ABOVE: Watch Diego Klattenhoff on Global’s The Morning Show.
TORONTO — Diego Klattenhoff believes there’s a simple reason The Blacklist is one of the most exciting shows on television: money.
“They spare no expense to make the show as good as it can be,” said Klattenhoff, who stars as FBI agent Donald Ressler on the hit series.
“It’s a very ambitious show but it shows in the final product.”
Klattenhoff, a 34-year-old native of Nova Scotia, told Global News this week each episode takes 10 days to shoot — more than most series. He heaped praise on the creative team behind the scenes.
“These people are really refining the ideas of the show, expanding on the mythology of this universe that they created, and adding more wrinkles and layers,” he said.
“It’s getting better and better.”
Klattenhoff said he has very little input in his character, who has been battling a prescription pill addiction this season.
“You can weigh in on things but you kind of trust that they have your best interests in mind and that they have their own plan and they see much further down the road,” he said of the show’s writers.
“You may not like certain things and you may second guess it but tough s***.”
Klattenhoff, who got into acting after giving up on his dream of playing pro baseball, said he’s having a blast.
“It’s a great job where you can get put into these situations that you would never be in unless you were in some extreme organization,” he said.
Klattenhoff also gets to share the screen with James Spader, who plays Raymond “Red” Reddington.
“James is like a savant without being a nutjob,” he said. “He’s about as close to a genius as you can get in this world. It’s a huge privilege to be part of this process with somebody who’s at the top of the game.”
Klattenhoff, who starred on Homeland and in made-in-Toronto movies like Mean Girls and Pacific Rim, said he is starting to get recognized more thanks to the popularity of The Blacklist.
“People are respectful,” he said.
“Diego is a very, very polite man,” Klattenhoff’s co-star Megan Boone told Global News in June. “The things that people are drawn to — the good nature, wanting to be good and right and all that stuff — that’s in Diego inherently.
“Maybe that’s a Canadianism, I don’t know. Maybe that’s why all the ladies are in love with Diego… because he’s Canadian.”
Klattenhoff said he doesn’t get back to his native country as often as he would like.
“I’d like to get back home to Nova Scotia more but thankfully with technology you can call and text and FaceTime,” he said.
“But physically being in Toronto or Nova Scotia… there’s nothing like it.”
The fall finale of The Blacklist airs Nov. 10 on Global and Klattenhoff hopes folks who have never seen the show will use the break to go back and get caught up on streaming services like shomi.
“It’s the type of show that’s perfect for shomi,” he said, “because fans can get the show in one place and gorge themselves silly on it.”
shomi is partly owned by the parent company of Global News.
BELOW: Watch Diego Klattenhoff on Global Toronto’s News at Noon.
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