The long-running police procedural was renewed for season 14 on March 29, though the cast and producers agreed to take a “25 percent pay cut” in order to keep the show on the air for one more season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. However, Wahlberg, 53, is hopeful that the show will continue on past season 14.
“I’m an optimist,” the New Kids on the Block singer said in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly while promoting season 5 of ID’s Very Scary People — which returns on Sunday, April 16. “I try to take every episode as it comes. I really do. I think it’s part of why I’ve enjoyed myself on the show for 13 years.”
Wahlberg — who shares sons Xavier, 30, and Elijah, 21, with ex-wife Kimberly Fey — plays Detective Danny Reagan on the CBS series, which premiered in September 2012. The show follows the lives of the Reagan family, many of whom work for the NYPD under the leadership of his father, NYC Police Commissioner Frank Reagan (Tom Selleck). The series also stars Bridget Moynahan and Will Estes as Danny’s siblings Erin and Jamie, respectively, as well as Len Cariou as the family’s patriarch Henry.
In terms of Blue Bloods’ longevity, the actor — who is also stepdad to his wife Jenny McCarthy’s son Evan, 20, whom she shares with ex-husband John Asher — hopes to achieve the same success as another beloved TV drama. “Law and Order: SVU, I mean, Ice-T and Mariska Hargitay have been going for gosh, so many years and we hope to last as long as they have,” Wahlberg stated, before noting that working on a series for several years can be “hard” for some actors “to keep doing.”
He continued: “One of the things I’ve done is I try to just stay very present in each episode and take each script that comes my way and say, ‘OK, what’s gonn a happen now? You know, what am I doing this week?’ And kind of find the journey in that particular episode and not get caught up in what’s gonna happen next year, what’s gonna happen in two years.”
The Zookeeper star — who tied the knot with McCarthy, 50, in 2014 — isn’t opposed to the idea of a Blue Bloods spinoff, and he already has the perfect story in mind for his and his onscreen sister Moynahan’s characters. “Danny and Erin become private investigators and move to Hawaii, but that was too close to Magnum, P.I., so we didn’t want to do that one,” he joked, referring to Selleck’s iconic 1980s series.
While no spinoffs are currently in the works, Wahlberg will continue to explore the lives of some of history’s most diabolical criminals on the new season of Very Scary People. While the new episodes will dive into the stories of the Trailside Killer, the Times Square Killer and more, the Rizzoli & Isles alum told Us he prefers to play characters who catch the bad guys, rather than taking on the role of one himself.
“I’m not sure that I would love to portray a serial killer,” he shared. “I saw some of the Jeffrey Dahmer series and the performances were amazing, but it’s really dark and it’s heavy stuff. So, I’m not sure that it would be something that I would want to play, especially having been so close to it with Very Scary People. I think it would have to be some personal connection or something meaningful that I could get out of the performance. Otherwise I’m not sure it’d be something I would really wanna do.”
Disconnecting from Very Scary People’s heavy subject matter is something Wahlberg said is important for him to do, though he still gets just as spooked as viewers. “I was watching the show before with Jenny, my wife, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is tough,’” the In Plain Sight alum stated. “And she was like, ‘But it’s important because it’s helping me. It’s actually making me think, OK, I should check this. OK, I should make sure, double check that I lock the door here and do all these different things.’ … So, in some ways, it’s really been helpful and useful.”
McCarthy’s “interesting and helpful” perspective of the show is something that helped him further disconnect from it, noting, “She gave me a different way to kind of look at it.”
Season 5 of Very Scary People premieres on ID Sunday, April 16, at 9 p.m. ET.