The CBS series Fire Country is back for Season 3 with Bode Leone
(Max Thieriot) trying to figure out what comes next for him, now
that he’s a free man. Gabriela (Stephanie Arcila) and Diego
(Rafael de la Fuente) are still reeling from the helicopter crash that halted their wedding and forced them to confront their feelings, all while being thrown into the chaos of stopping fires and helping victims.
After watching the season premiere, Collider got the opportunity to chat one-on-one with Thieriot about the theme of legacy, whether any addiction can be a healthy addiction, the weird adjustment to being able to act in locations Bode couldn’t have gone to before, the memorable visual of a bloody wedding dress, what Leven Rambin is bringing to Season 3 as a former inmate wanting to get hired by CalFire, and throwing Jared Padalecki into the mix for an arc.
MAX THIERIOT: No. A lot of this season focuses on that. Is that addiction? I have a good friend who is an MMA fighter, who still fights the UFC. He won his season of Ultimate Fighter and they did a special on him. He’s a recovering addict, and a big thing for him is that you can’t replace something with nothing. You can’t find this other addiction to replace it with. People who are prone to addiction often end up finding something else to replace that. [My friend] did it with fighting. Bode is doing it with firefighting. It’s obviously something that is ingrained in him. It’s in his blood. His family has been doing it forever. But at this point, it’s really him chasing that adrenaline and that addiction and that legacy, and not really taking the time to step back and look at himself and try to figure out what his life should be versus what he thinks his life is supposed to be. And so, while we don’t instantly jump into him stepping back and looking at that, this season is about him diving in headfirst, and then reflecting, at some point, on that. Is that addiction healthy for him? This season is about legacy. He’s gotten used to the life that he was living and having certain parameters on it. I got used to the acting that I was doing and only having to wear orange every day and only being able to go to certain sets. It’s been a weird adjustment for me too. I’m like, “What do you mean, I can film in Smokey’s? What do you mean I can go to the Leone house?” It’s been interesting, but in a way that’s also been fun and new. It’s exciting to explore this different part of his life and really try to find the best way through that.
