Chicago Fire Has a Real Firefighter Among Its Cast (And He's Still on Duty When Off-Screen)
Chicago Fire is the TV series which started Dick Wolf's sprawling and successful Chicago franchise, which depicts workings of various public services in Chicago.
Chicago Fire, as you can guess from the name, follows the firefighters, rescue personnel, and paramedics from the fictional Firehouse 51 of the Chicago Fire Department, both on their job and in their personal lives.
One of the franchise's selling points is being more realistic and authentic, than is typical for various procedural TV series. The showrunners listen to their consultants.
And they even have professionals from the depicted fields appear on the shows in smaller roles. As we have covered before, Chicago Med has an actual neurosurgeon appear on the screen.
And one of the regulars on Chicago Fire is a real firefighter from Chicago. Specifically, Anthony "Tony" Ferraris, who drives a rescue truck in Squad 3, and remains a recurring character since the series' inception.
He has assisted in the production of the series not only by acting his role, but by contributing his ample professional expertise in order to bring the show a sense of realism.
But how a real fireman ended up playing a fireman on TV?
As Ferraris revealed in an interview with Wolf Entertainment, while the showrunners wanted to recruit someone from the ranks of firefighters, he ended up as that actor due to luck and being in the right place at the right time:
"A friend of mine received an email from the firefighter's union saying the show was looking for extras. He asked me if I would go with him to the audition. I went in with him, and I guess they liked me."
Ferraris noted that because he was one of the few people with actual experience at the wheel of a firefighting vehicle on the set, in those early days, he was at first tagged for driving duty.
And initially he did not really have much of a role, but things quickly improved for him.
"I started as an extra," Ferraris explained. "And then Derek Haas, our 'Chicago Fire' showrunner, approached me around episode five or six and asked me to read for him, and then they started writing me in."
And when not playing in Chicago Fire, Ferraris still does his job as a non-fictional firefighter with Chicago's Fire Department Squad 2, Engine 91.