Max Thieriot details how SEAL Team co-star inspired Fire Country stint

Max Thieriot explain what inspired him to create Fire Country

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Clay’s (played by Max Thieriot) exit from CBS drama SEAL Team wasn’t exactly an unexpected one as fans had become well aware the actor was at the forefront of another of the network’s biggest new projects. That project, Fire Country, has proven to be a huge hit with audiences and it ultimately meant Thieriot was unable to lead the way on both action-packed dramas. In a new interview with James Corden on The Late Late Show, Thieriot delved into exactly how he got the series off the ground.

Thieriot doesn’t only star in Fire Country but he also co-created and produces the smash-hit CBS firefighter drama.

And this was the first thing Corden was keen to ask the SEAL Team star about as he opened their interview in Wednesday’s show: “Congratulations! It is an absolute smash, people are going crazy for this show. 

“What was it that inspired you to come up with this idea and create, produce and star in this absolute smash hit?”

Thieriot took a breath before he revealed former SEAL Team colleague AJ Buckley was the one who planted the seed to bring Fire Country to screens.

“First, I think I’m out of my mind, it’s crazy, it’s a lot,” Thieriot began with a chuckle.

“But I was actually – I was driving to work one day with my buddy AJ Buckley from SEAL Team.

“And we were sitting there going back and forth talking about firefighting. 

“I grew up in this small town in Northern California and a lot of my friends… the community is a very firefighting community, and a lot of my friends work for this department. 

“It all sort of felt very normal to me because I was around it and had seen it and I started telling him about it and he’s like, ‘Dude, this is a show.’ 

“And I was like, ‘Do you think?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah.’ Then the more I started telling people… when I started talking about the inmate firefighter programme, a couple of years ago it wasn’t known.

“People were like, ‘What do you mean there are inmates who fight fire? Right alongside regular firefighters?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah!’ 

“(So) I just started like building out the world and a lot of the inspiration came from this crazy little country town that I grew up in and people I grew up with, you know.”

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Thieriot explained further: “I basically – I didn’t know what I was doing at first, I’ve never pitched a show, I was like, ‘What do I do?’ 

“And so I pulled pictures of my friends from like Facebook, from their wives’ Facebook pages because they don’t even have Facebook these dudes. 

“I’m like getting pictures of them and put together this kind of sizzle reel, put together this big document and sent it back and forth to my agents and was like, ‘Is this enough?’ 

“(And they said), ‘Give us a little more.’ So I (say), ‘How about this?’ ‘No, that’s too much,’ and so it was this whole sort of process and yeah, here we are.”

So it transpired Buckley, who plays Sonny Quinn in SEAL Team, was the one who gave Thieriot the nudge he needed to get Fire Country off the ground.

Buckley remains an integral part of Bravo in SEAL Team, which is currently still awaiting the green light for season seven on Paramount+.

Thieriot was joined by Black Adam star Noah Centineo on the Late Late Show sofa who went on to detail his own experience with firefighters.

The actor inadvertently set off a fire in his bathroom when a candle flame got out of hand.

Fire Country airs Fridays on CBS in the USA. A UK release date is yet to be announced.

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