Note: This story contains spoilers from “9-1-1” Season 9, Episode 9.
“9-1-1” welcomed a new firefighter into the Station 118 family, but not before putting him through a big breakthrough with his mother — and an even bigger stunt gone wrong.
Most of Season 9 has laid the groundwork for Harry Grant (Elijah M. Cooper) to join the ranks of the first responder team at the center of the hit ABC drama series. Episode 9, titled “Fighting Back,” saw that journey come to fruition, as Harry completed his training. But it wasn’t all celebrations, as the episode kicked off with Harry falling off an aerial ladder and sustaining a minor injury that left him sidelined and facing pressure from his mother Athena (Angela Bassett) to quit.
Given the loss of Athena’s husband Capt. Bobby Nash (Peter Krause) — a loss in Season 8 that hangs heavy across the series’ characters and fandom — the desire to keep his mother from experiencing further grief almost led Harry to throw in the towel.
But an assist from Buck (Oliver Stark) prompted Athena to share her secret to going out and saving people every day: By putting herself and her loved ones’ feelings aside to get the job done.
“Going from Harry three seasons ago to now being a part of the 118, it’s wild,” Cooper told TheWrap of his “9-1-1” journey so far. “Now I’m actually doing the real firefighter stuff. It’s crazy on set. We have absolutely insane days.”
Beyond his evolving storyline on the show, Cooper put his love for the show into a passion project called “The Aftermath Show,” an independently produced podcast he co-hosts with Corinne Massiah, who plays his on-screen sister May. The podcast sees the actor dive into their experience working on “9-1-1” and as actors in Hollywood, and so far has featured co-stars Anirudh Pisharody and Tracie Thoms.
Below, Cooper breaks down Harry’s big Episode 9 stunts, what’s coming next as he starts tackling emergencies and more. This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
This week’s episode is a big spotlight for Harry as he goes through quite a journey to finish up his firefighting training, complete with a big stunt in the aerial ladder when he fell at the start of the episode. How was it to film those big sequences?
Cooper: I had never really done a big stunt like that before. So now I’m in this new space for my character. It was definitely a little bit scary at first, but everybody was there to support me and make sure I was safe, and that was taken care of. So it was just about doing it and making it happen.
I was more nervous about it not looking right. Like, how do I fall? How do I swing an ax properly? I’m learning all of this as my character is also learning to do it, so it’s really cool.
How much of the actual jumping and falling are they letting you do?
I’m not going to take all the credit. I didn’t fall onto the platform there, my stunt double Tyson did an amazing job [with that.] But I did do a couple falls off of the ladder. I felt a little ways down. So we got some cool shots there.
But even just being able to experience any of it. I had never broken glass before [that scene]. It’s all wild.
The fall makes Harry hesitate about his firefighting future, after seeing what the worry does to his mother, Athena. That leads to a big heart to heart where she taught him about setting his own feelings aside so he can save lives. How was it working with Angela on these scenes as Harry went on this emotional journey?
The really cool thing that’s happened throughout my entire time on this show is that Angela and I have had a lot of these really deep, heartfelt moments. We’ve seen how it goes from our first conversation about me — which is a serious situation of Harry evading the cops and fleeing back to L.A., to now talking about being a first responder, and it’s time to get serious about the job.
Seeing how these conversations have evolved over time has been pretty incredible. And I think that they always feel very real. They always feel like a mom just talking to her son and being like, “Hey, here are the places that I see where you may be making a mistake, but I’m not going to come after you. I’m going to approach you with love, but also a stern type of love that’s going to help you move forward.”
It’s awesome because I’m working with the great Angela Bassett, and she just makes everything feel amazing.
Harry overcomes the fear and makes it through training, and by the end of the episode he’s officially a member of the 118. What does this mean for Harry moving forward?
This is a moment of transition for Harry. This is a new space in his life. He’s still a young guy, but he’s going from being a kid to learning how to be a man and learning how to take on the really big responsibility of being a first responder. We’re going to see him evolve in a really cool way over this season as he tries to find his footing, not just as a young individual who’s finding themselves in the world, but also somebody that’s taking on this new, really intense job and also having to learn the ins and outs of that too.
There’s a lot of complexities. There’s a lot of layers, and I think people will really enjoy it.
This may be a bit of an Easter egg of things to come, but I noticed that good chemistry with his fellow trainee Norris (Jenn Santos). Is their a connection or more with his fellow class of new firefighters next to be explored? What’s coming for Harry in the episodes to come?
We’ll have to see how his relationship with his fellow trainees comes about. The main focus for Harry right now is, “How do you just do the job right, and how do you also work with the people around you.”
Yes, his relationships with the people that he was in the academy with are very important. I think also the relationship with the 118 is going to be even more important at this point, because now he’s going from observer to now being a part of the team, being a part of the family. These people mean so much to him in his life, but now, what do they look like as his coworkers and as people that he’s literally trying to save the city with?
A cool thing about your expanded role has also been your exploration of your experience through co-hosting “The Aftermath Show” podcast alongside Corinne Massiah. How did that opportunity come about?
Corinne and I really enjoy getting out there and talking about the show, and we also wanted to bring people into the conversations that we had about the show — like our little fireside chat about it.
“The Aftermath” has been really cool, and a lot of people seemed to enjoy it so quickly. We’re really grateful for it. We didn’t know how it would go. We just kind of threw it to the wall and saw if it would stick, and people are liking it. We’re glad to know there are people who are invested in hearing what we have to say every week, and especially the guests that we’re bringing on too. We’ve had Anirudh and Tracie.
I hope that people continue to stay excited about it. Every week we have something different, something new to talk about.
“9-1-1” airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC and streams the next day on Hulu.
The post ‘9-1-1’ Actor Elijah M. Cooper Unpacks Harry’s Scary Stunt and Joining the Team: ‘It’s Crazy on Set’ appeared first on TheWrap.
