LaRoyce Hawkins was completely on board with former Chicago P.D. costar Jesse Lee Soffer directing a season 10 episode of the show — and it went off without a hitch.
“That was amazing. Jesse’s such a talented guy. And he’s been doing this for so long,” Hawkins, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly on Monday, June 26, while promoting his partnership with SimpliSafe. “His eye is very well seasoned when it comes to just pictures and frames.”
The Illinois native, who plays Kevin Atwater on the NBC series, explained that Soffer, 39, was “something like a player-coach” when he was still on the show. Soffer portrayed Jay Halstead for nine seasons before announcing in August 2022 that he was exiting the cop drama at the beginning of season 10. He returned to set in early 2023, stepping behind the camera in his directorial debut that March.
“We trusted him right away. We knew that he had that director bug in him and we were excited to watch it activate,” Hawkins told Us of his former screen partner. “And I think his episode [‘Deadlocked’] was great. We’re looking forward to working with him again.”
While the South Side alum enjoyed seeing Soffer back with their P.D. castmates, he confessed that it’s “always hard” to adjust when someone leaves the show. (Soffer is the most recent casting shakeup, following Sophia Bush in 2017 and Elias Koteas in 2018.)
“It’s definitely not the easiest thing to deal with because our show is really built on the fabric of family. And when we start finding the rhythm with each other, and the synergy and the chemistry feels great, it’s hard to penetrate,” Hawkins told Us on Monday. “When we lose a piece, it becomes hard for us to find that new rhythm again with the pieces that we have.”
He added: “The core has been together for a while. So, it doesn’t take us too long to get back into it, but to be transparent with you, we do take something like a synergy hit every time that…
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