Sharon Leone (Diane Farr) is not ready to lose anyone else after her husband, Vince (Billy Burke), died in a fire to kick off Fire Country Season 4. And so is it any wonder that, especially after watching her son Bode (Max Thieriot) run into a fire to save a dog, she’s not exactly eager to kick new battalion chief Brett Richards (Shawn Hatosy) out when he says he’s going to keep that from happening again? In fact, Brett says it’s 42’s “loose relationship” with the basics that got Vince killed. Bode, of course, isn’t happy about that.
It’s a double dose of Sharon Leone this week, with Farr also crossing over to Sheriff Country to provide support for her sister Mickey (Morena Baccarin), whose daughter (Amanda Arcuri) is caught up in a murder investigation. Below, Diane Farr discusses Sharon’s grief, what’s coming up with Brett, Sheriff Country crossovers, and much more.
How is Sharon doing when it comes to her grief at this point?
Diane Farr: I talked to the showrunner [Tia Napolitano] about exploring the five stages of grief because I don’t think anybody wants to watch someone crying every single week, and I did not want it to be a drag when Sharon shows up. She’s such a feisty girl. I wanted to make sure we showed some active choices. So my showrunner is wonderful and she’s so collaborative. We are going through anger and bartering with God and denial. Each episode in the beginning is a different one, and then she sits in each one of those stages for a couple of episodes after she cycles through them all in one through five.
How is she doing when it comes to not only being without Vince, her husband, but also being without the person she worked alongside all these years. That’s a major adjustment, too, right?
Yeah, that adjustment keeps going all year. She never quite has her footing and she benches 42 for a period of time so they all can grieve and maybe their grieving cycle is shorter, we would hope, right? If Sharon’s lost both her husband and her work partner. She’s really uncomfortable the whole year and she makes mistakes and she makes bad choices. And I think it might be fair to say at some point she loses her objectivity.
Then you have Brett coming in and insisting things need to be changed. He’s bringing up Vince’s death, saying it’s because of the way 42 operates. This episode ends with Bode trying to get Sharon to get rid of Brett, but she says no. Does she think he’s right about what led to Vince’s death?
I think most first responders experience survivor’s guilt when someone dies in their company. This week I did a post on Instagram about losing Vince and losing Billy, and the comments on it are the most beautiful notes I’ve ever received on social media. And there’s multiple ones from first responders talking about how hard it is to get their colleagues to talk about when a police officer goes down, when a sheriff goes down, when a firefighter’s life is lost in the line of duty. The TV show I did years before this, Rescue Me, was born because I was doing a show called The Job with Denis Leary, where we played cops when 9/11 happened. So, in support of firefighters, every night after filming the TV show, we started going to different firehouses just for moral support, and that’s how Rescue Me was born. It was literally just watching the survivor’s guilt of NYFD.
So that is happening for everybody in there, and Brett Richards does not have it, so he’s sort of a catalyst for all of us to look at the choices we’re making because when anyone’s emotional, you’re not making your best choices. I got a motorcycle at 47. I was recently divorced. I had three kids. There’s no fun drugs you can take at 47 when you’re a mother of three. So it’s like, what are you going to do to be wild? So I got a motorcycle and the first teacher I had to learn how to ride it said, “Never ever ride the bike when you’re emotional, you cannot make precise decisions.” And I think this whole season, everyone is affected by Vince’s death in that they’re making imprecise decisions.
She also doesn’t want to lose Bode either — the way you played Sharon when she saw Bode go through that fire to save the dog, such a good moment. I’m curious, if Bode hadn’t taken the risk he had in this episode, would she be feeling any differently about Brett’s way?
That’s a good question. I don’t know. I think the idea of more loss to her, she’s allergic to it at this point, right? Our show started with an original wound. We had all already lost Riley. We had already lost my daughter and Bode’s sister. And Bode believed he was at fault the same way that Sharon believed she’s at fault for Vince’s death. So I don’t know if she could see what Brett might bring clearer, but at the moment she cannot.
