Marina Squerciati has become a fixture in one of the most successful television franchises approaching its tenth season on NBC. Chicago police Her character has been more than once in the past decade and only in the last few years has she been seen recovering from a profound loss, welcoming a little girl and building an unconventional family unit (with ups and downs). her while she was in the intelligence unit. Ultimately, however, Squerciati would never make it to One Chicago if a health crisis prevented her from attending the life-changing audition.
The actress’s time in the Chicago area actually began much earlier than when she landed the role of Kim Burgess Chicago policewhile attending Northwestern University for Theater, but it wasn’t all fun and games, as she shared with him will and graceSean Hayes and Dr. Priyanka Wali in an episode of theirs hypochondria actor podcast (opens in a new tab). When she was a student at Northwestern, she got so sick with such a fever that she had to go to the hospital and her mother was even called.
It turned out he had pneumonia in both lungs … but that was just the beginning of a series of events that could have changed the course of his entire career. Although she had been diagnosed with pneumonia, doctors thought she may have had meningitis ever since she was a student. Doctors wanted to rule out meningitis and the process wasn’t as simple as it might have been with Dr. Will Halstead in action at Chicago Mediterranean. She explained:
I basically had an intern who made the most inappropriate name in the medical community, [which] it’s a “lumbar puncture”. It’s a ram in your spine. Let me tell you, he went there trying to extract that liquid three or four times. It was a nightmare… I remember one of the senior doctors saying to me at one point: “Do you want me to do this? And I felt bad for this guy. I don’t know about politics in the medical community, but I didn’t want to be fired. So I was like, ‘Okay. Let the work be done. I’m a guilt sponge, and I’ve really tapped into those guilt sponge sensitivities.
It was a kind gesture from Marina Squerciati who didn’t want the intern to get into trouble for trying to do the lumbar puncture several times, but the second time she can do things differently knowing what she learned later. The first experience went from bad to worse. She continued:
But I remember the doctor … he was telling me, you know, all the things that can go wrong, but they’re really bad! You can be paralyzed, you [can] you have a spinal infection and may have a headache. And I remember joking and saying, ‘I’ll get a headache!’ famous last words Because in fact, at that time, I had never had a headache. So I’m lying in the hospital recovering from pneumonia. It was nice. And then I sit down and pass out from the pain.
As it turns out, you shouldn’t tempt fate in a hospital joking about what could go wrong when an intern throws a “ram” in the spine! Marina Squerciati managed to avoid the headache of pneumonia, only to be hit so hard when she tried to sit up that she passed out from the pain. “Famous last words” indeed!
Now, feeling so much pain just trying to sit up would have been bad enough under any circumstances, but obviously the timing couldn’t have been worse for the then Northwestern student. The next issue of him was the one that podcast co-host Sean Hayes could relate to. She explained:
I’m sure Sean can understand that when there’s a big audition or something like that, you’ll go out of your way to go. There’s this thing at Northwestern … and they pick the top four actresses and the first four male actors to take to New York, to audition for the agents, and they basically put you on that platform. Yes [the audition] It was that day that I left the hospital. My mom was on the plane because they were so scared of my condition, and I thought, I can’t lose him. [this]. I cannot. So my mom took this hospital tray and we left.
Talk about a real-life breakthrough, with your mom receiving a hospital tray as a solution to the problem! Unfortunately for Squerciati, the all-important audition moment that could give him an edge in the competitive world of acting meant he had to make it when he was in a lot of pain or just let him go. And somehow, a hospital tray worked. She explained:
I couldn’t lift my head. I didn’t really pass out from the pain, but it was almost unbearable. So we took this tray and she put it over my head and off we went. She keeps my head on a plate. And all I can say is we couldn’t … walk because of the rebounds. So my mom and I were striding a bit. I wouldn’t have missed this audition.
Marina Squerciati had the co-hosts in points as she told her story, so she clearly found the humor all these years later, but going strut to such an important audition with her head on a set held by her mother wasn’t exactly the one. ‘ideal. With only four places available as an acting student and the actress unable to walk normally, the odds weren’t in her favor. So how did she last long enough to try? She shared:
Fundamentally pure will. She took me to the theater. I remember the two steps I had to go up to get on stage because she was with me in the dark and it was very painful. I did my monologue, then went back downstairs and rested my head on the set. [laughs]
Forget a trip to New York: I would say that Marina Squerciati deserves a medal for remembering a monologue in that state, let alone for completing it successfully! But how did she do her job well, in light of all the pain from the lumbar puncture and her as her mother waiting for her with a tray? Well, her long list of TV credits dating back to 2009 should be enough answer, but she ended her story like this:
The woman you see here today is why I went there [that audition]. One of the hardest things about being an actor is finding an agent. It’s a brutal part of the business. I had an agent from there, then I had my next agent. And that really prepared me.
I think one of the hardest things about being an actor would be overcoming so much pain to pursue your dream, so congratulations to Marina Squerciati not only for auditioning, but also for doing so well that she finally showed up. in programs like The good wife, Blue bloodYes Gossip Girl before landing the role of Kim Burgess which brought her full-time on NBC in 2014.
Now with season 10 of Chicago police weeks after its premiere and a long list of special appearances in Chicago fire, Chicago Mediterraneanand even for a short time justice chicago, Squerciati appeared in more than 200 action episodes of One Chicago. She was also one of PS stars that appeared in the 2015 crossover with Law and order: SVU. That Northwestern audition was worth it!
See Marina Squerciati in action when Chicago police returns for its tenth season Wednesday, September 21 at 10 p.m. ET on the 2022 premiere TV schedule. The show is undergoing major changes early on, as Jesse Lee Soffer leaves after nine full seasons as Detective Jay Halstead. If you want to review Season 9 before the new episodes begin airing, you can stream it with a Peacock subscription. You can also find out more about their experience with the hypochondriac actor (opens in a new tab) episode.
Source: Cinemablend
