CHICAGO P.D. Post-Mortem: Jesse Lee Soffer on His Favorite ‘Deadlocked’ Scenes and the ‘Rewarding’ Directing Experience

March 22, 2023 by Marisa Roffman

CHICAGO P.D. — “Deadlocked” Episode 1016 — Pictured: Jesse Lee Soffer — (Photo by: Lori Allen/NBC)

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the Wednesday, March 22 episode of CHICAGO P.D., “Deadlocked.”]

Voight (Jason Beghe) and Intelligence were able to stop Arturo Morales (Robby Ramos) from compromising a juror on the Wednesday, March 22 episode of CHICAGO P.D., “Deadlocked”—but it was a close call.

In the episode, Voight realized something was amiss with the jury…and that a juror’s wife had been kidnapped by Morales’ team. However, rather than tell a suspicious ASA Chapman (Sara Bues) what was going on, Voight and the team took it upon themselves to find the woman.

Ultimately, they did, and the juror was free to vote to convict Morales. But when Voight finally confessed to Chapman what had gone down, she was frustrated by his actions.

“It was a great experience [filming their confrontation],” director Jesse Lee Soffer tells Give Me My Remote in the video below. “They’re both such good actors and they know that relationship and where it’s going. It’s kind of a newer thing on the show. So, I really didn’t have to do much in that one. We just got to let them play a little bit, and I think we found the right tone.”

Outside of that emotional face-off, Soffer pointed to another Voight sequence as one of his favorite things to direct in the hour. “After 10 seasons of the show, Voight’s character is 10 years older,” he points out. “And we had a nice action sequence at the end of the episode, where I think we got to make him look really formidable and capable, still. Like a guy you don’t want to mess with. And that was really fun. And that was fun to see that come to life and to play that.”

With his directorial debut under his belt, Soffer acknowledges it’s also led to a different perspective toward his overall craft.

“Directing is really rewarding, I think, for me, at least, because you’re telling the story in like a macro way,” he says. “You’re looking at the whole story, the big picture, not just one character’s point of view. And I think, sometimes, as actors—at least I know this has happened me—you get hung up on wanting the character to be perceived a certain way. But maybe that perception that you have doesn’t fit into the writers’ intention and story.”

“And to tell the story, [via] directing, you need to not have any…you can’t have an ego about how any of these characters are going to be portrayed,” he continues. “And sometimes the story has to be, you know, dark or heartbreaking or whatever it is…I think just telling the macro version is eye-opening for an actor, because it’s going to help you justify more the next time around where there’s maybe something you don’t totally see your character as doing.”

But what comes next for Soffer? Could he direct another Wolf Entertainment show or return (in a guest capacity) as CHICAGO P.D.’s Halstead? (Halstead left earlier in the season, reenlisting and shipping out to Bolivia.)

“Definitely open to it,” Soffer says. “So we’ll see. Who knows what happens next season? You never know.”

CHICAGO P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC

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