In a recent discussion with Andy Cohen, Boston Blue star Donnie Wahlberg revealed he was willing to forgo half his salary from the series to ensure it was shot in Boston rather than Toronto. That ultimately did not happen because of how expensive shooting in Boston was. But Wahlberg revealed that some parts of the series were indeed shot in Boston.
Donnie Wahlberg offered to give up 50% of his Boston Blue paycheck
Donnie Wahlberg recently discussed his series, Boston Blue, with Andy Cohen on the latter’s Radio Andy. During the discussion, Wahlberg revealed how he was very interested in getting the series shot in Boston. He wanted it to happen so badly that he offered to give back half his paycheck to cover the expenses. But shooting in Boston proved difficult, and Wahlberg’s paycheck was not enough to cover the costs.
“When I got offered the show, oh yeah, well I got offered the job, I’m like this is a dream come true cause I thought I’ll do a spin-off in LA or Vegas or Texas, somewhere hot,” Wahlberg told Cohen, “And they were like, how about Boston? I was like, uh, it was like they hooked me and I was like, all right, let’s do it in Boston.”
But physically shooting in Boston was a difficult task, primarily because of the expenses. “They were like, but we can’t afford to shoot it in Boston, we’re going to shoot it in Toronto. And I was like, no, no,” Wahlberg recalled. “So I said, listen, I’ll give back 50% of my paycheck if we can go to Boston.”
In response to this offer, Wahlberg got an unexpected response. “I did, and they said, ‘You can give back 100%, and so can the rest of the cast. We cannot film this show in Boston. It was just so expensive,’” he said to Andy.
So, while some scenes were shot in Boston, Wahlberg’s hometown, most of the series was shot in Toronto to curb costs.
Boston Blue is available for streaming on Paramount+.
