Jennifer Beals on The Chicago Code: "She's Creating the Template — There Had Never Been a Female Superintendent in Chicago"

Actress Jennifer Beals — iconic for her roles in the 1983 film Flashdance and The L Word — stars as Teresa Colvin, the first female Superintendent of Police in Chicago, in FOX's new drama series The Chicago Code, premiering Monday, February 7 at 9 p.m. Premier Guide Miami sat down to find out what that means — and what comes next.

Actress Jennifer Beals — iconic for her roles in the 1983 film Flashdance and The L Word — stars as Teresa Colvin, the first female Superintendent of Police in Chicago, in FOX's new drama series The Chicago Code, premiering Monday, February 7 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. Created by Shawn Ryan (The Shield), the series follows Colvin as she builds a corruption task force to take down powerful Alderman Ronin Gibbons, played opposite Jason Clarke as veteran detective Jarek Wysocki.

On the challenge of playing the first female superintendent: "It's a very interesting position to be a woman who's in charge of a department or several bureaus who are primarily men. I really believe that she was probably the token candidate and then is believed to be potentially a puppet for some of the aldermen. They are surprised by the fact that she's not a puppet — or not the kind of puppet that they would want. Her ascension comes through expertise. She's started out as an officer, as a beat cop, was in tactical, was in homicide. She knows a lot of different departments, which is a feasible idea."

On the personal cost of the role: "You would be naïve to think that to be able to ascend to that kind of level isn't without a cost. She's got to be a bit of a bad — to run that gauntlet, and I think it's cost her her personal life. Everything is about this job." On preparing for the role: "There were so many things that I had questions about that nobody could answer for me, because there had never been a female superintendent in Chicago. So I, like Teresa, was kind of making things up as I went along trying to find my way."

On what drew her back to series television: "I found it so interesting to play somebody who was walking into uncharted territory, in a way. She's really creating the template for this job, being the first female superintendent. I just thought it would be very interesting to take that walk into what kind of a leader does she become in that position, and how do you balance your personal life with the demands of that kind of job. Working with Shawn Ryan was a real lure because I really admire his writing and I admire the way that he works with his team of writers as well."

On the show's broader themes: "You get to go into those halls of power where people are making those backroom deals that you know, as an audience, are happening. They're happening everywhere. No matter what city you live in, those deals are happening, and you know that there's corruption in politics, and you know that there's corruption within anybody's police force. The paradigm of power is kind of turned on its head a bit by having a female superintendent."

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