The cast and producers of NBC’s Shades of Blue attended the winter Television Critics Association presentations to talk about the new drama starring Jennifer Lopez and Ray Liotta. OHSOGRAY was on hand for the discussion, which heavily focused on Lopez, who the network is undoubtedly banking on to bring in viewers.
What was the genesis of the show?
Jack Orman: It started with Adi.
Adi Hasak: I originally wrote it as a spec script and it got to Elaine Goldsmith Thomas, who is a true hero in putting this show together. I didn’t know Elaine. She embraced the script. She got the script to Barry Levinson, which was ironic because when I was writing the show, I had “Homicide” literally sitting on my desk. At that time, I also met Nina Wass, who’s an executive on the show, and Ryan Seacrest, and they were just amazing. I just introduced them to Elaine. So the four of us were the initial team. Then at some point Elaine said, “You know, Jen would be great for this,” and I had no idea who she was talking about. I’m not on a first name basis with Jennifer Lopez. I was like, “What are we doing?” And she’s like, “Jennifer Lopez.” And in the altitude that I fly in, that’s, like, the wish list. That’s the top of the list. I rolled my eyes and said, “Yeah, why don’t we get Jennifer Lopez. That’s a great idea.”
Two weeks later we’re sitting with Jennifer Lopez and Benny Medina, and my knees are shaking. We went to NBC and pitched out the entire show to NBC and, 15 minutes later, got a text that this was an order contingent if Jennifer wanted to do it. Then we all did a pass on the script together. Then the script got ordered to 13. Then a professional had to be brought on, and Jack Orman was brought on to kind of steer the show. That’s the genesis of the project.
Jennifer, what does your role of executive producer entail on a day to day basis on the set?
Jennifer Lopez: On a day to day basis? I have to say they really give me the space to do the acting that I need, but you’re really involved in every decision that goes on, from the way the set looks to what everybody is wearing to the way the scene feels, in the development of it, reading the scripts, and kind of putting your input into it, the casting of the show, the bringing in of all the crew, everything. It’s actually a lot of fun, to be honest, to create something from the ground up like that and to be involved at such an early stage.
And then on the set day to day, I have a pretty…when I am working, a pretty tough workload. As you’ll see through the season, Harlee kind of goes through it, so it was very demanding in that way for me. But always involved in kind of every aspect of the scene and making sure that the scene is just working scene by scene.
Being the executive producer, that must create an interesting dynamic between you and Ray Liotta. He’s giving marching orders on camera, and you’re his boss off camera. Can the two of you talk about that a little bit?
Jennifer Lopez: He is the boss. Let’s just put it that way. I defer. He’s boss on and off camera. I don’t really try to challenge that in any way, shape, or form. We have a great time, actually. We really loved working together. I don’t think of myself as the boss on set. I think of myself as Harlee when I’m on set. That’s all I think of myself as. Then in relation to all the characters, we are a family. I feel like that we are a family and that he’s kind of our father figure in it, and he’s our leader. That’s kind of the dynamic that exists on the set. I just, as kind of like his first lieutenant, I try to keep everything afloat all the time and try to keep my own at the same time, trying to keep her own life afloat. I don’t know. I don’t ever think of myself as the boss. I think of myself as a very important piece of this puzzle.
For Jennifer, what went into your decision to do a television show?
Jennifer Lopez: To be honest, for me, right now in television it’s like the best movies are on television. The characters are better. The stories like you say, it has more of an opportunity to kind of really explore something. It was just a really exciting opportunity to do something that I hadn’t done in a while in a different way than I had done in a long time. For me, the script itself, the story itself, the idea of it from the very first time I spoke about it with my producing partner Elaine Goldsmith Thomas, I knew that there was something that could go on. It just had enough of a base to kind of really grow and grow and grow into something that never hopefully, never gets boring.
At the same time, was there a thought of sort of doing something that maybe didn’t stray so far from things that we’d seen you do in the movies as well?
Jennifer Lopez: No, no. I never think of those things when I’m choosing projects. I just do what excites me, whatever kind of, when I hear it, goes, “Oh, yeah, that sounds good.” It’s very kind of from the gut for me.
How did filming this show work with your other commitment to American Idol?
Jennifer Lopez: We knew that I would have to start doing the auditions while we were filming the show, so I would go on weekends to film “Idol.” It was challenging. It was hard, but we got through it, and I just tried to take it day by day. And again, it’s just kind of compartmentalizing just really when I’m on the set, it’s about that. When I’m doing something else, I don’t let people bother me I won’t say bother me, but really burden my mind with other stuff when I’m acting. I really feel like it needs my full attention, and then when I go off and do “Idol,” it’s a little bit more of a fun thing on the weekends, and I try to just look at it as that, reuniting with “Idol” family and listening to people sing, and not trying to take it all too seriously. We balanced it out. It was challenging schedule-wise, but everybody was super respectful, super helpful to help make it all work.
You also have your Vegas show starting?
