It has been an extended summer season for Chicago Med followers.
The favored hospital drama wrapped up manufacturing early within the spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and for some time it wasn’t clear when manufacturing would be capable of resume.
However not solely is Chicago Med again, however we had the chance to meet up with Nick Gehlfuss, who performs the gifted however sometimes-tormented Will Halstead. Learn on for his ideas about working throughout a pandemic, what’s arising for Will on Chicago Med Season 6, and extra!
TVF: What’s it like engaged on Chicago Med throughout a pandemic?
NG: I really feel very fortunate to be working in any respect proper now. It is so spectacular what’s been put collectively: on a regular basis, cash, and analysis that is gone into making this doable.
And earlier than we even stepped foot again on stage at work, I felt very snug stepping into, understanding the precautions and all the brand new dynamics and the protocols that have been arrange.
However having mentioned that, the primary day, it was overwhelming. It was my first day, together with your complete crew. And so we have been discovering our manner.
It was overwhelming, since you’re downloading all this new info on be and in addition concurrently making all these new selections to set precedents with every division: wardrobe, hair, make-up, sound props, every little thing.
You already know, I actually felt like we have been nearly beginning over on a brand new present. Fortunately, all our characters are so inside us at this level, irrespective of how a lot of a break we acquired due to this quarantine. Will was nonetheless very a lot inside me.
I am unable to think about what it might be like to begin up a model new present throughout a time like this.
Fortunately that overwhelming and perhaps disturbing nature has dissipated a bit bit.
It is troublesome to not wish to attain out and hug somebody from your loved ones, which is what all of us are. having not seen them for six months. Loads of your habits are colliding with the brand new dynamic and the brand new manner.
However we’re adapting. So we’ll determine it out.
And, once more, I am simply glad that we now have the chance to determine it out.
TVF: So yeah, positively, it sounds prefer it was an enormous adjustment. However I am positive you are grateful to have the ability to be again to work and to have the ability to do that present. How has the pandemic modified the path of any of the storylines that you just guys have been engaged on?
NG: So the story positively picks up within the midst of the pandemic. The entire of Chicago Med is adjusting to a complete new manner of working as effectively. And we choose up with all of the characters coping with it in their very own manner and at their very own tempo.
It’s so a lot that Dr. Charles might be having sidebars and chats with the medical doctors, simply checking in to see how they’re doing all through all this. And Will Halstead is his first assembly. You get to see that proper off the bat.
So we’ll positively be coping with COVID tales. After which we’ll even be bouncing in with what everybody has come to count on from the present, so far as simply staying present with science and sizzling button points and issues like that.
TVF: We have now followers that go into totally different instructions and a few followers actually like Will with Nat, and different individuals do not, and different individuals like his storyline with Hannah, and different individuals do not. However I am simply curious the way you see that. Do you ship him with a selected character?
NG: Yeah, I feel I feel if we’re speaking about do I ship him proper now, with Natalie, I might say I agree with the place the present took it as a result of it didn’t appear to be the precise time for each of them. And I am not blaming anybody or the opposite. It is simply if it isn’t working, you’ll be able to’t pressure it.
What they actually might use is a few {couples} counseling, and perhaps Dr. Charles might give them that sometime.
However as of proper now, we clearly see that Will has moved on. And the place we left off with him final yr, when he was having belief points with Dr. Hannah Asher.
However in the end, by the top of that episode, he is reminded by cost nurse Maggie that, “you consider in individuals, Will, and that is a very good factor.” And in the end he involves the choice to belief Hannah.
Now in the beginning of this yr, they face a form of a troubling actuality. It is a gripping opening to the season. And, and so the query might be: will they or will not they keep collectively?
May even form of brings us by this in all of the protocols coming into the hospital and what the brand new manner of coming into work appears to be like like. And, , nobody needs to look at a present your complete time with our masks on, proper?
And so there is a logic that we put into the emergency division particularly, that it is COVID free. Everybody’s been examined earlier than they arrive in: medical doctors and sufferers.
And so this enables us to have a bit liberty with not carrying masks at occasions. However then we’ll nonetheless clearly have a COVID ward the place it is a fully totally different world.
So we’ll actually be going forwards and backwards between two totally different setups fairly a bit. And it will be you will get a bit little bit of the COVID aspect, however then we’ll be balancing it with what followers come to count on from the present.
TVF: Superior. So I do know that one of many issues that I’ve discovered is that generally followers of exhibits might be like: I watch this present to flee; I do not wish to see this sort of factor. However I might think about on a medical drama, they’d count on it.
