{"id":626930,"date":"2026-09-16T23:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626930\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T23:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T23:40:10","slug":"scott-speedman-on-r-j-decker-s2-a-greys-wedding-felicity-reunion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626930\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Speedman on R.J. Decker S2, a ‘Grey’s’ Wedding, Felicity Reunion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tScott Speedman<\/a> has finally settled into his status as a true leading man. Nearly three decades after breaking out as the brooding Ben Covington on the WB college drama Felicity<\/a> \u2014 and following years of playing second fiddle on shows such as Animal Kingdom and Teacup<\/a> \u2014 the Canadian actor is finally at the top of the call sheet as both the star and executive producer of R.J. Decker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdapted by Elementary creator Rob Doherty from Carl Hiaasen\u2019s novel Double Whammy, the breezy ABC procedural dramedy stars Speedman as the titular sleuth \u2014 a former photojournalist and ex-con reinventing himself as a private investigator in the vibrant underbelly of South Florida. (The first season, which aired last spring, became the network\u2019s most-watched 10 p.m. debut in over five years.)<\/p>\n

\n\tWhereas season one follows R.J. as he attempts to rebuild his life after prison as a private eye, season two digs deeper into what makes the easygoing protagonist tick. At the same time, the latest installment will uncover the mystery surrounding the suspected murder of Victor Ochoa (David Zayas) \u2014 the corrupt politician and father of R.J.\u2019s on-again-off-again love interest, Emi (Jaina Lee Ortiz), whose testimony originally sent R.J. to prison years earlier.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis year, we put an emphasis on getting to know R.J.,\u201d Speedman, who also serves as an executive producer, tells The Hollywood Reporter. Season two will specifically explore how his character\u2019s work impacts his personal life, as well as his \u201cvery complicated\u201d relationship with his father, Reggie (played by new guest star Beau Bridges).<\/p>\n

\n\tCalling in last week from Wilmington, North Carolina \u2014 where he is currently filming the sixth of just seven episodes for R.J. Decker\u2019s second season \u2014 Speedman caught up with THR to discuss his desire to flesh out the personal life of his ex-con-turned-P.I., why he will always make time to return to Grey\u2019s Anatomy, and the current status of a potential Felicity reunion.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat new layers have you found in playing R.J. this time around compared to the first season? How has your understanding of him evolved?<\/p>\n

\n\tThe luxury I\u2019ve always said about doing television \u2014 and [what] I\u2019ve always loved \u2014 is you get to settle into a character as you go. As a performer, it\u2019s a nice thing to be able to do that. In a movie, sometimes you get there and you have four, five, six weeks to do a beginning, middle and end; with television, if you have a bad episode, you get another try. To that point, there are certain rhythms to doing a network procedural like this, but then you get to know the characters, you relax into the characters as you go, and you get to know this backstory.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis year, we put an emphasis on getting to know R.J., his family and his personal life \u2014 how he is in romantic situations and coming out of romantic situations, how his work has affected his personal life, and all those types of things. We have Beau Bridges coming on this year [as R.J.\u2019s father]. We have seven episodes right now to figure out what we\u2019re doing for season two, so the big part was introducing family members and, through that storyline, really feeling how R.J. came to be R.J.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhose idea was it for Beau Bridges to play your onscreen father?<\/p>\n

\n\tThere were names we bandied around, and I didn\u2019t make the decision at all. But being a fan of his, when I heard it was possibly going to be him, I was thrilled about that. He\u2019s an amazing actor, and there was some physical similarity I could see that made sense to me, so I was excited about it on that level as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou mentioned that the arrival of Reggie will reveal new sides of R.J. What kind of relationship, if any, do they have in the present day, and how does that dynamic evolve over the few episodes that you and Beau have already filmed together?<\/p>\n

