Jesse Spencer interview: On Dawsey, danger and Australian accents
Chicago Fire returns next week, so One Chicago Center spoke to Jesse Spencer about what makes Dawsey work in Chicago Fire season 6 and hiding his accent.
This season of Chicago Fire has been hectic for Matthew Casey. He’s been promoted, he jumped off of a roof, and he’s always trying to hold both Firehouse 51 and his marriage together.
So what’s going through Casey’s head? We asked Jesse Spencer for his opinions on the Dawsey relationship in Chicago Fire season 6, how it’s been hiding his Australian accent that long, and if he’d feel confident in a real-life emergency.
Check out what Jesse had to tell us below, and then watch him when Chicago Fire returns with a special two-hour event starting at 9 p.m. on Thursday, March 22.
Casey and Gabriela Dawson (Monica Raymund) have been the show’s central love story, but that love has been tested this season, with both of them in life-threatening situations and then all of the drama with Bria (Quinn Cooke).
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But even though they’ve had conflict, Jesse doesn’t think it’s impacted their relationship.
“They definitely love each other,” he said. “I think it’s just the tension between two personalities and directions they’re going in their relationship, which is normal. [Dawson]’s rash sometimes. She has a big heart, but she might be overstepping her boundaries between professional and personal. So it just looks like she’s going down the same road with this Bria girl.
“I think they hold each other in check,” Jesse continued. “They’re both supportive of each other. Obviously they’re trying to keep each other alive but they’re not going to stop each other following their passion. Sometimes she’s going to be in danger, sometimes I’m going to be in danger. It’s part of the job.
“It’s good because it’s a two-way street. It’s not just the man running off to battle; she runs off to battle too, which is what it’s like in real life. Paramedics are out there on the streets and it can be dangerous. Firefighting is inherently a dangerous occupation. But they really do love each other.”
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The real tension has come from Casey’s relationship with Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney). The two have always butted heads a little, but Casey’s promotion to Captain created an issue of rank that’s played out a few times this season.
Still, they never stay mad at each other for long. And just as Casey and Severide are different but make a great pair, Jesse told us that working with Taylor Kinney on Chicago Fire has been a joy and a bond that’s evolved over six seasons.
“Over time, we’ve worked together much better than we used to,” he said of how their working relationship has grown. “We’re more of a unit, having years of experience.
“He’s just a really natural actor. He’s very honest, he follows his instincts, doesn’t overplay stuff,” Jesse continued. “I think you get a good sense of who Taylor is through Severide. They’re not the same [person], but you sort of get the dry, ironic thing…I really like working with him.
“He’s really fun to work with and we have a good chemistry, because we’re quite different, but we have a good connection.”
If anything’s been work, it’s been hiding his Australian accent. Many people who watch Chicago Fire still don’t know that Jesse Spencer is Australian, if they’ve just heard him on the show! And his American accent has become second nature to him—almost.
“It just takes a lot more work,” he explained of the accent. “You can’t just show up and do it. There’s a bit more homework that you have to do, in terms of sounds and combinations of sounds and musicality or lack of musicality.
“We did a take once in I think it was season 2, with Eamonn [Walker] and Daisy Betts. We had three foreigners in the room, and we tried to do a take in our own accent and it was so hard,” he laughed.
“My mouth was fighting every word that came out of my mouth. [I’m] in the character’s clothes, on the set, looking at the other characters—it was like a weird out of body experience!”
After six seasons, though, Jesse Spencer has not only made the American accent sound easy, but he’s made a lot of things look easy. From Casey’s chemistry with Dawson and Severide, to how he leads Firehouse 51 in emergency situations, he’s the rock of the team. So after more than 100 episodes of that, how does Jesse think he would do if he ever found himself in a situation like his character faces every day?
“I hope I would be number one, just calm. That would be the main thing,” he concluded. “I think that things mainly go wrong when people lose control. Whether you can actually help or not, I don’t know, but you can be calm.
“We’re pretty efficient as a unit now; I like that. We can take a car apart, we just all know what to do using the tools. We have to take it slow sometimes for shooting’s sake but if they just let us go, we go for it.”
Next: Chicago Fire's many Severide love interests
Don’t miss Jesse Spencer as Matthew Casey when Chicago Fire returns March 22 with not one but two new hours! For more Fire news, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.