Dermot Mulroney confessed to feeling “bitter” about his exit from “Chicago Fire,” sharing he “loved every minute” of his time on the NBC series.
The actor, who joined the Dick Wolf-produced procedural drama in 2024, opened up about his upcoming departure from the series during an appearance at Flashback Weekend in Chicago, Illinois.
“Loved every minute of it. Became friends with this incredible crew of people. Some have been there 15 years,” Mulroney told the attendees. “I had 10 episodes last season. Their season 14. They gave me incredibly challenging scenes. If some of you saw that season 13 I was in. My wife became part of the story and it’s really a crushing tragedy in there. That’s super interesting acting.”
As Mulroney went on, he admitted that the tragic storyline began to feel “really heavy,” but was proud of the way that he “delivered.”
“Now this season, sadly, I have one episode. I finish on Tuesday, and they write the character off,” he said. “So, we gave it our all for two seasons. They wrote an incredible storyline that put me as an actor on high challenge. So, I loved every minute of it. Thanks for asking. [I’m] sad to see it go.”
Mulroney then reflected on what it meant to be on a show that moved first responders and their loved ones.
“I can’t tell you how many people come up and they’d much rather have an autograph on ‘Scream VI,’ but they’re getting Chief Pascal for their dad, right?” he said. “I mean, it’s an amazing thing to see. And that’s how meaningful that is, which makes it that much more, I won’t say bittersweet, it’s bitter to have to leave that.”
Mulroney’s comments surfaced days after it was reported that he would be departing “Chicago Fire” after two seasons.
Mulroney, who is best known for his roles in films like “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “The Wedding Date” and series like “The Hunting Wives,” joined NBC’s firefighter drama in Season 13 as the station’s next fire captain, following the exit of Eamonn Walker’s Wallace Boden after 12 seasons.
The actor took a hiatus in the second half of Season 14, but returned for the finale in which Severide (Taylor Kinney) faced potentially taking over as chief of Firehouse 51 or becoming chief of fire investigation. NBC declined to comment to TheWrap regarding Mulroney’s reported exit on Friday.
