From MovieWeb:

The successful cable network TNT has “known drama” for many years and some of their staples have been police procedurals like the hit series’ The Closer and Saving Grace. The network is taking it another, darker, step forward with the new series Dark Blue, which premieres on Wednesday, July 15 at 10 PM ET, right after the second season premiere of the amazing series Leverage at 9 PM ET. While you may think “Oh, another cop drama,” think again because this series has something that no other cable series can boast: mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer serving as executive producer. Of course, the series has much more to offer than just Bruckheimer’s Midas Touch, so to speak, with a wonderful cast.

Dylan McDermott headlines this series, which takes a much deeper look into Los Angeles than we’re used to, as Lieutenant Carter Shaw, who heads up a deep-cover task force that infiltrates the shady underworld of L.A. on a daily basis. His team consists of three other team members including Ty Curtis (Omari Hardwick), who constantly tries to find balance between work, dealing with criminals all day in deep cover, and his home life with his new bride, Dean Bendis (Logan Marshall-Green), a shady team member who others think may have gone rogue and Jaimie Allen (Nicki Aycox), a former patrol cop and newbie to the team who was recruited based on her propensity for lying.

I was invited to a press conference in West Hollywood with the four main stars of the show, and here’s what they had to say to the assembled press corps.

One of the appeals of the undercover cop genre seems to be that for actors you get to play actors, to some degree. Can you each talk about the role-playing aspect of a show like this?

Omari Hardwick: Yeah, definitely. I think we all were excited about this cohesion because you sort of get to step outside of yourselves for awhile. It’s really rare to come across a character or a show or a movie that completely play maybe four or five different characters within a season, let alone a week. It’s challenging for us as actors, I think I can speak for the other three actors. It’s challenging, to say the least, but it’s also fun.

Nicki Aycox: I look at it, as well, as every time I go undercover, I have another character to drop in and really believe and be the undercover character I am for the day. So, in a sense, it’s really exciting that I get to play a different person within the same show. That was exciting for me.

Dylan McDermott: Yeah, that’s the reason I did the show, to have that. Because, sometimes, if you have that, you do serial television over time, you’re playing the same character and it kind of wears you down. So I thought, in this show, it would be interesting to play different characters and keep it alive so you don’t feel it’s getting stale at all. That was the main reason I did the show.

Logan Marshall-Green: Yeah, I echo everything they’ve said. As an actor, the idea of these guys breaking the rules, is something appealing as well. Actors playing actors who break rules, because that’s how I approach my job, trying to find the rules and trying to find the ways to break them.

Can you talk about how you came to the series? Did TNT approach you? Did you approach TNT or were any of you particularly looking to play police officers?

Logan Marshall-Green: I actually read the script when I was abroad. I was going to go in for it, and just sent a tape in and got a test, they flew me out and I just walked in the room as the character and hopefully walk out with the character, and that’s what happened.
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