Inside the Mind of 'Buck': A Conversation with Oliver Stark from '9-1-1' Season 7

[00:00:00] .

[00:00:10] Oliver, thank you for joining me today on Pop Culture Unplugged.

[00:00:13] Thank you. I'm excited to be here.

[00:00:15] Exciting to have your friend. We just had season seven recently premiered on ABC.

[00:00:22] People were been waiting for this show to come back. What are you hoping they get out of this season?

[00:00:26] Now that it's in.

[00:00:27] Yeah, it's been a long time coming. You know season six ended.

[00:00:32] I think we aired the last episode May of 2023 so you know it's about nine-ten months off the air.

[00:00:40] And I think people are excited because you know we post these behind the scenes and stuff that as we go and obviously we have these you know

[00:00:47] the trailers and the posters come out and it looks like it was going to be a big explosive high octane starts of the season.

[00:00:56] And I hope we deliver it.

[00:00:59] What are your viewers going to expect with your character in black?

[00:01:01] What could you tease us with or tell us a little bit about?

[00:01:04] So we at the end of season six we had buck in a new relationship but at the beginning of season seven we have quickly discovered that he is now single.

[00:01:17] So he is you know getting back amongst it and figuring things out. He's in his early 30s and he's trying to push not too hard for some professional advancement and I guess some personal ones too.

[00:01:33] What's great about buck two? He's gone through like a significant growth throughout the series.

[00:01:38] How do you think his journey could continue to evolve?

[00:01:42] Yeah in the early seasons he was pretty reckless and very kind of I like to describe him as gun hoe and he's he just calmed down a little bit as we've gone throughout the years.

[00:01:55] And I think this season is much of the same you know he kind of has fallen into this most co-parenting role with his best friend.

[00:02:04] And so that's a big part of his life and I think that's helped kind of steady him and provided some stability.

[00:02:11] So I think yeah he's just kind of growing into an adult rather than like a big man baby.

[00:02:17] Throughout the season it's also like what have you learned for yourself? Like what have you learned playing this role?

[00:02:24] In terms of like being a firefighter or what you mean just in general?

[00:02:29] Just in general a little bit of everything yes.

[00:02:31] Yeah well you know it's funny so my journey kind of mirrors buck in a lot of ways right.

[00:02:36] So when we started the show buck was the rookie into it to his house and when I joined I was in terms of like acting experience compared to the rest of the cost.

[00:02:48] I was also kind of the rookie right I was the greenest of the bunch and so we've kind of grown up a little bit there together and those lines have been a bit blurred and we both

[00:02:58] just come to understand our own worth a little bit and what we can bring to the table and I think you know kind of as they describe and we both kind of just settled down a little bit and taking it all in and not try to push too hard but just start to enjoy the right.

[00:03:16] What do you think about their like the relationship with Bucket Eddie you know like a lot of the fans have like pressure they have like strong opinions about their relationship.

[00:03:23] Yeah they do which you know listen I'm all for it like I think that's a great thing it's great the people care enough about the show about the characters to have strong opinions.

[00:03:34] You know I've gone through different phases over the years of really wanting to tip to around what we say because we don't want it to be interpreted wrong get this hopes up and then other times where kind of landed landed at the moment where I think like we just have to make the thing you know you can't.

[00:03:53] Have the audience interpretation in mind too much when you make it you have to make it almost in this closed little box and then you put it out into the world and people can take from it what they want and it is great that people do take different things from it right that's the point in.

[00:04:10] Art whatever level of art you think you might be making is you want different people to look at it and take different things and feel different things when they watch it.

[00:04:22] One of my favorite things on the show is Buck's relationship with Bob you kind of like a father, son, dual type of thing like how would you describe that bond between those two characters yeah it's this fine line right between just professional mentee mentor yeah but then as you say there's absolutely a couple of things.

[00:04:40] I mean it's kind of father, son relationship and I mean it mimics what me and Pete Krause who plays Bobby what we have in real life you know I mean he's he's become a really great friend of mine but also somebody that if I had career questions or concerns or just wanted to know anything you know business side of the industry can sit down and talk to him and he's you know wise and and has spin on a lot of TV shows so yeah it's it's been really nice to have that kind of.

[00:05:10] Bobby relationship mirrored in all of her impede what's the best advice is giving you offset about career acting so so in the first season right so the first like 304 episodes of the season they're very but heavy and I was like yeah I'm on this new TV show i'm like I have a bunch to do.

[00:05:31] And then this episode came where I did very little and I said to him like hey man do you think I messed up like they gave me a bunch of material to work with and now I'm quiet in this episode like did I blow it and he was he was in his I think he was 52 at the time and I was 26 and he said listen I get it so when you 26 you always want to be thrown the ball you know you want to show what you can do so when you're 50 when you're 52 sometimes it's nice to sit on the bench.

