Chicago Fire’s Eamonn Walker reveals how he transitioned to Boden’s voice

Starring in NBC’s hit action drama “Chicago Fire” since the series’ 2012 pilot episode (according to IMDb), veteran actor Eamonn Walker is the epitome of the battalion chief. 51 Wallace Boden, all-American, gruff. But what some viewers may not realize is that although this actor appears to be 100% Chi-Town native, he is actually from London. And the truth is, when not performing his duties in front of the cameras on “Chicago Fire,” Walker speaks with a clear and unmistakable British accent.

Speaking to Mission feel the music of the voice.” He noted that his acting philosophy includes using his entire body as a dramatic “toolbox”, adding that the voice is only a necessary part of making a character objects come to life in a believable way. “Sometimes it’s easy to speak in one voice, sometimes it’s not,” he admits. “So it’s more important to build the character, which comes from the work, than to create a highlight.” That being said, how would this London native describe his take on Sheriff Boden’s voice in “Chicago Fire”?

Eamonn Walker compares speaking with an American accent to wearing comfortable clothes

For Eamonn Walker, his early days as a British actor playing American characters in American productions made him question whether he could achieve the necessary accent. Interviewed on NBC 10 Philadelphia, he revealed that, “When I first came [to America] in 1997… I was scared to speak with an American accent in front of Americans and work with Americans.”

In the same interview, Walker added that he no longer doubted his American accent thanks to working with various accent coaches in New York and later in Chicago. He then went on to tell the story of the time his voice teacher made him listen to real-life advice from a Chicago fire chief as an example of how they talked on the job. The voice coach gave him some tapes, he recalls, but he admits that “The first voice that we chose and I started working on, I thought, ‘oh my God, he sounds white and that won’t work.’” But the next voice was from the black fire chief, and that firefighter’s voice ultimately formed the basis for the voice characterization sung by Wallace Boden. As for whether Boden’s voice sounds easy on Walker, he noted that these days, “I can wear him like I’m wearing an old suit.”