Few shows on TV sound quite as intimidating to work on as Fox’s 9-1-1.
Not only is that cast contending with massive disasters and insane emergencies in a heightened Ryan Murphy-produced world, but they’re also led by the Angela Bassett, along with newer cast addition Jennifer Love Hewitt.
Star Oliver Stark joined Carissa Culiner and Justin Sylvester on E!’s Daily Pop to talk about the third season and working with legends like that. For him, it’s both a big deal and not that big of a deal.
“The whole cast is weird to work with,” Stark said. “These are people that, you know, I grew up knowing these people’s work, and suddenly they’re colleagues, which really took a little adjustment period. I walked onto that set as a fan and had to realize no, I’m their colleague, and we’re here doing this thing together.”
Stark’s character, Buck, is the brother of Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character, and had a really rough relationship with Bassett’s character from the start.
“At the beginning of the story especially, me and Angela’s character were really kind of butting heads,” he said. “I think our first scene was us arguing, and nobody wants to argue with Angela Bassett, but the thing about it was that all of the nerves I had going into it were immediately kind of quelled as soon as I got to the set. Becasue she’s not Angela Bassett, she’s just Angela Bassett. Like they’re great people to work with, and there’s no ego involved, so it helped to settle me coming in as the new guy.”
The stories told on 9-1-1 are mostly ripped from the headlines, or as Stark says, they come from “either Youtube or Florida.”
“I look at the script more times and think, how are we going to do this? But it always comes together,” he says. “But yeah, the strangest ones are often the ones that are based on truth.”
This season, Buck is currently dealing with the aftermath of a tsunami that hit the Santa Monica pier in the premiere, and is now in the middle of a lawsuit for wrongful termination
No such tsunami has actually hit the Santa Monica pier (knock on wood), and let’s hope the on screen devastation isn’t something any of us here in LA actually have to look forward to any time soon.
9-1-1 airs Mondays at 8 p.m. on Fox.
Watch Daily Pop weekdays on E! at 12 p.m.