IRONSIDE: Neal Bledsoe Sheds Some Light on Teddy

IRONSIDE has shed a fair amount of light on the show’s title character in the first couple episode, but tonight’s episode will start expanding the role of the team so we can learn more about what makes them tick.

First up, a little more insight on Neal Bledsoe’s Teddy. (Series star Blair Underwood is affectionately calling the hour a “Teddysode.”) To celebrate the occasion, I spoke with Bledsoe about his character, what he can share about Teddy’s background, and more…

How are things going on IRONSIDE?
Neal Bledsoe: Not having been a series regular before…I’m told this [going so well on set] is a very unique set of circumstances. I think that’s due to several factors: we have a great crew that has worked together on other great shows. We have a wonderful top-down management structure. [Showrunner] Ken [Sanzel] is awesome, we have some great writers and we have some great producers. And also, it’s due to the fact that the cast has really clicked from the get-go. I don’t really get it, but I’m not going to jinx it…I think because [the show] is about the team, the actors bring a team-first mentality.

The first couple of episodes really have been about Ironside and his demons. What can you share about what viewers will be learning about Teddy?
NB:  [In character] I’m a man that secretly fears I’m a coward. And I do most everything in my life to prove to other people — and really myself — that I’m not. The one thing I’ve never done is tell my father is to go fuck himself. But what does that represent? That represents fears, that represents social pressures. I started out doing one thing in finance, what I thought was a hedge fund manager. What it’s actually going to be — and it could be many, many, things — is going to be someway aligned with what my family does. Even if it wasn’t working for Mr. Morgan at J.P. Morgan, it was something like that. I made a lot of money and that path was very soulless, because you’re a drug addict, but you’re exchanging money for drugs. You’re insatiable, you can never get enough, because somebody always has more. And it brings up the concept that you’re not really helping people, and I think I was very horrified by that. And I’m looking around at the locusts that have descended upon the city that I grew up in, and was hit with the feeling that we’re not giving anything back. I wanted to do something that was full of adventure and a personal test to myself, and really made me feel like I was helping my city in a better way.

Now, what happened is what would happen if [I personally] became a cop. I’m an upper-middle class kid from Seattle, Washington. I love foreign films. If I became a cop, I don’t know how much I could talk about [that] with my partner, you know what I mean? The same thing is happening with Teddy. I’m a fish out of water, culturally, physically, and sometimes even emotionally. There’s a whole host of things I’m having to temper down to in this environment.

Ironside found me and I was doing boring work; I was doing financial forensics. I was following the money trail. I could do this, I could do this in my sleep, I’ve been doing this my entire life, but this isn’t why I became a cop. But then because I’m smart — I’m always the smartest one in the room — I got a reputation for having a mouth. I got a reputation for being an SOB. But I was never out in the field, as far as my understanding goes. It was not until I became a part of this team [that I did that].

It’s very clear why Holly’s here, but it’s unclear why Teddy’s here. And the thing I love about playing him is I’m not super cop. I love that I’m full of flaws. I love that I’m finding my way, that I’m stumbling in this police adolescence. I want to prove myself, I think I know it all, but I obviously don’t. In the episodes coming up, I fall flat on my face multiple times. I’m the character that consistently does that, and I love that. I put it to my friends, and I’ll put it to you, if the world was full of Bruce Willis’ and John McClanes, it would be a very boring place.

That’s absolutely true.
NB: One thing that’s coming up, and working on some cop shows, one thing I always saw was a lot of the male cops tried to not show a lot of emotion and just furrow their brows and [had the mindset] of, “I have no vulnerability.” It’s BS. You show some vulnerability, it’s going to make me root for you as an audience member. I hope people look at [their] vulnerability and say, “That’s compelling.”

One of the things I did, and I loved the opportunity, was after we shot the pilot, I spent six weeks in New York with our technical advisers and other police members. I did everything: I went on cases with these guys, I hung out with them in the office, I’d go drinking with them, I’d go bullshitting with them, I’d hang out with everybody: lieutenants, sergeants, detectives, people that were usually on the task force. You know the show MANHUNTERS that was on A&E? Those guys, I hung out with them, I hung out with some of the cold case squad detectives, and asked questions and asked stories. And I’d see the way they’d BS with me and the way they’d fraternize.

One of the things that fascinated me most about police culture was the way they bantered, because I feel like there’s something sociological about what’s happening; a stress test. If I can fuck with you in the office, if I can mess with you here, you’re fine out in the field. But if you’re prickly here, if you can’t stand the fact that I put ice in your shoes and put them in the freezer — which really happened — then I don’t know if I can trust you if we have to go guns high in a raid. And on the outside, it’s banter, it’s witty, witty. But it’s a trust exercise.

Absolutely. Given that Teddy does have some room to grow in terms of being a cop, how is the team responding to him? Are they understanding that he needs to find his footing?
NB: No. Nor do I ask for that. I think that would be a false color to give Teddy if they did, because we all have a job to do, despite whatever deficiencies I have in my education of being a police officer. If I’m going to be here, I have to learn pretty fucking fast.

That’s fair. It’s a small team, they need to know they can depend on each other.
NB: Exactly. They don’t have the luxury of night school for Teddy.

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IRONSIDE airs Wednesdays at 10 PM on NBC.

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