\n\tThey don\u2019t have any relationship right now, before these episodes start. So they\u2019re estranged; [R.J.] hasn\u2019t seen him in five years or something like that. But what we see with R.J. is, a lot of parents are triggers. We need to see another side \u2014 a familial side \u2014 of R.J. He\u2019s a cool customer in every setting. And then when we see him with his dad, he\u2019s quite amped up; he kind of turns into a teenage son. You just have that dynamic with your parents; you have the same arguments you\u2019ve had your whole life.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo I think how emotional their relationship is comes out pretty quickly,in the first episode. He loves his dad, but the way he comes back into his life and their history, he\u2019s definitely not happy about it at the beginning. He has a very complicated relationship with his dad. There\u2019s a lot of bad blood that, through the episodes we did together, we worked through \u2014 and we\u2019ll see where that takes us.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have spent your entire career being just an actor, but you now have the added designation of being an executive producer for the first time. Some lead actors are actively involved in the development of their shows; others are admittedly given a producer credit as a vanity title. How involved exactly are you behind the scenes as a producer?<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be totally honest with you, not very much. Since the pilot, we have been running and gunning, getting our orders. And when we get whatever the order [of episodes] is, we\u2019re deep in it. They\u2019re jumping into a writers room. They needed me back [for season two] in four weeks in Wilmington, North Carolina, and Florida. I think there\u2019s some real fun parts of that creatively \u2014 you don\u2019t have a lot of time to think or worry. But in terms of my involvement creatively, I trust Rob and Carl so much. I\u2019ve had zero issues with how they\u2019ve creatively gone about this show. I\u2019m just learning what it means to be an executive producer on a show, what kind of space that can create, what kind of input I can really have. But it\u2019s going so well that I haven\u2019t really had to call Rob too many times and say anything at all about the process.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut in your creative conversations with Rob and Carl, have you established any specific guardrails for R.J. as executive producers to ensure that you stay true to what you all initially envisioned for the character? R.J. strikes me as a genuinely good person who made a costly mistake years ago; he has a strong moral compass \u2014 and a propensity to break the rules, mostly for the right reasons.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn certain situations, the threat of going back to jail looms heavily [over R.J.]: \u201cI was in jail for two years last time. I could be in jail for 20 with the wrong move to the wrong person.\u201d With this character, you have to put the boundaries out in terms of [this idea] that character does like to break the rules, go against the grain, be a bit of a rebel and push the boundaries of whatever authority is in front of him, so that can really backfire on him. But we\u2019re just having fun with that. [I\u2019m] not even reminding [the writers] \u2014 it\u2019s just that sometimes we talk about stakes, like, \u201cOkay, if I make a mistake with this FBI agent or whoever, that could really rebound on me and that could be breaking the law in some way.\u201d So that\u2019s always in the background of [creative decisions] for sure.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn season one, you joked that R.J. and Emi skipped the \u201cwill-they-won\u2019t-they\u201d phase of their relationship since they\u2019d already hooked up years before the present-day events of the pilot \u2014 yet their final scene in the premiere, which is set to \u201cOnly You,\u201d is a not-so-subtle nod to their romantic potential. How are you collaborating with Jaina and Rob to navigate their dynamic this season, especially now that these characters crossed that line again late in season one without defining their relationship?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a Rob question and creators\u2019 question [about] their idea for the long-term. If they have a long-term idea, I\u2019m not aware of it right now. I think story dominates everything. Story-wise, it\u2019s helpful to have them as characters not be, for lack of a better way to say it, boyfriend and girlfriend \u2014 like everything\u2019s great, everything\u2019s perfect, and now we\u2019re going to have a happier relationship while solving crimes. For whatever reason, it\u2019s not the DNA of our show, and it makes more sense for us to be split up \u2014 and not be at each other\u2019s throats or anything like that, but to be estranged in a way, and then coming back into each other\u2019s lives in certain ways.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019ve dealt with it as much as we can, but, again, a lot of making television like this is running, gunning, and figuring it out as we go and seeing what works and what doesn\u2019t work. Even though we\u2019re going into season two, it feels very much like the beginning of our show. We\u2019re still figuring out what stories work, which characters work with what characters, and how they work and all that, so we\u2019re still discovering [their relationship].<\/p>\n

\n\tYou are notably still balancing your starring role on R.J. Decker with your recurring role as Dr. Nick Marsh, the now-fianc\u00e9 of Meredith Grey<\/a> (Ellen Pompeo<\/a>), on Grey\u2019s Anatomy. How much will we see of you on Grey\u2019s this season? Have you filmed anything yet?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I think their season\u2019s starting right now. They\u2019re doing a certain number of episodes. I won\u2019t give away how many they\u2019re doing, but they\u2019re doing a certain number of episodes too. And, yeah, I\u2019ll be doing something this season. I just don\u2019t know to what degree just yet. With [showrunner] Meg [Marinis], <\/a>I always check in about when they want me to do stuff and what they\u2019re thinking. I\u2019ve been so honestly so busy with this that I don\u2019t have time to do much of anything else.<\/p>\n

\n\tSince both R.J. and Grey\u2019s are produced by the same studio and network, I\u2019d imagine that it is a little easier to balance both shows. Are you simply carving out time in your R.J. schedule and filming Grey\u2019s in blocks like Ellen does now?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, basically. I\u2019m finishing here, and we\u2019re done at the end of September. I\u2019ll have some free time. It\u2019s just the way the schedules work. If it works, it works \u2014 and it will work this year. So, hopefully, we get to continue doing [R.J. Decker], but we\u2019ll see what happens.<\/p>\n

\n\tWas there a part of you that was concerned that Nick wouldn\u2019t make it out of the bridge collapse at the end of last season alive?<\/p>\n

\n\tNo, I wasn\u2019t concerned at all because I knew when they told me I wasn\u2019t [dying]<\/a>. (Laughs.) But I feel and I\u2019ve always felt so lucky to be a part of that show. Look, they just had to cut loose some really important characters [Drs. Owen Hunt and Teddy Altman, played by Kevin McKidd<\/a> and Kim Raver<\/a>], the series regulars that have been on there for 15 years. They\u2019re beloved, beloved characters [whose] stories reached the end of the line.<\/p>\n

