Just to Clarify, Sam Waterston Is Not Retiring

Sam Waterston first appeared on Law & Order in 1994, four years into the show’s initial run. He’d already starred in dozens of films and TV shows and theater productions: He’d been in Hamlet, he’d been Prospero and Prince Hal, he’d played Lincoln in Abe Lincoln in Illinois. But Jack McCoy on Law & Order was the role that really stuck. Something about Waterston’s presence helped shift the entire series onto sturdier, more solid ground — the additions of first Jerry Orbach as Detective Lennie Briscoe and then Waterston as district attorney turned Law & Order into the genre-defining show it continued to be for decades. They were opposing forces who nevertheless pulled in the same direction, Waterston’s snappish temper counterbalancing Orbach’s laconic self-possession.

The fifth episode of this season, “Last Dance,� written by Pamela Wechsler and Rick Eid, is designed to serve as Waterston’s last in the franchise, and it’s a testament to the bellicose fervor McCoy possessed from his first introduction. In an effort to bring a tech billionaire to justice despite overwhelming pressure from the mayor to downplay the case, McCoy insists on appearing in the courtroom to question the defendant himself. He gets a conviction, then resigns his position in order to protect the rest of his staff. In the episode’s closing moments, McCoy walks alone in front of the courthouse, gazing at it in farewell.

“Last Dance� is representative of Law & Order’s typical approach to crime-procedural storytelling: The criminal-justice system is not perfect, it suggests, but it is full of individuals who legitimately try their best, and, more often than not, they succeed. And when they don’t, as Waterston says, they make you “want to throw your shoe at the television.� He insists it was the right time to leave, but clarifies he is looking for new roles and hoping to do more theater. “I’m not retiring!� Waterston says. “I don’t want anybody to get the wrong idea!�

How long have you known you’d be leaving Law & Order this season? 
When the show first came back in 2022, I knew I was not going to stay long. Then they designed this fabulous exit! Wonderful. The last day of shooting was on the courtroom set and everybody showed up. Dick Wolf made a surprise appearance. Speeches were made, and they even opened up a pop-up deli called Sam’s Delicatessen for that day. It was a great celebration.

Did you make a speech?
I made a speech. I played Lincoln a long time ago, and I noticed that I had been on Law & Order for longer than Lincoln had lived in Springfield, Illinois. When he left for Washington, D.C., for the beginning of his presidency, he gave an absolutely beautiful speech about having lived there for 25 years. So I quoted from that, and it was by way of saying: If 25 years doesn’t matter, nothing matters.

I’ve been going one year after another for a long time. Very rarely did I ever sign a contract that lasted more than a year. So I didn’t really notice the passage of time, but it adds up.

It’s funny, that sense of time passing in a way you don’t notice reminds me of watching Law & Order, too. The cast changes, characters get older, but part of the appeal is that an episode from 1994 doesn’t feel much different from an episode from 2004 or 2024. 
What we think we want is something new from stories, but in fact what we want from stories is something stable. The first time I ever noticed this was with our kids. We limited what they could watch on TV, but I was egotistical enough that I thought if they were watching something I was in, that was okay. There was a videotaped version of a play I was in, Much Ado About Nothing, and they watched it over and over and over. And they were thoroughly satisfied with the entire experience!

Law & Order understands that the stability of the narrative is part of the attraction. You tune in and you know what you’re going to get: a crime, a courtroom trial, and justice of some kind. Sometimes you’re going to want to throw your shoe at the television set. But I think it answers a real appetite.

There is some element of novelty too, of course, especially with the presence of new guest stars every week. 
We used to say that Law & Order was the Café de la Paix; the expression about that café in Paris was that if you sat there long enough, the whole world passes by. That was kind of the way Law & Order felt. The most extraordinary people!

