We at Survived The Shows had the great pleasure of chatting with actor Chris McKenna to discuss the origins of his acting career, his upcoming projects and his experience on Chicago Fire and Good Trouble. Check out the full interview in the video below!
What’s been the main element in Keith Bamford’s character that fascinated you the most and convinced you to join Chicago Fire?
CHRIS MCKENNA: Keith Benford’s an asshole. [Laughs] I have had the opportunity to play quite a few bad guys, especially in the last 10-15 years. When I saw this role for Keith Bamford, there frankly was not a lot there and I really wanted to make a whole guy, a whole person out of this. Like he was kind of a jerk, but this is a jerk who doesn’t know he’s a jerk. He gets a real kick out of himself. He’s a good guy underneath and he just rubs everybody wrong.
And I really dug into it and I sent the tape to Chicago Fire really wanting to do it.
I was given the opportunity. And then they listened to a bunch of the ideas I had and added some things that I wanted to add, which apparently they didn’t do very often, and I really enjoyed being a jerk. I know everyone hated me, and I’ve been hated before. I did 90210 and I played a character everyone hated. I did Good trouble, and I played the DA everyone hated.
How would you describe your experience during the whole filming process of Chicago Fire?
CHRIS MCKENNA: Well, it’s it was really a pleasure. It was a rare experience, first of all. Being on a show that’s been on for eleven seasons. Is unique because that that means that they’ve been running a perfectly oiled machine by then. Everyone knows each other. They clearly get along well. They wouldn’t be still around after 11 seasons. So it was a really fine-tuned machine. Everybody was so warm and wonderful. One thing that’s different about a Dick Wolf Show is that he really wants you to say the words in the script.
They got to put me through the fire training, you know, I had to get certified with the mask on. I did not appreciate the amount of work and paraphernalia and how heavy all that fire outfits were. I had no idea it was this difficult, but I had to spend some time, hours going through obstacle courses and wearing all this gear and learning to breathe and not hyperventilate.
So I had a lot more appreciation for what firefighters have to go through and there was some real fighter fires in the cast who were helping me out. Here’s one thing that I never I didn’t really appreciate. I had to get out of the fire truck with all the gear on and the big tank on my back.
On the first day I had to get out of the truck and they had this huge shot. They have 3 fire trucks pulling in, they have a crane camera, they got 50-60 extras. They have fire going in the windows and they come right down to me and I get out of and my my tank clips on the door and I fall right out of the fire truck flat on my face. I dropped 6 feet, bam right on my face.
But overall it was a wonderful experience, great people. And I was. I really appreciated getting through all that training and learning all about that, all the all the gear and the technical stuff like riding in the fire truck, riding through the Chicago streets and the fire truck was fun.
What drew you to play DA Mark Rothsom on Good Trouble instead?
Well, I have been acting for so long and I had played lawyers, but not really in in the I had played a character who was a love interest, whose job was lawyer. I never was in a in a on a trial or in in the room. So I. Felt like I had never really played a lawyer. And this role came along and it was kind of a small role and it really was, you know, they were like, you may not want to do this. I was like, no, it’s a District Attorney and I’m 40 now and I haven’t played a lawyer in a courtroom. And I love courtroom dramas.
So I want to learn how to play a lawyer A1 in the in the courtroom, not just a guy in a suit who you say is the lawyer.
So I was like, I want the District Attorney role. And I got it. Got to work with Constance Zimmer and it was great. And then they expanded the role and I got to have that experience. I just said. So I felt like I did OK, now I know how to play a District Attorney. I can write my own closing arguments. So what I wanted to do was play a lawyer, a real one, because I’m going to be old enough to play lawyers the rest of my career now that I’m in this age.
How would you describe your experience filming Good Trouble with both the cast and the crew and working with the writers?
I was really impressed. You know, I didn’t know the show at the time and I thought of it as a kids show, like, you know, from The Fosters. I was so impressed with the actors, with Maya Mitchell. Yeah, I didn’t know at the time Constance Zimmer was going to be on the show. I knew her and I was very excited to find out she was there.
But I didn’t know how talented and hardworking and serious Maya was, and any other other actors as well.
I was really impressed, not to be condescending, that there was a higher quality show and like it was not. The children’s show anymore and they did, did a great job on it and they tackled a lot of issues that I respected. So I at first I thought I was just doing it to learn how to play a lawyer or to, you know, or show something to myself. And I didn’t know I was getting going to be a part of such a, you know, a forward thinking, progressive good show. So I was very impressed and you know, find that out.
What’s your favourite memory out of that experience?
Well, I have a very clear one. First of all, that was supposed to be a small character, just an episode or two that I was doing during the pandemic, and then they expanded it to do more and more and eventually was 10 episodes. That’s always fun and they got to expand the character. But my favorite memory is when I did the closing arguments for the for the the trial that we were having.
It was a montage scene between Constance Simmers character talking to her to to Maia Mitchell and the other people on the on her team and flashing back to me talking to the jury. Now in the script they didn’t really write me a closing argument. She describes what I’m going to say and then they gave me a couple of words and I don’t think the writers realized they never gave me anything to to say really. I was kind of annoyed by it. I was like ‘I’m not going to just say 2 words and then’. So I decided to write my closing arguments based on what she was describing, and I wrote my closing arguments
I had a couple days to practice because I knew it was going to happen on Monday and I had Friday to Monday to figure it out.
So over the weekend I wrote them all. I knew we were going to rehearse the scene first, so I went to the props person ahead of time and asked for a book. Because I want to use a book. They gave me a book. I knew how the the set worked. I knew I’d get one chance to get this right. And I did my whole closing argument. I found the book. I slammed it on the thing.
None of that was in the script, and the jury was was shocked and everyone was looking around to the scripts, like where did he get this from? They thought that there was some rewrites they missed. Then I turned around to the producer and said ‘he’s got to be good, right?‘ And they ran over and they put it all in the script. And then that all ended up on the trailer and in the episode. And I felt quite happy that that had all worked out the way I had.
The interview with Chris McKenna has been edited and condensed for lenght and clarity. Watch the full interview at the top of the article!
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