‘Chicago Med’ star Luke Mitchell previews a ‘more emotional’ Ripley in season 10

Ripley knows a thing or two about walking away.

After joining Chicago Med in season 9, Dr. Mitch Ripley (Luke Mitchell) quickly became a fan-favorite character. But in the finale, when Pawel (Kristof Konrad) accused him of assault, Ripley simply turned around and left without so much as a word in his own defense. And that was after he had done some damage to his relationship with Dr. Charles (Oliver Platt).

Entertainment Weekly caught up with Luke Mitchell to talk about joining the One Chicago world, that finale cliffhanger, and what comes next.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You joined Chicago Med last season. What is the learning curve of a doctor show like? Is the medical jargon as difficult as I think it is? 

LUKE MITCHELL: Absolutely. That is one of the bigger challenges because it’s getting the jargon down, but also having some idea of what you’re talking about. My first day in the country, I was off to a real hospital for two hours of medical training with our amazing real-life doctors who are our consultants on the show, learning the basics and getting to play with the tools and learning to do stitches. And they send you home with a little toolkit to practice and get the feel for it. You got to look like you know what you’re doing, right? So all those little things you got to learn as well as you can so that you can focus on the meat and potatoes of the story, because the story is the thing, the hospital is just the setting.

Do you feel like this season you’ve settled a bit more into it, or is it still just as challenging? 

Both. I definitely feel more settled this season, which is a really lovely feeling. But every scene is different and every episode is different, and there are new challenges around the corner. The writers are constantly looking for things that haven’t been done before and trying to push the boundaries of storytelling in a hospital environment.

How much did you know about Ripley going in? 

I had a paragraph of information to go on for the audition, but I had a pretty good grasp on that. And then once I’d booked the job and before I’d started shooting, I had a chat with the showrunners and they gave me a pretty good rundown on who Ripley is. But also, this is TV, and I am well aware that writers reserve the right to tweak characters’ histories or story as they go, depending on how things unfold. But so far, for the most part, things have held pretty firm to what they told me in the beginning.

What was your reaction when you read the season 9 finale and saw Ripley walk away?

As soon as I read it, I texted Anna, our producing director, and was like, “Did I do it? I need to know. I don’t think I did, but I could have.” That’s the beauty of the storyline, is throughout the course of the season, you get to know Ripley. He had a bit of a troubled youth and a bit of a dark past, but he’s turned a corner. And I think that’s exemplified by this comparison between him and Sully, who represents a continuation of who Ripley was. And so now it’s like, okay, Ripley has obviously changed, but how much has he changed? Is he capable of doing this thing?

Where do we pick up in season 10?

There’s a little time jump. Not too big of one, but we’ll definitely still be in the aftermath of what went down in the finale and how people are doing.

What kind of head space would you say Ripley’s in when we find him? 

Not a great one. [Laughs] Some time has passed. There’s more than a bit of tension between him and Asher [Jessy Schram]. They’re not in their best place. I’m not sure they’re communicating as effectively as they could be. So there’s the implications of what happened at the end of last season and where Ripley is at, where Ripley and Asher are at, where Ripley and Dr. Charles are at. But it’s the premiere episode, and there’s a mass casualty incident. So it’s not just dwelling on what happened at the end of last season. That’s the undercurrent for sure. And we will be delving in there, but the almost immediate focus is there’s a boat crash. People are dying. And then Ms. Goodwin [S. Epatha Merkerson] gives an announcement that one of the other hospitals is closing down. So we are now told that our intake’s basically going to be doubling, and it’s chaos.

So perhaps we can get into the Asher situation after the premiere?

I think Hannah’s going to be a big part of his walls coming down one way or another. For him to continue to grow and evolve and continue to let people in, he’s going to have to be a more truthful version of himself. So yeah, I mean, it’s going to be really interesting to see how their dynamic unfolds.

Do you feel like you’re learning more about his backstory? Do you think the audience is going to learn more about his backstory this season? 

I think so. Moving forward, we are going to see a less well-kept Ripley. His walls are going to start to come down, and the question will be, is it because they’re coming down by force? And so the edges are going to start to fray. We’re going to see a more emotional Ripley, maybe a more truthful Ripley, which is a really interesting place to be. As the audience met and got to know Ripley, he constructed a version of who he wanted to present to the world as a professional, as someone who’s very good at his job. But as we saw glimpses in season 9 that all is not as perfect as it seems, and we’re going to see much more of that imperfection.

Chicago Med premieres Wednesday, Sept. 25, on NBC.