How David Ramsey Manages Double Duty on Arrow and Blue Bloods 

How David Ramsey Manages Double Duty on Arrow and Blue Bloods

), but he’s found the most fulfillment—and more than a few fans—impersonating a superhero on The CW’s

concludes on Friday, May 6, and we thought we’d ask the Detroit native how he does it all, how he has it all and what was with that shocking death on

several times a year when you have a fulltime job on as Oliver Queen’s right-hand man John Diggle on

It\'s not easy traveling coast to coast, and now I have a five-year-old child. But Mayor Poole and John Diggle are both characters I love. With Poole, you’re playing the mayor of New York and you get to go toe-to-toe with Tom Selleck!

It’s one of the best-written shows on television, especially the weekly dinner scene. What’s special about the Poole/Frank Reagan [Selleck] scenes is that you have a young liberal black mayor and an older white conservative police commissioner, and most times, both of them are right. They’re just on either side. It’s great how these stories are told and it’s well worth the trip, even though it’s difficult logistically.

Cast on What Makes the Show Tick After Six Seasons

For the most part, it’s just Tom and me and we shoot all of our scenes that would be editorially in different parts of the episode, in one long day. We’ll start at 6:00 in the morning, get done no earlier than 8:00 at night.

and that helped you win the role Diggle? Is that a reason that he lets you out to do the CBS show?

to thanks for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that Greg Berlanti saw me there first. So much work has come from my stint on

wasn’t one of them. That’s a direct reflection of Greg respecting my work on

and I wanted to be in New York, but there was no place for me to be a regular at the time in terms of salary and other things going on with the production, so Greg said, “If these guys aren’t willing to pull the trigger, we’d like you to come over here to play a superhero.” So I jumped at it. Luckily, both Greg and

executive producer Kevin Wade wanted me to stay on

That decision seems to have worked out pretty well, no?

All I can say is "Pinch me, please!" Can I be any luckier? I’m on two hit shows. On Friday,

now going into its fifth season, doing very strong and second on The CW. I’m waiting to wake up. This is awesome for me.

Poole was shot and paralyzed in the 2013 season finale. You’ve had to play the role since then in a wheelchair. Has it been a challenge?

An interesting dynamic came out of the wheelchair that we didn’t expect. It wasn’t thought of as long lasting story, but once Poole was in the chair, there were some real connections between the commissioner and the mayor. However, we might be reaching the end of that. There has been discussions as to whether he’ll remain in the wheelchair for the duration. We’ll see where that goes.

Is today’s undercurrent of racial distrust a subtext between Reagan and Poole?

I think so, just by virtue of who they are and their perspectives. I don’t think either consciously wants to say, ”Hey, I’m on one side and you’re on the other. You just don’t understand.” The writers don’t shy away from those perspectives, but both characters love their city, they love their families and they’re trying to do the best for them both.

In this year\'s finale a video is released that seems to show a white cop killing a young Hispanic man while he was surrendering. Do the mayor and the commissioner see in different ways?

They do. But even though they have different ideologies, they have to find a way to work together. I see how these two men have to accommodate each other as a larger picture in terms of the democratic process. There is respect there, which I think is just a great message in this political climate.

Team Arrow\'s founding members, Stephen Amell and Ramsey

After months of flash forwarding to a major character\'s death,

Did you ever think it was Diggle in that grave? When did you find out it who it was?

I found out several months ago with the rest of the cast that it was the Black Canary [Katie Cassidy] and no one else. But yes, I was worried liked every cast member. We all knew at the beginning of the season that there would be someone dead. So this was the best behaved cast you’ve ever seen in your life. To be honest, I really thought it would either be me or Willa Holland who plays Thea Queen. I never thought it would be the Black Canary, because I thought that in that community she’s such an iconic character and to make that bold a move and kill her would be devastating to the family, and it was.

At least on social media, it didn’t seem that Diggle would have been a popular choice to kill off. They wouldn’t have been happy about that.

Neither would I. I would be in New York begging for a job. Make the mayor a regular! Make the mayor a regular!

season finale airs Friday, May 6, 10/9c, CBS.

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