Did you do any training with New York cops for the show?
Theo James: I did some kung-fu. No, I’m joking! I started out by hanging out with a guy who was a homicide detective and moved to cold case. He was an extremely experienced guy and very cool. We hung out for a long time, and I would ride with him whenever possible—I would sit in on interviews and be in the background. That was my first section of direct research, then afterward I spent time with [the show's] advisor. We would do things like get sh-t-faced in a cop bar, and that’s when the really meaty stuff comes out—when people can talk a bit more freely. What I find about the police force here is that it does genuinely seem like unlike any other in America and even the world. There’s a very specific culture dynamic, a specific chemistry. There’s almost a specific set of rules because of the city and the size of it. Doing that stuff was the most important. Especially as a British punk coming over from London.
What surprised you the most with training and playing this character?
Theo: What really surprised me was how good of friends they are. Our advisor's ex-colleagues are his family. That’s a big theme in cop shows. Before I did this show, I would see cop shows and read the language and think it was kind of cliche or something of a by-gone era. But I realized it’s not. They really use that language. The family thing too. As our advisor says, you spend so much time with them and share so much because you see a lot of sh-t, a lot of death, and a lot of pain. Inevitably you’re going to become very close to each other, and on top of that there’s going to be good and bad stuff that happens to you in your career. People have affairs, people have kids, people leave, people come back, people die. It’s pretty complex.
