Colin Donnell interview: Inside Connor Rhodes’ season 3 reinvention
Chicago Med season 3 has shaken up Connor Rhodes, and Colin Donnell weighed in on his character’s personal and professional turmoil in our interview.
Season 3 of Chicago Med has been a challenge for Connor Rhodes. It’s torn down Colin Donnell‘s character and built him back up again—as far from the same person.
Ahead of tonight’s significant episode for Connor, One Chicago Center sat down with Colin to talk about how he perceives the “new” Connor, his character’s relationship with Dr. Ava Bekker (Norma Kuhling), and what other speed bumps might lie in wait.
Connor started this season of Chicago Med on unsteady ground, the rock trying to hold everyone else together while his life upended at work and at home. It’s no surprise that he finally broke; it’s been a surprise how he handled it.
After being left by his girlfriend we’ve seen Connor impulsively buy a Porsche, sleep with several different women (including one who was married!), and then make out with his rival Ava. So is this formerly stable doctor having a midlife crisis or what?
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“I think with everything that went on dealing with Robin’s situation towards the end of last season and he thinks things are going well, his being stressed out about all that,” Colin told us, “he sort of felt he needed to reboot and press the reboot button on his life a little bit, and get back to working a little bit faster and a little looser.”
The prime example of that is where we left him: in liplock with Ava. When Chicago Med returns tonight, fans will find out that they slept together—and as is the case in the life of Connor Rhodes, that’s just the start of the problem.
Did Colin see the Connor-Ava hook-up happening like many of the fans did?
“I think there’s a bit of writing on the wall,” he said. “When two people are working so close, even if it’s an antagonistic relationship, they work so closely to each other.
“There’s a mutual attraction, not only on a physical level but just a respect for each other’s abilities and so I wasn’t totally surprised,” he continued, “but I think what’s going to be really great is to see what the fallout is going to be.
“Connor’s been pretty happily floating around as a social butterfly. It’s not something that he wants to give up immediately and there’s a possibility there could be something real with her. I don’t think people should worry; there’s still a spark and a competitive edge between the two of them no matter what happens.”
Where could Chicago Med take Connor from here, now that Ava is a part of his personal life as well as his professional one? Colin pointed out that she’s more than a romantic interest for him; there’s the aforementioned rivalry, and based on what fans have seen from her this season, Ava could use a friend, too. What happens next will have multiple layers, not just another love story.
“You do so see all those things going forward,” he explained. “Especially in this next episode that’s coming up, you see the immediate aftermath of them sleeping together and then you go on.
“They get back to work and they have two competing cases. They each have a patient who’s on the heart transplant list and they’re doing the best to go back and forth,” he added. “The lines get blurred between their personal relationship and their work relationship, and they’re trying to figure out how much is in column A and how much is in column B. It’s a fun episode for all that.”
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As longtime readers of this website will know, the more that goes wrong for Connor Rhodes is more that goes right for Colin Donnell. Challenge and conflict for his character gives him more to play with, and he’s enjoyed how Chicago Med has allowed him to step into a different side of his role this season.
“My favorite part is when Connor gets knocked down a peg,” he said, “because it opens up the possibility for the character to grow and it’s always fun to dig a little deeper and figure out how he’s going to grow and change from the experience.
“That’s always a really nice thing to see in a character. You don’t want them to stay in one place for any amount of time. When all the stuff with Robin went down, it was fun to see how they were going to do a complete 180 to his life, and it was fun to play that sort of playboy, roguish attitude.
“He’s masking all of the hurt that he’s going through by letting loose,” he added. “Finding the balance between maintaining all that at work and still enjoying his life. It’s been a fun arc this season.”
Regardless of what he has going on his personal life, Dr. Connor Rhodes still has work to do, and Colin told us that there are still other challenges for him within the walls of the hospital in addition to his romantic developments.
“We’ve got some cool cases coming up,” he teased. “There’s the conjoined twin surgery, separation surgery that builds towards the end of the season. There’s a lot of really great stuff of who’s going to be assisting Dr. Latham on the surgery [and] how is it even possible to do it?”
In another upcoming episode, Connor finds himself having to channel his Jack Bauer when he can’t get into the hospital—and as if that wasn’t tough enough, the same installment has another visit from his dad Cornelius (D.W. Moffett), who will no doubt find something to dislike about his son’s life choices.
“The hospital goes on lockdown and there’s a case that Choi’s dealing with where Connor has to get back into the hospital,” he added. “While we’re outside the hospital, Ava and Connor are at a brunch and we get a little reacquainted with Connor’s dad. We catch up with him a bit, we see their relationship.
“And then it was a blast to shoot,” he laughed. “I was going around in a suit and busting through doors and playing an action hero a little bit.”
As he once again finds himself in so many unpredictable situations, it’s clear that Connor Rhodes may not even know Connor Rhodes right now, and he’s going to have to sort himself out through the work that he has left to do (because he never lets one get in the way of the other!).
What is so great about his character is his inner strength, and while he’s definitely faltering a little bit or at least confused about what he’s doing right now, this could be the time for him to rely on other people instead of being the one they rely on. Maybe that list could include Dr. Will Halstead, as Colin confirmed Nick Gehlfuss’s assertion that the Connor-Will rivalry has thawed now.
“I think it helps they’re in completely different areas of the hospital,” he said. “There’s no threat anymore. It’s nice to see Halstead in a seemingly good place in his relationship, and Connor’s doing his own thing and he’s got his myriad of relationships.
“I love any Halstead and Rhodes scenes. I love being able to play a little bit of that. There’s always a little hold-out of alpha male attitude between the two, but they definitely have a deep respect for what each other does and they are aware of how well they work together. It’s great.”
But whether Connor decides to reach out to someone else for help, or winds up pulling himself up out of the latest dramatic hole that the show has put him into, one thing that’s true is that there’s always something going on with him. This season has just magnified the juxtaposition between Connor’s ability to control and to repair, and the way he finds himself being the eye of the storm.
We’ve seen Connor Rhodes have his life upturned in every season of Chicago Med. In season 1, he changed specialties and lost a mentor; in season 2 he got a tough new boss and had his girlfriend to try and help; now in season 3 he’s needing to help himself. With how everything he holds onto changes each season, can Connor ever be truly stable? Should he be?
“The short answer is probably no,” Colin told us. “He thrives in that sort of scenario. I don’t know if he’s consciously inviting it in, but he’s not shying away from it. There’s an aspect to him that really feeds on all the tough situations and tries to step up to them.”
Now he’s going to have to step up for himself, and we’ll get to see how Connor overcomes his next challenge—not to mention what Colin Donnell is going to do in rebuilding the character one more time. If this season has been the most difficult for Connor yet, that just means there’s more to find out on the other side.
Next: A deeper look at Connor Rhodes in Chicago Med season 3
Don’t miss Colin Donnell in tonight’s episode of Chicago Med. How do you think the rest of season 3 will turn out for Connor? Let us know your thoughts on his character in the comments.