9-1-1 has been at this game for a long time now, and Oliver Stark has been there every step of the way.
Stark’s Evan ‘Buck’ Buckley continues to be a steady hand within the 118, consistently showing up for his family and growing from the brash, hotshot firefighter we met in the pilot to the reliable and consistent man we see in the beginning hour of this season.
It’s been quite a long journey for Buck, and each season has seen him encounter milestones and obstacles. However, coming into this one places him and his Los Angeles family in a place they never expected to be: a world without Bobby Nash.
We enter new territory in 9-1-1 Season 9, literally, as the premiere hour gets ready to blast off two beloved characters into space to close out the first part of another epic opening disaster.
However, ahead of that launch, much of the hour centers on the new positions and circumstances that have arisen in the aftermath of such a devastating loss.
Fresh off a six-month time jump, we meet Buck in a precarious place and encounter new shifts within.
So how has Buck been handling these shifts, and how will we see that play out as the season progresses?
“I think with all types of grief, there are ups and downs, good weeks, bad weeks, and it comes in waves,” Stark said when asked that very question.
“So I imagine the six months between seasons have been something like that for Buck, good days and bad days. And I think as we enter into the new season, he is still trying to find his footing. I think we’ll find him trying to be a part of things that he doesn’t even necessarily want to be a part of.
“He just wants to be included. He just wants to feel that family again. He wants to feel that the 118 are coming back to a good place. So yeah, it’s still a case of re-grounding and everybody trying to find steady ground as we move into the season. But the 118 are so bonded that I think it shouldn’t be too difficult a journey.”
The bond between the 118 has long been one of the most charming aspects of the series, as we’ve seen the team truly become a family over the years, sharing in the triumphs and defeats both on the job and in their personal lives.
With Chimney now taking over as the interim captain, the usual dynamics we’re used to seeing, with Howard ‘Chimney’ and Henrietta ‘Hen’ paired, and Buck and Edmundo ‘Eddie’ Diaz paired, have now changed with Chimney and Hen teaming up, and Buck and Ravi Panikkar pairing off.
“He’s going to be a little bit thrown by it,” Stark admitted when asked how Buck truly feels about the shifting work dynamics. “He’s a character, I think, that finds comfort in the status quo. He likes things to be as they are and as he’s used to.
“And so, there’s a little bit of an adjustment period for him and a few comments thrown from him to make note of that. But at the end of the day, I think he’s just happy to be there and he’s happy to be around the people that he loves.”
As he continues to adjust, there may be room for Buck to step into another role within the house, though that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s itching to step up in the ranks like he’s seen some of his teammates do, even if temporarily.
Stark could see Buck stepping up in other ways and creating a bit of a full circle moment for the longtime firefighter, telling us, “I do think he is a leader at his core, which doesn’t mean that he’s ready to be a captain, but I think as you quite rightly say, leadership takes on many roles and it’s not always necessarily in title.
“And I think he’s at a place where he’s able to gauge quite well at this point when it’s appropriate for him to step into those roles or for him to speak up, and when it’s not so appropriate. And throughout the season, we’ll definitely see opportunities for him to take on a leadership or mentoring role to those around him.
“It’s something that I really enjoy getting to play, because I think it’s a great progression from where we first found Buck in the pilot episode of the show. He was the one very much looking for and needing guidance, and that now he’s evolved into a place where he’s the one who can serve that up for others.”
Once upon a time, Bobby was that mentor to Buck, and their father-son relationship was among the most beloved of the series. And navigating that loss will certainly hang over this season for all the characters.
For Buck, Stark sees the loss of Bobby potentially influencing Buck in different ways.
“He can go one of two ways, and it’s still up in the air as far as where we’ve progressed to within filming the season,” Stark acknowledged. “Buck can go in a direction of continuing the journey that Bobby set him on, and continuing down the path that Bobby set him on, which is one of maturing, evolving, and growing.
“Or the loss of him can end up knocking him off that path because Bobby was always the one keeping him on it, and maybe there’s a possibility of regression. And I think in life, nothing is ever black or white; most things live in grey.
“So maybe there’s almost a bit of both. And we can see moments of those in different episodes or even scene to scene. But yes, I think it will end up as it should, help him to mature, but I don’t think that’s necessarily ending that path.”
We’ve seen Buck mature throughout the series, navigating various relationships over the past eight seasons.
While Buck ended 9-1-1 Season 8 single, and enters into the new season single as well, that leaves his romantic life in limbo, but Stark has some ideas about what’s most important to Buck at this stage of his life when it comes to new love.
And, more importantly, how to maintain that love.
“I would like him to slow down a little bit,” Stark explained.
