‘Ray Donovan’ detective Brian Geraghty is ‘Chicago P.D.’s’ latest recruit

Brian Geraghty is worried; his gun is missing.

“I should have my gun,” said “The Hurt Locker” actor, dressed in police blues on the set of “Chicago P.D.”

Fair enough. He was being shot — with a camera. By a Sun-Times photographer. For this story.

“I’ve gotta look tough,” said Geraghty, who joins the cast as a beat patrol officer in “P.D.’s” sophomore season. The Dick Wolf-produced “Chicago Fire” spinoff returns at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WMAQ-Channel 5.

Geraghty plays a “uniform” named Sean Roman. He’s paired up — professionally, at least for now — with officer Kim Burgess, played by Northwestern grad Marina Squerciati.

Burgess’ old partner, Kevin Atwater (Harvey native LaRoyce Hawkins), got bumped upstairs to District 21’s exclusive Intelligence Unit at the end of last season.

“I love being a cop in the blue,” Geraghty said about his character who, unlike Burgess, has no desire to climb the ladder to Intelligence. “I’m trying to show her it’s not all it’s cracked up to be.”

Geraghty, 39, describes Roman as a typical blue-collar guy — the kind of people that populated his real-life family while growing up in New Jersey.

“He’s relatable,” Geraghty said of Roman, whose origin story includes working in a steel mill before trading that in for a career in law enforcement. “What he wants is to be the best cop he can be. But he also likes to have a good time. He likes to joke around, have fun.”

An avid surfer who lived in Los Angeles for more than a decade, Geraghty is having plenty of fun getting to know his new home, Chicago.

“I bought a bike the first week I was here,” he said. “That was the best money I spent. I go everywhere on that bike.”

His West Loop apartment is conveniently close to a couple of his favorite haunts, Au Cheval and La Colombe café on Randolph’s restaurant row. He’s taken in a few comedy sets at the new iO Theater and has been letting his fellow “P.D.” cast members — most of whom are transplants, like him — be his tour guide.

“In these situations where no one’s from here but we all live here now for the show, there’s more camaraderie,” he said. “You spend a lot of time together not only on the set but off the set. It’s like school.”

Geraghty may be a rookie on the “P.D.” ensemble, but he’s getting pretty experienced at portraying law enforcement.

He played a self-described psychotic FBI agent last season on HBO’s Prohibition-era period drama, “Boardwalk Empire.”

On this season of Showtime’s “Ray Donovan,” he does a turn as a police detective who’s Officer Friendly when it comes to Ray’s (Liev Schreiber) wife, Abby (Paula Malcomson).

“I just finished ‘Ray Donovan,’ literally the day before I came here,” said Geraghty, who arrived in July and started filming shortly after.

He recently wrapped shooting this coming season’s fifth episode and has already filmed a crossover episode with “Chicago Fire.” (Having previously appeared on “Law & Order,” that gives Geraghty a Dick Wolf hat trick.)

“It’s bizarre,” Geraghty said about doing crossovers with “Fire” and “P.D.,” which both have soundstages at Cinespace Chicago Film Studios in North Lawndale. “You go over and play the same character on another show. You don’t have a lot of lines. You get paid. Can’t beat that, right?”

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