The one that sticks out the most was Elaine Stritch. She came to set with her wardrobe, it was silk and black, and she hiked up one of those fantastic dancer’s legs on a chair and gave herself an insulin shot for her diabetes, in front of God and everybody. People were not used to seeing that, and for her it was all part of a day’s work.

One thing I love doing every year is looking up how many Oscar nominees have done guest roles on Law & Order. 
Dick Wolf should be given a Tony for how he’s made it possible for actors, especially theater actors, to survive in the city of New York. Episodic TV was dead as a doornail in New York when he came along, and he showed you could do it. Not just TV, but movies were also shunning New York at the time because it was supposedly too expensive. But there’s only one New York, and the only way to see it is to be here.

What did you think when you read the script for your last episode? Had you talked about what McCoy’s farwell story should be? 
Well, I knew I was leaving, and my son and I conspired about a way for me to leave. Rick came to set one day and I said, “We have this idea!� He read it, but he said it wasn’t really what he thought he was going to do. So I thought, Well, it’ll have to be really good to be better than that. And it was!

What was your idea for how McCoy should leave?
I can’t really remember the details, but I do remember it was not anywhere near as heroic an exit. It seemed like it would be good for it to be gritty Law & Order, but in retrospect, no, that was not a good idea.

Wait, did you kill yourself off?
No! It was perfectly respectable. But this, the episode we actually made, was really nice. He did a really nice job, I thank him.

McCoy got to stand up for his principles and then resign to preserve the office’s integrity. 
Exactly. That’s the good stuff.

You’ve played McCoy for so long. What are the distinctive things about him, as a character and a performance? I usually think about the way he points his eyebrows at people to yell at them without actually speaking. 
Well, I was just born with those eyebrows. You try having eyebrows like these and not using them!

He has a short wick, and he has an appetite for conflict. He doesn’t just think he’s right — he knows he’s right and he loves the fight. When I first started doing this, the idea came that he was a merry attack dog, and that stuck. In terms of the longevity of my career as an actor, it was a great blessing. I could make me famous without using me up.

Do people yell things at you on the street? Do they say “DUN DUN�? 
Well, yes, they do. But the thing I remember was the first time: I was walking down 23rd Street, walking to the studio. From across the street someone yelled [with a thick Brooklyn accent], “Hey, Law and Order!� Like that was my name! It’s priceless being part of the city, feeling like you’re the city’s mascot or something. Jerry Orbach and I had the same experiences about that. They made us both New York landmarks. We both felt it and it was fabulous. This is a great city, and for it to say, Okay, you’re one of us — it was very, very nice.

I was just thinking about Jerry Orbach and how incredible he was on this show. 
I’m breaking a Jerry Orbach rule, actually, by leaving a show while it’s still running. I hope the theater gods won’t punish me.

Was that the idea of the rule? That if you leave early, the theater gods won’t smile on you?
No, no, he never said there was punishment involved, but I’m superstitious. I’m just putting it out there.

Is there a specific theater project you’re hoping to do now?
Well, when I was leaving, I thought, I’m not going to think about doing anything for at least six weeks, and then somebody offered me a play. I almost did it. But I didn’t, and it’s good, for the play and for me. You have no idea the space that your work is taking up in your head. There’s the job you’re doing, and there’s also, Oh my God, I’ve got to do something else. Work and career, over and over. It takes up this huge space. That day I wrapped on Law & Order, I felt the strangest thing. There was a piece of my brain that I didn’t even know existed, that was now free.

But Joel Grey and I have been thinking that it would be wonderful to do a play. We’ve been wanting to do On Borrowed Time for a long time. That opened in 1938 — the same year as Our Town, and actually ran for more performances. I’d play the part Lionel Barrymore played, and Joel would direct.

That sounds fantastic — I hope you get to do it! It sounds like the time felt right to leave Law & Order. 
I will miss the people. But I won’t miss … well, who knows. Never say never! But for the moment, this seemed like a good decision. And some people might say it was past time! And you don’t want to wait. Leave them wanting more.