Chicago Fire alum Warren Christie finds new home on The Village

Chicago Fire alum Warren Christie is back on NBC in The Village, and told One Chicago Center why his new role is something special.

Warren Christie stole scenes on Chicago Fire as firefighter Scott Rice, but now he’s stealing an entire show with his performance on NBC‘s The Village.

The freshman drama tells the story of an apartment building and its interconnected residents, and Warren’s character Nick Porter has been the heart of the season as he struggles to come to terms with life after leaving military service.

Ahead of tonight’s new episode, One Chicago Center connected with Warren to talk about what attracted him to The Village and if he thinks Scott Rice would ever make another appearance on Chicago Fire.

But his current series had him hooked from the beginning.

More from One Chicago Center

• Chicago Med star on 2024 cast changes: ‘Nice to have new faces’
• Here’s the perfect Chicago Fire episode to watch on Thanksgiving
• Ranking the 8 NCIS Thanksgiving episodes from worst to best
• Mark Harmon does NOT have plans to reprise Gibbs on NCIS
• One Chicago stars tease new seasons on IG: ‘Here we come’

“When the script came through, I knew it was special,” Warren said of The Village. “There was just something special about what it captured, what it was trying to do and what it was showing with this community and family.

“I fell in love with the script and I fell in love with the character and what his journey could potentially be,” he continued. “To sign on to something, you have to be ready to do it for a long time, and this one in particular was so beautifully crafted by [series creator] Mike Daniels.

“It wasn’t just my character. You get invested in all the characters and all the stories,” he added, “so I saw the potential of how it could go for a long time. Sometimes you read a pilot and it’s really great but then you ask yourself, then what? What’s next? And this, there were obviously so many stories to tell.”

The first season of The Village has traced Nick’s returning home and trying to put down new roots in Brooklyn, but it’s also something of a homecoming for Warren Christie. Not only is he returning to NBC but he’s getting back to the kind of role he does best—the character who has a big heart and plenty of layers to unravel.

He’s been wonderful in how he’s peeled back Nick’s history and the way it’s rippled through his present (and potentially future), starting with the revelation in the pilot episode that he was the ex of fellow resident Sarah (Law & Order: SVU‘s Michaela McManus) and father of her daughter Katie (Grace Van Dien). It’s felt so natural, perhaps because the story’s been unfolding for him as well.

“Some of it I knew going in. You learn at the end of the first [episode] that I’m Katie’s father, so I knew that was going to be part of the journey,” he explained. “I knew reacclimating himself into society was going to be an issue. I knew PTSD was going to be touched upon, but I didn’t know fully to what extent.

“I just knew what we were going to touch on. I didn’t know how it was going to be woven in, but I thought they did a really masterful job of it.”

As The Village winds down its first season, Nick finds himself in an interesting place. He’s so tied up in his past, while simultaneously having this future he didn’t expect with a daughter who’s also pregnant. His character arc is almost bifurcated with how he’s pulled both forward and back, and as Warren explained, it’s given him so much additional depth.

“You see two sides of him,” he said. “One who really doesn’t know how to be a parent, he doesn’t know what to do, and so that’s fun to play and figure out. Then you have these underlying issues where he’s obviously dealing with PTSD and he’s having problems personally and emotionally, so a lot of stuff has to be handled on his own.

“He’s just trying to figure it out. He really has no clue…He’s been thrust into [having] a teenage daughter who is now pregnant and all these other things coming out as well. It’s really just a guy trying to figure things out one day at a time, because it’s all so foreign to him. He’s back home in New York, he’s got a daughter, he’s dealing with these issues that he didn’t see coming—and so trying to balance all that is a lot.”

That’s also a lot for Warren Christie to dig into. The Village has played to his strength of being able to get to the heart of a character, no matter how complicated or who they are.

Whether portraying a dangerous antagonist in Eyewitness or more recently a third wheel in The Resident, he finds that special thing in each role that makes it matter and is often able to show much more than is on the page. With Nick Porter’s journey he’s committed himself to shining a light on a very important subject.

“I think the biggest thing right now is telling the story of a veteran coming home with PTSD,” he reflected. “It comes with research. I was very fortunate; I had a military consultant named Jamel Daniels with me, and we spent a lot of time talking.

“[We’re] asking men and women to come home and just pick up their lives, and it’s really not that simple. So I felt the responsibility of telling that story, and [showing] the strength and the struggle to what these people are dealing with. I’ve tried to do that justice, and I hope I have, because it’s an important story to tell.”

Watch One Chicago on fuboTV: Watch over 67 live sports and entertainment channels with a 7-day FREE trial!

And it’s important to recognize what Warren Christie brings to The Village. He’s an actor who not only deserves to be front and center on a TV show; that’s where he’s best, because audiences get to watch each week as he reaches deeper into his character. He builds something so beautiful and subtle and heartfelt, that it’s not just talent; it’s that he’s put his heart into it as well.

With the series bringing him back into the NBC family, and since several past characters have been resurfacing on Chicago Fire recently, would he consider returning as Scott Rice in a future Chicago Fire episode?

“I don’t know,” he told us. “I loved the people there; I had a lot of fun. They were one big family, so I enjoyed being a part of that; they were very welcoming. But I think the way the story tied up for my character, it would be tough to go back. The way it ended was done right and properly, and that closes the book on that.”

So while Firehouse 51 may not see Warren Christie again, at least fans can see Warren Christie in The Village. There’s no one better to play Nick Porter than him—and it’s exciting to see this next chapter of his career, where once again, he’s delivering a performance that goes straight to our hearts.

The Village airs at 8 p.m. Tuesdays on NBC. For the latest Chicago Fire season 7 spoilers and news, plus more on the entire series, follow the Chicago Fire category at One Chicago Center.