NG: Yeah, we now have a possibility right here to debate it. And , it is Dick Wolf. He began off with the thought of ripped from the headlines [stories] on Regulation and Order that has not modified within the Chicago franchise. It is nonetheless very a lot part of the entire idea of how we navigate tales.
And so we we’d finally have been coping with COVID. We determined to return out proper out of the bat with it. But it surely would not take over the present.
However yeah, that is Dick Wolf’s manner: you keep present. You keep related. And also you get a possibility to speak about tales another way or a unique angle to have a look at all of it.
However on the finish of the day, it is rather relatable to viewers members. As a result of it is what is going on on. It is what we’re all coping with. So it is an ideal alternative for us to as a medical drama, to speak about what is going on on.
TVF: Yeah, positively. You guys have been on for six years now. And you have been concerned a whole lot of totally different tales. I used to be questioning what your favourite of all of the stuff that Will’s gotten into through the years.
NG: That is a simple one. First off, I am unable to consider that It is six years now. It is form of unbelievable. It is actually nice. It is a testomony to a whole lot of onerous work.
We had our 100th episode. That was a fairly a fairly an expertise on set!
However my favourite, favourite storyline needs to be the place Will was prepping for his wedding ceremony with Natalie. And he will get combined up with individuals in his neighborhood Canary Ville, who simply so occurred to be unsavory characters, during which,Chicago PD have been taking care of these specific people as effectively.
And so he is requested to put on a wire and assist them do some work whereas he is additionally making an attempt to work out a cope with the quid professional quo for a marriage venue.
And in the end, in that climactic episode, which you’ll’t have except you may have the storyline earlier than it, I do not assume Will really goes into the hospital as soon as! He is off website your complete day.
He finally ends up drilling a gap in a man’s head after which has his life threatened and by no means makes it to the altar and actually, is carried away to protecting custody.
However proper earlier than that, he is in a position to say goodbye to Natalie. That was juicy stuff!
Though I’ll say another way, to reply your query: I used to be actually appreciative to have the ability to cope with among the opioid disaster this previous season. So… favourite another way.
I might say it is simply it is such an essential subject. It’s a disaster. And my household’s been affected by it. My uncle ended up dying from heroin about 10 years in the past, and I feel he might need been one of many first victims of the opioid disaster earlier than it really turned well-known.
I simply assume it our writers do an ideal job of placing a highlight on what’s what’s actually essential to dive into and I used to be glad to be part of that storyline.
After which after all, Will falls for Hannah, after which they did such an ideal job of justifying how we’ll get from this off-site secure injection website, again into the hospital.
Effectively, she labored on the hospital. And so it was a rather well carried out storyline, and it is nonetheless going so… yeah, that is one in every of my favourite ones.
TVF: So have any tales you’ve got carried out ever thrown you fully off guard? Such as you have been completely not anticipating that?
NG: I suppose I in all probability ought to have anticipated that I might drill a gap by a man’s head in a ship warehouse in downtown Chicago. However that was wild!
I do not wish to know the storylines earlier than they arrive in entrance of me in script kind. I do not wish to ask the author, “So hey, what do you guys have lined up for Will this yr?”I choose to not know that.
Once I learn the script, the primary time, it is such an essential learn.
I take a whole lot of notes, as a result of I am studying it as an viewers member will obtain it.
You already know, it takes a whole lot of totally different types, after all, and there is totally different drafts that find yourself popping out. However the broad strokes are normally what the viewers goes to undergo.
And that is crucial for me, to clock what I am feeling and what kind of epiphanies I’ve about this story and the place my head’s at, at any given level.
However they at all times do such an ideal job of some form of reversal, the place they offer you an concept the place it could be going after which it goes a unique path. And that is simply nice writing and good battle.
However yeah, I feel in all probability the one I would not have seen coming was the drilling the opening in that man’s head on my wedding ceremony day, and being a bloody mess.
TVF: What are your largest hopes for Will as time goes on?
NG: That is a very good query.
Effectively, I hope he finds love. I hope he finds any person that he works effectively with and we are able to see a aspect of Will that is not consistently colliding with a beloved one. Though what, there’s loads of battle in any wholesome relationship.
You already know, he’s a lover, I feel at coronary heart, and he fights for these he loves and so perhaps we’ll see him and Dr. Manning work out effectively, sometime.
I additionally know that this new season Will might be having a look inward at the place he is at and evaluating the place he is at along with his profession and life and he appears to be fairly introspective this yr.
And I hope that we get an concept of perhaps the place he needs to go. He’ll at all times go along with his intestine intuition and combat for his sufferers, regardless if he has to bend the principles a bit bit to do what he thinks is correct.
