Dayo Okeniyi – Shades of Blue

By: Lisa Steinberg

Q) What are the recent projects that you have been working on?

A) “Shades of Blue” is a freight train that is headed to NBC on January 8th.

Q) Please tell us the premise for “Shades of Blue” and about your character Michael Loman.

A) “Shades of Blue” is a show that centers Harlee Santos (played Jennifer Lopez) who is a single mother and a detective for the New York Police Department. She is a little bit down on her luck being a single mother and trying to raise her daughter. She is trying to give her the best life she can offer, but when you are a person of authority in this country as a member of the NYPD, a firefighter or what have you what are the sacrifices that job requires? So, on the job she definitely finds herself cutting corners and doing things that are a bit shady to be able to provide for herself and her family. She’s also part of a unit that has quite the loose morals in terms of being in police enforcement. Her boss is played by Ray Liotta and he is in charge of the unit of detectives. My character is the newest member of that unit. He just made detective and when the show begins it is his first day and he is partnered up with Harlee. He is very idealistic, bright eyed and bushy tailed. He has a lot of ideas about what law enforcement means and the responsibility that it entails. All of that gets jettisoned quickly on his first day on the job. Throughout the season, he is constantly playing catch-up with morals and he has to decide if he wants to go down the dark hole of corrupt police enforcement or he can hold on to his morals.

Q) What was it about the show that made you want to be a part of it?

A) The cool thing about our show is that it is pretty much true to life. Every episode of the show is a day and has that sense of urgency to the storytelling, which I like. If that’s day one, then you can imagine what day three is like – trying to cover up everything that goes wrong on his first day on the job.

Q) What was your audition like and how did your character evolve from there?

A) It would be a huge spoiler if I told you what has changed or developed. You’ll just have to watch. I read the script and I really wasn’t looking necessarily to do television because of the nature of my deal with Terminator Genisys, the movie I did this summer. The script came in and the character was just really, really good. He was unlike anything I had played before. For some reason, coming off The Hunger Games a lot of the things that came my way were very strong characters. They were affable for the most part, but this character had no idea what he was getting into. He’s a very strong guy and hard working, but it is one thing to read about police enforcement and be an officer of the law. He just finds himself thrown into the deep end of the pool very quickly. So, I really like that about the character. I like that he is always on edge, always nervous and always trying to hold on to himself. There is something really interesting about that. I feel like that is more like me than any other character I have played before. So, I liked that and I like the nature of television in the sense that you are living with this person. It’s not a like a movie where you can plot out a full three arc structure. There is no structure. You just have to take each episode as it comes. What is the character feeling on that day? You have to let that inform the decisions. None of us know what is going to happen tomorrow. So, you can’t really plan too much of what your character is going to be. You can’t plan what is going to happen so I love that about Michael Loman.

Q) What have you taken away from your experiences being a part of this show and working with these incredible actors?

A) Just hard work and generosity. Honestly, Jennifer Lopez is the nicest, generous and most giving human being. For my first week on the job, it was her birthday. She invited us over to her house and we were on a yacht. It was surreal! You read so many bogus stories about her being a diva and being stuck up. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Her kids were always on set and she is a great mom. She is just an amazing human being and to add her work ethic to that was incredible. That’s what I took from her. We would have fifteen or sixteen hour days and she would have just flown in from working on “American Idol.” She’s done just rehearsals for her show coming up in Vegas. She has to show up though and hit her mark and know her lines. She’s also the EP so she also has all these behind the scenes meetings about the script and casting. Then, after a long ass day she has to go sign autographs for people on set when we wrapped and take a million photos. Then, the next day she has to do it without again without showing her temper once. I was on the set for six months without incident. That’s crazy! If anything that’s what I learned, in this game you don’t have to become jaded. You don’t have to lose perspective on who you are and what you are do. You can have your cake and eat it too. You can be a hard working person and be generous at the same time. That’s what I took away from my experiences. I’ve been lucky. I’ve been working for five years and not been on a set with tons of drama. I keep waiting to be on a set where someone is like, “My water is three degrees too cold!” [laughs]

Q) Were you able to do any research or get any background to inform your character?

A) We couldn’t do the real deal because of Jennifer’s schedule. So, as soon as we got to New York we started shooting right away. But they definitely put it us in contact with people in law enforcement who are ex-detectives and ex-police officers that we could call any time to ask questions whether it is about tactical stuff to police work. For me, it’s different because I like things that aren’t necessarily on the page. What is your income every year? How do you spend money? What do you struggle with every year? What do you struggle with in your family? What’s it like always being on call? Does it take you away from birthdays and anniversaries? To me, that’s what really informs my performance – as opposed to how you hold a gun properly. But for that stuff we did have people on set to tell us tactically how do you go into an apartment, how do you survey the area, how do you clear a room and how do you control a suspect. We definitely had that stuff readily available, but we didn’t have any kind of going through a police academy – which I would have loved!

Q) Are there any guest stars you can tease for the season?

A) Not at all. But, man, we really do have some talented, talented people. I have never worked on the east coast before and there is just a plethora really talented people that color our show and populate the world other than the series regulars. I can’t wait for people to see. It’s a true commitment to the writing and characters of our show. It’s very character driven. That’s another reason why I wanted to do it. It’s not a procedural show like where every episode we have a murder or a woman got raped and we have to find out who did it. It follows the characters of the show and that’s what I loved. The shows that I really, really love and have been a sucker for these past few years are shows like “Breaking Bad” or “Game of Thrones.” Those are shows that follow the characters and it is about the long arc over the course of the season or the series.

Q) You are a part of social media. Are you looking forward to the instant fan feedback you will receive?

A) Not really. That just scares me! I like acting, I love the job, I like the research and the collaborative effort, but then you have to go put it out. Why do we have to do it for anybody? Can’t we just do it low key? Eventually it has to come out and people have to watch it. So, I would say I’m looking forward to hearing good fan feedback. I’m definitely looking forward to the reaction and I am such a fan of the writing, the direction of the show and the acting that I am so excited to see all the love for these characters.

Q) What do you hope fans take away from watching the show?

A) Empathy – in a weird way – and awareness. Our show definitely deals with stuff that is going on today. When you turn on your TV and there is another cop shooting, a young black man dying on the street somewhere or police abusing their power…The show doesn’t center around that, but it touches on society and it touches on the things that go on behind the media. It’s the stuff that the media doesn’t talk about. And it’s never all 100%. It’s always 50/50. Pardon the pun, but it’s always shades of blue with what goes on with those stories. Our show really pulls the veil with what is happening and goes behind the scenes with what is really happening in law enforcement. Sometimes it is how they abuse their power and sometimes it is how they are justified in putting up that blue veil and protecting themselves in a job that is really so sacrificial yet doesn’t give much back.