FRANCHISE PLAYER
Winchester out for ‘Chicago Justice’ in new Wolf NBC drama
PHILIP Winchester’s exit from NBC after the 2015 cancellation of his action series “The Player” was a blessing in disguise.
Network chairman Bob Greenblatt invited him out for drinks afterward at the Sunset Tower Hotel in West Hollywood. “Honest to goodness, I thought this is just what he had to do to be polite, be nice to the actor who just got fired,” says Winchester. “He said, ‘I’m sorry about the show. I’d like you to stay around on NBC if we can find something that works.’”
Never did Winchester, 35, think that meant starring in “Chicago Jus
tice,” the fourth leg of Dick Wolf ’s new franchise of Chicago-based procedurals. On a return 2016 trip to LA for pilot season, Winchester was sitting in his rental car when his agent phoned him. “How do you feel about Montecito?” he asked, referring to the ritzy Santa Barbara suburb where Wolf lives. The mogul sent a car to pick up Winchester and have him driven to his West Coast hideaway.
“The whole ride up I’m thinking, ‘What on Earth can he want to talk to me for?’,” says Winchester. “So the gates open, we drive in. He meets me at the entrance way. We go into his office. He says, ‘This is what I have. It’s a legal drama set in Chicago. And you’re not the guy I imagined. I thought he’d be mid-40s, a family, wife, Roman Catholic, but I’m told you’re the guy. What do you think?’ ”
The former “Strike Back” star leveled with him. “‘I do action. I jump out of helicopters and punch people in the face,’ ” he says. “I don’t know if I’m your guy at all.” Wolf ’s reply? “I don’t need you to do that. I need you to punch people with your eyes.”
“Chicago Justice” premiered March 1 as part of a crossover triptych that included “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago P.D.” It won the night in viewers and moves Sunday to its regular timeslot (9 p.m.) “To keep the audience for three hours, that’s a big deal,” says Winchester.
He plays Peter Stone, Assistant State’s Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Special Prosecutions Bureau. He’s also the son of Ben Stone, the attorney famously played by Michael Moriarty from 1990-94 in the original “Law & Order.” Winchester didn’t know of the connection between the characters until Episode 4, when executive producer Michael Cher- nuchin told him “We thought it was appropriate for your character to have this looming father issue always following him around, whether it’s in the courtroom or making these ethical decisions in the office.”
Would that mean, then, that Wolf is trying to woo the mercurial Moriarty back to the show?
“I know that’s a conversation that’s happening,” Winchester says. “It would be amazing [if they got him back]. We’ll see.”
Working a 14-hour day on a courtroom set has been a period of adjustment after jumping out of helicopters on “Strike Back” and running around barefoot and in his boxers on “The Player.”
So how did Winchester handle the avalanche of legalese? “The first few episodes were really difficult for me because I was constantly playing catch up with myself and the words,” he says.
“I called the writers and asked, ‘What the hell does this mean?’ ”