “Magnum” will always be a big part of it, and I think it’s in a hundred countries still, something like that. So it has never been a problem. But, you know, that being said, it’s kind of in the past. He’s very different. I see some episodes. I go, “Did I do that? I can’t remember.”
What about making it into a movie?
“Magnum” won’t work. “Magnum” is a little more like “Star Trek,” and I’m not just kind of gilding the lily on that. The fans of “Magnum” remember more lines than I can remember. I mean, the show is in the Smithsonian as the show that first recognized Vietnam veterans in a positive light in the states. And you can’t just buy a title, spend a hundred million dollars on explosions and trivialize it, which they do.
What drew you to ‘Blue Bloods’?
The script first. I wasn’t really looking for a series. I was concerned that I liked it because I do a series of movies for CBS called “Jesse Stone.” I love that character and it’s really successful. So the first thing I said when I went in was, “I’m not doing this at the expense of ‘Jesse Stone,’” and they said, “We don’t want you to. ‘Jesse’ is a home run for us.” So that was nice.
