I got a groovy assignment last week to visit the set of NBC’s new drama “Chicago P.D.” in — of course, the Windy City. I almost didn’t make it as a wicked, unanticipated snowstorm nearly shut down the city’s airports. Two of my flights were cancelled, and my third flight that was set to arrive at 4pm didn’t arrive until well after 11pm.
Call time was bright and early at 7am the next morning, which left me a little bleary-eyed. That was nothing compared to the cast and crew who arrived on set at 5am to start shooting. By the time I arrived (with Starbucks in hand), everything was in full swing. The squad room, interrogation room, precinct headquarters were all built in a massive soundstage on the outskirts of Chicago. The place felt so gritty and real, it was hard to imagine that just on the opposite side of a wall was nothing but plywood and sawdust. I went to plug my computer in to an outlet, only to find out that the 30 various outlets sprinkled throughout the precinct were only for aesthetic purposes. None of ‘em worked.
One by one the stars of the show traipsed in to chat up the reporters from various markets. Only problem … the snowstorm meant nearly everyone’s flights got cancelled. Thus, it was me and another reporter from Hartford, CT doing all the heavy lifting.
I bonded right off the bat with CPD’s star Jason Beghe. I’ve loved him ever since his stint on “Melrose Place” 20 years ago. Beghe has a very distinctive voice … a gravely, guttural, hyper-masculine sounding voice. It’s what I imagine sandpaper would sound like if it had smoked Marlboros and drank whiskey for several decades. Of course, I wanted a lesson on how to sound more like Beghe. Try as he might to teach me, it was futile. I joked that if I ever wanted to sound like him I was going to need my third testicle to drop down. He was quick to add, “I have four testicles.” Needless to say, everyone died laughing.
Beghe and I bonded immediately. Every time he spotted me, he’d yell, “MACKIE!”, as in “MACKIE, get over here and watch me do this scene!” or “MACKIE, get your ass over to the set! We’re about to start shooting!”
The female star of the show Sophia Bush also had a certain rasp to her voice, but that was because she’d been working some hellacious 14-hour days. She did confess that when she’s not working or sleeping, she’s eating her way through Chicago. To which I replied, “Attagirl!” Bush is lovely … truly, a stunning woman … like a porcelain doll come to life. At a red carpet event the next evening, she was the one every one wanted to talk to or, at a minimum, bask in her radiating beauty. What you don’t see (or hear) in the picture of us is the throngs of screaming teenagers just outside the range of the camera. With her star-making turn in the long-running “One Tree Hill”, Bush was a bona fide teen idol. Heck, she practically grew up in front of the nation’s watchful eye.
There was always a hubbub of activity on the set. I forgot how many worker bees it takes to create an hour-long drama. In this hive, everyone was in a jovial, upbeat mood … and that was despite the merciless shooting schedule, which had been woefully delayed because of Chicago’s brutal winter. (Or as Sophia Bush called it, “Chi-beria.”)
The show is a spinoff of NBC’s hit show “Chicago Fire”, so there are a lot of actors pulling double duty on both shows. Since I was always a big fan of the character development on “NYPD Blue”, it’s fun to watch the evolution of this show from the ground up. “Chicago P.D.” starts back up in earnest after the Olympics this Wednesday on NBC. Meanwhile, watch for my behind-the-scene reports on Kansas City Live in the upcoming weeks!