Jennifer Lopez: I’m doing a three year residency in Vegas at Planet Hollywood. It will be 40 shows a year to start. Again, kind of working around the schedule. I do a few shows now. I do a few shows in May. I do a few shows in July and August, a few shows at the end of the year, and we do a Season 2, then we’ll fit that all we’ll work around it. I have a big cast that can help. I can have some days off, and then I’ll go to Vegas.
Jennifer, when you read the script at the beginning, What did you think of the character?
Jennifer Lopez: … [E]very aspect of who Harlee was seemed very human to me and very real. The more we kind of get into that part of it, the more we get into kind of how a good person can make very questionable choices and still be a good person is, to me, really interesting about her.
Did you have any discussion with Adi when you said, “I think she should be more like that”?
Jennifer Lopez: I think we had lots of discussions about where the scripts were going and things like that. But, to be honest, between Jack and Adi and our writers and Barry and the producers and the network, all everybody working together, I feel like everybody was always mostly on the same page. I mean, it was really just tiny tweaks here and there of ideas and people kind of adding ideas to this already kind of good idea, really great idea of moral ambiguity and things like that.
Do you feel like the television landscape is changing and becoming more diverse?
Jennifer Lopez: I think so, and I think it’s been coming for many years. I think there’s just no denying what society is right now and all of the different things, and it’s just not race, but it’s gender. It’s all different types of diversity that is being showcased. For me, I think a real turning point, honestly, was Shonda Rhimes and “Grey’s Anatomy,” which I was a real fan of and, to me, where TV really started getting interesting again years ago. How many years ago was that? That was a few years ago now, right?
But anyway, I just remember watching that TV show and thinking, “Wow, she’s putting this person in this role and that person in that role,” and it was so interesting. Since then it feels like it’s become the norm. It’s becoming more the norm, I should say, because you’re right. There’s even been more of a shift in the past year or so.
But, yeah. I think there’s just no getting away from it anymore. Television has always been great at reflecting society since way back, the kind of pushing the boundaries of what’s happening in life, and I think it’s no different right now.
Barry Levinson: I mean it is indicative of the times we live in. You do have diversity, certainly, in the police force, as you can see across the country and in many, many aspects of it. This is just simply a reflection of the times that we live in, so I think when it comes to casting, you’re trying to put together something that represents what a police department would be, whether it’s New York or wherever. And this is the world we live in, so I think it’s a reflection of our times.
You are done filming, correct? Are you wondering how audiences will react?
Jennifer Lopez: Yes. It’s nerve racking. Just doing the show itself was very challenging. Doing an hour drama is probably one of the hardest gigs in show business, and it’s very demanding, and a show like this that has so much kind of emotional it’s such an emotional roller coaster for me and a lot of the characters. It’s very challenging. Not knowing whether people are going; at then end of the day, you just have to give it your all, put your heart into it, put everything on the line and see what happens. That’s how kind of I approach everything anyway.
A few episodes in, we learn that a central character has a sort of secret sexual appetite. Can you talk about the decision behind that?
Jack Orman: For me? I would it was not a gimmick or a stunt. It’s part of his character. We’re trying to tell stories with these rich, dimensionalized people, and it does turn into story, but it also speaks to his character and the way that he views the world and the way he interacts with the world. I take every element as an opportunity to tell story out of character. The more rich the character, the more developed and nuanced the story can be.
Ray, how is your approach to a television role different from a movie, where a character has a complete arc?
Ray Liotta: Well, I mean, it all stems from the writing, so I’m a big believer that’s the bible. That’s what you go to. That’s what they’re writing, and you just try to make it as real as possible. There’s things that we’ll find out later on that my character’s very complicated. He’s got a lot of huge appetites. I suffered a very severe loss, and that’s when Harlee came into Woz’s picture, and made me very paternal. As with everybody that’s in my group, they all got themselves in trouble, and I helped them out, and now we’re doing good things and bad things. Even the bad things are motivated by trying to do good, whether it’s just keeping one or two drug dealers around you. I can’t play it as if there’s not the reality of drug dealers or people who want things. You kind of try to control your area, so I just do what they say, and the fact of if I gotta kiss a guy, I kiss a guy. That’s what they wrote.
Jennifer Lopez: Me too.
For Jennifer, have you kept up your boxing from the movie you did, “Enough”?
Jennifer Lopez: Well, I started in “Money Train,” if you remember. So that’s when I first learned to box. I always liked it. It’s very hard, but I did pick it up again for this. It’s always been a good workout.
Did you have to change your workout routine?
Jennifer Lopez: Not really. Honestly, I didn’t work out as much. I felt like this character was a little different than maybe who I am in my real life where I’m always kind of having to stay fit and worried about my appearance, and Harlee is not like that. So it was a little bit of a different thing. I did do the boxing.
Adi Hasak: Oh, yeah. She’s not pretty at all, Harlee.
