To say The Rookie Season 6 wasn’t an easy one for Tim Bradford (Eric Winter) would be an understatement, but he certainly comes out of it in a better place.
Not only did Tim get a blast from his past, the fallout of which included him breaking up with Lucy (Melissa O’Neil), but his time at Metro was cut short as well (also as a result of the aforementioned history). He’s back at patrol, but as the actor tells us, it’s not like he doesn’t enjoy that work.
Below, Winter takes a look back at Tim’s journey in Season 6 and shares his hopes for the future. Plus, watch what he had to say about Chenford here.
What do you know about what next season holds for Tim?
Eric Winter: I don’t know a whole lot. I do know Tim is going to be back in his good old-fashioned training officer style, doing what fans I think loved early on and the way that Bradford does it with new rookies, and I think that’ll be very fun. I’m excited to get back in the field in that sort of role as a true training officer, not just to partner with Aaron [Tru Valentino] or with Lucy or whoever, but he’s out there to try to train and make the next generation of police better. So I think that’s going to be exciting to see him out there in that element.
Tim did finally go to therapy this season, and he tells Lucy that Blair (Danielle Campbell) opened the door on some stuff he didn’t know was in there. How is he feeling about therapy after everything that went down when he actually did give it a try?
I think he’s really positive on it, believe it or not. I think Tim was, as you saw, very closed off to any therapist and that’s ridiculous. I think somebody allowing him to open up—and I credit Lucy for that, giving him the courage to even want to do that, to be better as a person and then trusting a therapist enough to open up and let down the walls from his childhood and his past and everything else. I think he’s enjoyed it. I think it’s probably going to make him a stronger character next season.
Do you think that he still would’ve ended up in therapy at this point if everything hadn’t had happened?
No, I think it took the walls to come crumbling down to get him to that place to possibly accept therapy.
Looking at his journey this season, is there anything he would’ve done differently or do you think that he’s happier being back on patrol than he would’ve been if he stayed at Metro?
I think Tim loves training the next generation, for sure. But obviously, I think a dream gig for him was being in Metro, sergeant in Metro, being on the forefront of the action and catching the baddest of bad guys, and being out there and impacting the community like that. So I think that was the dream gig, although I think he loves the training officer job as well. But I think his main focus was protecting Lucy and Lopez [Alyssa Diaz], not letting them get into trouble, obviously trying to salvage what was left of his career that he could. Whether he did it the wrong way or not, Ray [David Dastmalchian] was not a good guy, so I think in Tim’s mind he’s justifying his actions, but it came at a cost and now that’s why he spiraled so far out of control and has to rebuild.
I love the Tim and Lopez dynamic, and I loved seeing that again this season.
Yeah, absolutely. And I was so glad we circled back to that. Obviously, he was in her wedding and he’s so important to Lopez and they have such a great bond, but there are so many characters and we’re servicing so many stories that sometimes a story gets set aside for too long. And it was great to see that circle back and have Lopez be there for him, have his back, which kept that sort of storytelling alive, which I liked.
Especially in a shortened season, because you only had 10 episodes.
Which is a bummer. Don’t get me started. Don’t get me started on that. [Laughs] Now we’re in midseason for Season 7, so it’ll probably be a little shorter of a season, I’m sure, as well.
I talked to Alexi Hawley and he said he thinks it’s going to be 18 episodes, so that’s still more than this season.
Yeah, 18 is better, for sure, than anything else. I would love to get back to our 22, but let’s see if we can somehow sort that out.
Talk about filming that wild car fight scene.
That was intense. Hats off. I had two insane stunts this season when I fought that giant of a man in the 100th episode, which was outrageous, which was probably to this day the biggest stunt scene I’ve ever done as an actor, for sure, and then this car. When I read that, I was like, “Oh my God, what the heck is Tim doing? This is crazy.” And kudos to Dave and our stunt team, Dave Rowden, our stunt coordinator, is incredible, Emmy nominated, he kicks butt, and what our crew, our stunt crew does, and people that double for me and Lucy, they’re phenomenal. And that stunt, listen, I did a lot of it on the Infinity Stage, but all the real action in the streets, our stunt crew just doing epic work and it was so fun to be on that Infinity Stage and see what that was really like. And then reenacting as if the car’s moving and playing in that sense and fighting inside of a cab of a truck in a tight space was cool. It was sloppy and fun.
So at the end of the season, Monica (Bridget Regan), Oscar (Matthew Glave), and Jason (Steve Kazee) are also out there. Who is Tim most worried about?
I’ll be curious to see where we pick up because if we even address that, where he’s at, where his head’s at, but I’m sure just the greater threat of what Monica knows, it’s a big deal. She knows a lot of information on a lot of people and she’s dangerous and more calculated.
Do you think Tim is kind of the healthiest he’s been mentally at the end of this season?
I think he’s getting there. I think Tim lived a life of sweeping a lot of things under the rug. I think that’s how Tim dealt with his pain and his childhood and his ex-wife, and Tim likes to sort of sweep things under and move on. And I think finally this season, you saw a culmination of everything sort of, even though it was one incident, but all that emotion coming to the forefront about, “Man, I’ve been doing exactly that, sweeping things under the rug, lying to myself. I’m not this good of a person. I’m not the best version of myself.” So I think he’s getting there. I think we’re seeing him at the end of the season very humbled and ready to rebuild.
What would surprise the Tim of Season 1 the most about who he is now?
How much softer he is. Just even if it’s letting more smiles out. I think we’re definitely seeing Tim smile a lot more than we ever saw in the first two to three seasons. So the second half of this journey of our series, Tim has definitely come out of the grumpy shell quite a bit, and he’s showing that he can have some fun and let some of his other colleagues in, not just Lopez, right? He’s closer with Nolan [Nathan Fillion], everybody else. I think you’re seeing that more personable side of him. And the old Tim would be very shocked.
Just the Tim and Nolan relationship, that itself would shock him.
A hundred percent. A hundred percent.
What were your favorite moments from this season, whether to film or just something you were glad was included from a story perspective? You’ve been talking about the therapy…
Yeah. I loved the arc for Tim right in the middle. I really loved getting into his past. That was incredibly fun to explore because there’s been so much character development around Tim over the seasons and it’s always jumping into his past, right? It’s always jumping into his past, which I love learning more about him all the time, and I don’t even know what’s coming. And I see the script and I’m like, “Oh, wow, Tim, you did that.” You know what I mean? I enjoy that aspect for sure. And I would say that with the fights… The fight was epic. That was really fun, I was very proud of how that turned out, how it cut together. I did most of it except for being thrown everywhere. I did everything else, so I was pretty proud of that.
Yeah, Tim’s gotten beat up this season physically.
Definitely.
Do you want to see more of that next season or do you think he needs a bit of a break?
Tim could probably use a little bit of a break because he did get his butt whooped a lot. But it’s fun to play as an actor. It’s always fun, but I think Tim’s probably exhausted.
