'S.W.A.T.': Jay Harrington on His Directorial Debut, Working With Guest Star Taye Diggs, and More (Exclusive)

Jay Harrington may be known as David "Deacon" Kay on CBS' S.W.A.T., but during this week's episode of the cop procedural, he was on the other side of the camera. Harrington directed Season 6, Episode 20, "All That Glitters," which saw the actor not only directing his co-stars but his longtime friend and guest-star, Taye Diggs. The episode follows 20-Squad trying to stop a crew targeting elderly victims after a string of violent home robberies. Meanwhile, Diggs portrays former Marine squad leader Danny Wright, who turns to longtime friend Hondo for help when his daughter goes missing.

This episode marks Harrington's directorial debut, and we chatted all about his experience being behind the camera as compared to being in front of it. We also talked about the advice he got from both Lina Esco and Alex Russell, who have also directed S.W.A.T. before, as well as whether he would want to direct again. Scroll through to read our Q&A with Harrington.

This is your directorial debut for this week's episode! Congratulations! 

Thank you very much.

That's so exciting! What drew you to the other side of the camera?

Just over the years, I kept thinking I could take a crack at it. And once Lina [Esco] opened the door and Alex [Russell] as well, I just wanted to see if I could do the show proud and get my chance.

Did you get any advice from them since they've directed episodes before?

I did, yeah. I talked to Alex quite a bit. Lina, I was texting back and forth. And yeah, they were psyched for me. And just like them, we have the added opportunity to know what to expect because we're there every day. But yeah, I certainly did reach out.

I love that so much that they gave you advice on that. How different is it from acting since it's one side of the camera to the other?

Well, you got to prepare a thousand times more than you do when you're just getting ready to be in it. And not only that, but I was also in it. So it doubled, tripled, quadrupled the caseload. But, I took off the episode before, so I had time to do the necessary prep with scouting locations and having meetings with different departments. And you get all those. It's like writing up a playbook for sports, and you follow the playbook as best you can and try to win.

What was it like directing [guest-star and longtime friend] Taye Diggs and your co-stars? 

Well, we were all nervous for sure, day one. Taye had come off All American, but he hadn't worked in a little while, and that was his home. Now, he was in a different crew, different group of people. So our first scene we did is actually… he was like, "Geez, there's a lot of people." And I was like, "What, are you nervous? I'm nervous. What are you nervous for?"

But no, we had a great time. And that same first day, I was with Shemar [Moore] as well. Those guys have known each other over the years, personally. So for them to get to work together and have some fun was fun to watch.

This episode was pretty emotional. There were a lot of heartfelt moments, and it really almost made me tear up at points. How challenging was it to direct an episode like this, especially for your first time?

Oh, no. No. The challenge was not in that. I was embracing that part of it because we get to see Shemar being Hondo, and it was the idea that… And now, it was being there for a friend who's worried about his daughter and to just play that into the reality of life that Shemar is a new dad with a baby daughter. So we were able to take a step back and breathe instead of just the other storyline with the S.W.A.T. team. That was the go, go, go. But, when it was Shemar and Taye and Rochelle [Aytes], those were the moments where we could just slow down and breathe and be real and honor the moment.

After directing this episode, would you want to direct anything else or maybe expand past directing and do something else? 

Oh, I'm definitely going to hope to do this again. Let's be honest. I hope we come back in the first place. But if we do, I definitely want to do it again. I had a great time with the pre-production, and then the post-production of our team is so good, our editor and composer. I get to be on the phone with him trying to figure out some music stuff. And it was such a cool collaboration, and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

It seems like a lot of actors have been shifting from being in front of the camera to being behind the camera, even if it's just a one-time thing. Why do you personally think it's getting more and more common?

Well, you learn a lot when you're on a set. And certainly, coming from directing TV, it moves so quickly. But it is nice to have, I think, an actor's perspective behind the camera because you know what the actors are thinking in a sense, you know what they're going through, specifically, too, with the guest actors that come because on our show, again, I can't stress enough how fast we move. It can be really overwhelming. And so each guest actor that came on, I made sure I took the moment to say, "Hey, look, this is what it is, this show. It cooks. So just keep up with me. And you can trust me, and I'll be there for you if you want something else. We'll take the time. But if I'm happy, we're going to move on. So don't worry. Don't get in your head."

And so I think that's a helpful sort of nuance that the actor brings. But I can't speak to why other people do. And I know I've seen it on some other shows. But I think when you're on a show for a long time, you get a perspective that you're coming at it from a different angle.

You spoke about this already a little bit, but what was your favorite thing, either about the process or while you were directing?

I think seeing it all happening. You plan all you want, and you're going to get obstacles. We had rain for a couple days. COVID interrupted our schedule a little bit. But if you get your ducks in a row, it was really fun to sit back and watch each crew member and each department do what they do and how it just all falls in line. It's really something else.

Yeah, I can't imagine that feeling of looking back at it and seeing it all really come together after working so hard on it.

Yeah. I did my director's cut and sent it into the producers and the network, and they hear back that they were pleased. And something that they had said going into it is, "You're there to service the show. You're making an episode of S.W.A.T., so make sure when you're done, it looks like something that you watch every week." And that was where I could rely on our camera department, our props department, our director of photography, everybody across the board to ensure that we were being honest with the show we make every week. We had a couple touches of my own little things here and there.