Tom Selleck has a thing for the force. On October 18, Selleck, who plays New York police commissioner Frank Reagan on Blue Bloods, will be moonlighting as Paradise, Massachusetts police chief Jesse Stone for the ninth installment of TV movie franchise Jesse Stone: Lost In Paradise.
Based on Robert Parker’s best-selling books, the detective series follows the cases of Stone, whose life is only further complicated by an alcohol problem and tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife. And after a three-year break, the latest film sends Stone into another nail-biting investigation surrounding an unsolved murder case in Boston. “Everywhere I went, people were asking me—as much as they ask about Blue Bloods—when’s the next Jesse Stone? I always thought we had Columbo-like potential,” says Selleck who’s joined by a cast including William Devane, Gloria Reuben, Leslie Hope and Luke Perry. “It was nice to go back.”
And after a decade, Selleck is still just as excited to play Stone. “I think it’s his flaws,” he says about what initially drew him to the role. “He’s kind of a mess, but he doesn’t feel sorry for himself. When I first read the book, I said to Robert Parker ‘I’ve got to play this guy.’ I never grow tired of him, and I don’t think other people have either.” According to Selleck, Parker was always supportive of bringing his books to the small screen. “Most authors don’t write screen adaptations of their characters. Robert Parker has been an exception,” says Selleck, who also penned the script with Michael Brandman. “He helped me a lot in writing. He called it Jesse’s sense of irony—a guy who tries to control his drinking but still tries to have a rule where he can have two drinks a night. It’s kind of silly and a little dangerous. It makes him a guy you root for.” However, playing a character from a book doesn’t come without its challenges. “The hardest part is that in a book, the character is allowed to have an internal dialogue and tell you what he’s thinking. You may have to tell the audience what you’re thinking simply by thinking it so they see it in your eyes.”
He wouldn’t spill too many details from the new movie, but did allude to the fact that it’s filled with surprises. “The challenge is we shoot out of sequence. Because I’ve written it with Michael Brandman, I’m fluent with the script and it’s easy for me to shoot a scene near the end of the movie and then shoot one in the beginning.”
And don’t worry if you’re not caught up on the series. “There’s an arc to the larger, ongoing story, but it’s not like some of the serialized TV shows where if you don’t watch the opening episode, you’ve got to wait and binge-watch later,” he says. “I’m very proud of the fact that this movie seamlessly transitions from the other eight though.” As for his favorite part about returning to the series, Selleck says, “It’s just being able to play this guy again and walk in his shoes because he’s so complex and funny. We filmed the whole thing in about twenty days, which is not a lot of time for a movie. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a labor of love.”
