Oliver, you have experience onboarding people into these action scenes, since you do this all the time. How is that process for you, bringing in a new person?Oliver Stark: I really love it. One of the most rewarding parts of it for me is to watch the newer people, whether it be Arielle or Anirudh [Pisharody, who plays Ravi] or Bryce [Durfee, who plays Jonah/”Monday”], who is also new to the show. I get to watch them grow into it. Take 1, there might be a sense of them finding their way into it. And then by Take 3 or 4, you get this feeling where they’re like, “All right. I want go again. I want to hit it harder.” So it’s really cool for me to get to see that: it’s growth happening right in front of my eyes. You’re right in saying that I have been through it a few times on the show, so I try to offer some guidance and steer people if I can. But more than anything for me, it’s just about encouragement: “Trust me. I know it’s scary. Once you do it, you’re going to say, ‘Can we do it again?’ because it’s going to be really fun.”
Oliver, have you worked with the same stunt double throughout the run of the show?
OS: Yeah, unfortunately, because I don’t really like him. No, he’s one of my best friends. In the pilot, the stunt coordinator comes up to me — a coordinator called Mark Maslow — and he kind of sizes me up and was like, “Yeah, I think I got a guy.” So they bring in this guy, Skyler Millicano, and we’ve built a really strong rapport over the seasons. He knows that when it comes down to it, I’m usually going to want to do it. So the way it tends to work is, they’ll set it up with him and he’ll probably run it five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times and make sure that it’s safe. And then he’ll be like, “This bit’s a little bit sticky.” “Watch your hands when you’re grabbing onto this.” He is great at getting in there and prepping it and making sure that I can look as cool as I like to think I will once it comes to it. And then, funnily enough, I actually bought a house like five minutes down the road from him. So he would come over and work out at my gym and our bonds just kind of grew over the years. So yeah, I kind of feel like I’m stuck with him at this point.
Seeing those kinds of relationships must make you feel that much safer as a new person on the set, Arielle.
OS: In terms of her coming onto the show — I don’t know if this is how you felt, Arielle — but I feel like it could be a thing that’s perhaps somewhat intimidating. We’re a very tight-knit group and we always try to be welcoming, of course, but I can imagine that there’s a kind of new-kid-at-school feel. From our point of view, it never for a second felt like that. Arielle immediately felt like one of the gang and there was never a step missed. She fit right in with us. I think we all got really lucky in that sense.
The action scene is one thing, but you two also have a make-out scene. How do you prepare for that?
AK: I mean, that’s for sure the worst part of the job.
OS: I gotta go. Bye!
AK: No. Well, first of all, that was my first day of filming. I was on set at 5:00 AM. And my first scene was with the 118, celebrating after our big rescue. So that was definitely intimidating, but in a great way, because I felt like, “Oh, I can use those nerves because, Lucy would be feeling that too. She feels great hanging out with them, but it’s still a bit new.” And then we went straight into the make-out scene. Again, Oliver was so wonderful that first day. I think we met in the makeup trailer, and he introduced himself and introduced me around, so immediately I felt welcomed in a way that I wasn’t sure I was going to. Season 5 of a show, you really don’t know what you’re walking into in terms of set politics or dynamics. But to immediately feel so welcomed, and by him especially — that helped make things a little bit more normal so that hours later when we were kissing, it was fine.
OS: Being an actor is really weird.
AK: Yeah. But, also — I mean, Oliver, tell me what you think. There was salt all over our faces. Our characters were drinking. I feel like there was this funny stuff that happened throughout the day that just kind of makes things less awkward.
OS: One hundred percent. Yeah. I think this is a thing that happens: when you spend a day and you start at 6:00 AM, pretending you’re at a bar getting drunk, there’s some kind of placebo effect where you kind of do take that on a little bit and you do get overly silly and find things funny that shouldn’t be funny. And, I feel like there was a real kind of chemistry built even in the early hours of that morning, so by the time we got to that scene, we were good to go.
Lucy and Buck obviously have a lot in common. They are attracted to each other, but could a relationship between two impulsive hotheads like this really work?
AK: I turn that right over to you, Oliver.
OS: Thanks so much. I don’t know. From my point of view — and listen, we don’t really know as of yet where the story is going, to be honest with you — but there is certainly something that I enjoy when I think about the characters’ relationship. Lucy has kind of reawakened Buck and brought him to life in a way that kind of was left to fall dormant — not necessarily his kind of crazy playboy side that we used to see in Season 1, but just an aliveness and a wild side that can be beneficial. I don’t think Buck is looking to immediately get into any kind of relationship with anybody new or anything like that. But I do think he’s certainly going to enjoy and benefit from having Lucy around him.
The show has been off since December. Of course it has to return with an extremely gnarly save. Does the show still manage to shock you, Oliver, five seasons in?
OS: I think the thing that shocks me about it is, oftentimes I’ll read something in the scripts and I’m like, “Man, we’re not going to be able to pull that off.” And then you turn up on set and there is a man and his kneecaps are hanging out and it looks totally convincing. That’s the aspect that shocks me more — just the relentless pursuit of “No, no, no, we are going to do this for real. This is going to be practical, at least to some degree.” We are really there and there are really two kneecaps poking out of this man’s legs.
That was one of the few times I’ve had to turn away from the screen. It was brutal. So: well done!
OS: It was. There’s something really cool about that: we open with that. No waiting, no hanging about. No “Let’s get to know these new people.” No. Bam: kneecaps in your face. We’re back. I think that’s a really bold choice. And I think that’s what makes good television.
One last question. When you’re not jumping off trucks on set, what’s the most high-adrenaline activity you engage in?
OS: That’s so crazy, I was going to say the exact same thing! To be honest with you, when I’m away from set, my adrenaline goes in the opposite direction: nice and low. I like a slow uphill walk with a dog on my side or a little bit of gardening. I get my adrenaline thrill when I’m at work, and the rest of the time, I’m my either asleep or doing something that doesn’t involve moving too fast.
