Entertainment
Titus Welliver Reveals What Harry Bosch Would Think of His Crooked Cop in ‘The Westies’
Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for The Westies Episode7.
Summary
The world of The Westies has no clear good guys and bad guys, but instead just a whole lot of people who are trying to survive. While New York City’s violent Irish gang wreaks havoc throughout New York City, FBI Special Agent Birdie Polk (Jessica Frances Dukes) would rather put a stop to their crime operation. She decides to lean on Officer Glenn Keenan (Titus Welliver) and the history he has with Westies leader Eamon Sweeney (J.K. Simmons) to try to further her own agenda, but he gave up on enforcing the law and his own self-respect years ago. If she can remind him of who he was before his morality blurred, maybe they can work together to turn things around.
During this interview with Collider, co-stars Welliver and Dukes discussed why Polk has decided that Keenan is the guy to help her achieve her goals, the complicated relationship Keenan has with his son, why Dukes loves her character, what she’d like to learn about Birdie, and Sweeney’s intense reaction to being humiliated. Welliver also revealed what his last cop character, Harry Bosch, would think of Officer Keenan, and why he’s most excited about when it comes to the upcoming prequel series Bosch: Start of Watch.
FBI Agent Polk Is a Master Manipulator Who Knows Exactly What She’s Doing With Officer Keenan in ‘The Westies’
“She specifically sought him out.”
COLLIDER: Jessica, from the beginning, your character seems to be aware, or at least suspicious, that Keenan is not 100% on the up and up. Is that just intuition on her part? Has she heard things? Do you feel like she fully understands the extent of his corruption?
JESSICA FRANCES DUKES: I think she knows. She specifically sought him out. She needed the right person to infiltrate. This was a time when nobody was talking. Nobody was talking to the Feds. Nobody was talking to the cops. It was unheard of. It was against the rules of the neighborhood. But when you meet somebody so broken, that has so much success in them, there’s that middle line in that character that you can try to reach and grab onto. I think she’s using that middle line as a game. She also has leverage. She knows he has lost so much, and he’s got one more thing that he could lose. And so, she’s a master manipulator. She has created this entire game, and he is a piece in it for her. So, I believe she knows exactly the extent of who he is, and that’s why he’s the perfect person for the job.
I love that she just doesn’t seem fazed by whatever he does. Titus, in Episode 3, Keenan’s son says to him, “The only good cop is a dead cop,” before your character punches him. He’s trying to have this moment with his son that really spirals and ends with violence. How did you feel about that moment?
TITUS WELLIVER: They’re estranged. They’ve been estranged for all these years. And suddenly, he’s thrust back into it, and Birdie is the catalyst for that. When she shows him the photograph of his son with Eddie Breen, who’s Sweeney’s Leftenant, there’s a sudden consciousness. It’s not that he suddenly has this enormous swelling of paternal responsibility, but I think more than anything, we find Keenan as a guy who doesn’t care anymore. He doesn’t care about anything, and least of all, he doesn’t care about him. Suddenly, this magnifying glass is waved over his son. I don’t think that he’s a guy who goes, “Here’s my last chance at redemption.” He just doesn’t want this for his kid.
All that this man understands is the law of the jungle. And so, when he’s disrespected by his son, that is the norm. He puts hands on him because that’s all he knows. There’s a later scene in which he addresses that. We worked very hard on the writing of that scene when he says, “I never should have put hands on you,” and he apologizes. That’s really the glimpse into who Keenan was, at one time. It’s using the relationship with Danny as a catalyst to get that out there because this isn’t a guy who would ever talk about himself. Even when Polk is laying it all out with his dossier in front of him, he’s not responsive to it. It’s almost like he doesn’t even acknowledge it. It’s brutal, but I think it’s very, very real. I saw plenty of kids get tuned up by their parents as a kid. We’re in a very different time period now.
Jessica, I think it would be interesting to see and learn more about what it’s been like for your character in this world, as a woman, and as a Black woman. What do you think it was like for her, coming up and coming into the position that she’s in, in the series?
DUKES: I studied a fabulous woman named Sylvia Mathis, and she was the first Black woman to graduate from the Academy in ‘76. She was a lawyer. She was top of her class. She was smart. And they were like, “You know what? I think you’d be great at the Bureau.” She came in as the first Black woman to graduate successfully and was put right into a task force. And so, playing Birdie allows me to imagine, if she had the opportunities that others had in that time, who would she be and how would she run that room? I get a chance to play that in this, as well as pay homage to every single law enforcement that helped take these families down and bring some sort of order to New York. It’s fun to play power in this role.
