‘Chicago Fire’: David Eigenberg on Herrmann’s Captain’s Test and Boden’s Possible Appearance
When Boden (Eamonn Walker) was promoted to CFD at the end of Chicago Fire’s Season 12, he tapped Herrmann (David Eigenberg) as his successor. However, Dermot Mulroney was then cast as the new chief, Pascal.
That surprise was resolved in the Season 13 premiere, when it was revealed that Herrmann had a bad run and was sick before the captain’s test. But he planned to take the test next time—and he did. Below, Eigenberg looks at Herrmann’s possible future.
How does Herrmann feel about taking the captain’s test and how did he prepare?
David Eigenberg: He wasn’t prepared. He had a wife and kids. He wasn’t a focused person. He focused when things went wrong. He’s a little bit like my real-life mother and father. When times get tough, they’re there for each other and the rest of the time it’s a whirlwind. So I think he’s a little bit like that. And nothing comes easy to the Herrmann character, and confidence is not his strong suit, even though he can be vague and inflated, he knows what’s right. I think the character knows what’s right. He doesn’t always know exactly what the right thing to do is, and he has to be guided by other people. And I think that’s a great part of the show that I get to work with, work with, portray that element. I love that. It’s not that I’m a jerk in real life.
What does he think of Pascal as he’s learning about him as a leader?
Like a lot of characters on this show and then in real life, it’s sometimes hard to separate. I mean, sometimes you have to separate in your acting from the people you’re working with and who they are, and do you want to get to know them? And that’s just life, like anything. But Dermot actually came into a script that was incredibly difficult. We heard, because we all said, we’re all gossipy people and we’re going on about this, what’s going on with that? It’s amazing. We were casting for whatever, it took a while. And then Dermot got it, and then he finished a movie on the ocean on a boat, and he got off the boat and had a problem with – he rented a car with him and his son and drove here and there when they needed him and was passionate. And he was passionate about the show.
We had a young person come in to the show recently who had developmental challenges and was a wonderful young man. And he loved the show and Dermot saw all of us with this young man. And after the young man left after half an hour, he was overwhelmed. He got choked up. He was like, “You guys are such great people for bringing that young man into the group here”… because he’s such a sensitive, caring man. That’s a long story for your question.
But what was interesting was that Dermot played his character—I think he was written more, he was a bit of a snarky character in a rule-follower, but that character really cared about these characters. We did a couple of takes or something. We were like, “Are we”—he’s doing something like pushing, but, “Are we allowed to like him, the character, are the characters allowed to like that character?” They were like, “Okay.” And that’s not written on the page, but there’s a lot of things that are not written on the page in this show, and I think that’s what makes it so rich. So we’ll see what happens. They were like, I don’t know, but I love working with him. I’m working with him tomorrow morning. I’m working on another scene with him and I’m wondering, where do I put this? So we’ll see.
It seems obvious that once Herrmann becomes chief, it’s 51, but then there’s Pascal. Has Herrmann thought that far ahead?
I don’t think he’s thought that far ahead. He loves the fire department. He doesn’t want to leave the fire department. He wants to finish his career. I don’t know how many years he’s been gone. We’ll just have to see. There’s no downside because Herrmann, this character, always has—a black stick. It’s a stick with a piece of leather on the end, wrapped in leather. You have a black stick and he’s going to beat anybody who gets in the way of humanity and anybody’s safety at 51. So I don’t think Pascal will be in that position and it’s not that Herrmann is after him, but I think Herrmann will crush him if that happens—because we’re sucking him out. It takes time to get to know someone.
Is there anything going on with Herrmann and Cindy?
I really like Robyn Coffin. She’s been around a little bit. I really like their relationship.
