Mika Amonsen is finally speaking out about the backlash he’s faced since stepping into the role of Sean Reagan. The actor took over the character in CBS’s Boston Blue, replacing Andrew Terraciano, who portrayed Sean throughout Blue Bloods’ long run.
After weeks of viewers watching him in the spinoff, Amonsen is breaking his silence on the wave of online criticism surrounding the recast. “There’s been some negativity, for sure,” he told Us Weekly. “But when I look under those posts that have the negativity, there’s a lot of fans rallying for Sean and people saying that they really enjoyed this character that I’ve created or my version of the character.”
Despite the backlash, he says the support has kept him motivated. “They’re really enjoying the show and they love where it’s going in terms of Sean, and that makes me happy.”
Feeling the Pressure and Honoring What Came Before
Mika admits he felt significant pressure when taking over the beloved role, and he made a point to honor Terraciano’s original portrayal. “I definitely felt a ton of pressure at first. I felt the pressure to respect an actor before me because I wanted to respect Andrew the best I could,” he explained. “There were even certain visual choices that I made that I wanted to keep in terms of hair styling and certain ways of being.”
He approached his preparation thoughtfully and quickly. “When I booked the show, it all happened really fast within about a week. I binge-watched as much as I could. The later seasons helped the most because I wanted to understand who Sean had become toward the end of Blue Bloods: who he was as an adult, and what his relationship with Danny looked like.”
Mika emphasized that his goal was to stay true to the character fans already loved, while still bringing something new. “I wanted to respect Andrew’s portrayal of Sean as much as I could but also add something to my own version. The showrunners, Brandon Sonnier and Brandon Margolis, have given me a lot of freedom to explore that new dynamic with Donnie.”
He found comfort in noticing that he and Terraciano already had similar traits. “Watching Andrew’s performance, I noticed a lot of similarities between us our energy, especially. We’re both pretty upbeat. So I kept that and didn’t feel obligated to change that part of myself, which made it easier to make the role my own.”
A New Sean, A New Chapter
Ultimately, Mika says the series is charting new territory with Sean and Danny’s relationship. “We’re really just exploring what would have been. Of course it’s my own version, but at the same time, we haven’t seen this relationship with Sean and his dad before,” he shared. “He’s coming into this whole new position, because from what I understand, exploring Sean becoming a cop wasn’t something that was on the table before.”
With his thoughtful approach and growing fan support, Amonsen is carving out a new chapter for Sean Reagan
one that pays homage to the past while pushing the character into fresh, uncharted territory.