No, it wasn’t an actual stunt — and his reaction when we asked if he’d be singing on an upcoming episode was pretty telling.
In his time on 9-1-1, star Oliver Stark’s Evan “Buck” Buckley has survived a tsunami, had his legs crushed in an explosion and was even once in a coma after being struck by lightning.
But all that is nothing compared to a feat he conquers in the sixth episode of the show’s current, seventh season, which is also its first on ABC following a move from FOX.
Speaking with TooFab after the season premiere, Stark opened up about the many, many stunts he and the show’s expert stunt doubles pull off weekly and how his fear of doing them has subsided since the series debuted in 2018.
“To be honest with you, we’ve obviously been making the show for a while and have over the years done some things that maybe felt like I had some fear and anxiety going into,” he confessed. “But by this point, I have extreme trust in our stunt team, I’m like, ‘Throw me up there, hang me off the side of that building.’ Maybe I’m a little too secure and sure of things in that sense.”
“I don’t really get fazed by doing that stuff, just because we’ve done it so much and I’ve learned and watched the stunt team be incredible, week in, week out,” Stark continued.
“So there’s not really been anything that I’ve had too much trepidation about doing. We do start really big these first three episodes, and as often follows really big crazy stunt-heavy episodes, we have a few more character episodes.”
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After saying he wasn’t scared of any Season 7 stunts, Stark then took that all back, saying he had just “remembered something” about an upcoming episode.
“If you come back to this interview whence Episode 6 airs, there is something in Episode 6 that I was probably more terrified to do than anything I’ve ever had to do on the show,” he shared, before teasing, “But it’s not a stunt.”
When TooFab then asked whether he could possibly be singing — because what’s more terrifying that doing that in front of a set full of people? — Stark looked shocked and exclaimed, “I gotta go!”
Considering the episode is called “There Goes the Groom” and Maddie and Chimney’s wedding is set to happen at some point this season, could Buck be performing at the ceremony? Viewers will have to tune in to find out.
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Until then, the show will continue to air on its new home at ABC, something Stark said didn’t change too much of their day-to-day production but does come with an added bonus.
“We go to work at the same place and for the most part with the same faces. I think that the biggest difference is this really lovely balance of we’ve been making this show for seven seasons, so we’re very comfortable in what we’re doing and very set in our ways,” he explained. “But then at the same time, for ABC, it’s a first season, so we kind of have this beautiful balance of being very comfortable but also this fresh excitement and feeling ABC’s excitement, which has been really lovely and reinvigorating with all of us.”
The series also hits its hundredth episode next week, on April 4th, which sees the show crossing over with The Bachelor. Looking back, Stark says the man Buck is now is very different from where he was on the pilot — and, like himself, has thankfully “calmed down” a bit since 2018.
“I think, looking back to the pilot, that’s not a character that I would take many traits from. He always had a great heart and I appreciated that about him, but he was a little too reckless at the beginning,” said Stark. “I think Buck of Season 7 is a little more settled, knows his worth a little bit more, so he’s less eager to go above and beyond in a way that may actually turnout to be somewhat detrimental.”
“So yeah, he’s calmed down over the years and I appreciate that about him, because so have I, I’d like to think,” he said with a laugh, before again praising his costars. “We’ve become genuinely closer and closer over the years and we become more embedded in each other’s lives and it will be tough to get rid of each other at this point, I think.”
New episodes of 9-1-1 air Thursdays on ABC.
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