\n\tI wouldn\u2019t have R.J. Decker without Grey\u2019s Anatomy, without Ellen. They had a lot to do with my resurgence on television, and I\u2019m very, very lucky and feel very indebted to them. I\u2019m very involved with what happens [on R.J.]; on that show. I just sort of go in and I have a great time. I love working with those people, and whatever they need from me, I try to give them. If they wanted to kill me off, if they needed to kill me off, that\u2019s great. I don\u2019t want to die! I\u2019m just saying that\u2019s what would happen.<\/p>\n

\n\tI was particularly taken aback by Meredith\u2019s decision to propose to Nick after he woke up from his life-saving surgery following the bridge collapse. How did you think about playing Nick\u2019s reaction to her proposal?<\/p>\n

\n\tMan, I don\u2019t even know. I try not to judge those [emotions] before they happen. I think it was a natural thing. To me, having done [a proposal] before myself, that emotion felt very easy and natural and not planned from both of us. My reaction was very in line with her, with where she was coming from. I didn\u2019t even think of it as a marriage proposal, even though I know that\u2019s how it\u2019s read [to the viewer] and that\u2019s what it is. It was more of them coming together at the same time to say, \u201cHey, I almost lost you. I don\u2019t want to lose you. Let\u2019s get married,\u201d kind of thing. That\u2019s how that read to me, but I should not have been as naive as I am still in this late stage about how it would be taken on a show like Grey\u2019s Anatomy.<\/p>\n

\n\tWait, did you read that proposal scene and not think it was a proposal? Or could you immediately tell that it was a proposal?<\/p>\n

\n\tYeah, I guess I understood it. It just didn\u2019t seem like a big \u201cevent\u201d in that way. I think I was just coming out of surgery or whatever, just coming out of the haze that I was in from the accident. So [the proposal] didn\u2019t take me aback or anything, but it wasn\u2019t like this [proposal] on a beach next to an ocean. It wasn\u2019t this big, big, big to-do.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo, do you think Nick was always ready to take that next step and was merely waiting for Meredith to get there on her own?<\/p>\n

\n\tOh yeah, she just beat him to the punch.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you think that we will get Meredith and Nick\u2019s wedding soon? If so, how soon?<\/p>\n

\n\tI mean this when I say it: I don\u2019t know. I think it would happen at some point, but who knows if it\u2019s this season or next season or whatever? I\u2019m the wrong person to ask about that.<\/p>\n

\n\tTo be fair, I don\u2019t think Meredith has ever been a traditional wedding kind of gal. She and Nick may just go to city hall and get married on a whim. She\u2019s done it before with Derek!<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Yeah, we\u2019ll see!<\/p>\n

\n\tSince you have dipped in and out of the fictional O.R. for the last five years, has the medical jargon gotten any easier for you on Grey\u2019s?<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) I enjoy that part of it. I think every job I\u2019ve ever done, especially lately, involves something you\u2019re learning and picking up and trying to figure out, and that was [a new skill] for sure. Getting to do that and [seeing] how serious they take it and trying to do a good job with that was a great tool for me to figure out.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn recent years, you and your former Felicity co-stars have all expressed an interest in revisiting the show in some capacity. In fact, Keri Russell has even revealed that Amanda Foreman, who played her roommate Meghan, has a pitch for where your characters would be in middle age. With the 30-year anniversary approaching in a couple of years, has there been any movement toward some kind of revival or continuation of Felicity?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t think there has, to be totally honest with you. I would just love any excuse to get to hang out with those people, but I think the powers that be are just such busy people. It\u2019s such a tricky thing. Obviously, I think if all of us could push a button and do something \u2014 whether it\u2019s a 90-minute movie for Netflix, or six episodes for whoever \u2014 we\u2019d all be game to do it. It\u2019d be so fun to get to hang out with those people at the age we are now. But, yeah, I don\u2019t know. Keri\u2019s schedule\u2019s crazy. My schedule\u2019s crazy. We all have family and kids. Scott [Foley], J.J. [Abrams] and Matt [Reeves] are pretty busy guys, as you know.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you think your and Keri\u2019s characters, Ben and Felicity, are still together today?<\/p>\n

\n\tWho knows? Whatever\u2019s better for the story. I think it\u2019s probably better if they\u2019re not together, like something went wrong.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo you\u2019re suggesting that they may have drifted apart or something else went awry with their relationship \u2014<\/p>\n

\n\tExactly \u2014 and some event or something would bring us back together in the same proximity. Who knows what could be?<\/p>\n

\n\tWouldn\u2019t Felicity and Ben have college-aged children by now? That could be the event!<\/p>\n

\n\t(Laughs.) Hey, they could! They could! I don\u2019t, but some of [the other Felicity alums] do.<\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tR.J. Decker airs Tuesdays at 10\/9c on ABC, while Grey\u2019s Anatomy season 23 premieres Thursdays at 10\/9c on ABC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Speedman has finally settled into his status as a true leading man. Nearly three decades after breaking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,44449,93,266260,12317,61,60,155760,37061],"class_list":["post-626930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-ellen-pompeo","tag-entertainment","tag-felicity","tag-greys-anatomy","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-r-j-decker","tag-scott-speedman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}