On the streets of New York or Los Angeles, you could easily stumble onto the set of a TV show. But Chicago? Not many think of it as an entertainment town. That is until a Dick Wolf franchise makes its home in the Windy City.
For the cast of Wolf’s ever-expanding “Chicago” franchise, the city itself is an important element in bringing the shows to life. Whether it be fleshing out a character’s backstory or incorporating topical issues into a plot, the city is a necessary element of the Wolf-Chicago universe.
Chicago Fire
Wolf started his Chicago empire with “Chicago Fire,” which follows the lives—inside and outside the firehouse—of the men and women of the Chicago Fire Department’s Engine Co. 51. The series is set to premiere its fifth season Oct. 11.
For Bronx, N.Y.-raised Joe Minoso, who plays Joe Cruz, the fact that Chicago is the Second City is what makes it such an inviting place to both live and work.
“I think part of how I got the role to begin with was because I had been in Chicago,” he said. “There’s a certain sensibility of the middle class family-oriented working man that is the bread and butter of this city and that’s what Chicago represents.”
Minoso’s character is from Humboldt Park, adjacent to where the actor first lived when he moved to Logan Square. Though he was raised in the Bronx, the universal experience of growing up in an “urban city center” helped him flesh out his Chicago-based character.
“I grew up in a very Latino-centric neighborhood, and every store you went into, the cashiers spoke Spanish better than they did English,” Minoso said. “Growing up in the inner city in the Bronx, you’re no stranger to what it is to be a part of that universe.”
Also part of the “Fire” squad is Yuri Sardarov, a Chicago-area native who immigrated to the U.S. from Russia when he was just 2 years old. Sardarov’s character, Brian “Otis” Zvonecek, is also a Russian immigrant, and many of his experiences on screen can be traced to what Sardarov experienced as a child of an immigrant family.
“I didn’t have to go out of my way to explore [the immigrant community],” he said of preparing to portray Zvonecek. “I grew up with that. I kind of know the ropes.”
His art so closely imitates his life that the role of his on-screen “Baba” was almost given to his real-life grandmother.
Minoso and Sardarov both insist Chicago is the place to be when it comes to kicking off an acting career.
“Chicago is a Goldilocks city, not too hot, not too cold,” Sardarov said. “You can exist in a community that is really open to your transformation and … not have to live in a 10-by-10-square-foot apartment where the bathroom is in the kitchen, like you would in New York or LA.”
Chicago P.D.
Why have a successful show when you could have a successful franchise? After one season of “Fire” came “Chicago P.D.,” which expanded on characters already introduced minimally throughout “Fire.” “P.D.” follows the lives of the uniformed police patrol and the Intelligence Unit of the Chicago Police Department.
LaRoyce Hawkins of Harvey, Ill., a south suburb of the city, portrays newly promoted detective Kevin Atwater, who recently joined the Intelligence Unit. When producers discovered Hawkins was from Harvey, they decided his character would hail from Harvey, as well.
“That’s one of the biggest blessings they could have offered me as an artist because they gave Atwater every experience that I’ve ever had,” Hawkins said.
Hawkins went to Illinois State University to study acting and came back to the Chicago area to launch his career. When he was just starting out, he said, Chicago actors weren’t being offered leading roles. But now, with shows like the “Chicago” franchise, that’s changing.
“I go to work every day and represent Chicago in a way that will make people consider us for main roles,” he said. “They don’t need to go to New York or LA because Chicago definitely has enough talent in the city to represent itself.”
That’s abundantly true of the rest of the cast of the franchise, including Hawkins’ co-star, Marina Squerciati, a Northwestern graduate who originally hails from New York.
“I didn’t really know the city the way I know it now, living in it and working in it,” said Squerciati, who plays Officer Kim Burgess. “In filming the show, I’m seeing things that I’d never get to see on my own. I feel like a real citizen of Chicago, finally.”
Despite tension between the city and the Chicago Police Department, Squerciati, whose character shot an unarmed black man last season, says the show affords her a unique perspective.
“I work with cops every day—they’re the people that I literally look to every time I take a step just to make sure I’m portraying a police officer correctly,” she said. “I feel like I understand a little bit more from the police officer’s point of view, instead of just a citizen.”
Hawkins also says his own life experiences in the Chicago area inform how he portrays a Chicago officer.
“I have the unique position, being from the ‘hood and also playing a police officer who has integrity, who has respect, who treats people with care,” he said. “I guess the challenge is really just accepting that and finding the courage to make a stand and have a position and be an example of what it means to be a responsible police officer.”
Chicago Med
After successful seasons of “Fire” and “P.D.,” expanding on the “Chicago” franchise universe was the logical next step. “Med” joined the fray last year, rounding out the Chicago trio that—spoiler—won’t stay a trio for long.
Colin Donnell, who plays Dr. Connor Rhodes, grew up in St. Louis and attended Indiana University before moving out to New York to launch his career. Coming back to the Midwest wasn’t ever something he planned on.
“St. Louis is a place that I love and I’m very prideful of it, but it was never a place I saw myself going back to,” he said. “Chicago has been this wonderful eye-opening experience, and it’s opened up its arms to us.”
Despite spending time in New York, Donnell still has what he calls the “good ol’ boy” Midwestern authenticity that he lends to his character.
“They’ve written a lot of [my experiences] into Connor: He’s gone and explored the world and moved away from Chicago for a long time, but he’s come back to his roots,” he said of his character, who is from Chicago but spent time in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, after his residency was up.
Nick Gehlfuss, who first joined the cast as the problem-child brother of a detective on “Chicago P.D.,” said he sees many similarities between his rural Cleveland upbringing and Dr. Will Halstead’s Canaryville neighborhood roots, but he’s still spent plenty of time in the neighborhood, even hanging out at a local baseball field.
“The more you have in your toolbox, if you can visualize or have a moment to provide you a visual, as an actor, that’s paramount,” Gehlfuss said. “Growing up there, I would’ve played there, my father and brothers all would’ve played there together.”
With all these firefighters and police officers and doctors running around, you know there’s a natural next step. A fourth addition to the franchise, “Chicago Justice,” is due out in early 2017.
@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
