YOUNG & RESTLESS
When you were auditioning for the show, did the idea of playing a cop appeal to you?
“Yeah, I really love cop stuff. Me and my dad really liked all those cop shows and MIAMI VICE is one of our favorites, so I was pretty excited because we don’t have a lot of law enforcement characters on the show. I really wanted to bring it justice.”
What did your research entail?
“I really enjoyed watching TRUE DETECTIVE and my dad showed me some COLUMBO, although that character was more of a detective. I also watched The Maltese Falcon to try and tap into my inner detective. I have a couple of friends whose parents are cops in Texas, so I was asking them a bunch of questions. I also have friends that I went to college with who were in the military or still in the military, so I was shooting them texts, because Chance is a soldier at heart who transitioned into being a cop. I really wanted to bring that military aspect of Chance to life and then have him discover his passion for police work.”
Did you watch any Youtube tutorials on handling guns?
“I sure did. You also see [the use of guns] on TV a lot, so I was taking notes. I watched Prisoners with Jake Gyllenhaal to see how he does all of his stuff because I really enjoyed that movie. I also looked up how to arrest somebody, so I definitely Youtubed a few things.”
Have there been any bloopers or mishaps with prop guns, badges or handcuffs?
“Oh, yes. There was a scene where I was putting all of this evidence into an evidence bag. Before the scene, the crew told me, ‘We only have two of these, so don’t mess up,’ because you have to peel the seal off, put the evidence in and then seal it back up and you can’t reopen it. Well, I messed up my line so they were like, ‘Okay, we’ve got another bag, don’t worry.’ So they give me the other bag, I peeled the seal, stuck the evidence back in and I messed up my line again. Then we had this 15-minute fiasco of trying to finagle this bag back to looking like I had just peeled the seal off and in the third take, another complication happened, so we had to go back and do it again. Me and evidence bags aren’t too good of friends.”
Before Chance could become an effective cop, he had to learn how to manage his PTSD. Did you enjoy portraying that chapter of his story?
“Yeah, that was challenging, but in a good way. I really wanted to do that right because I’m very aware that it’s a real thing that people struggle with and they struggle with it pretty hard. So again, I was asking a lot of questions of my friends in the military who know people who have been through that. I was also doing my research online and watching videos and just trying to bring as much truth and justice to that story as I could,
so somebody who did experience that would watch and say, ‘Yeah, he nailed that.’ ”
Are you prepared for the day Chance reads someone their Miranda rights?
“I have looked them up just in case because I want to get them right. Playing a cop, you’ve got to have all that jargon down so it comes out of your mouth very smoothly or else somebody watching will think, ‘That guy doesn’t know what he’s talking about.’ But sometimes I read court orders and law-related things in the scripts and I’m like, ‘Well, that doesn’t sound natural.’ So I look it up, read it about 100,000 times and write it down and then I’ll be okay.”
What do you think of Chance’s professional clothing?
“I’ve never been in a cop’s uniform. They’ve got me in this really cool detective getup. My favorite part is the jacket, and the wardrobe guy will pop the collar on my jacket because that’s how Chance rolls. He doesn’t dress like a typical cop; his outfit has a little more swag. It’s more a plainclothes detective look. I don’t know what the wardrobe protocols are for detectives but I like what they got going on for me.”
What makes your character police material?
“His big thing is he wants to make the world a better place. That’s why he joined the military: He wanted to protect this country and then he took those passions and transitioned them into a new job that brought him home, so that’s what he’s doing on the GCPD now. He’s all about justice and wants to keep the streets clean.”
Did you enjoy the relationship between Chance and his late partner, Rey?
“Oh, yeah. I love Jordi [Vilasuso, ex-rey]. We were good pals and I think we really tapped into that whole buddy/cop situation and it’s too bad the way it worked out. I did enjoy my time with Jordi, and Rey was Chance’s only friend, so I think Jordi enjoyed it, too. It was fun just bouncing off little cop ideas and I felt there was still so much of that dynamic to play because Jordi and I were just starting to get into our little groove.”
How would you rate Chance as a cop?
“He’s facing a dilemma now, especially with the whole Victor thing, where Chance’s two worlds collided; [Abby’s] family and his love for police work to make the world a better place. So, he turned his cheek on a couple of things and now he’s struggling with how good of a cop he really thinks he is. It was a fine line he was walking between family and work.”
Do you think closing an investigation to protect Victor will haunt Chance?
“Yeah, I think so. Chance grew up without a father, so he looked at Victor as a father figure who he respected and trusted and was the role model he never had. And then Chance realized Victor wasn’t the hero he thought he was and it turned Chance’s world upside down. So, letting Victor off the hook, I think, will always eat at Chance. The fact that he turned the cheek on this is something he’ll have to sleep with for the rest of his life. I don’t think he really knows who he is or what he stands for anymore, which is why I think he’s struggling now.”