CHICAGO P.D.: Jason Beghe Reflects on Elias Koteas’ Season 11 Return

CHICAGO P.D. surprised viewers at the end of season 11 when a gravely injured Voight (Jason Beghe) hallucinated a pep talk from his long-dead friend/former teammate, Olinsky (Elias Koteas).

When the episode aired, showrunner Gwen Sigan credited Beghe for the idea. “He had it a few years ago,” she told Give Me My Remote in May. “So him and I have talked about it, we’ve riffed on it before; it’s really his brainchild.”

“It was really special for all of us to see him back and in the outfit, back with Jason. It was emotional,” she said. “Everyone was very emotional, but it was also just really sweet and felt full circle and felt like this nice thing, as the crew and the cast, for us all to see him back.”

Even now, months later, it’s clear how much the moment meant to Beghe. “Filming it was…” he tells GMMR before taking a prolonged pause. “It sounds kind of like I’m exaggerating, but without exaggeration, for me, the metaphor would be like the most delicious meal, the most spectacular wine. We savored it, both he and I.”

“I’ve been talking to him about it for years because I had the idea,” he continues. “And I’d like to do more, because I think there’s a way to fold it in naturally, but I think Gwen is happy with the once.”

And the actors’ bond goes beyond their professional respect for each other. “I have a photograph of Elias’ last day on set, I have it hanging up in my house,” Beghe says, sharing the photo in question mid-interview, to show the two men embracing. “The funny thing is, somebody took a picture of when we first saw each other before we started shooting [‘More’], and it’s a mirror image of that shot.”

“It’s hard to explain, but I love him,” he continues. “It’s beyond. There’s a lot of ways, at least for me, that Elias—it’s two hearts with one beat. We have these words, like, ‘I love this guy’ and all that, but there’s something very, very, very, very deep and special about how I feel about him.”

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

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