January 8 - 14, 2023 BY JAY BOBBIN
Jana Kramer
OF ‘CHICAGO FIRE’ ON NBC You do a now-rare series gueststar turn in the Jan. 11 episode of “Chicago Fire.” Who do you play?
Melissa is an insurance investigator who sees something that looks a little fishy, so she comes in and ruffles some feathers to try to get to the truth of what’s going on. All of my scenes are with Taylor Kinney (alias the show’s Lt. Kelly Severide), and it was so much fun to work with him. He’s got really great energy on the set, and even when we weren’t filming, it was fun to have the off-camera banter and then get serious in the scenes. He’s an absolute sweetheart. Did you have much time to be around others on the “Chicago Fire” staff?
The crew is really awesome. You can see why they’ve been around for so many seasons, because they’re great. It’s a well-oiled machine, and everyone is really nice.
The beard of grief grows long on ‘Your Honor’ in Season 2
Were you looking to do a guest shot on an established series, or did this just happen to come along?
It just came along. I’m always looking for things, and I decided to audition for this and give it my best ... and when I got the call, I was so excited. I filmed for four days, and it was during the holidays, so I was kind of back-and-forth. I haven’t had a vacation in a year, and I was supposed to be in the Bahamas for my birthday, then I got the call about this. My agents were like, “Well, good news: You booked ‘Chicago Fire.’ Bad news: You’re going to have to cancel your trip.’ But it’s all good. I got to go home and see the family, so it was cool.
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Bryan Cranston stars in “Your Honor” Friday on Showtime’s online and On Demand platforms.
This was presented to me as maybe a recurring role, so I’m hoping that she’ll come back around. At the very end, she says, “We might see each other again” ... so we’ll see. I would love that! It would be a dream to come back, because it was such a great experience.