Joe Cruz has officially left Firehouse 51 and Chicago Fire. Miñoso, who has played the character since the show’s first episode, bid the show farewell after fifteen seasons. And if you are a little emotional about that fact, don’t worry. You’re not the only one. Miñoso sat down with Fangirlish to discuss ‘Three Hundred’ and reflect on Cruz’s legacy, and as he did, there was not just a lot of emotion, but also a lot of gratitude.
Miñoso is the Latino actor with the greatest number of episodes as one character in network history, and that’s something that was very present for him as he reflected on Cruz. “It’s an honor. It’s bigger than I think I can feel. I grew up a broke kid in the Bronx, raised by a single mom, dreams of being an actor since high school,” he shared.
“And to be here feels like… I don’t know that I know the word. I don’t know that I can express how much of an honor it is. And especially because we got to play the character that we did, he’s been such a man who’s not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve and such a brother and such a great father. And to be able to portray someone like that as a Latino is such a point of pride.”
Especially because Miñoso recognizes how few role models our community has had.
“I was a big TV junkie as a kid, specifically NBC. I watched NBC like crazy. And so many of the people that I admired were not people that I could see myself in. To even imagine that there’s a universe out there where there’s a little Latino kid who sees himself as someone who could be as heroic as Cruz is like the gift of a lifetime.”
We also brought up our recent interview with Charlie Barnett, who played Peter Mills on the show. “How is he? I love that boy so much,” Miñoso said right away. But the mention had a purpose. Barnett mentioned he would have liked to go out in a blaze of fire. Was Miñoso hoping his character would get killed off?
“I mean, I think I got all of it. I got a potential heroic, crazy death where, frankly, shooting that… I walked away dirtier than I have in 15 years. Like, we were completely covered from top to bottom. And when I got out of that set and I took off my gloves, my hands were pitch black. I was like, how did it get all in the glove? It was so filthy. So, I feel like I got the big hero save, and then I got the opportunity to explore emotional wreckage, and what it is to kind of try and overcome something that is detrimental to a person who lives and dies by what he’s capable of doing, and how he uses his body and puts it in front of danger all the time. And I got to live in that pocket of the world.”
But that’s not all. “I got to say goodbye on like his own terms. There was never a moment where you feel like, ‘oh, this poor guy’. I feel like you see Cruz go through tremendous adversity, but overcome it and then be able to walk away for the better of his family. And I think that in general, speaking as a Latino, to do the right thing by your family is, I think, top of priority for him. So, I feel like I got all of it. I got my blaze of glory, and I got my big emotional goodbye. I couldn’t ask for more.”
The show has, before, shown us the Cruz family struggling with Joe’s job, so for him to walk away like this made sense to Miñoso. “I think they did such a good job of how they told the story. To have like Otis’s first words on the show be “why can’t someone else’s dad do it?” and be ultimately his last words on the show possibly. I think it’s laid the track for everything after that moment, and for it to be Otis who says it and to just see my now expanded family needing me in that dramatic way. I feel like it made the decision very easy for him.”
And that conviction seeped into other scenes. “That’s why when we played that scene with Taylor (Kinney) and me deciding that I’m leaving, we never wanted it to be about a regret. We always wanted it to be about Cruz feeling like he’s making the decision that puts him in the place where he’s most needed in that moment.”
It’s a bittersweet goodbye, of course. But the open-ended nature of it helps me believe it doesn’t have to be forever. “What a gift this show has been and this role. It has literally changed my life. And to know that I get to walk away still having this family and the potential to return only doubles the gift, right? This show, these people, this family, this company have given me more in my life than anything. And so, if I can be of service in any way ever, I look forward to it.”
We get a poignant moment with Severide, but we also get a moment of Cruz saying goodbye to his friend Otis, one that brought tears to my eyes. And Miñoso had a lot to do with how hard that moment hits. “That was actually a scene that I suggested to the writers, because I felt like as we were going through the arc, we hadn’t really necessarily touched on him and Otis, and they’re so intertwined. He named his first child after him. And I think even though Otis hasn’t been with us for seven, eight years, he is still inside Cruz.”
“And so, it just felt like there had to be a moment between the two of them. And it just felt like the most appropriate way to not only close the chapter on that friendship, but for Cruz to say the last thing that his best friend said to him on his deathbed just felt like the appropriate way to say, not only about the character, but as the actor, goodbye to the fans.”
But Miñoso is returning soon, and he’ll be behind the cameras, directing. And that has also been a very rewarding experience for the actor. “I think I am super inquisitive. I love learning how we make what we make. I love every facet of the process. And I slowly but surely found myself wanting to explore that side of the camera more and more.”
“Over the last four years now, I’ve been producing and directing my own work here in Chicago, and we’ve been doing a lot of shorts and received a lot of really good feedback and reviews. And I’ve noticed that it is something I’m far more interested in doing in the future. And the fact that I get to do it with these people is, yet again, I couldn’t be luckier.”
It’s an entirely different process and experience, but one Miñoso is very much looking forward to. “As much fun and communal as it is being a performer… at the end of the day, you get your script, you learn it at home, you come into the room. If you’re lucky, you’ve got an hour of filming time to get it right, and then you’re moving on to the next scene.”
“There is something kind of isolating about that, whereas, like, with this being on this side of the camera, directing specifically, you sit inside that script for three weeks to a month and you get to live in every character, and you get to live on every set, and you get to discuss with your director of photography and with your operators how to best attack any kind of given scene. And that to me has been such a joy of a collaborative process. And I find that it’s almost more enjoyable than being a performer.”
“So, I’m so excited to get my hands on an episode. And I’m lucky enough that I get to do it with people who are going to support the hell out of me. It’s the best of all worlds, really.”
Finally, if Miñoso had one thing to say to Joe Cruz, the character that he played for fifteen years, it would be: “Thank you for teaching me how to be a little bit stronger and a little bit more patient and for giving me some of the best years of my life.”
And fans would probably say thank you back, for gifting us Joe Cruz all these years.
Chicago Fire airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on NBC.
