The role of a New York County District Attorney might have acted as a noticeable one in the life of Sam Waterston, but as all things need to come to an end, Jack McCoy had to bid farewell to the courtroom. This time for good.
In the recent episode of Law & Order, the 83-year-old actor stepped in for a trial, one time before he bid adieu. This time he came back for a murder case of a billionaire, who also happens to have close ties with New York’s mayor.
Sam Waterston and the Last Episode of Law & Order
The episode is called Last Dance and takes you on a journey around a high-profile murder case. But the role of Sam Waterston was as important as his first and all the other ones. He actually convinced the jury and once again served justice to the one in need.
However, he even receives a threat from the Mayor of dropping out of his endorsement during the upcoming elections of New York district attorney.
Although, as per The Man in the Moon actor he had quite a few plans for the script, which he told to The Hollywood Reporter during an interview, the writer and the showrunner Rick Eid “wiped it out.”
Talking to THR, Sam Waterston said “I had ideas, which Rick listened to and entertained, and then he delivered a much more graceful and heroic exit than anything I had ever suggested.”
Further expressing his delights, the Godless actor stated “At first I thought, ‘Well, why isn’t he loving my idea?’ Then I thought, ‘Oh, thank you very much.’”
The way Sam Waterston’s character has been given a send-off in the script by Eid totally respects the time and efforts the Oppenheimer actor gave during his 19 seasons and 405 episodes.
Journey of Sam Waterston with Law & Order
The series had begun in 1990, and the Capricorn One actor has been on the set for his role ever since. In fact, when the series had a revival in 2022, after getting canceled in 2010, The Dropout actor returned to play his role.
For which he stated, “I didn’t want to turn on the TV and not see myself on the show when it came back, but at the same time, I knew I didn’t want to be there again for the long term.”
With appreciating the last script that Rick wrote for him Waterston bid adieu to the show as he knew his “timestamp” and as both Law & Order production and the actor were on the same page about his exit season.
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