You can count 9-1-1 star and executive producer Angela Bassett among those who couldn’t believe that the show would ever decide to kill off the Bobby Nash (Peter Krause). Bassett — who plays Bobby’s wife, Sgt. Athena Grant, on the ABC first-responder drama — revealed in a recent Hollywood Reporter interview that she initially thought her character was getting killed off when co-creator and showrunner Tim Minear first called to notify her that someone would be dying in an upcoming episode.
Angela Bassett is no stranger to intense scenes, high-stakes drama, or life-or-death plotlines. But recently, the Emmy-nominated actress revealed something that fans never saw coming—she thought her time on “9-1-1” was up. That’s right. When she read the script for a pivotal episode, her immediate reaction was: “Is it me?!” Let’s dive into what really went down behind the scenes, why she thought she was getting written off, and how the real twist hit just as hard.
“He pulled me and he gave me a call and was like, ‘OK, Angela, this is a big change in the season. We gotta do something really dramatic — and someone’s going to die,'” Bassett recalled. “And then there’s a pause, of course. And I said, ‘Is it… Athena? Is it me?!'” When Minear informed her that Athena wasn’t going anywhere, Bassett began to try to figure out which of the beloved members of the 118 wasn’t going to make it. “I started going through the list: ‘Is it Hen? Is it Chimney?'” she said, referring to Aisha Hinds and Kenneth Choi’s characters. “And I think finally, after about three or four names, I was like, ‘What?!’ — because it was inconceivable to me that it was Bobby.”
The decision took her completely by surprise. “Sometimes, you’re just struck dumb — and that’s one of those moments because their bond has been so wonderful and so strong these past four or five years,” Bassett remarked. “I didn’t see that coming. None of us saw that coming.”
Bobby died at the end of 9-1-1’s two-part contagion event, revealing to Buck (Oliver Stark) that he had been infected with a mutated strain of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever after he’d already administered the only available dose of antidote to Chimney. He then asked Buck to get Athena, who supported him in his final moments through a glass window.
After Bassett learned of Bobby’s fate, she immediately sought out Krause the moment they were back on set together. “I just remember coming to set and asking everyone, ‘Where’s Bobby? Where’s Bobby?’ ‘He’s upstairs.’ ‘OK. I’ll get to this later, but let me find my man,'” she said as she laughed. “And we just looked at each other. You know when your eyes just lock and you don’t know what to say? And you just bear hug each other and then you just shake your head.” She added that Krause, a lead actor on the show since its first season in 2018, had to become a support system for the rest of the cast as they processed his departure.
“He truly had to comfort all of us while he’s going through his own processing in the moment,” Bassett said. “But fortunately, everything’s [shot] so out of order that you can shoot what will be the finality [of that character], but you still have more time together. So that’s some measure of grace — a small measure.” Bassett isn’t the only one who had a hard time letting Krause and Bobby go. Choi told Entertainment Weekly that he couldn’t believe Minear’s decision and “fought him on it up until we kind of did the funeral stuff, because I was thinking, Maybe they’ll pull it back. Maybe they’ll change their minds. Maybe they’ll reverse course.”
He noted that he wept “for like three or four minutes” while watching Thursday’s episode. “To the point where I started to laugh at myself, because it was uncontrollable sobbing,” he said. “I was laughing at myself saying, ‘I don’t know what is happening! I know this isn’t real! Why am I acting like this?’ But it was devastating to me.” Angela Bassett’s vulnerability in thinking her time was up on “9-1-1” shows exactly why she continues to be a powerhouse on screen. She brings emotion, honesty, and fire to every scene. While the episode might’ve scared her (and us), it also reminded viewers of her irreplaceable presence. She’s not just part of the show—she is the show’s heartbeat. And thankfully, that heart is still beating strong.
