Written By: Jayme Face
Marlyne Barrett plays Maggie Lockwood on NBC’s Chicago Med and she actually has the nursing degree to back it up! We caught up with Marlyne about Chicago Med and what else she’s been up to!
Photo Credit: Eli Nichol
upfrontNY: You play Maggie Lockwood on Chicago Med, what can we expect from this season and your character?
Marlyne Barrett: It’s funny, we get to do 20 episodes and on episode 1 of the season it’s easy to answer. On episode 1 airing it’s not so easy and then post the new year after shooting for 6 months it gets so difficult. I’m going to try and answer as if I started shooting today. I think it’s a roller coaster of obstacles for a hospital who is going through some major upgrades in various departments, but financial cuts in the ED accompanied with some great relational issues from all the up and coming couples and the possible expecting couples who are just trying to figure out how to be great professionals in an environment where they’re just so confined to life and death situations. So, how do you not let your emotions ride high and how do we not let people not get embittered to a point of not being able to work together. It’s just a great work environment that brings a mirror to society, not a black mirror, but a mirror.
upfrontNY: You have your nursing degree, does that come in handy playing the head of nursing on this show? Does anything actually hold true to what you know?
Marlyne Barrett: Funny enough I just came from a medical rehearsal right now and no it does not. You know I was completely oblivious to what they were asking me to do, but I think one of the main things to always remember is that nursing care is about people. So, I think in that capacity it’s a love that I’ve always had for people; whether I’m translating a story on screen or portraying the nursing craft on screen I think nursing and acting have a lot of that in common. I think in that sense there is a lot of it, but my nursing degree was done in French so a lot of the medical terminology I just don’t understand in English. so I I would’ve had to figure out how to do my nursing in English and that I can do, but my mind in itself I understand about nursing privacy that we always provide for patients, the patients privacy, the hygiene, preparation, the honor of the doctor, the honor of the environment and the hospital as a business and the hospital as an institution of healing. It’s all there and that remains the same, but Canada definitely has the social care so I never worked in a private hospital. I never trained in a private hospital so the American system of health is a little different.
upfrontNY: What made you pursue acting after getting a degree in such a different field?
Marlyne Barrett: I’ve always been an actor. I started acting when I was in my senior year of high school. I think my parents always knew I was a creative, but I wasn’t creative in the let’s dance, let’s do ballet type. No, I was more of an emotionally creative person. I would evoke a lot of emotion. If I had to describe it you would say she is a creative child, she wants to express herself, she loves to communicate. If someone was crying I would explore that moment with them. It was really weird when you’d think about it. People would say “Stop crying!”, no let them express themselves would be my thing. I’ve always known and I think it’s a love for the process and the assessing of a situation that varies between people because of the variable called culture, where they were born and the language they communicate. I just see it differently. Every time I’m asked a question about humanity I’ve never answered the way I’m answering you right now. I think I just love people.
upfrontNY: You have answered fans tweets live, what is the most unique question a fan has asked?
Marlyne Barrett: Someone asked me if each member of the cast of Chicago Med had a title or superlative, such as who would be queen of the ball or king or queen of the prom, what would be their title be? I had to think about each character and what they were most likely to achieve. It was the perfect question for me because Maggie is the character that actually has to relate with every single member of that staff because of the position that I hold as charge nurse. So, I have to interact with everyone all the time. It doesn’t matter how devastating a story line is for me, I have to take the time to interact with someone. She’s the all wisdom and the all pain for the show.
upfrontNY: Now you film in Chicago, but you are originally from Brooklyn. You have to answer the age-old question, who has the better pizza?
Marlyne Barrett: New York, hands down! No question. We’re not going to debate about it, there’s nowhere to go with that one.
upfrontNY: Now you work closely with an organization called The Way Out, can you tell us more about that?
Marlyne Barrett: The Way Out is an organization that provides shelter for young men or women who are rescued from the snares of sex trafficking. I ambassador for them so I’m not actually on site. What they provide is a rehabilitation process for the person outside of a religious institution or a medical institution, but with the possibilities of whatever the person chooses to practice. It’s long term care meaning some facilities only provide 6 weeks this one, I believe, provides around 9 months sometimes. The process is done mostly from the outside- in, meaning they help the person kick any habits that was forced by the trafficker, reconnect emotionally with themselves and lastly, hopefully, spiritually expand in hope for the future. As rampant as sex trafficking is around the world, Montreal has been the toughest. It’s taken us two years of fundraising to see the doors that are about to open. That’s two years of fundraising after already having some funds and finding a location. And in Chicago too, these places where there is a lot of traffic. There is only one home in each city, but each place has a quantity of about 25,000 kids trafficked per month. It’s a lot, it’s a lot of people.
upfrontNY: How can people volunteer their time or resources?
Marlyne Barrett: Well, right now donations go to lasortie.org, The Way Out. You can find the link on my Instagram @barrettmarlyne. Ultimately, volunteering is not really a possibility because when you rescue girls it’s kind of like a battered shelter, you can’t give a location because of the possibility of being taken back.
upfrontNY: Can you tell us about any upcoming projects? I know you recently filmed Shotgun.
Marlyne Barrett: I did, I filmed Shotgun. I did a short film called Night Call that is in a lot of great festivals right now, making a lot of great noise. I’m in the process of getting ready to shoot my first film this spring and I’m excited about that.
upfrontNY: Is there anything you’d like to let our readers know?
Marlyne Barrett: Happy New Year and I wish everybody just a great 2018 with hopes and dreams coming true!
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