The Surprising Lesson Titus Welliver Has Learned From Playing Bosch - Exclusive

Detective Harry Bosch is the type of guy you'd want on your side if you were in a serious bind, as the fictional LAPD homicide detective has a penchant for chasing down justice. And that's exactly what made the police procedural "Bosch" into Amazon Prime Video's longest-running original series to date, running for seven seasons on the streaming platform (with Welliver playing the character for an additional three seasons on the sequel series, "Bosch: Legacy").

Based on the best-selling books by novelist Michael Connelly, "Bosch" stars Titus Welliver as the no-nonsense title character who maneuvers through the streets of Los Angeles doing whatever it takes to take down killers. Welliver has previously appeared on "Sons of Anarchy" and "The Good Wife," and been in four movies that Ben Affleck has directed — "Gone Baby Gone," "The Town," "Live By Night," and the Academy Award-winning "Argo." He's also known for playing the Man in Black (aka the Smoke Monster) on the cult hit series "Lost."

However, it's "Bosch" which is the actor's biggest starring role to date, one he says fills him with "great pride and joy." And in an exclusive interview with Looper, he said that the series also taught him an important life lesson that he carries with him every day.

It would be almost impossible to not learn something from a character such as Harry Bosch — especially if you've played him for 10 seasons. So, as Welliver reflected on his time on "Bosch," what was his biggest real-life takeaway? "Well," said Welliver, "When I'm in crowds, my powers of observation through the process of osmosis of playing this character, I think I look a little closer and I look a little harder when I'm out in the world and in public."

And just what is he looking for? "It's not from a place of paranoia," says Welliver, "it's just obviously as an actor ... my powers of observation are not dissimilar to Harry's, I'm just not looking for people  doing bad things like he is. But I would say in that way there's a parallel and it's probably deepened my senses of playing this character."

With that keen sense of observation, Welliver runs into all sorts of situations, but his favorite are encounters with "Bosch" fans. "I get a lot of 'Bosch' shout outs," he says. "It fills me with great pride and joy that there's a lot of goodwill towards the show ... There's a wonderful kind of excitement that registers on people's faces and you see how much they enjoy the show ... and they demonstrate that in a very kind and lovely way, and that makes me feel good that we've touched and moved people."