‘Chicago Med’: Darren Barnet Teases ‘This Is Us’-like Episode About Frost’s Past Trauma

Frost’s (Darren Barnet) past is coming back to haunt him as Chicago Med Season 10 continues.

“His time as a child star is going to come back to haunt him a little bit and it’s going to be coming right to his front door at Gaffney, so it’s going to be intense,” the star warns.

That’s not the only drama coming Gaffney’s way. There’s more to come this week as well, in an episode directed by former Med star Brian Tee. Below, Barnet offers a preview of what’s ahead.

Talk about filming that crossover.

Darren Barnet: That crossover was an event. It was so much fun. I learned that they make pants with heaters in them because that’s how cold it was while we were filming. It was, like, below zero, first time for me, but it was an incredible event to cross over. They haven’t done that that many times. But it was really fun getting to meet and interact with the rest of the cast, working outside, getting in the field per se. Something I would definitely do again.

Yeah, I was curious, now that Frost has been in the field in such a major way, is he going to want to keep doing that? 

I hope so. It’s a luxury being able to film inside all the time. They call us Club Med because we wear pajamas to work every day and we’re inside a heated building while most of the other shows are outside most of the time. But yeah, I would love to get out and do that again, just to kind of stretch your legs. It’s a great feeling.

Are there more crossovers of any kind coming up? Chicago does the mini ones so well, too.

Oh, yeah. I believe that will be happening more, so hopefully they bring me back to Fire or P.D.. That’d be a lot of fun.

This week, Gaffney is getting a surprise visit from a National Accreditation Board of Hospitals representative. Does this mean trouble? Is it something that all the doctors have to now be worried about?

Just that title seems troubling. I feel like it’s when a health inspector shows up, it’s never great for a restaurant, I doubt this is good for the hospital either. Definitely going to be some drama, definitely going to be some ups and downs, but Gaffney stands strong. We always rise above.

Is Frost more focused on the patients? Is it mainly Goodwin (S. Epatha Merkerson) who must deal with that?

Frost is going to do his part, but Goodwin handles most of the weight, so thank God for her. Also, thank God for Epatha just as an actress and a costar. She’s so amazing,

Frost is going to be working with Lenox to save a victim of an accidental shooting. How do those two work together? Because Lenox has rubbed some staff members the wrong way.

I have felt so bad for Sarah Ramos because she’s actually so kind. But her character has to grow on you a bit. She will. She will very, very much. Yeah, with this accidental shooting, that was quite an episode. Brian Tee directed that — big, big fan of him since Tokyo Drift. He used to be on Chicago Med. This is the second episode he’s ever directed. I’m really excited to see how it came out.

How was it being directed by him? 

It’s always great being directed by an actor. They know how to talk to you. They know how to get things out of you that someone who hasn’t ever been in acting, sometimes it’s more difficult to communicate that. So it’s always a treat, and like I said, I’ve just been a big fan of him for a long time and it was an honor to meet him.

How has working at Gaffney changed Frost as a doctor and in general?

Being surrounded by such a strong mind of heavily-willed individuals will definitely bring something out of you, but his backstory is going to start to kind of evolve here. He was a child actor. There’s something way more heavy that way — more heavy to his experience, his trauma that came from that. Not just from his parents, but from something… I don’t know if I can tease, but it’s going to be a lot of weight when it is exposed.

What can you say about filming that?

Filming that, the drama in it, just the feeling of it. I’ve been told it started feeling like an episode of This Is Us, and it was like, that’s great to hear for a medical drama where it’s most of the time, medical drama, resolution, medical drama, resolution. This is a very interesting plot line, something that had a lot of hands to go through to actually be okayed, but we finally got it done, and Frost has a lot to play with as a character, which I very much enjoyed.

Speaking of the child actor part, what was your reaction to reading that in the script? 

It was very funny, especially coming from Never Have I Ever, and then playing that teen heartthrob, I was not at all a child doing that show, but it felt a bit jarring in terms of how, I guess, similar that was, going into a profession at a hospital where you were on a corny teenage show — not saying Never Have I Ever was that, but [Frost’s was]. It was fun. It’s a lot to play with, but it gives you a lot to do as an actor to see how he would deal with that in a setting of work.

A fun dynamic since Frost’s introduction has been his and Maggie’s (Marlyne Barrett). What do you think it is about it that makes it stand out?

I don’t think anyone deals with Frost the way Maggie does, but I don’t think anyone deals with Maggie the way Frost does. They really give it to each other. They don’t back down, but it’s always with good intentions and from a good place, so it’s fun to watch. … Marlyne is a firecracker. She’s very much like me, though, very direct, will say what’s on her mind and never with any harm, always with good intent, but just a very open book of a person and I respect that and that’s why we’ve gotten along.

Anything coming up with those two?

Yeah, she really tries to be a rock to lean on when it comes to his past, his childhood, the trauma that he’s faced. I don’t know if Frost likes that very much. Frost may not be very supportive of someone trying to be supportive of him in that. I think he maybe tries to take the path of denial more, and she is not one to let that go.

But it also feels like she’s the only one at the hospital that he would lean on at that time, right?

Oh, yeah. That’s why she offers her shoulder and Frost is reluctant to take it and a bit resentful of her even offering it, I’d say.

Are we going to be getting Frost and Charles (Oliver Platt) scenes with this stuff coming up?

Oh, yeah, that’s going to be even more a different shoulder. That’s a shoulder with a degree in giving shoulders, so that makes it very much too real for Frost, which he also is going to have some tumultuousness dealing with. … Working with Oliver is a treat. He’s such a veteran and he really cares about every single word and every sentence and every line. Everything done in a scene he cares about to a very specific detail. So [there’s] getting used to that, but it always comes out better than the way it was before because he Oliver-izes it, I would say. But it’s great.

Any romance coming up for him?

That is a question I don’t know if I can answer. It’s going to be the anti-hero version of romance, I’d say.

What else can you tease about what’s coming up for Frost? Any other patients?

Frost cannot handle parents mishandling a child in any form — emotionally, medically, et cetera. His parents may or may not be coming back around in his life. They were not the best. They stole or used all of his money from his acting days. He’s very much in medical debt. They seem to be very opportunistic as parents, and they may be coming back around under some dire circumstances.

Is there any casting that you can talk about for what’s coming up for Frost?

There is a figure that is coming back from [the] acting days of my life that will maybe be coming back around that was on a very popular show about singing, I would say, at one point.

Can you say any names?

She was on Glee. I’m not going to say who it is.

Chicago Med, Wednesdays, 8/7c, NBC