Shemar Moore Revealed How Being a Father Affected His Role in ‘S.W.A.T.’
Actor Shemar Moore, like many of his fans, thought S.W.A.T.’s cancellation was a mistake. Even though the series ran for eight seasons, there were a few new twists audiences were just finding out about Moore’s character Daniel ‘Hondo’ Harrelson. A couple of years before the show’s last season, Hondo had gotten married and would see himself becoming a family man. This allowed Moore to play with a softer side of the character that his own experience as a father would help contribute to.
Being a father brought Shemar Moore closer to Hondo
Moore became a first time parent when his ex-girlfriend Jesiree Dizon gave birth to their daughter Frankie on January, 2023. Ever since then, the Criminal Minds alum has been gushing about the joys of fatherhood. Speaking on The Jennifer Hudson Show, Moore confided that he was happier than he’d ever been when Frankie came into his life. His newborn even came with a new sense of purpose that he’d been missing since his mom died.
“My mama was my everything,” Moore said. “I lived my whole life to make her proud and when she left, I was lost.”
“I was in a place of so what, like what does it all mean and why am I doing this. And then little Frankie came along and that’s what it’s all about right there,” he added.
But becoming a father also had an interesting side effect on Moore’s S.W.A.T. role. Hondo also became a father after marrying his longtime love interest Nichelle Carmichael. Moore asserted that this gave Hondo even more depth for him to tap into.
“I didn’t want to do the whole Hallmark, beautiful marriage thing because I felt like that would take time away from where we could just be running and gunning. But we still touch on that Hondo is a married man, a family man. It’s nice to see the softer edges of Hondo because he’s such a bada**,” Moore said in an interview with Good Housekeeping.
And with Moore also becoming a new father, he now had a lot of experience to pull from to play a first time dad on-screen as well.
“It’s been nice to kind of incorporate a little bit of me personally into my character,” Moore said. “For Hondo to have a family, have a baby… it was literally [at] the same time. I am a year in being a Papa, so it’s easy for me to play it. It’s because I’m experiencing it in real life.”
Shemar Moore shared how his daughter will affect the rest of his career
Moore gave insight into how fast his daughter is growing when he told People she was already taking her first steps.
“She’s walking,” Moore said. “She waited for me to get off of work. I get the announcement that S.W.A.T. is coming back for season 8 and 22 episodes and literally the next day, she walked 10 steps. Now she’s waddling all over the house.”
Soon, Frankie will be old enough to watch some of her father’s own television shows and movies. But as for right now, Moore is going to be very selective with the kinds of stories he tells his daughter.
“I don’t know if she can watch all this bang bang stuff,” he said.
“I’m excited to just try to show her my story, and herm other’s story. We’re excited to teach her that she can be anything she wants to be and teach her that basic goodness,” he added.
But Moore joked that he might be more likely to do projects that are kid-friendly enough to show Frankie.
“She can’t watch everything, but who knows? I did a spot in Sonic the Hedgehog 2, so maybe with the future of my career, I’ll make sure to do some jobs that Frankie can watch,” he said.
But if it was up to him, Frankie wouldn’t be too concerned with her father’s Hollywood life at all.
“I don’t want her to get caught up in the hype or the fame of Hollywood. I don’t like to call myself famous or a star, but I know that I’m known. I don’t toot my own horn, but I do want her to be proud of her daddy,” he said.
