[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Chicago P.D. Season 10 Episode 21 “New Life.”]
Chicago P.D. simply revealed loads extra about who Intelligence’s latest member was.
The investigation into the homicide of somebody who was a significant vendor results in the revelation that Torres (Benjamin Levy Aguilar) was his enforcer again within the day. However, as he tells Voight (Jason Beghe), he didn’t kill somebody everybody thinks he did; reasonably, he set him up with a brand new life. Getting out of a gang like that doesn’t come straightforward; he was waterboarded. And whereas Torres worries that now that everybody is aware of about his previous, he’s going to be fired, Voight makes it clear he nonetheless has a job.
Aguilar takes us inside the key Torres episode.
Discuss discovering out about Torres’ previous as a result of it’s so darkish. Do you know about it earlier this season?
Benjamin Levy Aguilar: No, I had no concept. However I love the place they took it. I truly do. I additionally simply love enjoying these moments, these intense emotional moments. I’ve all the time been drawn to feeling that. It’s like they gave me a inexperienced gentle of “take this the place you suppose it seems like.” I had quite a lot of enjoyable, and I broke quite a lot of, truthfully, partitions inside myself throughout that episode. I truly really feel like a freer, lighter particular person, like Benjamin Levy. And it was all due to that and to the writers to permit me to expertise it. I really feel so fortunate to be an actor and to have a workforce of writers and an viewers that enables me to only get by means of my emotions. For what I do, the way in which I do it’s therapeutic. It’s remedy. And after I’m getting the time and the love and getting paid to do my very own remedy, I really feel so blessed. I really feel so grateful for that have.
Now that the workforce is aware of and he had that dialog with Voight, how is Torres feeling? Like there’s a weight off of him?
Sure, completely, as a result of now he doesn’t have to cover this. It should be a lot to hold in case you have this massive secret and you may’t say it to anybody and you may’t let anybody discover out and also you’re scared that each time [someone] will get shut. We’ve all had that feeling of “the reality will set you free,” and that’s what occurred. He’s now a lighter human being.
Additionally, he’s round people who find themselves in search of the reality all day, each day.
Yeah, that’s level. He’s hiding it from one of the best, probably the most succesful individuals to search out the reality, and now it’s there they usually all look after him. It’s feeling.
Talking of that, as a result of he really believed he was going to be fired as soon as it received out, do you suppose there’d been a ticking clock in his head that his time with CPD was restricted, that they’d discover out ultimately?
He perhaps thinks within the second, and he’s realized to do this as a result of who is aware of what’s going to occur tomorrow? So I feel he was like, “I’ll simply do my job to one of the best of my skills and hope that this by no means comes out and I’ve forgotten about it. I put it behind me. I’m not in that life, so it’s not like I’m hiding one thing that I’m sneakily doing on the facet. I’m a unique particular person and the one factor I can do is change who I’m and be that particular person.” So I don’t suppose he was essentially anticipating this to return out, however when it did, it induced quite a lot of stress in him. I felt distressed all episode. It was actually cool.
That dialog between Torres and Voight on the finish was so good.
First, I like Jason. He’s one in every of my favourite individuals, and he has modified my life in some ways. I didn’t develop up with a father, and I assume I see him in a method as a father determine, Jason, the actor. He’s all the time given me good recommendation and cared, so having a second the place we may very well be susceptible was a gorgeous factor and we have been each proud of what we did.
That being stated, it was additionally most likely the windiest, coldest day in Chicago. We needed to cease taking pictures as a result of the wind was so loud that we needed to scream to say the traces and we have been standing [close]. We actually needed to take breaks. After we shot the scene, we went again to the set, and Jason was like, “I don’t keep in mind the final time on this present that I used to be that chilly,” and he’s been on it for 10 seasons. It was the wind that made it so, so chilly, so it was actually powerful to shoot. Since I used to be susceptible, I embraced being chilly. I couldn’t disguise it both method, so I simply allowed it.
Then there was Torres threatening to waterboard that man. It’s so darkish and intense, and it’s additionally him drawing from part of his previous that he by no means needed to revisit. Discuss filming that whole sequence.
Oh my God, it was a troublesome day to get by means of, and I’ve to say the director, what a man. He had persistence. He had no ego. He had care. It was a very, actually powerful day. However we received by means of it as a workforce and I’m so grateful for everybody there. All the crew was superb. They noticed me at a really susceptible place. I’ll always remember that day.
How does Torres really feel about Mia (Sharlene Cruz) and the truth that she left?
There’s quite a lot of blended feelings with Mia as a result of there’s completely a lot love from each of them. I can’t converse for her, however perhaps particularly from him to her, there’s this love that I’ve cared for her her whole life and she or he’s like my household, after which there’s additionally this romantic facet of affection, and I’ve been making an attempt to do my life and go the alternative method of all this stuff. It looks like it’s actually exhausting as a result of he all the time is accountable in some moments in relation to her. He’s all the time simply making an attempt to do his greatest. Even in Episode 4, even when Kiko went to jail, in my view, I imply, what am I purported to do, proper? In case you are concerned in a homicide, you’re concerned in a homicide. So there’s been quite a lot of moments that I feel he’s felt some both disappointment or some frustration with Mia. It’s so exhausting to like somebody generally if you’re accountable for thus many issues and also you simply need to do your greatest and care for the entire image and care for her. It’s actually exhausting to have influences damage that. It’s a really blended bag of emotions.
How does Torres really feel about Intelligence at this level, with a few season with them, particularly after he anxious about being fired and now that they know the reality about his previous?
He feels extra in it now, like there’s extra to go. I feel there’s extra that he can deal with perhaps and navigate and learn to navigate issues. And there’s extra individuals to belief as a result of I feel that when Jay left, there was a void Voight is form of filling proper now, apart from everybody else, too. However after that scene with Voight, there’s a second that he’s in a position to belief somebody once more at that stage. So yeah, I feel there’s quite a lot of potential now for this subsequent yr in Intelligence.
Torres has had some nice scenes with everybody, particularly with Upton (Tracy Spiridakos). That was so good.
Yeah, she’s superb. She’s superb.
What would Torres have finished if he’d been fired?
That might’ve been a real take a look at of character, however I feel he would’ve stayed true to himself and began perhaps a brand new lifestyle altogether or attempt to be concerned in his group extra, in search of a unique method to assist. If he can’t save lives as a cop, perhaps he’d flip to saving lives another method.
However being a cop is a lot who he’s now.
Yeah, you’re not mistaken. I truly don’t know what he would do.
What do you need to discover with Torres subsequent season?
Extra moments of pleasure and happiness and development, however positively much more of his previous. I feel there’s nonetheless a lot extra, and it doesn’t should be this like, “Oh, I used to do that or that,” however “What occurred to me? Why am I the way in which I’m?” It’s totally different to have it in written type or somebody say it or me to speak about it with writers. Simply to refill an mental understanding means nothing. Experiencing it means every part. Solely what you understand you recognize. The remainder is simply creativeness. Isn’t that loopy? Simply how deep your stage of notion is, how deep data you’ve. All the pieces else is simply creativeness. So if I might simply understand extra of his life, of his emotions, of his trauma, I might know extra about him. That’s the one actual solution to know.
Particularly as a result of he’d be extra apt to divulge heart’s contents to the others now after this episode.
Sure, completely. And it could make him only a higher cop.
Chicago P.D., Wednesdays, 10/9c, NBC