Sophia Bush Couldn't Stand The Cold When Shooting Chicago P.D.
Playing former Detective Erin Lindsay on NBC's hit cop show "Chicago P.D." for four seasons, Sophia Bush became more than a little familiar with Chi-Town's frigid winter weather. The truth is, before exiting the show in the Season 4 finale, Bush starred in the police procedural from 2014 to 2017 (per IMDb). And while fans knew her primarily from her time as part of that show's elite 21st District squad of detectives and beat cops, they could also have spotted her in crossover episodes on the One Chicago sister shows "Chicago Med," "Chicago Fire" and even a single outing on the short-lived "Chicago Justice."
During her time in Chicago, Detective Lindsay, along with fellow cops Hank Voight (Jason Beghe), Adam Ruzek (Patrick Flueger), Kim Burgess (Marina Squerciati), and others, regularly came up against Chicago-centric challenges ranging from active gunfire to violent criminal assaults and even bio-weapon attacks and suicide bombers. And while these life-or-death events may be the ones that stand out to fans, it was actually the Windy City's cold weather that Bush recalled as being one the worst things to face while filming "Chicago P.D."
Sophia Bush's face would freeze into immobility during winter shoots on Chicago P.D.
During an appearance on "Late Night with Seth Meyers," Sophia Bush was asked how she liked being in Chicago for her work on "Chicago P.D." As it turns out, however, the city seemed to be something of a mixed blessing for the actress. "Chicago is awesome," she said. But she quickly added her opinion about a particular meteorological phenomenon that sometimes plagues the upper Midwest during winter, saying, "The polar vortex? The polar vortex is not awesome."
Meyers then noted that people generally don't seem to realize how cold Chicago can get. "And you can't understand it," Bush said, "Until you're standing outside and you're supposed to deliver dialogue in a scene." She said that since she and the other characters on the show are portraying Chicago cops, they're supposed to look "cool," so they're clad in less-than-toasty jackets in the sub-zero climate. "So your face freezes," she said before explaining that when expected to speak a line in that situation, it comes out as mumbled, frozen-lip gibberish.
And the truth is, as Bush revealed in an AOL BUILD series interview, the weather and other downsides she faced while shooting "Chicago P.D." actually became "a quality of life issue" for her during her time on the series.