Denis Leary said authenticity to the military is as important as being funny on his new show Going Dutch. Leary plays Army Col. Patrick Quinn, who gets re-assigned to a base in the Netherlands after ranting against the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He and the base’s soldiers engage in comic hijinx, but they’re never making fun of the Army.
“I know we’re supposed to be funny but we’re also supposed to be soldiers,” Leary said. “We’re all dressed that way. Even if we’re just in the hair and makeup trailer, generally we’re in our uniforms. It’s a constant reminder.”
Leary developed the show as executive producer with creator Joel Church-Cooper. Leary said detail is so important to him, he insists on acoutrements the audience will never see.
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“There are certain props the audience will never see that I want my character to have with him,” Leary said. “In this case there was a challenge coin I wanted made that comes from my character’s background, back when he was winning medals in Iraq and Afghanistan. The audience will never see it but my character would have it with him every day.”
In that respect, Going Dutch reminded Leary of his firefighter drama Rescue Me. He and his co-stars played firemen, and couldn’t just fake it.
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“When you put on the bunker gear, even as much training as you’ve done for the part, the day that you put it on and we’re shooting, you better look like a motherf*ckin’ firefighter,” Leary said. “That show we had real firefighters on set.”
Going Dutch films on a real Dutch Army base, so there are constant reminders of the real deal soldiers amongst the actors.
“There’s jet planes, cargo planes, tanks,” Leary said. “It’s usually a vast pretty flat area that’s pretty windy because there’s not buildings around. And there’s real soldiers advising you. Off in the distance they’re really drilling for something. You feel really intimidated.”
Leary said Joel based the show on a real Netherlands base that closed because soldiers were engaging in the country’s legal prostitution and drugs.
“This base was in charge of laundry for the other 32 naval bases and cheese and wine,” Leary said. “They had to shut it down because there was some prostitution and other things being sold on the base. So they shut it down. The base that this is based on now has a bunch of barbed wire and fencing. They built a new base four miles away that now has the same problems.”
Going Dutch concluded its first season on Fox in March and streams on Hulu.
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