If you could have an episode that follows her, would you want it to be a flashback of what she’s experienced in her past, or would you want to know what she does on a day off?
DUKES: I want to know what’s in it for her and I want to know why New York is hers, as well. We see these territories and we see these families that are holding onto something important. I believe she’s protecting her home, just as much as they are, and I would love to see why.
For Titus Welliver, It’s Important That His ‘The Westies’ Character Stays True to the World He’s Living In
“As soon as it goes to violence, he’s immediately activated.”
Titus, what was your reaction to finding out that Keenan was going to have a scene where he gets beaten up by Sweeney’s guys and pissed on by one of them? That was quite an interesting moment that I wasn’t expecting because I just figured they would just leave him there. I didn’t know it would continue that much further. What was your reaction to that moment?
WELLIVER: That’s called great artistic license. That’s not something that was a hallmark of the Westies, but that ultimate act of disrespect and disgrace is really emblematic of that character. Ultimately, that was a big mistake. In that moment, that’s when you see Keenan really spring into action. When he realizes that he’s in trouble, he’s going to take as many of those guys with him as he can. He has the skill set of being a former Force Recon Marine, so he’s very adept at close-quarter hand-to-hand combat and does the best he can, but he’s completely overwhelmed. He takes a savage beating, and then he’s pissed on at the end of that, whether he’s even aware of that.
I’d played that whole idea that he was more or less out of it by the time that guy pisses on him, but he’s heard it or whatever. When it all comes full circle is when that’s unleashed. [Birdie] has that great line when she says, “You took him into custody, but now he’s in a coma.” And Keenan says, “He resisted arrest.” It speaks volumes about what that’s all about. It’s neighborhood stuff, which is great because that’s very true to the nature of who these characters are. It’s betrayal. And then, here’s the comeuppance. It’s like, “I’m not afraid of you.” Keenan doesn’t even blink. As soon as it goes to violence, he’s immediately activated.
What do you think Harry Bosch would think of Glenn Keenan?
WELLIVER: He’s the kind of guy Harry would lock up. He’s a disgrace to the badge. I think that even though they would share the history of both having served well, Bosch would just say, “You’re bent, man. You’re beyond redemption. You’re just a criminal now.” And Harry would lock him up. Harry would not be interested in the psychological or the trauma of his past. He’d be like, “No, this is who you are, and this is where I find you now. I’m not interested in what a great cop you were. You’re not a good guy. You need to be taken off the street.”
Titus Welliver Is Excited To See What Cameron Monaghan Does With the Prequel Series ‘Bosch: Start of Watch’
“[Harry Bosch is] just such a rich, profound character that it’s great. I’m thrilled for him.”
When it comes to the upcoming prequel series, Bosch: Start of Watch, what are you most curious about? How do you feel about a character that you are so deeply connected to being played by someone else? Is that a surreal experience?
WELLIVER: I’m excited because we created the whole Bosch universe, ultimately. They’ve spun Ballard off, and that’s its own thing. It’s an extension of Bosch, but it’s not. Start of Watch is the brainchild of one of our writers, Tom Bernardo, and Cameron Monaghan is a staggeringly talented actor. I’m thrilled for him. I’m excited to see what he does. It’s a tremendous responsibility. I had the responsibility of already taking a character from these globally successful books of Michael Connelly’s, to breathe life into him. And then, you add that onto it and Cameron’s got like the double dose of that. But I know that he’s doing a phenomenal job. All reports back are that he’s great.
This is the OGs of Bosch-land, with Tom Bernardo, and you have Stephen Kay directing, Sharat Raju directing, and Jamie Boscardin and Henrik Bastin producing. It’s a perfect storm. His backstory is very, very interesting. In the way that you see re-releases of shows, this will create a whole different kind of thing where people will go, “Let me watch this chronologically.” Or they’ll start with Start of Watch and then hear about it and go into Bosch. I’m just thrilled because I think the character of Harry Bosch is a gift. He was a gift to me, and he’s a gift to Cameron. The responsibility is there, but it’s just such a rich, profound character that it’s great. I’m thrilled for him.
The Westies is available to stream on MGM+.
- Release Date
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July 12, 2026
- Network
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MGM+
- Showrunner
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Chris Brancato
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