CHICAGO MED Cast Spill About The New Series [Part One]

Chicago Med, the spin-off of NBC hits Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. finally premieres tonight at 9/8c. Before you tune in to the third installment of Dick Wolf and co’s Chicago franchise, read on to find out what the cast had to say about the show and their characters in roundtable interviews with the press during last week’s #NBCChicagoDay…

S. Epatha Merkerson and Rachel DiPillo 

Having starred in close to 400 episodes of Dick Wolf’s Law & Order, S. Epatha Merkson describes reuniting with Dick Wolf once again as “coming home”. On Chicago Med, she plays Sharon Goodwin, Chief Administrator of Clinical Operations at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. Rachel DiPillo was recently seen on Jane the Virgin, and on Med, she’s trying to find her way and figure out her future as fourth year medial student Sarah Reese.

What have you guys learnt about the medical field in the very short time you’ve been filming the show?
S.E.M: It was really fascinating when we started we went into medical training and I was included in that as well. I run the emergency department but my character has a RN background so it was important for her to know all the specifics. I can say one of the most interesting things I’ve spent since we’ve been here was in the Cook County emergency room, so I picked up quite a bit of language that I definitely wouldn’t have, had it not been for the show.

What can you tell us about your characters, some insights that we’ll get to see this season?
S.E.M: Well I think with Goodwin, we’ll see someone who is very involved with the hospital, someone who has a history with the hospital, someone who is involved with the staff and you know a person in charge.
R.D: Well I play a fourth year medical student, Sarah Reese, who is just beginning her in-field experience, she’s been at school studying books for three years and is now, kind of everybody’s shadow, working with the psychiatrist, with surgeons, different places, just trying to work out where she’s gonna go next.

What attracted you to your character?
R.D: My character at the audition process was different than what she currently is, but what still stands is that I love the idea of playing someone who is in school and ambitious enough to educate herself into something like a doctor or whatever field she’s going into…I think Sarah is very quirky, very intelligent, very ambitious and I really value those characteristics and for me that’s a joy to play, to develop.

Epatha, you’ve worked with Dick Wolf before, what’s it like to be back?
S.E.M: You know it’s a comfortable place for me. We realised recently that this is the third show that I have done with him. I did a short-lived drama called Mann and Machine in 92, so I think I’m probably one of the longest running actors with Dick. I enjoy working with Dick because of what he brings to a production, the writing, all the people – the craftspeople, the work is impeccable and so it’s like being home.

Colin Donnell and Oliver Platt

It still hurts when we think about Tommy Merlyn dying on Arrow, and playing yet another character that dies followed Colin Donnell to his next gig as Scotty Lockhart on Showtime’s The Affair. Here’s hoping that Colin’s Med character, newbie Trauma fellow Dr. Connor Rhodes, fares much better than those characters. Oliver Platt is no stranger to television, having starred in shows such as The Good Wife, Fargo, The Big C, Nip/Tuck and The West Wing; on Chicago Med, he plays Dr. Daniel Charles, Chief of Psychiatry.

Colin Donnell plays Dr. Connor Rhodes.

Colin, every time we watch a show with you, your character just does not last. So you survive right?
C.D: I mean I’ve made it so far. So far so good. We’re [filming] on episode five, so you never know what’s going to happen. Keep your fingers crossed you know and knocking on wood. My wife would really appreciate it.

How are you coping with all the medical terminology?
C.D: There’s a lot of syllables and a lot of words, but it is awesome. It’s like every script is a new fun little challenge. Like “all right, well I’ve got to say that at least 100 times before I start this scene” and it will be great and I’ll have it perfectly right before we start rolling and the camera actually records something and I’ll open my mouth and some incomprehensible garb of syllables just explodes out of my mouth.

What’s the best one you’ve learnt so far?
C.D: The other day I had a great time tripping over methylprednisolone, it’s a drug. It wasn’t even just having to say methylprednisolone, it was I had to say “get me 125 milligrams of methylprednisolone.”

How many takes did that take?
C.D: Way more than I care to admit. Luckily by the time the cameras were turned around on me I had said it enough to have it be a little bit of an automatic response. But then you’ve got David Eigenberg – because we’re doing these crossover events right now, and there’s this whole big thing – they like to have a lot of fun on Fire, let’s just put it that way.

Were you following the series before Chicago Med?
C.D: You know when all this happened, my wife and I started watching Chicago Fire from the very very beginning and quickly fell in love – I’d seen a couple of episodes here and there beforehand and we started with the pilot and got hooked. I mean it’s really good television. They’re amazing people and I’m just thrilled to be a part of the family now.

What type of spoilers can you tease about your character?
C.D: I like to think he’s a nice guy, other people may not agree. Connor Rhodes is the newest addition to the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center. He’s the new guy and he’s getting introduced in a big, sort of explosive way in the first episode. When you meet Connor, he’s actually on his way to work, his first day of work and the trauma drama hits before he even steps foot inside the hospital. The first episode really starts off in a really cool way.

Have there been any good bloopers on set, like you’re mid-opening someone’s stomach and something happens?
C.D: There’s been some really great ones. So when you’re doing compressions on somebody, they always tell you to think of the song “Staying Alive”. Some words didn’t come out and maybe a gurney went into a place that it shouldn’t have because all I could think about while I was doing it was “Staying Alive”. (Colin and Oliver start singing “Staying Alive”)
O.P: They get to do all these cool things that I don’t because I’m just the psychiatrist.

Did the Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D. people have any advice for you coming on to the show?
O.P: I know this sounds all mushy and stuff, the truth is, our first experience with this living narrative village was Chicago Fire and those guys are actually a really remarkable – I don’t know if you’ve actually ever visited that set or hung out with those fellas but they’re a wonderful group. They enjoy each other immensely, they’re very very welcoming to us and you know made you wanna, among all the other data it was one of the things that made you wanna be a part of it, they’re having such a good time.

Obviously a lot of the characters go to you for support and to work through things, is there someone that you go to? Someone that your character bonds with that you get to vent to?
O.P: If anything, that’s Sharon Goodwin, Epatha’s character. We’re old pals and our characters are friendly outside of the hospital environment.

What drew you to play this part like ‘I’ve got to do this’, or was it because of Dick Wolf?

Oliver Platt plays Dr. Daniel Charles.

O.P: Well sort of that and sort of that too. But you know it’s interesting, I don’t know too many actors who aren’t whether we know it or not – we’re all sort of amateur psychologists for better or for worst. It’s our job to figure out the human motivation, why somebody wants something, why they can’t get it, those are like the mechanics of what we do and so I’ve always been interested in psychology, and psychiatry is very mysterious of all of them. Do you know what the actual definition of, the etymology of psychiatry is? A German doctor in the 1820s or something came up with this word and it actually means the medical treatment of the soul. That’s pretty interesting to me. The medical treatment of the soul? What’s a soul? I didn’t know you could touch a soul. So many of the psychiatrists that I’ve talked to in preparing for the role, they talk about the creative aspect of it and the fact that you know the guesswork, there’s no blood test for anxiety, we know less about this organ than any other.

Chicago Med airs Tuesdays at 9/8c on NBC.

Here are some photos from the roundtable interviews during #NBCChicagoDay. (Photography by Sarah Gillett and Angela Lee):