‘Chicago Fire’: How Life Imitates Art by David Eigenberg in Part 12

With a 40-year career on stage and screen, actor David Eigenberg views his chosen profession as a rollercoaster of good fortune with some moments of disappointment.

When he tried his hand at acting after being honorably discharged from the United States Marine Corps Reserve in 1986, the early years of Eigenberg’s career seemed to be filled with more obstacles than successes. There was a time when he planned to pursue a career in construction. But soon there were breakthroughs and successful auditions for the then-promising young actor.
In 1999, Eigenberg became known to millions as the on-off boyfriend (and later husband – and then ex-husband) of Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) on the HBO classic Sex and the City and its sequels. But some might argue that his star shined brighter when he joined the main cast of Firehouse 51 in 2012 on NBC’s Chicago Fire.

As first responder Christopher Herrmann, Eigenberg plays a gruff, no-nonsense firefighter with a heart of gold for his wife, five children and fire station family. Herrmann is one of the former guards of Firehouse 51, but as seen in the first three episodes of season 12, he is now facing challenges in life that may make it difficult for him to continue working as a soldier. fire fight. In the premiere, Herrmann saves the firehouse from a package bomb, but he is knocked out by the explosion, eventually causing severe hearing loss.

The veteran firefighter is now wearing hearing aids to continue his work as a first responder, and that storyline stems from some reality for Eigenberg, who also wears hearing aids . The Hollywood Reporter recently sat down with the Chicago resident via Zoom to talk about his career — including reactions to his And Just Like That storyline — his love for the city, his reasons on why he reached out to the writers to rekindle season 12 of Herrmann and why he sanctioned a multi-season “changing of the guard” into a TV series: “There comes a point where it’s like: I guess I have to pass the torch.”

First of all, you did your own stunt with the package bomb in episode one, right?

For this one, yes. It’s great! We shot this scene across the street and they wanted to see my face, and we did a different stunt than we usually do, because we usually work with mortars. They are typically a giant, self-contained steel box that can be 3 to 4 feet tall and 24 to 30 inches wide, and filled with propane gas, soot, and dirt. And then they pop up! They were pressurized, exploded and then caught fire.

But this explosion was a controlled explosion, different from what we did. It’s a larger fireball and has the ability to ignite, as opposed to releasing pressure over time. They said, “We want to see your face,” and it was really cool because we had the best people doing the effects along with the amazing people who did our stunts. . I never stopped when they put our lives and health in their hearts to care for us. And then they get really serious and say, “Are you 100% okay with this?” And I said, “Yeah.” And I don’t like to talk about this without mentioning our boys. Brian Peters has been doing stunts with me for a long time and he’s great.

As a result, Herrmann is in a state of panic. We saw in last week’s episode that he suffered severe hearing loss while saving his teammates from a package bomb. Why didn’t he want to seek help immediately when another firefighter discovered the problem?

You know, everyone is positively passionate about the show and the stories. Maybe some sacrifice will happen and we will feel a little uncomfortable.

It’s a loophole because you never know when your hearing will start to deteriorate, to what degree it will be. Even though they have one-eyed firefighters in Chicago, and they have deaf firefighters and hearing aids, at a certain point, if you can’t keep yourself and others safe, you can’t keep yourself and others safe. can do the job. And with Herrmann, I think it’s pretty clear that he really loves this job. He loves the people he works with and has only one weakness. And it also competes with your age in real CFDs. At a certain point, you have to retire.

And that is real and in almost every element. And that’s true for me on this show, because it’s so physically demanding that there will be a time – I hope the show goes on for a long time – and there will be a time like, “Yeah, I guess I have to pass