‘SEAL Team’s David Boreanaz shares why he wants season 7 to be his last
In the final season of Paramount+’s SEAL Team, Special Operations Commander Jason Hayes (David Boreanaz) and the elite Navy SEAL unit BRAVO fight their way out of lockdown and back into combat. Dealing with a traumatic brain injury and a new team member who throws things into disarray and causes some tension is a potentially dangerous distraction when you’re on a dangerous, high-risk mission. At a time when the team needs to pull together more than ever, Jason is also working to prioritize his family so they don’t feel like an afterthought.
In this exclusive interview with Collider, Boreanaz, who also serves as an executive producer, talked about why being a part of SEAL Team was such a humbling experience, what made him decide that Season 7 would be his last as Jason Hayes, what he’s most proud of accomplishing with the series, shaking things up with a new team member, doing some of the most intense action scenes, and the very real possibility that his character might not make it to the end of the season. He also talked about how he’s working on developing a variety of projects and why he’s interested in the possibility of resurrecting Bones, if it ever happens. Collider: Early on in this season, we saw some of the repercussions your character was facing, which was terrifying because it put his life in danger. How will that continue to affect him? What do you hope the storyline teaches viewers about what real service members and veterans go through?
DAVID BORANAZ: Yeah, we definitely went through a lot of trauma with Jason Hayes over a lot of seasons. Eight years just adds to the authenticity that leads to that remarkable outpouring of, “Thank you for shining a light on that darkness. Thank you for saving my life. Thank you for helping me get help.” It was just a huge, humbling experience to be a part of. For us this season, it was a deep dive into how these guys deal with their first murder, how it haunts them, and how they deal with it. It’s something that a lot of them go through a lot, and it causes nightmares and trauma.
I decided to end the show the way I wanted to end the show for the character. It ended for me. I knew that and that’s what I expressed to them. I said, “I’m done, physically and emotionally.” It’s hard to portray those kinds of emotions, day in and day out, when you’re filming them. So from my perspective, as an actor portraying those emotions, I can only imagine what it’s like for people who are actually living it. The help is there, it’s still there, but it takes time. There’s a process to it. There’s a trauma in it. Ultimately, I don’t think it really goes away, but you can understand how to manage it through consistency and discipline. That’s what we wanted to show in the stories of this season. I know, the reality is that it happens. From my character’s perspective, can he do it? I don’t know. He may not do it. He may succumb on the battlefield. Ultimately, he may die on the battlefield. That’s what he had to do.
What are you most excited for fans to see in this final season? You’ve talked about ending it the way you always wanted to end it, but what are you most proud of when it comes to that, because it’s not something you always get the chance to do?
BORANAZ: Yeah, I’m proud of the whole circle of it. I’m proud that I was able to, as a character, look at TBI and PTS, and the welcome and unwelcome of coming back from the mission, the relationships, the indoctrination and the manipulation from the corporate world of the government. We’ve always prided ourselves on not being a political show because we’re not. We have a mission. We have a job. That’s what we do. We don’t look at it any other way. To be able to look at the character, it’s a personal journey to really go through it and feel what it is. We dug below the surface and went deep. This season is going to be the pinnacle of that. We worked really hard to shoot some of these scenes. It was physically demanding, it was mentally demanding, and it definitely shows in epic proportions how we’ve always shot every show, from day one. I’m proud of that, from a producer’s perspective.
This team wasn’t sure what to do with Drew (Beau Knapp), but then he saved his character’s life. How does that shape the relationship going forward?
BORANAZ: They both serve each other in a way that reflects where they’re at. Saving Jason’s life is really aand took that shot. There are so many layers going on in his head, and he’s having trouble with that. This was like, “Boom, let’s go to this next little world. You passed this one little part of its journey, now go deeper.” It’s like, “Thanks for that.” It’s like playing Dungeons & Dragons. They’re like, “Okay, you’ve passed a world now. You’re going into a whole different world. And you survived it.” You don’t know what you’re gonna see when you get down this road for Jason Hayes. Survival is really the key to it, but also healing is the key to it. He may heal, but he may also get killed, which is a strength and a sacrifice on the battlefield. We’re not gonna shy away from that. That ultimately may be due to him.
