Missy Peregrym, who got her big break in acting with the popular 2006 movie Stick It, landed her first lead role in a television show with 2010 Canadian cop drama Rookie Blue. Peregrym played brand-new cop Andy McNally, among an ensemble cast of other rookies. The show ran for six seasons and followed the rookies through the ranks of the police force as they learned and grew as officers and people. In addition to weekly cases, Rookie Blue focused significantly on Andy’s complicated relationship with Detective Sam Swarek (played by Ben Bass) and the pair was a fan-favorite couple.
After Rookie Blue ended its run in 2016, Peregrym took a few years off from acting in a lead role, instead guest-starring on several shows until she found a one that felt like the right fit to dedicate the next chunk of her life to. She found what she was looking for when Dick Wolf, the creator of the Law & Order and One Chicago franchises, offered her the lead role in his 2018 show FBI. Peregrym was cast as FBI Special Agent Maggie Bell, who is part of an elite unit of federal agents in New York City that take on major criminal cases ranging from sex trafficking rings to terrorist attacks. FBI has been so successful that it has already spawned two spin-offs, FBI: Most Wanted and FBI: International.
Though Peregrym has played various types of characters throughout her career, it seems that portraying law enforcement officers suits the actress quite well. Still, there are many differences between the world of Rookie Blue and FBI that she has had to contend with; including the structure, the characters, and the scope—not to mention, a physical move from Canada to NYC.
Due to Peregrym’s pregnancy with her second child, she was temporarily written off of FBI Season 4 in 2022, but is contracted for at least two more seasons with the show upon her return from maternity leave. While we eagerly wait for Special Agent Maggie Bell to come back for some epic bad guy take-downs, let’s explore how Missy Peregrym has made the transition from brand-new beat cop on Rookie Blue to a hardcore federal agent on FBI.
Returning to a Procedural
ABC
Being so dedicated to a role that requires as much emotional weight as playing a police officer does, can take its toll on an actor. Missy Peregrym had said publicly on multiple occasions that she would never do another procedural after Rookie Blue ended its run in 2016, explaining that after leaving that role she had to purge her body from the intense emotions she had had to embody on the show.
It wasn’t only the physical and emotional toll Peregrym was trying to avoid by not acting in a cop drama again, but also because the six years she spent portraying Andy McNally meant so much to her. In an interview with TVLine, she said, “I loved Rookie Blue. I loved working on that show. I loved the character I played, and I never wanted to do anything like it again, because it was so important to me.” The project offered would have to be a big opportunity for Peregrym to warrant returning to a law enforcement role, but a Dick Wolf procedural has proven worthy. She said, “It was a huge decision to do this again . . . I just knew that this was not the thing to say no to.”
The fact that FBI has already become franchised shows its potential for longevity, along with Peregrym herself—not unlike Mariska Haritay’s role on Law & Order: SVU that has brought attention to issues of sexual violence againt women to the mainstream for the past 23 years. Peregrym told Variety, “If we can do something that really impacts people for the greater good with the show, and outside of that, there’s nothing else I would rather be a part of.”
Unsure Rookie to Skilled Agent
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Portraying Andy McNally on Rookie Blue was draining for Missy Peregrym because the nature of the character was so wide-eyed and naive to the job, that it took an emotional toll to embody all of her anxiety. However, the experience and confidence that is integral to Maggie Bell’s character on FBI means that the actress doesn’t have to carry the same heaviness she did in her previous role. Peregrym explained to TVLine that both because Maggie isn’t a rookie or as expressive as a person as Andy was, she doesn’t have to be as involved in the emotional aspect of the character, which makes the job easier.
Not only is Maggie more adept at handling intense situations than Andy was, but she’s also older, wiser, and more mature; thus the energy of the character is much less frantic. Instead of watching a new cop who is often making mistakes and still learning, FBI viewers are thrown into the deep end with a character who has already paid her dues and climbed the ladder. Rather than starting from the bottom and earning respect like Andy had to, Maggie is a person her colleagues already admire and look to for insight.
Peregrym now gets to act like she knows what she’s doing—because she does. She said, “I was the rookie and [I] fumble[d] around. I remember the first day on set of Rookie Blue I went to be cool and like put my gun in my holster and I completely missed — like I wasn’t acting, I [didn’t] know what [I was] doing.” However, over the course of the show’s six seasons Peregrym became much more adept at handling firearms and tackling suspects, and she’s been able to transfer those skills to her role on FBI. “Now it’s like I come to set and I know exactly where the gun’s going. Even the vibe of my character, it’s not acting [anymore],” she told ET Canada.
Characters vs. Cases
During the height of Rookie Blue, the show was often compared to the popular medical drama Grey’s Anatomy due to the way it focused on the characters’ personal connections just as much, if not more, than the profession the show is about. Fans of Rookie Blue tuned in to watch Andy and the others navigate their relationships and their lives—the people they arrested and the crimes they solved were just a bonus.
However, the focus of FBI is on high-target crimes and the way in which federal agencies approach their investigations. Missy Peregrym explained to Variety, “We’re dealing with such huge topics and we have 45 minutes to tell this story... There’s just so much to tell, even the technology side of the FBI and how they solve these cases, there are so many different facets that come together, so we want to really be true to that and show how everybody works as a team.”
After four seasons, viewers have learned a bit about the agents’ backstories on FBI—including the mysterious death of Maggie‘s husband and her partner Special Agent OA Zidan’s history working undercover in a terrorist organization—but ultimately the characters are simply the vehicle through which the stories are told, rather than the focus themselves. FBI is a fast-paced, high-intensity procedural for viewers who want to see into the inner workings of the bureau in a way that is as close to reality as possible. It has a more cerebral and thought-provoking narrative as opposed to the slightly soapier Rookie Blue.
A National Impact
FBI has a much bigger reach than Rookie Blue did, especially for American audiences. Rookie Blue was excellent at being exactly what it was: a portrayal of a Toronto-esque Canadian city and the people who keep the streets safe on a daily basis—whether that means working crowd control, catching a local drug dealer, or solving a hit-and-run. However, FBI takes on cases that are not only grander in scale and have a national impact, but are unfortunately easily recognizable to viewers in America—mass shootings, bombings, human trafficking, political unrest, terrorist attacks, and other tragedies that we see play out on the news every day.
The fact that FBI is set in New York City only enhances that tension, especially for Canadian actress Missy Peregrym, who had to make the move herself. She explained to Variety, “New York is one of the highest-targeted places in terms of terrorism just by sheer population and the attraction of doing something here, but a lot of the stuff that we’re dealing with is on a scale that affects the whole country. We’re discussing topics that could happen anywhere and are happening anywhere, and to a certain degree, it feels like it could happen to you.” However, the actress wants to make it clear that FBI is not fear-mongering and that the ultimate goal of the show is to pull back the curtain on the people who are working hard everyday to solve these crimes and often, prevent them from happening at all. Some of the world’s biggest tragedies are ones never heard of because people like Special Agent Maggie Bell managed to stop them. Peregrym added, “We’re dealing in things that cause major fear, but what we’re really all hoping to bring to it is a sense of hope.”
Missy Peregrym has the skill-set, experience, and confidence to bring a monumental Dick Wolf procedural that focuses on high-level crime at a national level to the homes of viewers across America—and she’s only able to do that because of the time she spent learning and paying her dues on a small Canadian cop drama. There’s no telling what this project is setting her up for next.