Max Thieriot, star of both Paramount+’s SEAL Team and CBS freshman drama series Fire Country, has opened up about the challenges of filming two high-profile series at the same time.
Deadline revealed in May that Thieriot would pull double duty by returning to SEAL Team, while also starring in Fire Country, after it was picked up to series, with the latter being a passion project for him.
“It’s obviously a juggle, but thankfully, we started SEAL Team season six before we started shooting episode two of Fire Country, so I was able to work it right into the gap in between,” he said at CBS’ virtual TCA press day.
“It’s been crazy, but life’s crazy. I got a couple of kids to throw in there and moving around up to Vancouver to shoot a TV show. But I’m young, and I can keep up. I like staying busy, so it works for me,” he added.
When Thieriot closed a deal to headline the Fire Country pilot in February, Paramount+ had just renewed SEAL Team for Season 6. At the time, Thieriot was the only main cast member who did not have a modified-for-streaming season six deal, and his existing option had not been picked up by CBS Studios yet as everyone was waiting to see what happened with Fire Country, which is set in Northern California, where Thieriot grew up in Occidental.
Subsequently, Thieriot closed a deal for season six of SEAL Team, which started production ahead of shooting the first season of Fire Country. The one-year arrangement applies to the upcoming sixth season of SEAL Team; it is unclear yet what will happen beyond that with him and the rest of the cast whose contracts are up then.
Fire Country, from Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS Studios, is inspired by Thieriot’s experiences growing up in fire country and stems from an original idea by the actor, who also co-penned the story for the pilot with its writers, Tony Phelan and Joan Rater.
He added that because a lot of this happened at the start of Covid, he wasn’t really sure how long the process would take. “I had never tried pitching anything, or even finished writing anything before. I’m sort of a little bit of a hummingbird where I’ll start on something, and then I’m off to like another idea. This started is one of those but then I found myself so locked into it and a lot of that is because it was personal so it was easy to work on and create and move forward with,” he added.
Season six of SEAL Team returns on September 18 on the streaming service.
Thieriot’s new SEAL Team deal eliminates the uncertainty, which prompted the season five finale to end in a cliffhanger for Thieriot’s character Clay Spenser. On the way back to Mali, Clay (Thieriot) tells Jason (David Boreanaz) that this would be his last mission with Bravo for a while, saying that he’s transferring to the Green Team so he can spend more time with Stella (Alona Tal) and his newborn son, Brian. When they’re back on the ground in Mali, Bravo is ambushed, trapped and under fire, and Clay appears to be hit with shrapnel to an eye, footage that is intertwined in a montage with Stella’s baby shower.