Jerry O’Donnell is taking his on-screen cop skills to the streets. The 65-year-old actor, known for Bosch, Mad Men, and The Young and the Restless, has decided to trade scripts for service. He is now training to become a real-life police officer in North Carolina.
Jerry O’Donnell has become a police trainee in North Carolina
O’Donnell has officially been on board with the Asheville Police Department as a trainee, kicking off the grind to become a full-fledged cop.
His journey includes finishing Basic Law Enforcement Training, passing the state exam, and logging months of fieldwork before getting his badge. Talking about it, O’Donnell said he is thankful to still have some capability and sense of purpose to serve.
“I feel blessed and grateful to still have some ability, so you know, that’s like a sense of purpose — to be of service,” O’ Donnell told the Asheville Watchdog.
The actor has also been going full throttle into the tough side of police training. He’s tackling brutal workouts that involve stairwells and parking garages, doing air squats, push-ups, and burpees nonstop.
“When we do PT, we go on these runs in the parking garage — you run up, run down, run the parking garage… 15 air squats, run up another level. Do 50 push-ups, run up another level. Do 50 burpees,” the SEAL Team star shared.
O’Donnell’s transition into police work is backed by real-world experience, including four years in the Army’s 82nd Airborne. His time in the army prepped him both physically and mentally for the grind ahead, but he’s also loving the sense of purpose it brings.
“I always think when you slide into home at the end of your life, you want to be all used up… You know — dirty, scarred up, a little bloody, and spent.”
Even with a Hollywood career spanning decades, O’Donnell has been playing cops and military types for so long that it almost feels like foreshadowing. Since 1991, he’s racked up nearly 50 credits, including gigs on SEAL Team, The Bold and the Beautiful, NYPD Blue, JAG, and NCIS.
Originally reported by Rishabh Shandilya on ComingSoon.
