Written By: Jayme Face

Joe Minoso plays Joe Cruz on NBC’s longtime fan favorite Chicago Fire and we caught up with him about Season 8!

upfrontNY: Can you tell us about the new season of Chicago Fire?

Joe Minoso: Well I mean if you haven’t caught the premiere I don’t want to spoil anything, but there is obviously going to be a tragic event for everybody at Firehouse 51. It will involve the loss of a firefighter and that will then kind of open the world to what that loss will mean to everyone at the firehouse, specifically me, Joe Cruz in a pretty heavy way. He takes it more personal than most.

 

upfrontNY: What direction do we see Cruz’s character going this season especially with that eventful season premier?

Joe Minoso: First of all have you seen the premiere?

 

upfrontNY: Yes, I have! (If you are not caught up yet STOP reading here and go catch up!)

Joe Minoso: Okay. So I don’t have to talk in coded message, but obviously he’s lost his best friend, his brother, the guy he most communicates with in the most basic human level in the firehouse. That is going to manifest into the biggest change in his life. There is just no way around that. From Cruz specifically you’re going to see a different level of growth. What was fortunately beautiful about Otis and Cruz and unfortunate that we lost the kind of adolescent humor and behavior they shared. Their youthful exuberance was, I think, charming and exciting to watch and just fun to get lost in. That doesn’t really exist for Cruz anymore. He has lost the outlet for that sort of juvenile, adolescent, fun behavior. You will see in a lot of ways a big growth spurt for Cruz emotionally and mentally. That being said and with his hyper focus on how life can be so short and fragile you’ll see him be more laser focused on getting things he wants and taking the bull by the horns, if you will.

 

upfrontNY: Working with these other actors for 8 seasons what is it like when someone’s character goes?

Joe Minoso: Utterly devastating. When I found out, I remember Yuri (Sardarov) called me about ten minutes after he found out. It was the end of May and I was speechless. I did not, I could not form words to express how affected I was by it. As we moved on through the summer and got the script I read it, the thing I was most taken by was what beautiful service they did to the character. In a lot of ways, the most justice we’ve done to one of our exiting characters since the show started. It was beautiful to see them honor the character, respect him and give the fans time to mourn over him. The first episode is really kind of a slow episode. It was more of dealing with the loss of a firefighter than it was getting right back into all the action. We started with a ten minute fire, but it definitely was a more contained episode, dealing with these people and the effects of what happens to a firefighter when they lose the closest to them. Its devastating when one of our cast mates exits. I’m so happy for Yuri  because I know he is always interested to explore new things and he felt like he had given Otis everything he could. So, I’m really excited for the potential for him to have new opportunities and go on to different things. At the same time, you can already feel it on our set. The dynamic is different, not in a bad way necessarily, but just different. There is something missing and I can’t tell you how many times, especially when we are all dressed up like in bunker gear, I just see him. I think I see Yuri walking past in his outfit; it’s crazy, but I love him. I’ll miss him forever, but I’m sure I’ll see him in a couple of months when whatever the next thing is will bring us together. He’s not getting rid of me that easy.

 

upfrontNY: Chicago Fire often does cross over episodes with the other Chicago shows in the franchise, not many other shows are able to do that, what is it like to be able to do something like that?

Joe Minoso: I mean exactly, I think you’ve answered the question with a question because not a lot of shows are able to this. We are part of something unique. I like to refer to us as the Marvel Universe of television. We’ve found a seamless way  to integrate different actors from different shows at any given moment without it feeling jarring or without it feeling false. I really think that we’ve found a unique niche world in a very populated landscape. There are so many things to watch right now and we are doing things differently than most shows. I think that it’s really cool to be an actor that’s involved in something that singular and that unique. It is really special and I know I’ll hold this as an experience that will be one of the best in my life.

 

upfrontNY: Do you ever get feedback from actual firefighters about the show?

Joe Minoso: Yeah, all the time. You know what’s funny before we introduced the Slamigan it was a lot about “My wife loves your show, you’re the crazy guy with the Zumba thing, and by the way we would never do this and this and this”. Which is fair because for the purposes of drama we sometimes choose what wouldn’t be the best solution or what would kind of be the exciting spectacle. So a lot of times the firefighters basically tell us “You know we wouldn’t have done this like this and this like that”, but now ever since the Slamigan 9 times out of 10 what I get out of firefighters is “Hey man, that Slamigan looks like a pretty cool tool. That’s impressive. You guys come up with that yourself?” and it’s like obviously I had nothing to do with the invention of this tool. I just think it’s really funny that that’s what these guys get drawn to the most.

 

upfrontNY: Maybe you guys need to a new business venture!

