Chicago Med's Jessy Schram Dishes On Playing Dr. Hannah Asher - Exclusive Interview

When Dr. Hannah Asher was first introduced to "Chicago Med" fans during Season 5, no one expected her to hold a career-crushing secret. To her co-workers at Gaffney Chicago Medical Center, Dr. Asher was an accomplished emergency obstetrician-gynecologist. Behind closed doors, however, she dealt with a heroin addiction up until she sent herself to rehab for a second time at the start of Season 6. Upon her departure from the medical drama, it seemed that the world had seen the last of Dr. Asher.

Fast forward to the final few episodes of Season 7, and a big surprise was in store for fans. Someone brand new had been hired in the emergency department. It turns out that Dr. Asher herself was the one returning to the Windy City, sober and ready to rebuild both her successful medical career and her reputation among the hospital staff.

Returning to the halls of "Chicago Med" was an exciting moment for Dr. Asher, and it was also an emotional experience for the actress who played her. Now, star Jessy Schram will soon be seen back on our small screens for what she promises to be an action-packed eighth season.

In an exclusive interview with The List, Schram opened up about what it was like to rejoin the cast of "Chicago Med," discussed the challenges of playing a doctor with a drug addiction, and teased Dr. Asher's and Dr. Will Halstead's fates in the upcoming season.

When you very first joined "Chicago Med," how did you initially prepare yourself to play a doctor who is also a drug addict?

I will admit that I didn't realize I had such a skewed vision of what an addict looked like. When they told me that I'm going to be playing this very successful doctor, but one that is also on heroin, it was very confusing to me in my mind about how that person could be functioning.

I did talk to a lot of different medical advisors. I talked to different gynecologists when it came to the doctor part of things. I watched so many documentaries on the opioid crisis and addiction. I had a very skewed vision of what the face of addiction looks like, which is maybe the person on the street that's homeless, that doesn't have much going on anymore, that's lost a lot through their addiction. What I discovered is it could be the mom in the minivan, or it could be your doctor or anesthesiologist. There's a lot of functioning addicts in the world.

I had to do a lot of research and watched a lot of documentaries, trying to figure out what that looked like for Hannah.

Hannah has clearly been through so much throughout the show. What are some of the most memorable reactions that you've received from fans over the years about her?

Well, first we have the classic — the Manning-Halstead fans. The first reaction is, "Oh, no, who's this?" Because this is possibly a love interest that could break up our most beloved couple. [Laughs] That's memorable — people needing to accept that Will is getting involved with Hannah and that she could possibly be tainting his humanity. There was a lot of reaction to that.

But I still am constantly blown away. The people that I meet randomly walking down the street or at the airport — so many people are telling me their stories of how the character has affected their life, whether it be that they know somebody that has an issue with opioids or whether they themselves are somebody that has turned the corner and are continuing to build in their life.

The most memorable reactions are understanding that everybody is affected by the opioid crisis that we've gone through, but also the ability that my storyline is created for people to really relate to. It's such an honor that they're able to share that with me, a complete stranger, but somebody that they feel comfortable with.

What's the most surprising thing that you've learned about the medical field since you began playing a doctor?

That doctors are amazing and insane at the same time. I remember getting to go in with one of our medical advisors, and they put me through these drills of giving birth. There was a dummy giving birth to a dummy, and we were running these drills so that I can have some experience of what that looked like and felt like.

I remember afterward almost being a little shell-shocked leaving, walking home from the hospital and looking at everybody on the street, thinking, "You have no idea what doctors go through every day in these life-saving situations." You do, but until you're actually in a room seeing or witnessing a version of it — I'm still mind-blown when I think about doctors.

[In] almost every storyline, I have to do different levels of research so that I understand what's going on, and I am constantly amazed by the bodies and the human situation.

I've always said it takes a very special person to be a doctor, because it could not be me at all.

Oh, my God — the pressure. I find it so exciting. I love learning how to do the stitching and the sutures and everything. I practice my knots on bananas randomly, because that's the kind of person I am. I love getting so into it, and I put this pressure on myself to try my hardest to portray this so that my sister-in-law, who's an E.R. nurse, doesn't call me out like, "What were you doing?" I love being an actor because I get to step into other people's careers and life without that pressure of actually needing to save a life.

I'm constantly amazed at our special effects team as well. They make these pregnant bellies that literally have freckles and hair on them. They're so realistic. There was one scene where we were doing a C-section and all of a sudden, nobody told me that there was going to be embryonic fluid within the area that I was at, the uterus. I was cutting it, and it blew up in my face, and I was like, "Oh, my God!"

They're like, "No, Jessy. Hannah deals with this all the time." I'm like, "I know, but I didn't think it was going to be this real!"

Since Hannah has returned to "Chicago Med," fans have been left wondering if she will ever get back together with Will. At the end of Season 7, Will has become trapped in a building that's on fire, so we don't know now if they will ever even get to reunite. Is there anything you can tease about Hannah's love life going into Season 8?

I question it as well. I'm constantly asking what's going to happen with us.

We're leaving off in a dire situation where there's people trapped in the building. We don't know who's getting out, who's staying in, what the effects are that the fire is going to provide for everybody.

But I will say with the relationship, it is definitely a constant stepping stone of two steps forward, one step back. They're constantly in this circular momentum of figuring out what their relationship is now. We've seen them argue about their past. We've seen them both project onto each other who they used to be. Coming into Season 8, we're finally getting to see who they will be now and see what grows from that, whether that be romantic or just platonic.

What are you most excited for fans to see in Season 8 overall?

Season 8 is extremely active so far. We're filming Episodes 5 and 6 right now, and already, there's more action than there's been in the past, which is super fun. We've got some new characters, so there's more relationships happening. It's an incredibly active season, and we've only just begun.