Ever since Sgt. Hank Voight showed up on Chicago Fire, fans have known that the no-nonsense head of Intelligence would stop at nothing to accomplish his goals. Luckily, when the character was shifted over to Chicago P.D. for his own round of weekly crime-solving with his team, his goals clearly concerned keeping the good folks of the city safe from a wide variety of very bad people. But, Voight is still very much a by-any-means-necessary kind of cop. If, however, you think the seat of that power simply comes from carrying a badge and gun, know that actor Jason Beghe would beg to differ.
Over seven seasons, Voight has had many characters on the long-running drama back him up, and many others try to bring him down for the, sometimes questionable, methods he uses to subdue the city's criminals. He's also clashed, several times, with his own team. When I got the change to speak with Jason Beghe at One Chicago Day recently, along with other outlets, he revealed what he believes gives Voight the power to do whatever he thinks is needed to bring down the bad guys, regardless of how others feel about the way he does it.
A thing that's kind of interesting about Voight is that he doesn't worry about what's going to happen and he doesn't fret about what did happen, no matter how daunting or terrifying it was or will be. He's really rooted in this moment and that's what gives him his power. It's an interesting part of the character that I consciously put there. It's also kind of easy to just be here now and not have to fucking worry about the other shit!
While Jason Beghe's assertion that Voight's power really comes from his ability to stay in the moment might seem surprising to some fans, when you think about the idea, it does make a lot of sense. Police officers are known for having to face down some pretty serious situations, but the same is probably true times 1,000 for Voight. Not only does he lead an elite unit of officers, but Intelligence often finds themselves in some unbelievably sticky, tricky and dangerous situations.
And, as their leader, Voight is always trying to figure out how to get ahead of the criminals and make sure that they can not only catch them and keep them away from innocent people, but make sure his team is as safe as possible during the process. Basically, when the shit goes down, all cops need to be able to stay in the moment, but this is especially true for Voight.
And, as Jason Beghe said, staying in the moment will also be a great strength to Voight when making the many difficult decisions he has to make. Let's say you just found out that the deputy superintendent of the police department murdered the newly-elected mayor in cold blood. Do you arrest her or let her put on her dress blues and end her own life? If you're someone who can't stop thinking about the consequences or potential fallout from your actions, you might have trouble with that choice or even not quite be able to move on to the next case fully. Well, our friend Hank Voight has no such issue.
I'm sure Jason Beghe's Voight will get a chance to use his power many times this season, so we can all see how he operates as Season 7 of Chicago P.D. continues on NBC, Wednesdays at 10 p.m.
