“He’s not there to be anybody’s best friend,” Dermot Mulroney said of his character, Chief Dom Pascal, on Chicago Fire. That’s clear from the first handful of episodes of Season 13.
“It starts off on a little off-kilter footing deliberately, and then you’ll see how the character develops from there,” he continued when he recently stopped by TV Insider’s office. (Watch the full video interview above.) “What I’ve learned about Pascal in the first handful of episodes is he’s surprisingly kind. … He’s had to answer to his moral boundaries a couple of times already. It seems like he is choosing his people even if they’re new to him. I think we’re learning that he’s fiercely loyal to his company.”
We’re still waiting to learn exactly what brought Pascal back to Chicago from Miami. “The writers are brilliant by how slight the mention had to be in those early episodes about what happened in Miami, that it’s driving people crazy and then I have no idea when you’re going to get let off the hook,” admitted Mulroney. He loves that television allows for that.
Pascal made it clear in the premiere that he does things his own way, which means changes at 51. But is that how he’d normally do things, or is part of that because he knows how the firehouse is and he’s coming in as an outside? That’s something Mulroney is still figuring out.
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“He definitely approached this new job very strictly. You see him come in very demanding. Now, has it really effectively changed the dynamic within the house yet in the episodes we’ve seen? I can’t say so much, frankly,” said the star. “Pascal himself is not that familiar with what led up to Season 13 and he’s trying, right? He’s trying to run a tight ship, but it’s a little hard.” There is still the fact that since they’re married, Severide (Taylor Kinney) and Kidd (Miranda Rae Mayo), should not be working together, and “Pascal’s kind of a rules-y guy, so we don’t know how that’s going to go yet,” he added.
We also don’t know what will happen when Herrmann (David Eigenberg) takes and passes the captain’s, then chief’s tests. So would Pascal step aside and transfer, should that day come? “I feel like Pascal was put directly in Herrmann’s path from leftover from Season 12 and Boden’s [Eamonn Walker] exit. I think he was kind of being set up, as I understand it, as the heir apparent to that seat behind the chief’s desk. Well, sorry, Pascal’s here, and I don’t feel like he’s going anywhere,” according to Mulroney. “So the writers are going to have to figure that out.”
Watch the full video interview above for much more from Mulroney about Pascal, the dynamics at 51 and home for him, and Chicago Fire—including just how musical the cast is!
Chicago Fire, Wednesdays, 9/8c, NBC
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