Even if she starting to agree with what Brett’s doing because it can keep her son, keep everyone alive, how much is it hurting her to see him change what she and Vince built together like he is?
I think she’s so riddled in self-doubt that she might be welcoming the change. I sometimes think of 42 as the Bad News Bears of firefighting. We go off the rails so much. There are multiple players in there who do not play by the rules. People keep going off and making a choice on their own, which leads to these heroic feats, but they’re an impossible group of people to lead.
Sharon and Brett’s conversation in this episode while she’s drinking coffee — I’ve never seen someone so pointedly drink a cup of coffee before like you do in that scene.
[Laughs] When we first got there, there were all these references to, Sharon doesn’t eat, Sharon’s not eating, and you’re just drinking coffee, you’re not sleeping. And I kept looking at her writers like, you cannot surprise actresses with Sharon doesn’t eat. I was like, I need time to prepare for Sharon to look like she doesn’t eat. So the coffee cup has become my pacifier. She’s holding it the way someone holds a cigarette. It’s there to support her, like a cuddly toy. The coffee cup’s not going anywhere.
What are Sharon and Brett’s interactions like going forward?
Spicy. He’s such a good actor. I worked with him before on Numb3rs. His first day on our set, he got the Emmy nomination for The Pitt. I was so excited for him, and I don’t know if you noticed, but that guest art category is often a who’s who. I feel like it’s often a popularity contest, who got the biggest Academy Award-winning actor to get come on their TV, show everyone else in that category with him in the household name. So it was such an honor that he got the nomination because it was about his work and then the fact that he won it, wow. We were lucky to have him when we did. I’m sure he is unavailable for the next five years going forward, but he’s great. We get really spicy with each other. We fight.
With everything Shannon’s dealing with right now, how is she going to react to the Bode and pills situation? Because yes, he spit it out, but he still took one.
I don’t think she has the bandwidth to react well to anything. This whole season, Sharon devolves quickly with stress. In earlier seasons, I had talks with female firefighters about why it’s important to not cry at work. The first thing I was ever taught when I trained for Rescue Me to play a firefighter by female firefighters was never, ever give up your equipment, that when things go badly, men will generally try to take care of the female standing next to them, and if you give up your equipment, you are a problem in the fire rather than an asset. So I think the same holds true emotionally. But she can’t do it anymore. She goes from zero to a mess, either angry or sad or losing objectivity. In my opinion, she shouldn’t be back at work yet and we’re going to watch what happens because she is.
Does that mean Bode and Sharon are going to be a bit separate right now? Kind of avoiding each other?
Yeah, I think parallel grief, we don’t — both characters are trying not to put their burden on the other. So we’re using the resources in our second family; he’s using some and I’m using some, we are working in different lanes through the same grief. And when we come together, it’s very tender because we’re worried about each other, but we’re not laying our stuff. Sharon hears about everything that’s going on with Bode from other people that he’s going to.
The description for next week’s episode teases that Sharon is struggling to let go of Vince’s belongings. Why does she have to let go of his stuff?
The season is supposed to be taking place right after the Zabel Ridge fire, which is the equivalent of the L.A. fires, so our writers are incorporating all the things that happened in Los Angeles when two major towns in the city burned. And what we all did was give away our things — your clothes, your furniture, your shoes, people were giving away anything. So there were these popups all over Los Angeles for fire victims to come in and collect because they lost everything. And even people whose houses didn’t burn down, they still lost all their belongings because you can’t go in because of the carcinogens that went in their houses. So a lot of these things that are happening in the early part of the episode are mirrors of the true stories of Angelinos.
And then the description also says that Sharon unexpectedly finds comfort in Renee (Constance Zimmer), which I’m looking forward because those two characters are great together. What is that dynamic like now that they’re both grieving?
