‘One Chicago’ Team Highlights What’s In Store For Viewers On ‘Med,’ ‘Fire,’ And ‘P.D.’

Working as a first responder means plenty of surprises, and while they only play the roles of doctors, firefighters, and police offers on TV, the casts of Chicago Med, Fire, and P.D. say that there are many elements of their roles that they find challenging.

But, what’s most important for these teams is to learning how to just be believable in portraying characters experiencing stressful situations.

Nick Gehlfuss, who portrays Dr. Will Halstead on Chicago Med, says, “I think we have the ability as human beings to get really far ahead or go really far back. I’ve learned that one of my favorite parts about being an actor is that it really focuses you on staying in the present, and I find that when I do that in the work, and in my personal life, it’s just a better experience all around.”

Gehlfuss knows what he’s talking about, having been on the series since its debut in 2015, playing an ER specialist.

Given his tenure on the series, he’s helped Jesse Schram, who had a recurring role on the show, but then joined as a full-time physician on Med last year as Dr. Hannah Asher.

Scharm says that, “There were definitely questions that I asked along the way, like, ‘hey, so how do you how do you do this and not freak out every day?”

She admits that she spent a lot of time just ‘observing’ Gehlfuss, saying to him that she hoped that didn’t ‘weird him out.’

In return, he just smiled and laughed a little at Schram’s admission, saying that she’s always held her own, and revealing, “I think that’s how a lot of us learn — by just watching somebody else. Every actor has their own process of how they go about doing their work and you don’t necessarily want to get too involved in it if they’re not open to it and you never know who’s open to what.”

He laughs a little when he says that really the hardest thing to learn was putting on those pesky medical gloves and that he helped Schram by telling her that putting baby powder on or stretching out the gloves first helps.

Schram points out that she loves the crossover episodes, when Med, Fire, and PD merge, saying that, “You have people that are really in their profession that are [on set those days, like] real life firefighters and EMTs and I just love getting to be around [those] first responders and getting to experience what they add to the scene.”

Some of those actors include the cast of Fire, including Hanako Greensmith as paramedic Violet Mikami, and Daniel Kyri and Alberto Rosende as firefighters Daniel Ritter and Blake Gallo, respectively.

The three work together often have been featured tin both serious storylines and comedic moments as well.

Balancing the serious nature of making life and death rescues with laughable moments, Rosende says, “I think that’s a balance that our show strikes really well — where one scene we’re running into a fire saving lives and then we get back to the firehouse and right back into the prank that we were trying to do before and as an actor to be able to play those different sides of the scale is really what is fun.”

Talking to active firefighters, Kyri says that he’s found, “that humor becomes a kind of lifeblood within the firehouse because of the things that they have to see and do and walk into on an almost daily basis.”

The trio are hot to tease an upcoming episode, with Rosende revealing, “While our Halloween episode definitely has its fair share of shenanigans and drama, I like that it brings light to what the firehouse is really doing that’s part of their community.”

Kyri shudders a bit as he says, “And it’s a Halloween episode, so things get a little

Spooky,” and Greensmith adds, “You’re gonna see both good and evil in a way that I didn’t anticipate, and that’s going to be something fun for you to watch.”

Playing a paramedic has its tough moments for Greensmith as she admits, “I’m pretty immune to fake blood at this point, now that I’ve been I’ve been surrounded by it so many times, but every now and again there will come an incident that really, really shocks me that is just unpleasant, and I forget all of my lines.”

Rosende says that shooting a full season, which for Fire is 22 episodes, is like, ‘full on sprinting a marathon.’

“That’s a hard pace to keep up,” he says. But, whenever he’s on the burn stage, where the actors fight simulated, but active fires, “there’s a little moment where the 10-year-old me, who had no idea what we were going to do with our life, is sitting there, [thinking], ‘are we really pretend firemen, in a pretend fire, that we’re fighting?’ It’s pretty cool.”

On P.D., Jason Beghe, who’s entering his tenth season playing Detective Hank Voight, says that this season his character, “starts to become more and more who he’s supposed to be, which is the leader of an elite unit in the Chicago Police Department, and so therefore, the whole unit tends to starts to operate a little more effectively..”

Beghe says that he’s learned things from portraying Voight that he applies to his personal life, because it’s, ‘a very intimate, intense relationship.’

“I spend more time with Voight than pretty much anybody else I know, [so] I might as well try to make it into a creative relationship. He influences me and I try to influence him.”

He says that there’s always a discussion among the creative team about just how much to blur the line between the actor and his character. “There’s always a question — How much Jason are we going to put into the Voight this season?”

Marina Squerciati, who has also appeared in nearly every episode of the drama as Officer Kim Burgess, has seen her character go through nine seasons of extreme highs and lows, says that even though she’s been Burgess all this time, she’s still doesn’t feel quite like her process has become routine.

“To say I have a handle on [portraying Burgess], I feel sounds like I’ve checked out and I don’t mean that, I just mean that it’s easier to slip into the character because I know her so well.”

She elaborates a bit, adding, “I feel like it’s a pretentious thing when actors say something like, ‘Oh, my character would never do that.’ But, if a line comes along and [it doesn’t feel right, I’ll say,] ‘No, my character would never do that. I know because I’ve lived with her for 10 years.’”

To keep it fresh, Squerciati says that whenever she gets a script, “first thing is I try and find something new.”

She reveals that this is helped by the overall narrative of this season, explaining, “The writers get together and they think of a theme for the season and this year it’s ‘Savior,’ [which asks the question,] ‘Can the broken be saved?’ So filtered through that lens, you get new stories and different things to do.”

While the series is a procedural, it’s those themes that help the other actors keep their characters moving forward, says Squerciati.

Greensmith agrees, adding that for viewers, on every one of the Chicago shows, “Every week, there’s something to really feel excited about, whether it be an incident, or watching a conflict, or watching a new relationship blossom, there’s always something that someone can really sink their nails into.”

Plus, says Rosende, everyone should tune in for a full night of Med, Fire, and PD, because, “What else are you doing on a Wednesday night? Come on!”

‘Chicago Med,’ ‘Chicago Fire,’ and Chicago PD’ air Wednesdays beginning at 8/7c on NBC, and are available for streaming the next day on peacock.