-Our next guest is a talented actor
you know from his work in "Burn Notice," "Fargo,"
and his role as Detective Frank Cosgrove
on the hit series "Law & Order."
The season finale airs Thursday night at 8:00 here on NBC.
Let's take a look.
-Did you see anyone in the immediate vicinity?
-No. -No one?
You didn't see anyone running or jumping into a car?
-No. I'm sorry.
I was so focused on the man who got shot.
-How far away were you when you heard the two loud pops?
-I don't know. About 30 yards.
-And you ran toward the sound of the gunshots,
which means you were there five or six seconds
after the shooting. -What's your point?
-My point is, I find it hard to believe you didn't see anybody.
-Hey, come on, Frank.
-I'm just trying to motivate her.
-Okay, okay.
-Please welcome to the show Jeffrey Donovan, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
♪♪
Welcome, Jeffrey! So happy to have you here.
-I am so nervous.
-Yeah, well, I mean, I will say, it's very rare for a first guest
to plug the second guest as much as Sarah did for you.
-Oh, my God, and I'm such a fan of hers.
I was watching, going, "Sarah Silverman
is doing an impression of me doing my character."
-Yeah. -It was very surreal.
I was texting my wife. I said, "I'm so nervous."
She said, "Just go out there, be yourself.
Just be relaxed and boring."
-That's so sweet.
I feel like that's something my wife would say.
This is a very New England-centric show.
Sarah and I from the same hometown in New Hampshire.
What town in Massachusetts are you from?
-A little town called --
Well, to normal people, you say "Amesbury,"
but where I'm from "Amesbry."
-"Amesbry." -Yeah, Amesbury, Massachusetts.
-Gotcha. I know your Twitter handle is WickedpissaJD,
which seems like you're leaning in to being from the --
-Yeah, yeah. I mean, growing up, like,
you know, I had a wicked odd accent.
I got rid of it 'cause of school and acting and things like that.
My brother still has it, actually.
He says something like this, which I'd have to translate.
"The party was really good.
We ran out of beer, so we had to go to the liquor store."
So, he would say,
"Uh, me and Mark got wicked cocked last night.
The pony went dry, so we went on a packie run."
-Oh, yeah. [ Laughter ]
All that, that does make sense to me.
I'm like, "Oh, my native tongue," yeah.
So, your wife -- speaking of your wife, very impressive.
She ran the Boston Marathon, I guess, just last month, right?
Which, you know, it's a big deal and not an easy --
I mean, no marathon is easy, but that one's particularly hard.
-Yeah, they say that's one of the most difficult,
and it's the hardest to get into.
You have to qualify to get into it.
You can't just show up and run it
like the New York City Marathon. -Yeah.
So, it's not a contest, Jeffrey.
-It is. Boston's better.
[ Laughter ]
Yeah, she qualified and then she ran her personal best.
She ran in 3 hours and 17 minutes.
-That is -- Your wife knows how to run, man.
-I'm very proud of her.
-That is a no-foolin' marathon time.
-Then, I thought, "Oh, well, she did something great.
I'm gonna treat myself," which, you know, that's how it works.
So, I don't get back to Boston much.
So, I grew up on steamers, steamed clams.
-Yeah. -We say "steam-uhs."
And so I called a restaurant.
I was like, "Hey, yeah, I want to order some 'steam-uhs.'"
They said, "What?" "Steam-uhs."
Have I lost my Boston accent?
"Steam-uhs, steam-uhs, steam-uhs."
They're like, "Sorry, we don't know what you're saying."
"They're clams.
You put them in a pot, you boil them."
"You mean mussels?"
"No, no." -Oh, my God.
Did you go burn that place down?
[ Laughter ]
-I called like five restaurants.
No one knew what "steam-uhs" were.
-Oh, Boston's changed.
Now, you know, I will say, you did deserve a treat,
because, you know, obviously, your wife is a very fast woman
and she was running, but that's 3 hours and 17 minutes
where you were in charge of four children,
because you have four kids.
-Much harder. -Much harder, yeah.
-Much harder. But they were great.
I kept on telling them, "We're gonna go watch Mom."
And we got down there, I had a nice pass.
NBC was very nice.
They, like, let me be in the bleachers.
And I was sitting there with the four kids,
and there she came running down.
You see these other guys.
You see guys like this, running like this,
going, "Oh, my God, oh, my God."
See my wife going... -Oh, yeah.
-She just runs by like it was --
And then the youngest is a year and a half,
and he's still on mommy milk, so she went right back to work.
-She deserves two medals for that, yeah.
Hey, so, I have to ask,
you know, again, we were talking backstage.
We both have loved this franchise for a long time,
but you've actually appeared two other times
as two different characters on "Law & Order" over the years.
So you have quite a nice trajectory.
-Yeah, I got out of school,
and everyone wanted to be on "Law & Order."
It was a badge of honor.
And so I started off as a dead guy.
-Oh, congrats! -Oh, yeah, yeah.
-So, like, never moved? Never moved a muscle?
-No, yeah, I was dead, but then you had a flashback
on a videotape, so I had a few lines.
-Okay, good.
-And then like 10 years later, I came back as a suspect.
-Uh-huh. -Killed someone.
-Oh! So not just a suspect.
-I was a murderer. -Yeah, okay, great.
-But it was for a good reason. -Oh, interesting.
I'll have to go back and watch that one.
-I was a dad protecting my daughter's --
What's that, her mortal --
-Tell it to the jury.
[ Laughter ]
-And then, yeah, Mr. Wolf called and said,
"You want to play Detective Cosgrove?"
And I dropped the phone, picked it back up,
and I'm so, so grateful.
-Even though you threw a little shade
at the New York City Marathon.
I imagine one of the great things about the show,
and I've asked Anthony about this, as well,
but being out in the streets --
You shoot this show in the streets.
Like, people, it must be great,
New Yorkers getting to watch you do a show like this.
It's been a franchise in the city for so long.
-Yeah, it's been -- The city's been so welcoming.
But it's an amazing thing
to walk down the street with Anthony Anderson.
I mean, I'm vaguely familiar, basically, my whole life.
People usually think that, like,
they went to high school with me.
-Right. -"Did we -- Fourth grade?"
No, but Anthony is like the mayor of the city.
And we walk down, shooting, in the middle of the take,
they'll yell, "Anthony, Anthony!"
He won't break stride.
He'll just be like, "Hey, how you doing?!
What's goin' on?!
I'm shootin' a show!"
[ Laughter ]
-There you go.
And people are gonna listen to Anthony Anderson.
-And what do you got?
-Hey, man, thanks for being here.
Congrats on the show. It's wonderful.
Jeffrey Donovan, everybody.
Season finale of "Law & Order"
airs tomorrow night at 8:00 here on NBC.
We'll be right back with Sleaford Mods.