Oliver Stark plays firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley on 9-1-1. All episodes of the eighth season are now streaming on Hulu. The drama series will return for a ninth season as part of ABC’s fall 2025 primetime schedule, airing Thursdays at 8 PM.
While covering the 2025 Disney Upfront red carpet, I spoke with the actor about Buck and Eddie’s bond, which previous storyline he would be interested in revisiting, how the sets help him get into character, and more. Keep reading for our full discussion!
Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Tim Minear reimagine the procedural drama with 9-1-1. The series explores the high-pressure experiences of first responders — including police officers, firefighters and dispatchers — who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping conditions. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives. The show draws from the real lives of first responders who regularly face situations that are often unpredictable, intense and uplifting at the same time.
What has been the most rewarding part of getting to reprise your role season after season and growing with him, not only as an actor but as a person?
Oliver Stark: I think more than anything, it’s the relationships that we’ve built along the way. I don’t know if you spoke to any of my castmates today, but we really are a tight-knit group, and in a way that only time allows for. We’ve had eight years together, we’ve seen each other in good times, bad times, everything in between, and that’s a forever thing at this point. Eight years going on nine now, so super thankful and grateful for that.
Everyone loves Buck and Eddie’s dynamic; it’s just one of the highlights of the show, whether platonic or otherwise. What do you believe makes this relationship so significant? What is it about their relationship that makes them so important to each other?
I think the way they show up for each other without being asked. I think everybody wants somebody in their life that can tell when something is up and takes steps to kind of reconcile or help them without having to say, “Hey, I need help.” I think that’s something they’ve done for each other time and time again, so I think that’s one of the most special parts of their bond.
They’ve had such amazing scenes, so I want to ask, is there one moment that, when you look back on it, you feel perfectly sums up their dynamic?
This maybe is a bit of a cop out, but one of their most recent ones where they fell out, they argued, and Eddie brought Chris home, knowing — obviously, he wanted his son home as well, but knowing the impact it would have on Buck. Chris is obviously also an important part of that dynamic, so I think that’s a kind of quintessential Buck and Eddie moment for me is the reconciliation of the three of them together.
Is there a past storyline from older seasons that you would like to see further explored in the future, if you could bring it back and go deeper with your character?
This is probably an unpopular answer, maybe it would be cool to check in on the sperm donor baby, see if there’s anything to explore there in terms of, oh, do I feel a connection to that child? Which I don’t think he would necessarily, but I don’t write the show. So maybe there is, maybe there’s something there, I don’t know.
I feel like there is so much that an actor needs to get into the right headspace for a role. Is there a small prop, piece of wardrobe, or anything in particular that fans wouldn’t know the significance of, but to you personally, it always helps you get into character?
It’s not a small thing, and it’s not actually even a personal thing, and this is a credit to the crew that we have around us but the way the sets are constructed on the show when we’re in a building collapse, a tsunami, or a bio lab, everything around us is so well constructed and feels so real, you can’t help but be present and be locked into the moment. So having that around us does so much of the work for us.
