David Eigenberg, who plays firefighter Christopher Herrmann on NBC’s hit drama Chicago Fire, revealed that his character will be wearing hearing aids in the episodes moving forward — just like he does in real life.
The actor, 59, has struggled with hearing loss for decades and decided to incorporate his personal experience into his role after consulting with the show’s creators and producers.
“I need them in real life, so it was written in the show because I’ve gotten to the point where I need them,” Eigenberg told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Thursday, February 1. “I’ve been needing them for years. I’ve been wearing them, but then this year, I sent an email to the writers and I was like, ‘You know, I’m kind of at a point where really, I just can’t hear very well. I’ve abused my body and I’ve had enough concussions and done enough things in my life where my hearing is shot.’ And they were kind enough to incorporate it, and I think it’s a wonderful thing in a lot of ways. Because a lot of people are using them now. It’s a very normal thing.”
Coping with his hearing loss hasn’t always been easy. “You know, it has gotten me down sometimes, I don’t love it,” he added. “But they’re a great instrument to help in life, because what happens is that if you don’t have them and you can’t hear, you kind of disengage. It takes you out of the loop. And wearing them brings you back into participation. So, I’m really glad that we’re using it.”
He continued: “It’s a vulnerability because you never know when your hearing starts to deteriorate, what the arc of that will be. Although they have one-eyed firefighters in Chicago, and they have firefighters with hearing loss and hearing aids, at a certain point, if you can’t keep yourself safe and other people safe, you can’t do the job.”
Chicago Fire isn’t the first show where Eigenberg’s hearing has influenced the story line. In 2022, the And Just Like That writers revealed how Eigenberg inspired a similar battle for his character Steve Brady.
“When [showrunner] Michael Patrick [King] reconnected with David Eigenberg about the show, the very first thing that David said was, ‘I got hearing aids.’ It was literally what he led with,” Elisa Zuritsky, one of the show’s writers, told Vanity Fair. “That actually wound up being Steve’s tone about his aging [in the show].”
During the series premiere, the Sex and the City alum’s character returned as the faithful husband to Cynthia Nixon’s Miranda Hobbes, telling Harry Goldenblatt (Evan Handler), “I got hearing aids, I’m an old-timer now.”
And Just Like That has since been renewed for a third season, but Eigenberg was initially nervous to step back into the SATC universe. “It’s been 20 years since the TV show almost. It was scary,” he exclusively told Us Weekly in December 2021. “I’ve always been an in and out guy. I say that on Sex and the City! I pop in and pop out, so I was trying to find my sea legs a little bit. But it was fun, we snapped back into it. It’s always great seeing the same lovely faces.”
Chicago Fire airs on NBC Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
