Dermot Mulroney officially starts working at Firehouse 51 in Chicago Fire Season 13. The beloved Hollywood veteran, known for films like My Best Friend’s Wedding and About Schmidt, will play Wallace Boden (Eammon Walker), who left his role as the longtime head of 51 in Season 12. And his arrival will change everything.
As Daniel Kyri (Ritter) told NBC Insider in an interview, “We have some new faces coming into Season 13 and there are some clashes going on between characters that will make our audience wonder who’s right and who’s wrong in these situations and interactions… Seeing how our characters will side with each other or fight back will bring some exciting excitement to the season for fans. So stay tuned because things are going to get explosive.”
But what exactly does that mean? In an interview with NBC Insider, Mulroney opened up about joining Chicago Fire and what fans can expect from his character, Chief Dom Pascal.
NBC Insider: What’s the best thing about joining the Chicago Fire cast?
Dermot Mulroney: Yeah, this whole Chicago Fire experience is completely new to me. I’m also joining a cast that’s already here. So I’m really a new guy in a completely new experience. I’ve never played a role that’s been this long. I’ve never worked on a job for this many months when our filming schedule goes all the way to 2025. It’s rare that I get to work on a character that I don’t know the backstory for… So I’m having the best time in a new process. [I’ve been acting] for a long time—it’s nice to have a new way of looking at creating a role, emanating a role.
Which Chicago Fire cast or crew member do you connect with the most?
Oh, that’s impossible. It’s like asking, “Which puppy do you like the most?” I really can’t pinpoint them. They, as a group, as a community, literally as a family, welcomed me with open arms. They had to because they are who they are, and I guess—I joked earlier—they’re trained by Boden.
But they went above and beyond. There was a private dinner for the cast, you know, they were getting together, and they were going to include me that night. [David] Eigenberg invited me to his beautiful home with his wife and family for an event. Three, four, five other [One Chicago] actors showed up. I can’t tell you how touched I am by how this show works and how these guys have been a team.
Sometimes, there can be some breaking of the silence. You can see some of that in the character with Pascal, maybe breaking the silence of [51], or trying to. But for me, in real life, it was amazing. There was no transition; they just brought me right into their tight-knit group. I was so touched.
What’s the biggest difference between Pascal and the former chief of 51, Boden?
He’s the new guy in the fire department, and he’s going to do things the way he sees fit. I don’t think that really makes people happy. But it’s interesting to see how they’re going to work those things out or turn them into conflicts; we’ll see.
What happens when Pascal gets home from work?
Well, what we know in these early episodes is that he’s trying to save his marriage… We don’t really know what’s happened or what’s going to happen. So it’s a really fun exercise and I couldn’t ask for a more dedicated partner [KaDee Strickland as Monica Pascal] because we’re hunting down who these characters are.
RELATED: Breaking Down the Current Cast of Chicago Fire They’re all new, fresh to us, to a show that has a lot of really beloved and well-known characters. You know everything about these characters already. So give us a minute, we’ll catch you up. The writers are coming up with some great stuff. Challenging, challenging scenes.
But, you’ll see Sheriff Pascal challenged by situations in the first few episodes and having to question his own moral boundaries.
Are there any behind-the-scenes moments that surprised you while filming the first episode?
I was surprised when we shot the incident in the first episode. I was surprised because I wasn’t actually scared. The roof was blowing up. They had these pyrotechnic-like devices, butane tanks inside the smoke shop that were going off and shrapnel flying in every direction for a mile around the perimeter of this fire scene. So it was extremely dangerous.
But in real life, of course, it’s 100% safe. Except it’s a little noisy and the air is moving as it blows past you from these smoke cans and whatever
