THE ROOKIE Post-Mortem: Deric Augustine on Miles’ Decision, the Emotional Scene with Tim, and His Fandom Love

[Warning: This post contains spoilers from the Tuesday, April 8 episode of THE ROOKIE.]

Miles’ (Deric Augustine) encounter with a former football teammate, A.J., helped solidify his decision to be a cop on the Tuesday, April 8 episode of THE ROOKIE.

After a wild party-turned-set-up led to Miles helping save the day for A.J. (who was betrayed by his friend/assistant, who helped facilitate the home invasion), A.J. offered Miles a cushy job to work for him.

Miles considered it, for a bit, but Tim (Eric Winter) pointed out that the rookie would never fully be in that world—and he was shaping up to be a good cop, too. Miles declined A.J.’s offer and 

Here, Augustine talks with Give Me My Remote about Miles’ decision, filming those stunts, his love for THE ROOKIE fandom, and more.

The scene between Tim and Miles, where Tim admits that Miles can be a good cop, was my favorite of the episode. What can you share about what that sentiment means for Miles?
I think Miles really looks up to Tim a lot. He looks at him as a big brother figure. And I think he wants to mimic the kind of cop Tim is, but using his own individuality. And for Tim to express that he is doing a great job means a lot for Miles.

The fact that Miles works really, really, really hard to be a great cop in LA, coming from not really a particular smaller town—because Sugar Land is right outside of Houston, but LA is huge. And it’s more crime, and there’s crime probably that he has never seen before in Texas, in that particular area. So to get that fulfillment from his T.O., someone he looks up to, looks up to his colleague, his supervisor. And also, I don’t think…[Laughs.] I think Miles sees Tim as a friend, as well. And we see that relationship, how it has grown throughout episode 1 to the current episode. 

So for him to hear that, it fulfills him to let him know that he’s doing a great job, his superior has seconded that, and I think it really makes him feel like he has made the right choice. Not what his friends say, not what his parents say, not what his ex-girlfriend says, but for him, as his own man, I think that really made him feel that he has made the right choice in becoming a cop in LA.

How was it to film the scene with Eric?
Yeah, so I use a lot of substitution. I study with Ivana Chubbuck: I went to drama school, I went to two conservatories in New York; Ivana is the best teacher I’ve had in my life. And we use the substitution [method]. 

For me, I use a lot of my mom and dad as substitutions because my mother and father passed away, unfortunately. So, in that scene, I used the fact that my acting career is flourishing and I was using Tim as my father and I was like, “Hey, Dad, I’m doing really successful in life, and I hope that you’re proud of me.” And for Tim saying that [Miles will be a good cop], for me that meant to me is, “You’re doing a great life. I’m proud of you. You came so far in your career. You came so far as a man. And you’re on the right path in your life.” So that’s substitution-based, how it works in my acting career, in my acting work, and in my craft. So it was deep and it was already emotional for me as an actor because I was substituting that preference in that work and it meant so much to me. So that’s why it’s going to portray well on-screen.

How much closure does Miles have with his football career now that he got to actively choose to be a cop?
Most definitely. I think Miles, he’s closed that door, and I think he wants—for me, there’s no Plan Bs in life, you have to focus on Plan A. Because if you give any type of energy to Plan B, you take away from Plan A. So I think Miles is like, “My Plan A now is being a great cop. I want to do the best and be the best as I can be as a police officer in LA.” So I think he closed that door as being a potential NFL story.

And we’ll see that in one of the later episodes. Something comes up, and I was like, “No, I’m a cop now. I don’t play football no more.” That’s a little tease for you guys. So, yeah, I think Miles has fully closed that door and committed one hundred percent [to] being a cop.

You got to do some badass fight sequences, too. How much did you actually get to do, stunt-wise, and what was it like filming that?
I did all that. I kind of tell our stunt coordinator, who’s amazing—he’s been up for a couple Emmys for being a stunt coordinator on THE ROOKIE—and the directors and the showrunner, “Hey, I’m an athletic guy. I actually used to play football in college.” Which relates so much to Miles. And I like doing my own stunts. 

So when I read the episode, [I was] like, “Hey, I want to do my own stunts.” And they allowed me [to]…The pool scene? Man, we filmed, it was me and the actor who plays the bad guy in this episode, we were really filming that. And we coordinated, and we just went for it. And it came out very, very well. And by the end of the day, we were tired. We were exhausted. The water was stinging my eyes. I have very sensitive eyes, but it turned out really well.

You also seem to really be embracing the fans on social media. What has that experience been like?
I love our fans. I love our fans so much. I try to interact with them on Twitter as much as possible, but I got to watch myself because I’m like, “Oh, I just spent an hour on Twitter.” [Laughs.]. I love finding out their names [and] say, “Hey, so and so. Thank you so much for watching the show.” 

I want to build an authentic personal relationship with our fans. And I love them so much because they’re the reason why our show gets the type of viewership we get, gets the type of success we get, gets the type of love we get, and they fall in love with our characters. And that’s why I put so much heart into making Miles this great character, because through my acting work, I study really hard and I work really hard, and I want that to be portrayed on film and on TV. And I hope my fans and THE ROOKIE fans are falling in love with Miles, like I have fallen in love with him. And how I, honestly, genuinely, fell in love with our fans.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

THE ROOKIE, Tuesdays, 9/8c, ABC

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