ONE CHICAGO (Collectors Print Issue) Darren Barnet, Brandon Larracuente, Benjamin Levy Aguilar

PHOTOGRAPHY & INTERVIEW: IRVIN RIVERA, ART & CREATIVE DIRECTOR/PRODUCER: PHIL LIMPRASERTWONG. FASHION STYLING: ELIZABETH KENNEDY, GROOMING & HAIR: BRENDA ARELLANO, CONTRIBUTING PRODUCER: AC DE QUINA, PHOTO ASST: DANE THOMAS, STYLING ASST: KATE ADLER, LOCATION: FAIRMONT CHICAGO, MILLENNIUM PARK

What stayed with me after having these conversations with our featured stars was not just the appeal of the One Chicago world, or the uniforms, or the urgency, or even the familiar pull of people running toward danger while the rest of us instinctively run the other way. It was something quieter. This issue also captures something else that feels especially exciting: a new generation of actors stepping into this beloved franchise and bringing with them a different kind of energy, one shaped by openness, emotional intelligence, and a deeper relationship to vulnerability. 

Across Darren Barnet, Brandon Larracuente, and Benjamin Levy Aguilar the same truth kept surfacing: the most compelling kind of strength is rarely loud. It is built in motion. It is shaped by discipline, reinvention, survival, and the private work of becoming someone steadier than the version of yourself you started with. Darren returned to the tension between performance and identity, and to the kind of self-protection so many people know by heart. Brandon spoke about resilience, teamwork, and the thankless reality of service. Benjamin brought the language of survival, inner compass, and vulnerability, reminding us that real toughness is not bravado but self-awareness. Even when these men are playing firefighters, cops, and doctors, they are really circling something far more human: how a person learns to carry responsibility without losing themselves in it.

That is the connective tissue of this issue. Not heroism as spectacle, but heroism as inner labor. Darren reflects on rejection, misunderstanding, ambition, and the complicated task of growing past the first version of yourself that the world decides it knows. Brandon talks about camaraderie, trust, and the responsibility of portraying public servants with care. Benjamin speaks about survival, discernment, vulnerability, and the discipline of following an inner compass rather than inherited fear. 

In different ways, all three men are talking about the same thing: what it means to grow into yourself without becoming hardened by the journey. These interviews do not just reveal actors promoting roles inside a beloved franchise. They reveal three artists and a new breed of leading men who think deeply about service, identity, pain, accountability, and the cost of staying open in a world that often rewards performance over truth.

PHOTOGRAPHER: PHIL LIMPRASERTWONG

And maybe that is the lesson this issue leaves behind. Strength is not the absence of fear, doubt, grief, or contradiction. It is the willingness to look at all of it honestly and still choose integrity. It is questioning the loyalties that no longer serve you. It is letting go of the version of yourself that kept you safe but no longer lets you grow. It is learning that tenderness is not weakness, that vulnerability is not failure, and that real courage often looks less like bravado and more like clarity. 

What makes Chicago Med, Chicago Fire, and Chicago P.D. endure is not just action or adrenaline; it is the reminder that behind every badge, every coat, every impossible shift, there is a person trying to do right, trying to heal, trying to become. That is what this collector’s issue honors, and frankly, that is what makes it worth holding onto.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW IN PRINT







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