The wind outside is restless, carrying the faint scent of roasted peanuts from a vendor down the block. Inside a small lounge just off Michigan Avenue, Patrick John Flueger sits with the ease of someone who’s spent years answering questions about a character he knows better than almost anyone else. Yet, as he begins to talk about Adam Ruzek — the impulsive, loyal, often conflicted detective of Chicago PD — his voice carries the weight of fresh reflection.
“You can’t always protect the people you love,” Flueger says, leaning forward as if confiding a hard truth. “And that’s been Ruzek’s biggest struggle from the start.”
From his first appearance, Ruzek was the rookie — quick on his feet, eager to prove himself, sometimes making choices before fully thinking them through. But over the seasons, audiences have watched him evolve, facing situations that have tested not just his skills, but his heart. “Ruzek’s journey has been about learning that his instincts — to jump in, to shield people — don’t always work the way he wants them to,” Flueger reflects. “Sometimes, you can’t stop the bad thing from happening. And that changes you.”
One of Ruzek’s defining traits has always been his deep sense of loyalty. Whether it’s his commitment to the Intelligence Unit or his complicated relationship with Kim Burgess, he’s the guy who will run through fire for the people he cares about. But that same loyalty can be a double-edged sword. “It’s what makes him a great cop, but it’s also what gets him into trouble,” Flueger says. “Because when you’re willing to break rules for someone, you have to be ready to live with the fallout.”
Flueger talks about the emotional toll that playing Ruzek has taken at times. “There have been scripts where I’ve had to sit with the weight of what he’s going through — the loss, the fear, the guilt,” he says. “You start to think about the real officers out there who face those moments and have to go home and keep living their lives. It gives you a lot of respect for what they carry.”
The chemistry between Ruzek and Burgess (played by Marina Squerciati) has been a long-running thread through the series, full of starts and stops, heartbreak and reconciliation. Flueger smiles when asked about it. “That relationship is one of my favorite parts of playing Ruzek,” he says. “It’s messy, it’s real, it’s imperfect. But there’s love there — deep love. And that makes the stakes so much higher.”
He recalls filming a scene where Ruzek is faced with the possibility of losing Burgess in the line of duty. “Those moments hit differently,” he says. “Because it’s not just acting — you’re pulling from a real place of imagining what it would be like to lose someone you care about that much.”
Ruzek’s evolution has also been shaped by his shifting role within the team. Early on, he was the one learning from veterans like Voight and Olinsky. Now, he’s in a position where younger officers look to him for guidance. “It’s a weird transition,” Flueger admits. “Because Ruzek still feels like he’s figuring it out, but now he’s the one giving advice. And that forces him to think differently — to slow down, to be more deliberate.”
Flueger credits the show’s writing team with giving Ruzek room to grow while keeping him true to his core. “They’ve never tried to turn him into someone he’s not,” he says. “He’s still impulsive, still passionate, still prone to following his heart over his head. But he’s more aware now of the consequences.”
Filming in Chicago adds another layer of authenticity to Ruzek’s story. “You can’t fake this city,” Flueger says. “The cold, the noise, the people — it all gets into the fabric of the show. And it keeps us grounded in reality. You feel like you’re part of something bigger than just a TV set.”
When it comes to the show’s intense action scenes, Flueger enjoys the adrenaline, but it’s the quieter moments that stay with him. “The ones where Ruzek is sitting in a car, thinking about what just happened, or having a quiet conversation with Voight — those are the scenes that tell you who he really is,” he says. “Because underneath the action, it’s a show about people.”
As for Ruzek’s future, Flueger is careful not to give away specifics, but he hints at challenges ahead that will push the character into unfamiliar territory. “He’s going to have to make choices that might put him at odds with people he cares about,” he says. “And that’s where it gets interesting — when love, loyalty, and duty start to pull in different directions.”
