‘Chicago P.D.’: Jason Beghe Explains Return to Old Voight — Who Can Pull Him Back?
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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago P.D. Season 11 Episode 7 “The Living and the Dead.”]
The serial offender Intelligence is after on Chicago P.D. might have just made a major mistake because there’s no way that Sergeant Hank Voight (Jason Beghe) won’t track him down now.
Though Voight took in one of his victims, the offender was able to trick him into a trap, and the latest episode ends with the discovery of a barrel with Noah and his boyfriend’s bodies inside. We’ve been hearing about the “old Voight rage” coming back, and now we know why.
Below, Beghe previews what’s next.
The episode ends with Voight seeing Noah and Paul’s bodies in the barrel. How does he handle that?
Jason Beghe: He feels like he failed, but I believe that some things are too hard to confront. And so what happens is—I don’t know if it reads or not, but my choice is that he kind of flips back to what’s considered the old Voight and gets into this kind of savage, “I’m going to f**king kill you” mode. He becomes more determined than ever to catch and bring justice, let’s say, to the offender.
Do you think anyone can pull him back from that? I feel like everyone who would’ve been able to is gone.
I think that the only person who really can pull him back is himself. He’s never been pulled back. And I think that rage by definition is something that can’t be regulated—that’s why it’s called rage. So it’ll be the degree to which it’s righteous anger that will be the determinant to how far and to what degree he can pull himself back.
Is this the case that’s going on through the end of the season?
Yeah.
Will it end on a cliffhanger, or will it be resolved this season?
I think there will be a cliffhanger. Whether or not the case is resolved, I think that it probably will be. I’m not positive, but I do believe that there will be a cliffhanger.
What else is coming up for Voight? Is this case what’s consuming him right now going forward?
Absolutely. This is the background music, no matter what’s going on. This is what’s the theme of his—he’s somewhat obsessed with it. I think he’s going without sleep.
I feel like this is really going to highlight how far he’s come from when we first met him on Chicago Fire. Are we going to be able to see the difference and how much he’s changed?
I don’t know if he’s going back to what he used to be. I don’t think he’ll ever go back to what he used to be. One of the ways that I’ve always approached this character—and I hope to think that it’s one of the reasons why we’re still on the air and it’s something that I’ve always encouraged the other actors to do—is that both yourself as a person and also the character have to continue to evolve and change, or it’s not interesting. And you have to allow that evolution to happen both to yourself and to the character. We’re always the same person, but there are different shades of that person and different sides of that person that we—the old Voight is always there, but there’s also a new Voight that he’s always becoming.
I’m liking the Voight and Chapman (Sara Bues) dynamic this season because I feel like we’re seeing a different side of Voight with it. What are you enjoying most about that?
I just have, like I think the rest of us including the writers, a real fondness for Sara Bues. She’s fun to work with and she’s professional and she’s just a good person and she’s a terrific actor. I feel like there’s such a nice, warm, and kind of intimate, but professional connection between the two of them that’s somewhat surprising. I think people misread it into, “Is there a possible romance?” But it’s much more—I don’t think that’s in the cards, but it’s very intimate, and I think it’s honest and it’s close, and we’re useful to each other professionally and personally, which is interesting.
Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC
