For the actors on “Station 19,” the new “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC, the everyday is anything but laid back. Eight out of the nine series regulars play firefighters who wear and carry up to 70 pounds of gear when running to and through a blaze — as much as real firefighters wear. They work with real fire (it’s controlled, don’t worry), hack buildings apart with axes, and wield heavy hoses for hours at a time. On top of that, there’s the pressure of representation: The cast portrays Seattle’s first responders, some of whom are women in a field that hovers around 95 percent male. Between the physical and mental demands of the job and its long hours — shoots often clock in at more than 12 hours — there’s significant pressure on the body and mind at all times. To find out how “Station 19” avoids burnout, we talked to some of the cast about what they do to take care of themselves.
Jaina Lee Ortiz (Andy Herrera): Sleep. Massages. Sleep and massages.
Grey Damon (Jack Gibson): Seriously! Sleep is number one, though. Because if you go to work on a day where you just got, like, four hours [of sleep], and you’re wearing a bunch of gear and an apparatus that you’re trying to get enough oxygen through, and then you might be carrying someone or breaking down a door, [and] it might be really hot in that room, because we use real fire sometimes… you’re just dying if you don’t get enough sleep.
Miguel Sandoval (Captain Pruitt): Everybody is very carefully watching that they get enough sleep, that they get the right nutrition, that they really treat themselves well, because it is physically demanding.
Grey Damon: I know I can speak for everyone where — if you hadn’t already developed such a respect for these people, you realize how truly selfless and incredible it is to just push your body to those limits and then run into a fire.
Jay Hayden (Travis Montgomery): You get a real introduction to firefighting.
Danielle Savre (Maya Bishop): My sister’s a real firefighter. I always respected her, but now, this job has given me such a profound respect. What she has to deal with on a day to day… It’s amazing. That’s taking care of myself — seeing my sister.
Okieriete Onaodowan (Dean Miller): I have to stretch a lot. I’m always stretching on set. That [and] trying to get sleep — normal, everyday upkeep stuff. But [we’re] really training as athletes, especially when we have big fire day shoots, that takes the most toll on us. Everything is smooth sailing until we have to shoot the big fire scene. It just weighs on you, and fire is as it is, it’s very unpredictable, even working within controlled circumstances, so it’s just a lot of rest more than anything. Mentally, it’s just a strain.
Jason George (Ben Warren): As physical as it is, you realize [there’s a big] mental piece to actually fighting fires. The amount of intelligence that these [people] have to have in order to figure out where the fire’s gonna be going…
Danielle Savre: It’s about being very smart and calculated. When you’re on a roof fire and the roof is possibly gonna collapse, you’ve got to think of ways to get out of there, and how to cut the roof and get the fire out. It’s a lot of mental and physical, a lot of instincts.
Okieriete Onaodowan: Seven, eight, nine hours of putting the gear on, taking it off, putting it on — if you’re not mentally strong, you’ll crack and flip out, and then on TMZ there’s a report of you cussing out half your crew. You have to just make sure your shit’s together. For me, it’s mainly stretching and then just resting my mind.
Danielle Savre: It’s definitely hard on the body. I think it’s sleep, right now — I would love to get more massages — but right now it’s like, OK, check off the list: sleep, then try to get a massage. I think I’ve had one this entire season so far, but I would love to get more.
Jason George: We need to get more massages, that part I’ll sign off on.
