The Rookie flew its cast to Prague last year to shoot the opening scenes of the highly anticipated eighth season. It was a party for most, but a nightmare for one.
Series star Nathan Fillion confirmed in a Monday interview with PEOPLE that the participating cast members “had an incredible time” shooting throughout Europe. But “[Bridget Regan] got food poisoning,” Fillion revealed. “So she spent a little time in the hospital.”
In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Regan shared, “Working in Prague on The Rookie was extraordinary, though I was a bit unlucky and got hit with some truly nasty food poisoning. Thanks to the incredible care of the hospital staff in Prague, our phenomenal on-set medic, and a whole lot of fluids and meds, I was patched up enough to get back on my feet.”
Disney/Raymond Liu
Regan continued, “I’ll never forget being able to walk through those gorgeous Prague streets in Monica’s heels. I felt so deeply looked after. Huge gratitude to [Jenna Dewan] and Nathan for being so kind, generous, and supportive. The Rookie family is a family in every sense.”
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Regan has played the frustratingly effective attorney Monica Stevens since season 5. Though Monica is on course to play a bigger role than ever in season 8, a sour meal in the Czech capital city nearly took her off track.
The Rookie‘s seventh season wound to a surprising close last May, when Monica made an uneasy alliance with the Superman star’s John Nolan and Dewan’s Bailey Nune after striking an immunity deal. Season 8 will open in Prague, where John and Bailey are on the trail of a group of sinister terrorists.
Monica will be essential in tracking them down, but Fillion shared that his character is reluctant to accept her help. “It’s such a stick in the craw,” he said. “I think it just frustrates Nolan to no end that someone so criminal and so terrible and so smug about it can get away with it. She’s not doing hard time.”
Having represented some of the most notorious criminals in Los Angeles, Monica begins to build up her own underground enterprise. She becomes a target at one of the highest law enforcement agencies in the world, Interpol, sending her into hiding in Bolivia.
But she returns in season 7 as wily and unpredictable as ever, striking a deal with the FBI that foils even John’s LAPD authority to prosecute her.
Michael Tullberg/Getty
Dewan shared Fillion’s sense of the havoc Monica is likely to cause in season 8.
“She kind of knows it. She plays with it. There’s a sense of, ‘You can’t get rid of me,’ and, ‘I’m untouchable and now I have an immunity deal, so you can’t do anything about it,'” Dewan noted. “And we essentially, in the first episode, are babysitting her. The storyline is we have to go to make sure she does what she’s supposed to do and help us here, which of course goes wrong in all lots of different ways.”
The Rookie returns for season 8 on ABC on Jan. 6.