While Bode going back to prison and leaving Fire Country on a cliffhanger in Season 1 left jaws on the floor, the other jaw-dropping element of this episode came in the form of a mudslide. From a dramatic standpoint, this episode was intense. However, what was more extreme, arguably, was the mudslide that threatened Edgewater. It turns out, that was one of the “craziest” moments to film according to Diane Farr and Jules Latimer, who plays Sharon and Eve, as they told CinemaBlend the wild story behind this epic action sequence.
In the episode aptly titled “I Know It Feels Impossible,” a huge mudslide rips through Edgewater, putting the public and these firefighters in serious danger. According to Diane Farr, who plays the division fire chief and Bode’s mom, a lot of this action was filmed practically. During an interview with CinemaBlend in preparation for Fire Country Season 2, she opened up about this wild set piece and how they pulled it off, saying:
On the finale in Season 1, we have this mudslide. So we went to a different location in Canada that I've never seen, and there was a lot of dirt. There was these big hills of gravel and a lot of dirt, which as soon as we get there [it] turns into mud because of the fire hoses.
In the episode, a rainstorm hits Edgewater, and that causes the mudslide. The cast of Fire Country is then deployed to do damage control and save those who are literally stuck in the mud. As the crew cleans up the rubble and deals with the dirt, they also learn about the personal revelations of other characters, like Bode taking the blame for a drug test. All-in-all a lot was going on in the episode, and it was difficult to film.
Farr made that clear as she told me a bit more about how her scenes specifically were filmed:
They had to rig things. There's a scene where I fall down when Bode tells me he failed a drug test. So they had put a mat under mud. But more and more mud, of course, keeps trampling on it. So I'm face-planting, and if I don't get it right, they have to redo my face and makeup. And I thought that was really bad. I had knee pads on, I still hurt myself.
However, she said she didn’t have the worst of it at all. The Sharon Leone actress went on to tell me about what she saw her co-stars Jordan Calloway and Jules Latimer go through. Explaining Jake and Eve’s muddy moment, Farr said:
And then I saw a video of Jordan Calloway and Jules Latimer and they are supposed to get hit by the mudslide. And I swear to God, I really wondered if our union would have okayed it, because they took fire hoses into the mud and sprayed a wall of mud onto these two actors.
Jules Latimer confirmed that she was covered in mud alongside Jordan Calloway as they filmed this sequence. She said they were filming for what she thought was five hours "in wet clothes and mud," and they were trying to move a Styrofoam refrigerator for the scene. Diving into the literally dirty details, the Eve actress said:
They had two hoses that were pointing at us from behind that had mud in them. And then they actually have like a slab of mud that was in front of us that were away from the cameras that they use, like fire hoses to pelt the mud at us so that it looked so insane. Then there's a video, I think Jordan has a video of us just getting destroyed with the mud for hours. They did so many takes of it. He started shaking. It was so cold out.
This truly does sound like a wild set to be on, and Diane Farr drove that point home as she said:
It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. The velocity of mud coming at them – they're very attractive people – like these people have never gotten dirty in their whole life. I should never talk about when I have days off, they have such a harder job than I did as chief.
Obviously, everyone was safe and the cast and crew of Fire Country are used to shooting big action on a weekly basis – just go back and watch the rock wall episode and you’ll see that this is true.
Learning this story honestly made me even more excited for Season 2 of Fire Country and its February 16 premiere on the 2024 TV schedule. Not only did it refresh my memory about everything that went down in the Season 1 finale, but it reminded me that we’re in store for some epic action.
If you are looking to go back and watch the muddy Season 1 finale of Fire Country, you can stream it with a Paramount+ subscription.