Really sweet. Constance is my friend for 20 years. I love her so much. I was so excited that she came on and then we get her back. We all want to see women supporting women. The old narrative that we’re all out to get each other is dying finally, thank God. And they support each other in a very strange way. And it really is hard for the character of Eve [Jules Latimer], who’s 20 years younger and at a very different place in her life, who is looking at us, like, the only thing you have in common is the same person you both had sex with. I’m not sure that’s a bond.
We also see you on Sheriff Country this week. I love your entrance on there and the sweet moments we got of Sharon with Skye, then Mickey and the humor of Sharon walking into the desk when she sees Travis (Christopher Gorham) and Cassidy (Michele Weaver) together, it’s so funny. It’s a nice break from her own life for her, right?
Yes. Every time I go there, it’s not focused on me, which is really fun. And in those early stages, when I shot that episode, I didn’t know anything about our season yet. Sheriff Country started months before Fire Country. So I went into it sort of blind, but I had made a pact with myself, what happens in her department stays in her department, that Sharon can take a break. She’s not in charge of anyone over there. She’s not even in charge of Mickey. So Sharon gets sillier and sillier as she goes over there. She can be very light.
And the desk, so that episode was directed by Kevin Alejandro, which was so fun because first of all, I haven’t even been on another set in four years. This show takes up 10 months of the year. So the downtime I have, I use for writing and time with my children. So just going to another set makes you slightly nervous. And then it’s Kevin helming it. So we had done two takes and then I was like, “Oh, I’m walking backwards. I could probably hit the desk. I wonder if that would fit in this show.” I didn’t know if it was going to be in the same movie that they were making. And Kevin walks up to me and says, “What if you hit the desk?” We had the same thought at the same time, and I don’t hear from the writers very much because they’re in Los Angeles, but one of them wrote me to say, “Oh my God, when you hit the desk!” And I was like, yes, it lived.
And I have to say how happy I am that the sisters are on much better terms considering where they were when Mickey was first introduced. And it is really nice to see that bond on screen.
Yes, and we really enjoy playing sisters with no treacle. They’re not mushy, huggy, kissy. I can barely touch her. So, it’s a very fun relationship to play.
Matt Lopez told me that we’re going to see across both shows why the Sharon and Wes (W. Earl Brown) relationship is a special one. What can you say about that?
He’s just the cutest actor. He’s so fun. He’s such a fun, funny guy, and he has such an intricate secret life of music and he knows everyone, so he has a whole booming social life in Toronto. He’s kind of who I want to be now as I age in Hollywood. He is lovely and he just treats me like his other daughter. And Sharon’s not babied by anyone, so it’s just a gift to be there and to show other sides of her.
And especially because right now it seems like she could use family because her and Walter (Jeff Fahey) are not on good terms over on Fire Country. That was heartbreaking in the premier.
Yeah, that was really bad. And they stay that way for a while. We have an episode where he and I shot and we had one of those days where we’re in every scene together and it’s five scenes and we’re watching them fall apart and try to repair and fall apart again. It was one of the most satisfying filming days I’ve had, is working with him. But the characters are not healing soon.
And then you have Luke trying to be mediator between everyone, but then of course it’s like Luke, so it’s like you love him, but you also hate him at times.
Yes, yes. That actor, Michael Trucco, does the best job of threading the smallest needle. He has such a snake oil charm and you want to kill him. And then he always surprises you with, here have a kidney. He just will not fit in a small box. I just spent all of yesterday filming with him and the writers write him well. It’s such a fine character. He’s both a bad guy and a ridiculous good guy.
What can you say about what we’ll see between Sharon and Luke with what you filmed?
Nothing romantic, thank God. I really begged. I was like, please, I don’t want a love story. Can I just honor Vince?
Their relationship is complicated enough. We don’t need to add that to it.
Exactly. Every time I get a script and the first page is the cast list and I see his name, I’m like, please no hook-up. So far so good.
Is it remaining complicated though? Will they continue to butt heads, like with Brett in the premiere?
Yes, exactly. They have a great storyline for him. He’s going to keep bumping her.
