Cruz Is ‘Slowly Turning Into Herrmann,’ Mouch


Joe Minoso is Joe Cruz
Adrian S. Burrows Sr./NBC

It’s better to make space on the couch! Joe MinosoThis has been on Chicago Fire since its 2012 debut a decade ago, and now he’s predicting where his character, Joe Cruz, will be in 10 more years.

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“I don’t think any actor thinks like, ‘Oh yeah, 10 years from now my character …’ I think most of us are like, ‘Oh, my God, we got another year.’ I kind of leave that to the writers,” Minoso, 43, exclusively told Us Weekly. “But 10 years from now, I will be in my mid-fifties. So I will be as old and as famous as the Herrmanns or the Mouches. I would be happy to be the new Mouch. The guy on the couch who spats out random wisdom because he’s kind of grown into the role. I think Cruz may decide to kind of move up in rank in the promotional world and maybe an easier kind of chief job, like a desk job.”

Like Herrmann (David EigenbergCruz is now a father. He and Chloe (Kristen Gutoskie) welcomed a son named after his late friend Otis (Yuriy Sardarov) and the couple recently took in an immigrant boy named Javi.

Chicago Fire's Joe Minoso: Cruz Is 'Slowly Turning Into Herrmann' or Mouch

Joe Minoso as Joe Cruz, David Eigenberg as Christopher Herrmann, Hanako Greensmith as Violet, and Christian Stolte as Randall “Mouch” McHolland.
Adrian S. Burrows Sr./NBC

“We are definitely taking him on full-time. We haven’t officially adopted him yet, so I’d love to see that happen. I think that that would be a really wonderful moment to get to experience and quite sweet,” Minoso explained of the new story line. “I think Cruz is slowly turning into Herrmann and eventually he’ll have six kids and he will be crabby about everything. It would be great to become that. I don’t know that I could ever be David, though. Herrmann is just incredible.”

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Minoso hopes Cruz, now a father of four, will be able to experience the joys and sorrows of fatherhood during future episodes. “Who knows, maybe we go for three,” he teased toUse. “I think it’s gonna be a lot of exploring either the potential comedic opportunities of Cruz slipping and falling on his father behind or moments of him shining. I think that’s the great thing about the character is it gets to explore so much. I get to do comedic stuff. I get to do dramatic stuff. And the writers get to kind of play in that world in terms of what sides of Cruz they wanna see when.”

Like Cruz, Minoso has experienced a lot in his personal life since joining the NBC drama, noting that it’s “catapulted” his “life in a great way” over time.

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“The whole scope of my life has completely been being on this show. This show helped me meet my wife and I also bought my first house. This show helped me buy my first car. Through this show, my mother died. I lost my sister. They are my family. They are the people that I have spent the better part of my adulthood with,” he told Use. “It’s been a remarkable journey and it’s been so incredible to just be with this cast and crew. It doesn’t really grow old for me the way that I think a lot of this can happen for other actors. It’s still a joy to walk to work every day and laugh with my best friends. They yell action, and you have to say 10 things or you lift some heavy thing or break some crazy thing. Then you have to get people to scuba dive in Lake Michigan or propel themselves off of buildings. What else could a Bronx boy want? It’s been a dream.”

He added: “The people are without a doubt the greatest gift that the show has to offer.”

Chicago FireAirs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on NBC ET.

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