‘Shades of Blue’ Star Jennifer Lopez Teases ‘Tragic’ Series Finale

Jennifer Lopez will be saying goodbye to Shades of Blue and Harlee Santos during Sunday’s series finale.

The singer and actress has been playing the morally ambiguous police detective for three seasons and recently teased the finale as a “tragic” event.

“It’s bittersweet, because it was such a hard role and such a demanding project for me. It took up so much of my time. And in that sense, I knew we were ready to move to the next chapter,” she told Entertainment Weekly of the upcoming series finale, which is set to drop three seasons of the Adi Hasak-created NBC program which comes after Special Agent Robert Stahl’s death-by-Harlee’s-bullet.

“But, I still fell in love with the cast, the characters, and the story, and [I loved] being able to play in Harlee’s world for that much time every year for the past three years.”

The show has been filled with tension as Harlee — a detective and single mother — navigates the streets of New York City alongside the members of her shady team led by Ray Liotta’s Matt Wozniak, a demanding private life and quite a few personal demons.

The show comes to a head in the final episode which finds Harlee testifying about systemic police corruption.

For Lopez, Harlee’s flaws inspired her to dig deeper into the emotional turmoil as a performer.

“Something happens with certain characters you play. They kind of just permeate into your feelings, your fiber, and your soul, and I felt like I got to explore a different side of myself with Harlee: A tougher side, a more forgiving side, and a more tortured side that I have never really tapped into,” Lopez told the outlet. “She helped me grow in so many ways, helped me become more independent; She was so independent, and she had such a strong sense of self and being. Even within all the chaos and trouble, she was always kind of walking this tightrope of morals and ethics. It was a beautiful journey.”

Lopez revealed she never planned on being in the show for “seven or 10 years,” but that doesn’t mean she might not want to revisit the character in the future.

“We finished [filming Blue] last season, and where she winds up is so tragically, poetically Harlee. It’s perfect,” Lopez said of the show’s ending episode — the first to air after Stahl’s shocking death. “This is where it needs to be, and this is the end of that journey. Whether she’ll come back or not for some special or for another season, who knows, but for right now this is what happens for her. It’s a tragic ending, but really poetic and beautiful.”

The Shades of Blue series finale airs Sunday, Aug. 19 at 10 p.m. ET on NBC.