He must take heed to his sufferers, after all, and never let his private stuff get in the best way of sufferers’ needs. However I hope he is at all times prepared to take the danger to avoid wasting any person’s life although he goes with a intestine feeling. That is as a result of he is an ideal diagnostician.
And I hope we get to see extra of that.
TVF: Yeah, that is one of many issues I like about Will too, is that he’ll do no matter he thinks is correct. And generally he will get it flawed. And he is an excessive amount of in his headspace, however in his coronary heart is at all times in the precise place.
NG: That is true. Yeah, completely. Yeah. Effectively mentioned.
TVF: One final thing: I used to be questioning ,what do you consider the crossover episodes that I do know are actually common with a whole lot of followers?
Sure, that is one in every of my favourite components of this job. It truly is a magical evening, when the three exhibits intersect.
It’s principally a function movie, when you’re it.
As a result of the one facet of it only a technical form of factor, the place we’re all conditioned as viewers members, if you’re watching broadcast tv, not streaming or something of that nature, that there is a industrial proper after the present earlier than the following present comes on in if you cross the hour, proper?
And that is form of like an inner tv clock that we now have inside us.
However we do not have a industrial there, it simply slips proper into the following hour, and also you nearly do not even know you are within the subsequent present but.
And also you simply haven’t seen it on tv actually ever. Proper? That is magical.
It additionally affords us time to work with others in a bigger method. And it is wonderful. We have now our personal performing troupe, actually the three exhibits, and Dick Wolf has actually created a group right here for all of us.
That is allowed me to put roots. I would not have been in a position to discuss this till now. However I have been in a position to lay roots as an actor. And that is one thing that actors aren’t used to, as a result of we now have to maneuver round fairly a bit and go the place the work is.
However I have been in a position to be part of this group right here in Chicago, and positively the group of the One Chicago household. And it says lots that he [Dick Wolf] took all of us from elsewhere, and knew that we weren’t going to know anyone on this new metropolis, on this new space for all of us.
And we get to know these great individuals, which it looks like he is background checked, as a result of everybody’s so improbable to work with.
And so I take pleasure in additionally attending to go on the opposite exhibits, and play of their world, which I am going to convey my medical facet aspect of Will to, after all.
However generally, like within the final crossover, I used to be in a position to go inside this constructing to search out my brother, proper? And now, I am creeping with the remainder of the squad on TV, in a tactical method that I’ve by no means carried out on Med as a result of it is simply not our present.
And so that you get to dip out and in of these worlds a bit bit and play and a complete new manner. And it is simply superior. It is by no means been carried out. It is historic, proper?
TVF: Sure, I feel lots of people actually love seeing Will and Jay work together as brothers too. I feel it is an uncommon dynamic that you do not actually see an excessive amount of of: brothers who’re in fully totally different careers and totally different worlds simply interacting.
NG: Yeah, completely. And the fact of the Chicago franchise about these first responders intesecting, is de facto artwork imitating life. That is what occurs every day. And so in realm of maintaining issues related, and ripped from the headlines, these individuals work together on a regular basis.
And so he [Dick Wolf] has actually leaned in his personal method and capitalized on it with this One Chicago franchise, and it makes a whole lot of sense that it took off the best way it did.
After which we’re nonetheless in existence, as a result of he stored what works and simply added some new parts that basically stored it aggressive on this world of tv the place there’s so many choices as of late, and it is troublesome to final.
TVF: Do you may have any final ideas you’d wish to share with followers earlier than we wrap this up?
I simply wish to thank them for being affected person by this break that we have needed to keep for everybody’s security. We’re figuring it out. And we recognize the persistence, and we recognize the help.
We’re coming again November 11.
I have been instructed it is a improbable episode to begin. I do know that from the script, however you by no means know the way issues are all put collectively by the top. However I’ve heard such nice issues.
And, , I feel some of the essential issues we may give each other is our time. So I identical to to thank everybody for the time that they’ve given us up into this level and the time they are going to give. So superior!
Your flip, Chicago Med fanatics! Are you revved up for Chicago Med Season 6? What do you hope occurs for Will and the remainder of the Chicago Med crew?
Hit the massive, blue SHOW COMMENTS button and tell us your ideas!
Wish to catch up earlier than the brand new season? Watch Chicago Med online proper right here on TV Fanatic.
Chicago Med continues to air on NBC on Wednesdays at eight PM EST/PST. The season 6 premiere airs November 11, 2020.
Jack Ori is a senior employees author for TV Fanatic. His debut younger grownup novel, Reinventing Hannah, is accessible on Amazon. Observe him on Twitter.