Lt. Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney) has mad Sherlock skills when it comes to cracking arson cases — a talent that Kinney said will result in a job offer in Tuesday’s episode of “Chicago Fire.”
He talked about what’s in store for his character, among other things, in a recent interview at the TV critics’ press tour in California, where the actor squeezed in some surfing last month as a reprieve from Chicago’s blistering cold weather.
“Don’t tell anyone,” he said with a smile. “I think they want to keep us pasty.”
Q. Severide got hitched in Vegas and was married for a hot minute before his bride Brittany (Serinda Swan) bailed. Have we seen the last of her?
A. “Who knows? She was a wild woman. I don’t know where she is. Maybe she’ll be back.”
Q. Now that your buddy Casey (Jesse Spencer) is single, too, what will you guys get up to?
A. “We got to the point where Jesse’s character is on the fence with Dawson. He goes through a bit of a down period when I’m in more of an upward spiral. The Wheel of Fortuna. He’s on a down, I’m on an up, and I’m trying to help him with his lady woes.”
REPORT: Yaya DaCosta to play nurse, Severide bae on potential ‘Chicago Med’ spinoff
@lorirackl if you are talking to actors: can you ask Taylor and/ Charlie what their favorite parts of playing firefighters are? #ChicagoFire
— Day1Diehard (@ChiFiSUPERFAN) January 13, 2015
A. “I guess just the playing, getting to do all the stunts. Whether it’s rappelling down the side of a building or getting certified to go SCUBA diving. I like the physicality. I have a great stunt double but we’re always butting heads because I want to do my own stunts. There was an episode where a guy jumped out of a third story window onto the ladder that I was ascending. My character dives to the right and gets stuck. They wanted one take where there was no harness. They wouldn’t let me jump over and hang off the side 30 feet up with no harness so he did that.”
A. “Probably,” said the actor, who trained in a pool and a quarry in Kankakee to get certified in real life. “We haven’t done a scene yet, so far. Last January [2014] we did a scene where I had to rescue somebody from Lake Michigan. It was one of those where even the writers were like, maybe this is a bad idea. It’s literally freezing.”
Q. The freshman sitcom “Marry Me” (8 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC), a rom-com starring Ken Marino and Casey Wilson, is set but not filmed in Chicago. This week’s episode includes a storyline where Dennah (Sarah Wright Olsen) falls for a Chicago firefighter who responds to a 911 call. There was talk about the possibility of either you or Spencer playing that character but that didn’t pan out. (Upcoming “Chicago Fire” guest star Matthew Del Negro stepped in instead, playing a regular Chicago firefighter as opposed to the interim chief he’ll portray on “Fire.”) What happened?
A. “It was a logistical thing, a timing thing. I would have loved to. I think they’re great [Marino and Wilson]. I love those two. They’re hilarious.”
A. “Jesse, Eamonn [who plays Chief Boden] and I really got into sports stuff. In the fall we’ll go to Cubs games. I got to throw out a first pitch again. It was my second time doing that. We go to a bunch of Blackhawks games. I think I’ve been to 20. We’ve gotten to be buddies with some of the players. Our stages are 2 or 3 miles from the United Center so if we get done early enough and there’s a game, we’ll just pop over.”
Q. The cast of “Fire” feels like a family, both on and off screen. Has filming in Chicago — a new city for most of the actors — made you closer?
A. “When you’re displaced, you form bonds out of necessity. I didn’t really know anyone in Chicago. We all became friends and it was really organic. There was nothing forced about it. Guest stars come in and say, ‘This is weird, casts aren’t like this.’ There’s no egos. There’s no jockeying for position. Everyone has each other’s back.”
READ MORE: Check out these Q&As with “Chicago Fire” star Jesse Spencer, “Chicago P.D.” detectives Erin Lindsay (Sophia Bush) and Jay Halstead (Jesse Lee Soffer) and the showrunner for both series, Matt Olmstead.