“I think we have found him in relationships before where, very quickly, he’s looking to move in with them or become extremely domestic. So, I would like to see him slow down. But I think he wants to feel safe.
“He’s a character who gets very passionate about certain things. And I think he needs to be in an environment with a partner who he finds can encourage, enjoy, and embrace that about him. And love that about him. I think he needs to feel, I guess, as we all do, safe in a relationship and appreciated for who he is.”
Whether romance finds him this season remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the friendships in Buck’s life will evolve in unique ways after the events of the previous season.
For Stark, he had the chance to speak with real-life first responders, who offered their perspective on how the job strengthens the familial bonds that run through firehouses.
“I think, as difficult as it is to understand, sometimes trauma ends up bonding us in weird ways,” Stark said. “And there’s this horrible thing that these characters have all gone through; they’ve gone through it together. And it’s something that you can never take from them.
“So even if it’s not always consciously in their heads or it’s not spoken about out loud, I think going through these horrendous things helps strengthen those bonds that they do have. And that will continue to happen. They live and work in an atmosphere where traumatic events are part of their everyday lives.
“I speak to real firefighters, which I have had the chance to do quite a lot recently, actually, and they talk about seeing the most horrendous things. And you have to use that as a way to bond with each other and then be there for each other.
“You have to almost make light of them because you have to get through it together. But then getting through it together does mean that you are in a closer place than you were to begin with.”
In portraying a firefighter on a long-running procedural, Stark has had years to mold himself into Buck’s shoes and continuously learn more about the world he inhabits on the small screen.
As it relates to what his time on the series has helped him to learn about the world at large, Stark replied, “I think that there is no higher calling than helping those around you and being there for others. The most rewarding thing you can do is to help other people.”
Stark also took a moment to look back on his time throughout the series.
As we’ve seen Buck grow up on screen, Stark has also grown over the years he’s been on the series.
“I think he’d be pretty proud of him,” Stark replied when asked what 9-1-1 Season 1 Stark would think of himself now, entering into another season on a hit broadcast television series.
“I think he’d find Oliver is in a much more centered place than he was, whatever it is, seven, eight years ago now. And he’s much more secure with himself.
“So, yeah, I think he’d be pretty proud, and he’d find an Oliver who is more aware of his worth and what he can bring to the table, and isn’t so insecure. So, I think he’d be pretty proud of him. I’m pretty excited to turn into him.”
Behind the scenes, Stark remains energized by the scope and ambitious nature of the series. The actor relishes coming to work every day and stepping into the wild world of 9-1-1, which makes it easy to keep the role fresh and exciting after all this time.
That rings especially true during this opening space emergency arc, which is among the biggest they’ve ever done.
“I have a great time at work,” Stark exclaimed. “I love the people I work with. I’m excited to be there. And the nature of the show is that we get to do really amazing things, like these opening episodes of the show.
“Buck is obviously stuck on Earth, but there’s plenty of chaos being caused by the events that you start to see take shape in the trailer. And some of these sets you walk into, it’s just so mind-blowing, especially for a television procedural, where you feel like you’re walking into these big movie sets sometimes.
“Everything is really done in such a practical way. And you feel like we are living amongst this chaos.”
“So it’s pretty easy because so much of the amazing work is done around us, whether that be in the scripts or, as I was saying, the sets created or in the relationships that we formed, that it’s pretty easy to have a good time and still want to be there and still find that freshness in it. Because it is fresh.
“Every week we’re doing something new, we’re taking on a whole new challenge.”
Those challenges include big stunts and even bigger action pieces. And one stunt from 9-1-1 Season 9 Episode 1 was especially captivating for both Stark and the others on set.
As Stark told us, “You see Eddie jump off the bridge into the water, and I think Ryan won’t mind me saying this, obviously that was his stunt double, because it is an 80-foot bridge. And no one could believe it, we’re like, ‘Wait, he’s really going to jump? Head first?’ They were like, ‘Yeah.’
“And we were all constantly commenting on how this is maybe one of the biggest practical stunts we’ve ever done. There was a buzz and excitement about it: ‘He’s really going to jump off that bridge.’ I think it was 75, 80 feet, or something into the river down in Long Beach. And we just did it for real. And it was just exciting to be around it.”
Considering this is 9-1-1, there will surely be even more times for big stunts and big emergencies, while the series always taps into the serious as well.
As for what’s next for Buck? Stark hinted, “Some new and confusing situations for him there, but also kind of fun.”
That seems perfectly on brand for a firefighter who’s dealt with everything from lightning strikes to Halloween curses.
“It’s the nature of 9-1-1,” Stark said with a laugh.
And we hope that never changes.
You can watch 9-1-1 on Thursdays at 8/7c on ABC.
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