CHICAGO P.D. Cast: Behind the Scenes Intel

After a hiatus that seems to be going on forever, NBC’s Chicago P.D. finally returns in one week with new episodes, and even better, as part of the epic and much anticipated three-way ONE CHICAGO crossover with Chicago Fire and Chicago Med. Last month, we caught up with the cast during #NBCChicagoDay and gathered these behind the scenes pieces of intel for you…

The actors behind Burzek have no clue what the couple’s future holds, but they were actually meant to be on the rocks earlier. “You know, we keep getting that question from fans and I think that the producers do not trust us with that secret,” says Marina Squerciati, who plays Kim Burgess. “Well because we’re so charming together, I think the idea was to break us up for a little while at the beginning of the season and because we’re so charming together, they haven’t done it yet,” adds the couple’s other half, Patrick John Flueger, who plays Adam Ruzek.

Who is most like their character and who is least like their character? Can you guess? “I think Sophia is least like Erin. She is much goofier and much sort of softer and I would say who is the most like – Elias is the most shy and I think Olinsky is shy, so I would say they have that in common,” says Squerciati.

There may be three shows in the mix, but some of these guys haven’t even had a chance to work with actors from their own show! “You know who I don’t get to work with? I don’t get to work with Brian and Marina at all. I would love to work with them! Get involved with a storyline with those two. That would be a lot of fun,” says Jesse Lee Soffer, who plays Jay Halstead.

Burgess and Lindsay scenes are coming! The show may be in its third season, but we can count on one hand the number of times leading ladies Sophia Bush and Marina Squerciati have shared scenes together since the show started. “Those are coming up! A lot of fans really wanted that and pushed that and I think because of their desire it’s come about. There’s a scene that I’m not supposed to know about coming up where she gives me advice about my relationship with you [Patrick],” reveals Squerciati.

Chicago Med‘s S. Epatha Merkerson is at the top of the wish list for these guys. Once they’ve worked with each other, much of the cast nominated Merkerson as an actor they would love to work with in future episodes. “I would like to work with S. Epatha. She’s such a cool, such an amazing woman and she was on Law and Order for 16 and a half years, 17 years and she’s a tremendous actor,” says Brian Geraghty, who plays Sean Roman. “I would love to work on Med too and work with Epatha, Yaya, all that. I just want to be on Med. I want to be on Med. I want someone to be like ‘you working on Med today?’ I’m going to cry. It’s going to be dope,” gushes LaRoyce Hawkins, who plays Kevin Atwater.

They don’t envy the Chicago Med cast. Or at least when it comes to the medical jargon their new colleagues have to memorise. “Torrey [DeVitto] came on the other day and she had to say some word, all the patients had the same –  it sounded like onomatopoeia, which is what you tend to do in a medical profession. And I was like “I’m sure you had to pull a dictionary out for that one”, and she goes “Every day. Every day.”and I was like “yep, welcome to your job,” shared Soffer.

LaRoyce Hawkins was almost on Chicago Fire! Hawkins originally auditioned for the role of Otis when he was still in college. In fact, Hawkins ditched his Valentines date so that he could attend the callback audition. “Otis, at the time was a black character and at the last minute they changed the colour and I was like ‘I don’t think I can be Russian’. But Yuri’s great man. I think everything worked out exactly the way it was supposed to,” says Hawkins.

Burgwater lives on. If you’re a big fan of the season one partnership of Burgess and Atwater, you’re not the only one. “I miss Burgess. Me and Burgess [Marina Squerciati], we do our best to keep Burgwater alive on social media, we hang out all the time and we talk about it too. Man we need, we want more stuff. But it’s not really up to us,” says Hawkins. “I do miss him. I hope that whatever happens with me and Adam, that Atwater will sort of come to my aid or be my friend a little bit more and that we’ll get to be able to interact. I love working with Brian though, it’s fun to have a new partner,” says Squerciati.

Even the woman behind Sgt Platt never expected her to become such a big character. She attributes it to understanding the importance of the character. “One of our advisers, Brian Luce, who is a cop, was really instrumental in making me understand the importance of the desk sergeant in a cop’s daily life. And so he was really good about informing the writers, producers and me about what exactly a sergeant does in a day and how tough they have to be, otherwise they get completely walked on. So I understood why she was so hard, especially being a woman coming up in probably the late 70s, early 80s, probably not easy to be a cop so it was really great to have all that fodder. I felt really lucky,” says Amy Morton who plays the tough yet much loved desk sergeant.

Chicago P.D. may be a drama but there’s still room for improv. If you’re like us and love the relationship between Platt and Burgess, you’ll be delighted to know that the writers and the producers love them so much that they allow the actors to do a bit of improv. “Amy Morton is so fun to play with. I’ve seen her in a lot of New York theatre and Chicago theatre, so it’s great, we get to have a lot of fun. Generally at the end of every scene, there’s a bit of an improv. Like we’ll have a scene and I’ll be like ‘I bet you won’t’, ‘I bet you will’. There’s always a bit of Marina and Amy doing something,” shares Squerciati. “The writers seem to like that relationship, so they’re all adding a little bit for us to do and it’s really fun to just (go back and forth). It’s just really really fun. It’s one of my funnest things,” says Morton.

Chicago Fire‘s Hermann should watch out around Platt. When asked who she would love to see Platt give a bit of sass to, Morton nominated David Eigenberg’s character Hermann. “I totally would not mind getting in a bit of a tango with Eigenberg because he’s got such a strong Chicago thing going on. That would be a fun scene, see how far we can stretch it.”

Loyalty is the magic word. When asked what they think their character’s best quality is, both Morton and Jason Beghe, who plays Hank Voight, both highlighted their characters’ loyalty. “She’s fiercely loyal. And as I’ve found out, most cops are, they’re loyal,” says Morton. “Well a lot of them, but probably loyalty, and with that are integrity. I would say he’s got integrity, which I think is a good quality,” says Beghe.

The #OneChicago crossover begins Tuesday January 5 at 9/8c on NBC.

Here are some photos of the Chicago P.D. cast during #NBCChicagoDay. (Photography by Sarah Gillett and Angela Lee):