CTV Canada

No Room For Peace Or Calm: Flashpoint’s Series Finale ‘Outrageous And Crazy,’ Says Colantoni

by: Lindsay Zier-Vogel

Date: 12/6/2012

When Enrico Colantoni, who plays Sgt. Greg Parker, read the last “Flashpoint” script, he had no idea what to expect.

“Where do you go when you’ve been operating at a nine or 10 out of 10 for a whole season?” he asks on the last few days of shooting the hit series.

“I lobbied for the whole team to just get annihilated and then it’s a definitive ending, but apparently no one wants to end a show like that,” he jokes.

In the first episode of the two-part finale, an explosive package is planted at a 911 call centre and Team One soon realizes they’ve come across the most chilling adversary they’ve ever faced – a brilliant serial bomber who takes an entire city hostage.

“For the first time, my character really has to go outside of his comfort zone,” Colantoni says. “In these last two episodes , there’s no room for peace, there’s no room for calm. There’s no room for stepping back. There’s only being ahead of the situation and living in the solution of it.

“It’s so outrageous and so crazy.”

Though Sgt. Parker is as stoic as ever on the show, Colantoni starts to break down when he talks about the final few days of shooting the show.

“It’s exhausting,” he says. “After five seasons, it really becomes the best and the worst of family life. I know that I’m going to see everyone again, but we’re tired of saying goodbye and we’re tired of dealing with death and tired of saving lives.”

“We’re still breaking down doors and firing at people and getting shot at,” he says and admits, “I’m a little tired. I’m ready to do a comedy, something funny, now,” he laughs.

He reveals that in the last few days of shooting the show, he’s started to grieve giving up the character of Parker. 

“There’s a lot of weeping,” he says, fighting tears. “There’s a lot of sleeping and a lot of phone calls (to other cast members), saying ‘Hey, how’s it going?’

“Hugh and I are already on to our next project, writing and directing. We’re joined at the hip.”

Colantoni remains tight-lipped about what will happen over the final two episodes, but he does reveal that something traumatic happens. “It’s something that affects the whole team and changes the team as we know it.

“The team will never be the same.”

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