CHICAGO P.D.’s LaRoyce Hawkins Previews Atwater’s Big Hour: ‘It Was a Mountain That I Couldn’t Wait to Climb’

When CHICAGO P.D. star LaRoyce Hawkins got the script for the Wednesday, February 21 episode, “Split Second,” “it was a mountain that I couldn’t wait to climb, to be honest with you,” Hawkins, who plays Atwater, tells Give Me My Remote in the video below.

In the hour, Atwater stumbles upon a jewelry heist that takes a deadly turn. “Written by Harvey’s finest, Tiffany Bratcher,” Hawkins gushes. “Which was a pleasant surprise when I found out that she was from my hometown. It made me extremely excited to work hard. I knew that this was going to be something that the city would appreciate and respect more than anything. So I just wanted to reflect that.”

“It was written so well and the moments felt big off the page,” he continues. “It’s this interesting feeling of light anxiety—I call it a light anxiety because it’s because it’s not dark, right? It’s something that you honestly look forward to. There’s nothing that you’re really scared to jump into. But the nerves are still very real. And so that’s how I felt every day. Every day I knew it was a big moment. From top to bottom.”

As such, “there wasn’t a moment that I felt like I could phone in or take a break,” he says. “No moments were really rest moments. Sometimes you get scripts, where it’s like, ‘Okay, I see where the heavy lifting is. And then I see where I can rest and relax.’ But this script didn’t really give me much time to relax. Everything had to be on point. And, again, I’m grateful for how it turned out. I think we all grew as a team from this episode.”

When Atwater is in the middle of chaos, he’s faced with the active robbery, as well as multiple hurt civilians—putting the officer in a tough spot. “What makes Intelligence a unique and special group [of] first responders is that whenever we see darkness, we go in, we run inside,” Hawkins points out. “Some people in other positions do their best to help, but add value long distance. And we’re not built like that in intelligence. We’re built to be able to really run into the darkness and do our best work with the light that we got…we catch Atwater in one of those moments where he sees some darkness [happen], he pulls up, and does his best to add light and the situation grows…into something that obviously he couldn’t have expected.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Complicating matters for Atwater is there’s a witness, Teresa (Patrice Covington)…whose husband was killed during the heist, making her reluctant to help the CPD.

“I’m gonna be extremely transparent…Patrice is a great friend of mine, so it was fun for us to work together,” Hawkins says. “But as far as characters are concerned, Atwater, one, wants to do his best to be as soft and sensitive as possible with this Black woman who he just watched lose her husband. So now being a widow, how do I provide not just protection, but a source of inspiration, if I can? I want to be a light and I want to encourage, as I know that she also has a son; their family has been broken at this point. So Atwater is doing his best to protect a Black family first and foremost.”

“But then there’s this interesting conundrum where more lives are being affected,” he continues. “And more people are losing mothers and wives and sisters. There does come a point where Atwater has to make a decision that he doesn’t love, but he can live with if more lives will be saved.”

As the actor points out, this is something viewers see Voight “do all the time.” “We watch him as a leader do some things that might feel unconventional,” Hawkins says. “And it might not feel like it’s by the book, necessarily, but it will solve the crime and it will save a life; that’s what our jobs are…as long as you keep that as the priority: We save lives first. We solve crimes if you can. And you save who you can save.”

“There is no right answer, there’s no wrong answer,” he continues. “Something I like to say sometimes is we don’t write the rules, we can only right the wrongs. So that’s where Atwater finds himself at this point. And it’s just fun to play with it. It was very fun to play with. This was one of the first times I felt like I was able to tackle a script and hit every note. The high ones and low ones; I think I got most of them.”

Hawkins also relished getting to work opposite his old friend for the first time. “I know her as a musical powerhouse: We met her when she was doing THE BOOK OF MORMON when the musical] dropped 10 years ago in Chicago,” he recalls. “She was great in THE COLOR PURPLE on Broadway. And I was extremely surprised and impressed, to be honest with you, to see her on the battlefield the way that she did.”

“I think there’s an empathetic element that you have towards both your friend and towards the character,” he continues. “LaRoyce Hawkins just wanted to be there for her. I know this is one of her first big picnics as far as TV is concerned. Obviously, I just wanted to make sure that she felt comfortable to be free and to do her best. And then Atwater, as a character, wants something very similar for Teresa: I really want you to be comfortable. I want you to feel like you can trust me. And trust that I’ll protect you. And so those dynamics found a parallel as we worked together. It was cool to explore.”

Through it all, Atwater does have one unexpected person to lean on: His father, Lew (Erik LaRay Harvey). “[That relationship] means a lot,” Hawkins says. “It means so much. What’s interesting is that I recently had to move in with my dad…I’m living with my dad right now as a house that I’m working on is being rehabbed. And so me and my dad, we have similar talks that we watch Lew and Atwater have. Sometimes late night, over food or over drinks, where he just shares with me his perspective. And that perspective, from a father to a son, it’s imperative to growth.”

Calling that real (and reel) dynamic “beneficial for both parties,” Hawkins praises being able to see a different side of his character. “It’s great to see Atwater and Lew sharing that experience on screen,” he says. “I think people are going to thoroughly enjoy it. Because when we first met Lew, things [were] kind of dark and confusing. And now we see them turning this corner where the potential [of what] their relationship can be is doing exactly that. It’s growing.”

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

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