“He’s not there to be anybody’s best friend,” Dermot Mulroney says of his character, Chief Dom Pascal, on Chicago Fire. That’s evident from the first few episodes of Season 13. “It starts off a little bit intentionally deviant, and then you see how the character evolves from there,” he continued when he recently stopped by the TV Insider offices. (Watch the full video interview above.) “What I learned about Pascal in the first few episodes is that he’s surprisingly kind. … He’s had to test his moral boundaries a few times now. It seems like he’s picking and choosing his people even if they’re new to him. I think we’re learning that he’s incredibly loyal to his company.”
We’re still waiting to find out exactly what brought Pascal back to Chicago from Miami. “The writers were great about just kind of touching on it superficially in the early episodes about what happened in Miami, that it drove everyone crazy and then I don’t know when you’re going to get out of trouble,” Mulroney admitted. He likes television that allows that.
Pascal made it clear in the premiere that he does things his own way, which means a change at 51. But is that the way he usually does things, or is it part of it because he knows what the fire station is like and he’s coming in as an outsider? That’s something Mulroney is still figuring out.
“He definitely took this new job very seriously. You see him coming in very harshly. Now, does it really change the dynamic in the house in the episodes that we’ve seen? Honestly, I can’t say much,” the star said. “Pascal himself is not very familiar with what’s going into Season 13, and he’s trying to, right? He’s trying to run a tight ship, but it’s a little difficult.” There’s also the fact that since they’re married, Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo) shouldn’t be working together, and “Pascal is a rule-follower, so we don’t know how that’s going to play out yet,” he added.
We also don’t know what happens when Herrmann (David Eigenberg) passes the captain’s test, and then the captain’s test. So will Pascal step aside and move on, if that day comes? “I feel like Pascal was put directly in Herrmann’s path from the rest of Season 12 and the departure of Boden [Eamonn Walker]. I think he was set up, as far as I understand, as the heir apparent to the captain’s chair. Well, sorry, Pascal is here, and I don’t feel like he’s going anywhere,” Mulroney said. “So the writers are going to have to figure that out.”
Check out the full interview above to hear more from Mulroney about Pascal, his motivations at 51 and his hometown, and Chicago Fire—including how musically gifted the cast is!