Jennifer Lopez: I’m not saying she’s not pretty. She’s all right. I wear more makeup to bed. Okay? People are like, “Oh, she has eyeliner on.” You know what? Girls in New York, they wear eyeliner. I hate to tell you. It happens. It’s okay. But it’s just wasn’t one of those things where I felt like I had to be buff or really a type of role where I had she’s physically fit. She works out, but she’s not like fanatic about it. I think it had to be a little bit more real than that, like more real life. People get to the gym, but not like people like me have to. Hey, pros and cons.
Barry Levinson: In the boxing scene, I was surprised.
Jennifer Lopez: I’m athletic.
Barry Levinson: We were going to do that scene, and rather than rehearse the boxing up front, “Let’s just film and see where it goes.” And literally, I’m almost like the audience, “Oh, my God. She can really box. There’s something here.” So we did a number of takes because I was so fascinated. I mean, she was so fast. Her hands were just flying. It’s one of those moments as a director you just sit back and say, “This is a lot of fun.”
Santino, you’re also on another show. Are you able to juggle both?
Santino Fontana: I’m super lucky, and I’m incredibly grateful, but this shot in the summer. I literally this shot in the summer. I got married, and then I came here to do “Crazy Ex Girlfriend,” so there’s actually no there was a little overlap, and they were very kind to let me the two shows were very kind to let me go back and forth. That was it. So it’s been kind of great to see something that we did a while ago and get to see the family again, and also how different the shows are, which is really fun to be a part of both, and yeah. It’s exciting. That’s why I think we all do what we do, which is to be able to keep trying different things. So I’m lucky to have been able to have done that.
Have you had any pushback from the law enforcement community regarding the subject of institutionalized corruption?
Jack Orman: We haven’t. I think that if you’re producing a show that revolves around a unit of cops in New York City, in this cycle, in 2015 and ’16, I think that if you didn’t somehow reflect the times, then we wouldn’t be contemporary. But our job as storytellers was to approach it in a way that we could explore all sides o it, to show our cops as heroes, people who put their life on the line. I think law enforcement understands that. At the same time, we needed to find a way in to deal with the issues of the day. We did it through a working cop, [an] African American, who really wanted to be part of the solution and then fell into a terrible mistake. And then our morality play starts from there. So I think we do a pretty good job of telling all sides of that issue.
Have any of you drawn on your personal experiences growing up in New York? Or experiences you may have with individuals in law enforcement?
Jennifer Lopez: Go ahead, Vinny. Tell them.
Vincent Laresca: Well, in addition to being an actor, I’m also a reserve L.A. County Sheriff, so I had a lot of insight into actually being a police officer because I’ve actually done it, especially with the whole temperature in the world with police and stuff, so approaching my character, law enforcement a lot of times is very shades of blue. Things are not black and white. Approaching my character, I was very cognizant of that, because of my experience actually having been out there and been on traffic stops, searching people, and so …
Dayo Okeniyi: Uncredited consultant as well for the whole crew, how to hold a gun, how to…
Vincent Laresca: Cuff people.
Jack Orman: We always looked to Vinny to slam the guy onto the car.
Dayo Okeniyi: What’s the proper technique, Vinny, on all this stuff.
Hampton Fluker: I actually live in Brooklyn and have for about two years, and not in, I guess you could say, the most affluent area. So there’s a lot especially now with what’s going on in the terrain of law enforcement in New York specifically, there’s a lot of tension, and sometimes that tension can be one sided. To explore as an actor, as an artist, that side that I used to look poorly upon was such a blessing, because you really do see that everyone has an opinion, everyone has a side, and everyone deserves to get a little credit for what they do. It’s a great thing the show is actually called “Shades of Blue” because, really, to discuss what’s good and what’s bad, I think people really need to look at that in between from time to time.
Vincent Laresca: A lot of times the ends do justify the means, and that’s what the show is about, doing something that you may not think is may be out the policy, but accomplish what needs to be accomplished at that moment, and it’s for the greater good of everybody. That’s kind of what our characters are about.
Barry, except for a good chunk of the ’90s, it seems like, since establishing your film directing career, you’ve always kept a hand in TV. What do you think of the special challenge of trying to launch a series now?
Barry Levinson: Well, I think this is one of the great times in terms of television because I think what you’re seeing is more and more talent from theatrical has now made the crossover, where it used to be, “Well, you don’t go back to television. I’m now in film.” But television is now the place, and if you want to really do character work, that’s not really existing theatrically anymore. So there is a lot of challenges because the form has changed. In television, you can do 12 episodes of a particular story, ministories, all of these variations. So you’re seeing a burst of creativity happening. So I’ve always stayed in it from the time of doing features and keep going back to TV. NBC, back in ’91, took ’91, ’92, I forget took a shot with “Homicide,” which was a very edgy type of drama. So I’ve had this relationship with NBC over the years. This show pushes its boundaries, in terms of our storytelling, about we’re trying to show the shades of blue about the good side, the bad side of police force that I think gives us a view of the times that we live in. So it’s an exciting time, and that’s why I was drawn to Adi’s script, because it has procedural aspects of it, and it has an arc about how this is going to play out, but it does have real strong characters. That’s what always excites me.