Joe Minoso: Oh, I mean the technical director, Chief Steve Chikerotis, who is a retired chief of the CFD is the one who basically invented this tool. They just came up to him and they said “we need this cool thing that Cruz could invent” and I guess he’s had this in his back pocket for a while now. So, he had this idea of marrying these two tools in order to make this one thing called the Slamigan. More and more firefighters are saying this might be viable. It might be a legitimate tool. He and I are keep talking about how the second version of it is going to be able to attach and we joke about it all the time, but there may be a little side business in it for him for sure.

 

upfrontNY: Like you said you are known for being the Zumba guy, were those your own moves? How did it come about?

Joe Minoso: Every year, before we start the season, Dick Wolfe has a dinner that he hosts for all the actors. I happened to be seated right across from Dick Wolf and then Zumba came up. I don’t really remember how, I think Sofia Bush was there at the time  and brought it up. He (Dick Wolfe) was like “Wait a minute, wait a minute, my wife talks about Zumba. What is that?” I explained it was this dance aerobics exercise and how I lost all this weight. I like doing it. It’s amazing. It’s so much fun. Then just kind off the cuff I told the writers we’ve never seen what Cruz does for a side job it would be pretty funny if he was a Zumba instructor. He got this look in his eyes and was like “That is funny”.  It kind of unfolded from there. The next thing you know I was a Zumba instructor for a couple of episodes.

 

upfrontNY: You have an extensive theatre background do you think we would see you go back to the stage in the future?

Joe Minoso: You know I’ve been asked that before and frankly I’m so scared that I wouldn’t be able to do it. Theatre and television are very different. Television, you get a script, then you have a week to memorize all those lines and then you get the next one and you have a week to memorize all those lines and it just keeps going like that. I wonder if I have the brain power to let a script sit in my head for a month and then repeat it for every night for a month or two. I don’t know if I still have that muscle. But, I’m sure if the right play came along, if the right opportunity came along I definitely would entertain it. There is no way I’m going to walk away from what might be a beautiful opportunity to perform in something wonderful with great people.

 

upfrontNY: You are from Yonkers originally and us being upfront NY have to ask what do you miss about New York or what is the first thing you do when you are back?

Joe Minoso: Wow, you know it’s rare I go back to New York. Actually, I was born and raised in the Bronx and then I moved to Yonkers for High School. I was there all throughout high school. My family was there when I was in college. If there’s something I miss it’s the pizza. I love Chicago it’s a wonderful place, but deep dish pizza is not pizza. It’s absurd. It’s tasty, but it’s just not pizza in my eyes. If there’s anything I miss it’s a classic New York triangle slice, that I can fold up. That’s pizza to me! So that would be the number one thing that I would go back to do. New York wins on the pizza front for sure! Yes! Definitely! Chicago is slightly cleaner, not slightly, a lot. Its more spread out and it has a lot of its own wonderful charms, but definitely not on the pizza front.

 

upfrontNY: You support numerous charities can you tell us a bit about your involvement with them?

Joe Minoso: I try to do my best to be involved in things that obviously are supporting first responders because the job has given me the opportunity to really get a look at what they go through day in and day out and how much they can suffer at the loss of somebody. So, I do my best to get involved with the 100 Club of Chicago which is an organization. When other organizations come calling I do what I can to support. Unfortunately, I lost my mother to cancer a year ago. So, I’ve been doing a lot of work now like Cycle for Survival I go every year. I try to get myself involved with any organizations that are supporting any research, especially rare cancers that you wouldn’t see coming. This year’s been tough. It’s been a difficult year. I just try to spread the wealth as much as I can. We worked with Shriners Hospitals for kids a couple of years. That’s always been a tremendous partnership and I hope we can do more stuff again together this year. I’m happy to help. I do my own donating on a private level and I’m just happy to lend whatever voice I can to things I believe need the voice and that’s what I’m here for.

 

upfrontNY: What do you like to do when you’re not acting?

Joe Minoso: I recently joined a shuffleboard league which has been fantastic! It’s way more fun than we’d want to do on a Tuesday at 8:30. It’s one of those things where Tuesday at 7:30 “Oh God, we have to go shuffleboard” and then by 10:00 we’re like “Oh my God this was the best idea ever!” There’s this place called Royal Palms here in Chicago which has been a blast. The reason why I joined that shuffleboard league is because my wife and I are so very, very good at sitting on our couch. It’s what we do more often than not. Also, there’s a restaurant, our favorite in town, called Bavettes. Anytime my wife and I get an opportunity to go out to Bavettes we definitely do it! The city is all about eating and then staying away from the cold so indoor activities and eating. Then when it’s nice out I do enjoy a bit of golf.

 

upfrontNY: Is there anything else you would like to let our readers know?

Joe Minoso: Thank you to all the fans. I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback in response to the first episode of the season. From the bottom of my heart thank you. Be on the look out, hopefully by this time next fall you’ll be seeing previews for a movie that I’ll be directing with Christian Stolte, as the lead.