[00:06:01] You know that listen it's great when it's busy but it's important to take in those restful times as well.

[00:06:08] Oh filming this and everything you know let's tackle some attempts like emotional scenes or stuff like that does it take any drain on you like does it bring you down sometimes filming those scenes I don't think I will say it brings me down an actual fact it's almost the opposite like the deeper stuff or the harder stuff to get into is what's kind of invigorating about it right like you.

[00:06:30] One heavy material you want to really be able to have the chance to get stuck in with it you know that that's the those are things that at the end of the day I'm like wow I had a great day like I really went there I really I really.

[00:06:43] Delted is as hard as I could into that so yeah I would actually say it's it's kind of the opposite that's the that's the most energizing aspect of it.

[00:06:53] What's what's like a dream box storyline that you maybe you'll see someday or tell the writers yeah I want to try to do this is do you think about anything like that.

[00:07:01] You know it's something that we kind of have touched on a little bit I would love to see a scenario where.

[00:07:09] Pete's character is is you know steps aside for whatever it may be like this season he's on a cruise and and buckets in responsibility because we've seen moments where.

[00:07:20] Due to other people being injured he's had to step up and take that responsibility and one well with it so I would like to see some kind of situation where it's handed to him rather than there are no other options so yeah kind of given that respect enough the.

[00:07:38] Faith put in him of hey you're ready to handle this on your own a few years ago we saw your character do a crossover now that the shows on ABC can something like that still happen.

[00:07:50] There's been a talk so I mean I mean I don't think with the show that we did previously crossover with but there is certainly going to be crossovers you know we have won this season it was recently confirmed that we are going to have some crossover with the bachelor.

[00:08:06] So you know so being being on ABC just opens us up to a whole boatload of shows that we can cross over with that we didn't have that potential with for.

[00:08:17] How many episodes are we expecting this season we're just doing 10.

[00:08:21] You know we had obviously a strange year for the industry last year and so you kind of truncated season this year where we'll just get through 10 but it's actually been quite nice because we usually do 18.

[00:08:34] But by doing 10 it's kind of meant that every episode is great like it's filled with really good juicy stuff so yeah 10.

[00:08:44] 10 episodes but I hope 10 very exciting episodes have you finished filming all 10.

[00:08:49] No we are on episode 7 currently so so we still got a little while to go so so actually when I say 10 great episodes I can only guarantee seven great episodes I haven't read 8 9 and 10 but I but I like to think there'll be every bit as good.

[00:09:03] So 1 through 7 is there specific episode obviously you don't give us spoilers I you can't wait for the viewers to watch about your character about a certain storyline.

[00:09:13] I'm really excited for episode 6 it's I think it may have been announced and I know it has it's we kind of been building up to this wedding between Jennifer love you and Kenneth choice characters so so so episode 6 is the wedding but it's very far from a typical television wedding in in typical.

[00:09:32] 9 on 1 fashion it's filled with chaos but I think it's it's really you know it's it's heartfelt and it's heartwarming but but also a lot of fun and yeah as I say infused with plenty of chaos.

[00:09:47] Amazing as an actor also like how do you like how do you balance it tense drama the show especially with us sometimes we have some humor in it also.

[00:09:57] Yeah which is great you know we talk about it sometimes that we have the ability on the show to place so many different things.

[00:10:07] So it's just fun with anything and there's such a specific.

[00:10:13] It will be hard to articulate it but there's something in the scenes in the way that it's written that it's so clear what tone we're going for in or the writers are intending for each particular scene.

[00:10:25] So you're right there are some you know really quite outlandish comedy scenes and then there are other moments that are really.

[00:10:33] Grounded in heartfelt and dramatic and so as an actor to get to play through all those different tones on the show is it's a lot of fun but I also think as an audience member it means that you can kind of watch a show in any mood because there's usually.

[00:10:47] Something for you whatever you fancy watching amazing last question now one has dedicated fan base have you run into like a fan and the streets are anything and have they stopped to talk to you about book or anything.

[00:11:00] Yeah you know it's it's a show that obviously has quite a large audience so it's nice you know I have never had an interaction meet somebody in the street that hasn't been lovely you know it's always been sweet and respectful and it's nice you know it's it's a feel good show and.

[00:11:21] It reminds me that that is exactly what it's doing it seems to make people feel good and feel hopeful and that's the kind of energy they give me back and yes it's a joy like truly it is.

[00:11:33] I'll ever how can the listeners of yours find your social media keep up with you I know you've been posting pictures of the season coming up and everything.

[00:11:39] Yes so you find me just on Instagram this the only one I'm on and it's all of a stock two K's because somebody else had all of a stock with one so so I'm there and yeah we you know like post little bits in the season as we go so yeah that's where you can find me amazing all right I want to thank you for giving me.

[00:11:57] Thank you so much I appreciate you having me.