FIRE COUNTRY: Max Thieriot Previews CBS’ New Unconventional Drama

With almost two decades of on-screen acting experience under his belt, Max Thieriot is reaching a new career milestone with a couple of new titles alongside his on-screen role on CBS’ new drama FIRE COUNTRY: co-creator and executive producer.

The series—which follows Bode Donovan (Thieriot), “a young convict seeking redemption and a shortened prison sentence by joining a prison release firefighting program in Northern California where he and other inmates are partnered with elite firefighters to extinguish massive, unpredictable wildfires across the region”—is personal for the actor, who grew up in a small Northern California town, similar to the one depicted in the show. (He co-created the drama—which also stars Billy Burke, Kevin Alejandro, and Diane Farr—with Tony Phelan and Joan Rater; Tia Napolitano serves as showrunner. )

And for Thieriot, a television vet and fan, he is very aware there are other fire-centric shows on the air right now. “Any time you see a new show pop up on television, like I do it as a viewer, I go, ‘Oh, it’s another one of those,'” he acknowledges to Give Me My Remote. “And I think the really exciting thing is that this show is not another one of those. It really has its own identity. And I’m excited for people to see it, because of that.”

Here, Thieriot talks about grounding the series in a world he’s familiar with, balancing his many responsibilities for the show, and more…

What made the time right for you to tell this story?
I think, honestly, it felt timely, for a lot of reasons. As COVID was really sort of starting out, and we were shut down from filming [SEAL TEAM], I found myself finally starting to finish my writing exercises that I never really saw all the way through—I’d start working on an idea, and didn’t finish.

After the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa in ’17, in the county I grew up in, these fires seemed to basically show up every year after that—they were massive and devastating, with loss of so many structures and lives. I was thinking, why are we only telling the city department stories?

Growing up in this community, in this area where so many people do this job—not necessarily specifically for Cal Fire, but forestry people or volunteer departments or city departments—there was nobody really telling that story. Then, after I talked to a few people and sort of spoke about the world a little bit, I also realized that the inmate firefighter aspect, and those hand crews, were something that people really didn’t know was a thing.

This is almost three years ago now; in the past couple years, it has definitely become more in the spotlight. Back then people were like, “What do you mean inmates fight fire?” I realized all the folks who were interested in this world.

Then, for me, I just grounded it in a place that was inspired by the community, the town, the people that I grew up around, because I just felt like maybe all of this is an interesting story to tell.

And there’s also something that’s very comforting and homey feeling about that small town USA, that experience of living in a place where everybody knows everybody, and everybody’s connected somehow or partially related. Then, on top of that, they do a job in this place. And that job happens to be one that ultimately has them showing up, saving people’s lives, saving people’s houses that were burning down.

In a sense, it also sort of really elevates the stakes for us on these incidents, because you’re not just showing up to a car crash to somebody you don’t know; it might be somebody you very well do know or somebody that you have gone to school with since kindergarten or somebody who knows your mom.

A lot of that was the ideas that I had to start, and then I just kind of just took off with it.

As production started, how have you been juggling your time between acting (with the show filming in Vancouver), the creative side, and producing?
I spent some time in the writers’ room leading up to production. And now that the series is going, I’m less involved in the process, currently, just because of my time. I do want to get back into the writers’ room and start being in there more, going forward. I just chose to take a partial step back from that just to focus on the acting part and to focus on the producer part of it all, just [as we’re] getting everything started.

It’s also the reason why I will direct on the show, but why I’ve chosen not to direct yet. I’ve just kind of been trying to figure [everything] out, because, obviously, it’s the first time I’ve worn so many hats. [Laughs.] I’ve been trying to figure out where to allocate my time. And I chose to allocate it mostly to acting and producing, being that I’m really the producer [who is] boots on the ground.

The back half of the season is when I’ll start to switch that into the writers’ room and into directing. Obviously, I’ll still be acting, too—that isn’t going anywhere.

On BATES MOTEL and SEAL TEAM, you worked with actor-producers in Vera Farmiga and David Boreanaz. What lessons did you learn from them about balancing those particular responsibilities?
I think that everybody, as an executive producer, has different strengths, right? And I’m really fortunate to work with KristieAnne Reed and the folks at Jerry Bruckheimer Television, who are just pros; I’m really lucky in that aspect. Different actors are of different strength as executive producers.

It’s definitely also a little different, just because I’m also a creator of the show. It’s a good and a bad thing—people want to come for answers about certain things. And I might [have to say], “I haven’t been working on the writers’ room right now,” or whatever it is.

I don’t know if I have any real specific things that I’ve learned from other actors who have done sort of that job. But I can say that the one thing that I’ve definitely learned, which is almost sort of like being an executive producer, just because it’s sort of like a leadership role: being that leader on a television show, that number one [on the call sheet], being able to work with different folks now, I’ve really learned how to be to be that leader. Not only just for other actors on the show, but also for the crew. And how to set the tone.

My big thing is I want everybody to come, do their best work, show up, bring their A-game, but also be able to have a smile on their face. And go home at the end of the day, and not think, “Oh, man, this was hard, this sucked,” whatever. I want people to go home and be able to to check out from that, because it was so enjoyable, that they’re like, “I’m gonna move on to the next part of my day and I’m ready to do it again tomorrow.”

I also I feel like if you inspire people, and people are legitimately enjoying their job and having fun, ultimately, you’re just gonna get a better result, a better show. I’m a firm believer in the carrot over the stick. I think it’s a collaborative process, filmmaking, and television making. And all these people do it, really, in every department, because they all sort of are feeding this creative need to be an artist. If you lift people up, and you empower them, and you give them a chance to get creative, and have fun and support them [it makes a difference]. After the 20 years that I’ve been doing this, starting out as a kid carrying that lunchbox until now, I’ve definitely noticed that’s something that is important. And I’ve learned that, for sure, on these other shows.

It’s a bit more murky now, but there is, technically, a fire season. Will the show be contained within that time frame, or will we be seeing them when they’re not facing fires?
It’s an interesting thing. I think that there used to be fire season, and now fire season has really kind of become year-round, just because the West has been in such a mega drought the last however many years; it’s unpredictable at this point.

Obviously, it’s heightened and highlighted pretty much from June to October, especially in Northern California, because that’s when it’s really dry. But I think the great thing about this show is that the department that we’re using for our story, and for our characters, is an all-risk department. So they respond to not just wildfires, but medical aids and car accidents and swift water rescues and mudslides and earthquakes. They really respond to everything.

I think the goal right now—and this is a big discussion, too, in the writers’ room—is figuring out how we manage that balance. Because, clearly, the wildfires that we show on the show are, unlike, in my opinion, anything on television. They’re really kind of more in the vein of what people show for massive fire in the movies. And thankfully, CGI VFX has gotten so impressive that you can do that now. Obviously, we don’t want to lose any of that, because that’s visually a big thing. It’s very different.

So, yeah, we’re sort of just working through that; we’ll always maintain that look and always have those fires. And then figure out how to deal with the elements of sunny ol’ Vancouver. [Laughs.] We’ll sprinkle in some rain as well.

FIRE COUNTRY, Series Premiere, Friday, October 7, 9/8c, CBS

RELATED:

• CBS Releases New Teasers for GHOSTS, FIRE COUNTRY, EAST NEW YORK, CSI: VEGAS, and More
• FIRE COUNTRY on CBS – First Look

Follow @GiveMeMyRemote and @marisaroffman on Twitter for the latest TV news. Connect with other TV fans on GIVE ME MY REMOTE’s official Facebook page.

And be the first to see our exclusive videos by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases made through links/ads placed on the site.