The family dinner scenes in Blue Bloods are iconic and infamous. It’s no secret that they were “miserable” to film, and many in the cast have divulged their tips about how they got through them. Now, the cast of Boston Blue has to film scenes like this. So, I asked Marcus Scribner how he gets through them, and he told me both his strategy and why he has gotten sick filming these food-heavy scenes.
On Boston Blue, it’s family tradition to gather for Shabbat dinner, and most of the time, the Reagans attend the Silvers’ meal. That means the majority of the cast partakes in these big dinners, and the only regular with prior experience filming them is Donnie Wahlberg. So, I asked Marcus Scribner, who plays Jonah, if he’s picked up any tips from his co-star or developed any of his own as they filmed the show that's airing on the 2026 TV schedule. The answer is he hasn’t; he prefers to just eat the food. However, that comes with a cost, as he explained:
During the scenes, we just eat, like we literally are just eating. Me and Sonequa [Martin-Green] have gotten sick like three different times.
Well, considering how much coverage is required during a dinner scene, they take a long time to film. According to Blue Bloods' Tom Selleck, they could take up to eight hours sometimes. And eating food for that long sounds difficult. So, I see why it made them sick.
However, Scribner was adamant that really eating during these scenes is what he prefers to do. Explaining why that’s the case, the Black-ish star told me:
It's one of my favorite things in movies, for some reason, when I see somebody really enjoying some food, it makes me want to go eat. I'm like, ‘Yeah. Enjoy that.’
So, instead of buttering rolls or pushing his food around, Scribner goes for it. And I totally see why. He did admit that actually eating the food gets “taxing,” however, reacting to a moment in the middle of a bite or truly taking in the dinner makes the scenes set around this table more authentic. To that point, he said:
I just kind of eat, like, there's no tip, no trick. I do favor a protein or a vegetable, because just eating rice over and over or like a potato would just, I think, make me sick. But I try to just eat, and it's definitely taxing. But [it’s] what some of my favorite moments are, and I feel like I'm most natural when I've got a mouth full of food, and I'm trying to say something, because that's real, and that's life.
Well, when you watch Boston Blue’s family scenes, make sure to give Marcus Scribner and Sonequa Martin-Green their props, because they’re really eating that food. However, they’re also in Season 1, and with Season 2 on the way, I’ll be curious to see if they keep this attitude about the dinner scenes.
Remember, Blue Bloods was on for 14 seasons; that’s a lot of family dinners. So, if Boston Blue runs that long, there are a bunch of meals ahead. Will the cast keep eating the food, or will they start developing their own tricks to get through these long shoots? Only time will tell.
Now, to see these family dinners and more, you can catch new episodes of Boston Blue every Friday at 10 p.m. ET on CBS or you can stream them the next day with a Paramount+ subscription.
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