Chicago Med

Season 3 M-Net (*101) 21:00 Drama

Nick Gehlfuss has played cops, journalists, detectives and more, but taking on the role of Dr Will Halstead in Chicago Med (2015-current) is “by far the most difficult thing I’ve done professionally and personally!” exclaims the 33-yearold. “Did you know that doctors have a specific cadence [speech pattern] to the way that they talk? Medical terms are like rocket science for me – it’s well over my head.” He’d better get used to shouting “Stat!”, because Chicago Med has been renewed for season 4.

Nick almost turned down the role

when producers sent him to job shadow real-life doctors and surgeons. “I thought I’d be freaked out by all the blood,” says the actor. “I couldn’t get close enough. I think that if I was reincarnated, I’d want to be a doctor.”

Nick’s struggling-actor story is a

tasty one – his local Italian diner had $1 (R5 back then) dinner specials and he ate pasta five nights a week.

He took comedy as a minor sub

ject while studying his degree in Fine Arts at Marietta College and jokes that “I’m a master of the arts”, having earned his Masters degree from the University Of Missouri in 2010.

Nick credits his current success to

the two “most important women in my life. My manager, who took me right out of varsity. And my [hotel marketer] wife Lilian Matsuda. They can be a bit bossy though,” he laughs.

He loves his phone and tech toys,

but Nick admits that he only uses social media for work and because it’s written in his contract that he must.

And while a lot of redheads blame

their hair colour for losing roles, Nick is the opposite. “Being a ginger is cool. If I’m not cast in a role, it’s because it’s not right for me, not my hair.”